Robert F. Smith: Men of
Morehouse, you are surrounded by a
community of people, who have helped you arrive at
this sacred place on this sacred day. On behalf of the eight
generations of my family who have been in this country, we're going to put a little
fuel in your bus. Now, I've got the alumni
over there, and this is a challenge
to you, alumni. This is my class, 2019,
[applause] [applause] and my family is making a grant
to eliminate their student loans. [applause] Now, I know my class will make
sure they pay this forward, and I want my class to look
at these alums, these beautiful
Morehouse brothers, and let's make sure every class
has the same opportunity going forward. [applause] Because we are enough to take
care of our own community. We are enough to ensure we have
all the opportunities of the American dream. And we will show it to each
other through our actions and through our
words and through our deeds. [applause] Darren: So, my friend,
Robert F. Smith. On some levels,
I wasn''t surprised when I heard what you did, because I''ve known you to be
just enormously generous, whenever I have called
to ask for anything. You, whether it's paying
for somebody's funeral, whether it's a scholarship, whether it's a transformational
gift to Carnegie Hall, to Cornell, to increase the numbers
of black and brown engineers in this country. you''ve always been there
as a philanthropist - but this, even by Robert F.
Smith standards, was really
remarkable. So, how did you come
to decide to do this, to erase the student debt
of an entire graduating class of Morehouse College? Robert: Besides the fact you
called me, told me you were going to do matching
grants? Was that a dream or was
that a-? this is the Ford Foundation, you didn''t know I was gonna
spring it on you. Darren: No, I didn't. [laughter] Robert: Which is why we love
each other. [laughter] The dynamic of being
in this country, being African-American
and African-American male in this country, as you know,
is a complex one. You know, I talk in my speech
about I'm the first generation in my family to have
all my rights in this country. I was born in 1962,
Civil Rights Act, 1965, and I think about that probably
more often than I should have to, and when
I have a chance to liberate the human spirit, I know there's no greater
feeling, and many people who are here-the work
that you do actually liberates the human spirit
in different ways. And I am sitting there,
thinking, I went to Morehouse a year before, I was presented
with a wonderful award, and I made a grant and a gift
to, in essence, create a park, tear down
this building that was dilapidated,
that was owned by another person, who, for whatever
reason, wanted those students to see that dilapidated building
every day. And I said, ""No, we're going to eliminate
that and we're going to give the students
an opportunity to create a park, they can design it and be
a beautiful place." And then you start to feel
again the spirit of these beautiful men at Morehouse. And I thought about: What could
I do that actually changes their lives in a way
that liberates their spirits? The dynamic of freeing
them and their families- Darren: Because you're paying for the parents who also
have student debt.
Robert: Correct, correct. The federal student loans
that the parents have. The dynamic of freeing
and liberating 400 families that now these young
people can think about, ""How do I now go change
my community?" ""How do I change my people?" ""How do I change my opportunity
in America?" That's what America's about to
me: to have an opportunity
to make a change. But if you are so burdened
in certain ways: lack of rights in participating
in the capital system, lack of rights to participate
in education, the lack of an opportunity
to actually participate in health care, because you have
a certain melanin in your skin- makes no sense; it's just wrong. And so, when you have a chance
to change that, if you don't do it, that's
just wrong. So, for me, that's
what it was about. And I said, I thought about
what I know these 400 men will do, now that they no longer have
that financial burden that, frankly, is
disproportionate to other
students who are graduating- and typically their jobs
have a disproportionate
pay, relative to others- I know they will
pay that forward. And what's so interesting,
I''m now starting to see the ripples of hope and action
in the communities, where people are doing similar things.
Some, it's paying off, you know, lunch loans-and for folks
like my friends Sandy and Joan
Weill, they said: Let's underwrite
Cornell Medical School,
so it is free. Now we just need to make
sure there's equal opportunity for people
to participate in those sort of programs
like Cornell Medical. That's what I think about
when I see-now-the importance of gifts like that to provide
leadership and to provide
structure. The second part of this thing,
which I think is important is, we put together
a fantastic team with Morehouse, Skadden Arps, good friend of mine,
who is a brilliant man, Fred Goldberg,
and my team to say, ""How do you do this and create
a model that you can now roll out and propagate?"
Which is what we've now done. And now we can go to every-
first we start with every HBCU, and say,
""Guess what? You can now create a very
efficient model for donors to alleviate the burden
of those students in a very tax-efficient way for the donors
and for the students." And so, that model is now
being rolled out. So-and every school can now
embrace that. I think- I'm in the world of software, and part of the world I live
in is a world of disruption, and this is a disruptive
opportunity to make a change at scale in the country that needs
that change for our students. Darren: And how do
you...? [applause] Darren: It has raised some
questions, though, about the role of private capital,
private philanthropy, in solving what is a severe
public policy challenge.
Robert: Right. Darren: How do you square the
role of philanthropy with
solving the large problem that you
have identified, which is the fact that we have, we will soon have more student
loan debt than we have
mortgage debt? Robert: Right.
Which is atrocious. It's a catastrophe in the way
that we're running our financial system, as relates
to these young people's opportunities, at a
time when they have to have, in my view, more opportunity to innovate
in order to compete globally, because that's-the world I live
in has such massive challenges in the war on talent
that we have to get the brightest minds and the
greatest minds, in this, to this
country, in this country, working
on solving these problems and innovating on these
technological platforms that I get a chance to, to work
with every single day. So, to a great extent, the way
I think of, you know, philanthropy:
""The Love of Mankind"- Our job as private
philanthropists is to think about how we do liberate
our people to actually have the chance to contribute
to society in very positive ways. I hope part of my
class of 2019, I hope a quarter of them
become brilliant chemical engineers, because I
know a few of those. I hope a quarter of them become
teachers who think about: ""How do I now deliver, you know,
software and computer science to the masses
of children in America?" Especially communities that they
come from,who don''t have access
to that? I hope a quarter of them
actually decide to become doctors, to actually take care
of the disparity in health initiatives
for African-Americans. And I hope a quarter of them
become politicians, because I hope that quarter
looks at this & says, ""We need to make systemic
change at scale," that you can
only do at the government level. Or, if you have, you know,
massive amounts of capital that, like, you control. [laughter] I'm not going to let that go. Darren: So, Robert F. Smith... So, as a business leader,
a philanthropist, what's your message to people
who see you and are inspired, and believe in the possibility
in this country of someone of your humble means- what's your message
to those people? Robert: It is a simple
message. It is a message
of you are enough. You are enough to become
the person who you want to become and make the changes
that matter to you. You have to make sure all your
actions are consistent with that. Just don't say, ""Oh I
want to be a, you know, a
scientist," but you don't study science,
or you're not intellectually curious
in that context. But if you want
to be that person, you are enough to find
the resources to drive- that's what America's about- -to drive yourself
into that position to now make the difference
that you want to make. That's what I hope to leave
as an inspirational legacy for any child who grew up in a
town, in a neighborhood- I didn't grow up around
any engineers, but yet, I became
a chemical engineer. And it took study
and diligence and effort
and focus, and I didn't get to go
to every party on Friday
and Saturday nights, but I enjoyed the process
of discovery. I enjoyed the process
of learning. And as I try to teach
everyone that I get experience with and my kids,
you know, the joy of figuring things out
is one of the greatest joys that I've had in my life,
and I hope that these young people have a chance
to experience that same joy, and know that they are enough
to create outcomes that fit the world that they want
to live in, as opposed to the world they might
be living in. [applause] Darren: One of the reasons, I mean, you are admired
in a lot of corners, but one of the reasons
I admire you, and a lot of others do, is because-
not because- but because, according
to<i>Forbes</i>magazine, you're the richest black man
in America. That's not why I love you-but,
I admire you... Robert: I've been recently
more loved from that, from
what I understand. Darren: Amazing how love comes
your way when- Robert: My jokes are even
funnier now. Darren: Absolutely. So you, though, have a real
consciousness & have fully
embraced your role as a prominent African-
American businessman
and philanthropist, and your
consciousness around the issues related
to African-Americans; whether it be education- I think you're, you were
the biggest donor to the new museum at
the Smithsonian, and there are so many places where
African-American narratives, heritage, history are
memorialized, where you have given catalytic gifts. As an African-American, who
lives with a huge amount of
privilege, do you still experience
the kind of racism that many African-American men experience?
Or, are you able to, actually, because of your enormous wealth, be insulated from some
of those experiences? Robert: The short answer
is-I still experience it. It is less frequent,
because I have less interaction, as a result of,
as you know, at some point in time,
you end up in a world that is a little smaller
in that context. You know, I would-and I still
do experience it, what I call the randomness
of it, when I'm out with my wife or kids and we're
just being randomly living, and I experience
it institutionally. Absolutely. You know, I still feel
that dynamic. I may have one of the
more successful private equity firms in the
world- Darren: Absolutely, one
of the largest and most successful,
thank you very much. Robert: And one of the lowest
loss ratios, but yet there are still- That''s important- [laughter] but there are still
certain funds, you know, pension plans that I go to, and
they still don't fund us,
and I look at that and I say, ""There's no reason you
shouldn't be funding us, except
that you've got some issue and some bias,"
and there was actually a report
that came out about that. Darren: Indeed. Robert: Which troubles me
because, you know, if I am a teacher,
or I'm a firefighter, or I'm a policeman, and my
pension fund is being managed by somebody who isn't putting me
into, really, what is the access to the fourth
industrial revolution, which is enterprise software,
I would be upset. Okay? And it's conscious,
unconscious, bias- whatever it might be- it is inhibiting
an opportunity for- my parents were both teachers- for them to have a more
productive pension. That's a problem. And, you know, I call it out as often as I can,
but I know my real responsibility is to deliver
to those pensioners. Fifty percent
of the teachers, firefighters and police
officers actually have exposure to our funds. And I'm proud to say,
we've never lost a dollar of institutional capital. Right? Darren: And there are a lot
who can''t say that. Robert: There's a lot who can't
say that-knock wood, we'll continue to work hard, and who knows what might
happen to you, but to me that's an important
part of, you know- call it that legacy of purpose. My primary purpose in that
context is to run the best private equity firm
that I can that delivers back to these millions of pensioners. From that, I can deliver
philanthropic gifts that are meaningful at scale, and that's really
how I think about it. And I encounter racism all the
time along the way, but- Maya Angelou has a son
by the name of Guy Johnson, and I like, like the way
he states it. He says, ""You
know, racism is like gravity: You
can't spend too much
time thinking about it.
You just gotta keep moving." Darren: Right. That's right. Robert: And that's what I do. Darren: Well that's
part of your success. So, last question
is Carnegie Hall. Robert: Yes. Darren: So, you are the
chairman of Carnegie Hall, and you have been
an extraordinary chairman, and I can say that as a member
of your board, that you have truly been
transformational at Carnegie Hall. Robert: Thank you. Darren: For you, what is the vision you have
for Carnegie Hall? Robert: Right. The vision
is: Carnegie Hall, I like to
say, has four stages: three in the building
and one outside, okay? And by outside, what I mean- every stage is out there any
time there's a child, who is in need of music,
or, frankly, a mother with a child, who is in need
of an uplift in the form of music or lullaby programs, Carnegie Hall has a wonderful
role to play. It is a spectacular
performance hall, the best of the world. We have the ability
to attract the best musicians and we have
the ability to attract the best programming. One of our
programs is that, you know, the Linkup program. We get to 600,000 school kids
every single year, to bring music
education into their schools, by partnering with over
100 orchestras. Okay? Thinking about systemic
implementation of putting music back into the hearts and souls
of mankind is a big part of how I think about the vision
of Carnegie Hall. And Clive Gillinson, as you
know, very much- he and I work together
on how, what's the architecture of making that happen.
And, so again, I get to work in a
beautiful world of enterprise software,
which is scale, and deliver that organizational design
and capacity in a world that brings music to the world. My father went to school
on a band scholarship, ended up with a
doctorate degree. But every year, he would, basically, conduct
the local orchestra, because that was one
of the greatest highlights of his year. And I remember how
that elevated his soul, and I know how music can
elevate people's souls. To tie it back into my business: at the end of the day, I've got-
now, call it 300-plus
executives- And when I do a survey
every year, of senior executives of the
portfolio companies and how many of them played
music or still play music, between two-thirds
and 80 percent raise their hand, every single year, so I know there's
a causal connection. And so, we have to get music
back into the lives of our people, all
of our people, because I think that harmony
makes a better world to live in. Darren: Well, Robert F. Smith, you make a better world
for us all to live in. Please join me in thanking
Robert F. Smith. [applause] [applause]
