Ron Liebowitz:
Good afternoon or good noon if you're here in Eastern Time here in Boston or the eastern side of the US. Hope everyone's doing well. I'm excited to introduce today's event. My name is Ron Liebowitz, and I'm president of Brandeis University. My wife Jessica and I are delighted to welcome all of you to today's event, the Future Capitalism 2021 Asper Award For Global Entrepreneurship featuring Governor Deval Patrick. The Asper Award for Global Entrepreneurship honors individuals who combine success in business in the United States with a global outlook and who leverage that success to ultimately make the world a better place.
Ron Liebowitz:
Previous winners of the award include Roberta Lipson, Class of 1976 and CEO of United Family Healthcare, John Harthorne and Akhil Nigam, co-founders of MassChallenge, and Brian Lash, Brandeis Class of '78, founder of Target Companies. The Asper Award is administered by the Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship which serves as Brandeis International Business Schools platform for examining and understanding the key trends affecting entrepreneurship across cultures and borders.
Ron Liebowitz:
The center is currently directed by Ben Gomes-Casseres, Brandeis Class of 1976, and the Peter A. Petri Professor of Business and Society in the Brandeis International Business School. Both the center and the award were established with the support of Leonard J. Asper, Brandeis Class of 1986, the current CEO and majority shareholder of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corporation. This year's awardee is Deval Patrick, the former governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who is receiving the Asper Award in recognition, his contribution to the state's vibrant innovation ecosystem.
Ron Liebowitz:
After the award ceremony, the governor will engage in a conversation with Professor Lisa Lynch. On behalf of the entire Brandeis community, it is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to Governor Patrick and a warm welcome back to Professor Lynch who has been on a well-earned sabbatical after completing her tenure as provost of Brandeis in December.
Ron Liebowitz:
I'm happy now to introduce Katy Graddy, dean of the Brandeis International Business School and the Fred and Rita Richmond Distinguished Professor of Economics. Dean Graddy is a scholar of economics of art, culture, and more generally industrial organization. She is former editor of the journal of cultural economics and has published papers in leading journals including the AER, the American Economic Review, Management Science, the Journal of Economic Literature, the RAND Journal of Economics and the Journal of Economic History.
Ron Liebowitz:
She has also written policy papers on the artist's resale right for the world intellectual property organization and the UK Patent Office. Katy came to Brandeis from the University of Oxford in 2007 where she was fellow of Exeter College and a junior research fellow at Jesus College. In 2018, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Copenhagen Business School. Please, join me in welcoming Dean Katy Graddy. Katy.
Katy Graddy:
Thank you, President Liebowitz. Hello, everyone. My name is Kathryn Graddy. I'm the dean of Brandeis International Business School, and the Fred and Rita Richmond Distinguished Professor in Economics. All of us at Brandeis University and the International Business School are so excited for this program. Governor Deval Patrick, today's recipient of the 2021 Asper Award for Global Entrepreneurship, will be joining us in just a moment.
Katy Graddy:
Later in the program Governor Patrick will be joined by Lisa Lynch, the Maurice B. Hexster professor of Social and Economic Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, for discussion about the future of capitalism. I can think of no better time than now to explore this vitally important topic. And I can think of no better honoree to share his insights than Governor Patrick.
Katy Graddy:
To those in our virtual audience today, thank you for joining us. Toward the end of Governor Patrick and Professor Lynch's discussion, we will have time for a brief a question and answer session. So, please, feel free to submit questions using the Q&A function on your screen.
Katy Graddy:
Originally from the south side of Chicago Deval L. Patrick came to Massachusetts at the age of 14 when he was awarded a scholarship to Milton Academy through the Boston-based organization a better chance. After Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he clerked for a federal appellate judge and then launched a career as an attorney and business executive, becoming a staff attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a partner at two Boston law firms, and a senior executive at two Fortune 50 companies.
Katy Graddy:
In 1994, President Clinton appointed Governor Patrick to the nation's top civil rights post, assistant attorney general for civil rights. In 2006, in his first bid for public office, he became the first African-American governor of Massachusetts. During his eight-year tenure, Governor Patrick helped revived a battered economy through the expansion of affordable health care to more than 98% of state residents, launched initiatives stimulating clean energy and biotechnology. When a national race to the top educational grant steered the state to a 25-year high in employment and made unprecedented investments in Massachusetts public schools.
Katy Graddy:
By the end of Governor Patrick's two terms in office, the state ranked first in the nation in student achievement, energy efficiency, veterans services, and entrepreneurship. In 2020, the governor was a candidate for the democratic nomination for the president of the United States. His platform included opportunity and economic growth, reforming our health care and criminal justice system, and accessible and functioning democracy, and collaborative global leadership for the 21st century.
Katy Graddy:
His next step in public life is TogetherFund, a political action committee to support progressive politics including candidates for United States Senate and House in so-called swing states and districts, and grassroots groups working to drive turnout and engagement among disenfranchised and marginalized voters. Governor Patrick is a Rockefeller fellow, a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and the author of two books. He also has an important connection to Brandeis, having served as the founding chairman and advisory board member of Our Generation Speaks, an incubator for Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs that was founded by Brandeis University and International Business School alumnus, Ohad Elhelo.
Katy Graddy:
I could continue because Governor Patrick's list of achievements are quite long and quite impressive. But instead, I will now introduce another Brandeis alumnus, Len Asper, founder of the Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship. Len Asper is the president, CEO, and majority shareholder of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corporation, a media company that owns and operates content platforms targeting distinct communities in areas including music, combat sports, sports gaming, e-sports, and hunting and fishing.
Katy Graddy:
Prior to founding Anthem. Mr. Asper was CEO of CanWest Global Communications Corporation, one of Canada's largest media companies, a post he held for over 10 years. A 30-year veteran of media industry, Mr. Asper also holds private equity investments and is a partner in a law firm focused on servicing the video gaming industry.
Katy Graddy:
A graduate of Brandeis University and the University of Toronto Law School, Mr. Asper is also a member of the Ontario Bar. Mr. Asper serves on the board of overseers of the International Business School at Brandeis University. He's a very important member, and I'm very grateful for his presence. He founded the Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship. Before that, he also served several terms on the board of trustees of the university.
Katy Graddy:
He is chairman of the Asper foundation since its inception, is the founder of the Joshua Foundation, and a member of the board of governors of The Saul & Claribel Simkin Centres, a seniors housing complex in Winnipeg, Canada. Mr. Asper also served for five years on the board of the University of Winnipeg Foundation and holds an honorary doctorate and laws from that institution. He was included in Canada's Top 40 Under 40 as well as being named CEO of the Year by a Canadian media industry publication. Len would tell us a bit more about the Asper Center before presenting the Asper Award to Governor Patrick. Len, the floor is yours.
Len Asper:
Well, thank you for that. I think that's the long bio. We need to cut that little short. I'm not the star attraction here. But thank you for that. Anyway, yeah. Look, I've been very involved in Brandeis for a long time. I just want to open by, of course, acknowledging the esteemed group we have here, Governor Patrick, of course. President Liebowitz, Dean Graddy, Professor Lisa Lynch, and Ben Gomes-Casseres, who among others has really brought the Asper Center to life and kept it evolving and being dynamic.
Len Asper:
I really am honored to be part of this group. As I said I joined, I joined the Brandeis community in 1982. When it became clear, my national hockey league career was probably not happening although I did play club hockey at Brandeis. But no one noticed. So, started working on academics and business. But the four years I spent there, obviously, being a long run of the relationship with this school, it continued partly because of the friendships, but also because of a shared value, a set of shared values, and a common mission with the school. Not only its founding mission, but the mission and how the school has grown and been a part of the economy and part of academia and then done my degree. So proud. So, I still love being associated with the school, and I still love being part of its growth.
Len Asper:
So, when the business school started, there was always a sort of an expression or, I guess, a lot of people thought that entrepreneurship was kind of not being taught anywhere. This goes back 20 or 30 years now. And really, that's what this was all about. I felt that like any school, like business schools, were highly, I don't want to say, mathematical or formulaic. But they just didn't have the sort of what really happens part of it and how you go raise money and what are all the roadblocks and, yeah, okay the IRR says that. But there's more to it than that.
Len Asper:
So, the idea is that business is an art as well as a science. And because of my own family values, I always felt that business with business, if you were successful, you have a responsibility to give back. The Asper Award today was established really to applaud those who were able to marry success in US business with a global approach and a commitment to making the world better and improving the human condition.
Len Asper:
And the global part of it's very important. It's really what distinguishes the business school because I see so many times business fails not because it's not the right thing to do. It's because cross-cultural issues come up and lack of either having just traveled to other places or being able to understand the person across the table and what they mean. And my famous line is every culture has a different way of saying no.
Len Asper:
So, that's what this is all about, people who are who understand there's a big world out there and who care about the people who need to be cared about in this world. So, as Katy said, we've had some very incredible recipients. I don't want to say that this one takes the cake. We're just really honored to have someone so important in the life of America as well as Massachusetts to be able to celebrate today.
Len Asper:
I mean Governor Patrick, I mean I don't know what I can say about all... I mean I know there was a very long list of things he's achieved. But public service is the most daunting commitment one can make in life because it requires a charitable spirit, but also an internal fortitude even more so than entrepreneurs because not only do you have to worry about all the people on the outside. It's your own team as well.
Len Asper:
So, sometimes, you never know where things are coming from, curveballs, et cetera, et cetera. And his commitment to sort of building business while building social care, I think, is very, very unique in a politician. And so, he found a way in his office and while in office through leadership skills and the ability to communicate a vision to incorporate business but address globally important and relevant issues all under one umbrella.
Len Asper:
And another thing that is important in this award for an award recipient is that their work is lasting. And yes, it's nice to try, but to succeed and leave a lasting imprint of your work is really the perfect result. And that is definitely the case here. So, this award is in recognition of Governor Patrick's vigorous public leadership and support of innovation in Massachusetts throughout his time in office.
Len Asper:
Every startup pretty much in the state today benefits in some way from Governor Patrick's public actions. So, on behalf of the Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship, I'd now like to award you Governor Patrick the 2021 Asper Award for Global Entrepreneurship. And I guess this is where I'm normally handing you something. But I'll read it.
Deval Patrick:
I've got it right here, Len.
Len Asper:
Oh, good. Oh good. It says, "Brandeis…" I think you read this, or are you reading this or am I? Why don't you read it? You've got it-
Deval Patrick:
I think this is on you. But it says...
Len Asper:
So, Brandeis University celebrates and honors Deval L. Patrick, governor of Massachusetts 2007 to 2015, for his leadership and promoting innovation. Congratulations, sir. And thank you for accepting this award.
Deval Patrick:
Thank you so much. This is incredibly, incredibly generous of you, Len and your family. I thank you. I thank you for the kind words. I hope to become the man you described. I thank Dean Graddy and President Liebowitz and the whole team at the Center for Entrepreneurship for Global Entrepreneurship for this recognition.
Deval Patrick:
And I will say of the many kind things you said, one of the most meaningful to me is the notion that some of the things we tried to do will last because that was very much on our minds and hearts that the short-termism which has been so much a part of the way we govern ourselves. And frankly, I think, of our particular style of capitalism in these last several decades has harmed us.
Deval Patrick:
And so, how it is we make hard decisions in our time that make a way for those who come behind us is very much what we're trying to do. So, I so appreciate among all your comments that one about our work for the people of the commonwealth. Thanks so much.
Katy Graddy:
Thank you, Governor Patrick, for all that you've done to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in Massachusetts and beyond. It's truly an honor to have you here with us today. I will now invite Professor Lisa Lynch to join us for our conversation about the future of capitalism. As I mentioned earlier, please, submit your questions using the Q&A function on your screen.
Katy Graddy:
We hope to conduct a brief question and answer segment toward the end of our event. But we have a lot to cover. So, without further delay, Professor Lynch, please, take it away.
Lisa Lynch:
Thank you so much, Dean Graddy. And Governor Patrick, on behalf of all the people who are watching this ceremony today, I want to add my congratulations to you on this most deserved honor. You may not have seen it, but they were all standing and applauding and cheering. I also want to thank you for the conversation that we're now going to have about the future of capitalism and the American dream.
Lisa Lynch:
As Dean Graddy has said, there's an opportunity for those of you in the audience to pose a couple of questions to the governor at the end of our conversation. Again, just post your question in the Q&A function on your Zoom screen. So, governor, as Dean Graddy outlined earlier, your career has spanned the public sector and the private sector. You're a champion of civil rights and, I know firsthand, a very bold leader who seeks solutions to stagnant incomes, rising inequality and systemic racism. You also believe in capitalism's inherent ability to generate prosperity. Can you share with us your vision of how responsible capitalism can address these broader societal issues that have been so central in your life's work?
Deval Patrick:
Well, thank you. Thank you for the warm opening comments, Professor Lynch. And can we just agree at the outset? We don't have to do this professor governor thing. I mean we forgot to say how closely have we worked together. All right. So, I guess you know I think of myself, I describe myself as a capitalist. I believe in the power of markets, and I believe in the vitality of capitalism as it creates opportunity, and I think opportunity is one of a handful of civic commitments that America is or ought to be about.
Deval Patrick:
And I think, quite frankly, most of us work in the private sector. We house and feed and clothe and amuse ourselves through the private sector. I just think it needs to work. And the notion that value and values are in conflict, to me, has always seemed like one of those false choices. So, I'm not a market fundamentalist. I don't think markets always get it right. I don't think markets solve every problem that needs to be solved just in time.
Deval Patrick:
And I think there is a role for government to play in helping us help ourselves the ways that we contribute to the kind of civilization we want, or as I think it was Barney Frank who said, "Government is the name we give to the things we choose to do together." And there are some things that serve a common interest and serve the interest of an expanding economy that it seems to me government ought to be a partner in.
Deval Patrick:
Now, I think that's more urgent than ever, and I'll stop talking in a minute because I think to the point I was making a response to Len's kind words at the beginning, I have felt for some while that the emphasis on short-term returns quarter by quarter management where in companies I work in or with sometimes happens without regard to the long-term interest of the enterprise, and I think that's been happening in government as well.
Deval Patrick:
We govern from election cycle to election cycle or media cycle to a media cycle, and not generation to generation, not how to make lasting meaningful change that is enabling for people, all people. And so, if you are all about short term, you miss the idea that you've got to prepare a workforce for tomorrow that you have to prepare that workforce for tomorrow's jobs, not just these, that if you really care about opportunity, you can't just keep doing what you've always done and expect that you're going to get talent that we know resides in every American community. You have to be thinking ahead and intentional about that.
Deval Patrick:
And so, I think that when you take account of the emphasis on short termism, in our economy and in the way we govern ourselves, you begin to understand why economic mobility has stalled out, why it is we have been until recently barely conscious of the impact on climate and what's happening to the survival of the planet. You begin to understand why it is some of our business practices from supply chain to hiring have been so self-limiting. And I think all that has to change. And I think as it does, we save capitalism.
Lisa Lynch:
So, it's not only the short-term focus. But given what you just said, it's also that the interests of capitalism have to be something beyond just the shareholder that there is a much wider constituency.
Deval Patrick:
I do. And by the way, I mean this notion that it's the shareholder right or wrong or all the time, not only is it morally questionable. I'm not even sure it's practical reality especially nowadays that you foul the economy, or excuse me, fouled the environment or mistreat your employees. And everybody knows. Its information is ubiquitous. And if you don't think that comes around the bite, your financial value, think again.
Deval Patrick:
Consumers are making different choices today about what to buy, where to live, how to close themselves based on a set of values, a set of ideas about what serves the common good. It's mostly young people. But it's a few of us all folks do. And I think that is a secular trend that points in a very, very encouraging direction and around which the smartest businesses are adjusting.
Lisa Lynch:
So, Deval, you and I have talked over the years about the work that you got involved in after you were governor of the Commonwealth. And in particular, your work at Bain on impact investing projects. Could you share with our audience today a little bit about what drew you to impact investing and maybe a few projects at Bain that best exemplify how you can actually, in this market economy, deliver both superior financial returns and measurable social and environmental good?
Deval Patrick:
Sure. So, I got interested in or was introduced to impact investing actually through a sort of godfather of this field. The fellow name's Ronald Cohen from London whom I met when he came through the United States introducing the idea of social impact bonds to various sitting governors and mayors.
Deval Patrick:
And I was excited by that idea because it struck me. And for those who may not know, this is private capital that comes in alongside government to try a new way of solving a social issue and to create proof points about what can and cannot work more efficiently. And from the savings, if there are savings, the bondholders get repaid, and I loved the concept because of the opportunity to innovate around public policy just like in private life, in the private economy, people are hungry for innovation.
Deval Patrick:
But the truth is, I think, successful innovation requires you sort of raise your tolerance for failure. But politics, Lisa, punishes failure. And so, folks are really nervous about trying things and not having them work. Dean Graddy was very kind about the things she listed of our accomplishments. She didn't list the things we tried that didn't work. Had it been a campaign and someone on the other side, that's all they would talk about, right?
Deval Patrick:
So, the idea of impact bonds was a fun way to experiment with some things. We did a couple of the first in America while I was in office. When I was leaving, I'd stayed in touch with Ronnie, and he said, "Well, you should start to think about impact investing. I've got a fund, and here are the kinds of things we're doing." And I said, "Really?" And I said, 'What kind of returns are you getting?" And he said, "Well, financially, they are as good or better than our regular way private equity." And I said, "Well, I'd love to be able to demonstrate that at scale." And on a platform where that I think generally people think of it rightly or wrongly as just all about the shareholder and the bottom line, all about sort of regular way capitalism.
Deval Patrick:
And I have some friends at Bain Capital who it turns out were also very interested in this leadership who have been asked to think about impact investing because their LPs mostly from Europe were asking about it. So, I came in, and we launched this fund which is now raised its second fund. They're nearly 30 people on the team now. And the focus has been on health and wellness, on sustainability, and on education and workforce development.
Deval Patrick:
And I'll just give you long way around. But just to set up on a couple of examples, we invested in... We're very interested in children's health and particularly some of the studies that show that good oral hygiene or a lack of oral hygiene in poor kids can affect all overall health and even learning outcomes out into the future. And so, we were really interested in whether we could buy a chain of dental offices basically and serve poor kids.
Deval Patrick:
And we found one in California actually that was not where the poor kids were, but it was close. And it wasn't what they were doing. But we thought we could kind of steer it in that direction, and we went well down the diligence and the CEO said, "This company's for sale. You can do what you want with it. But if that's the direction, you're going in, I'm out." And we thought, "Okay. Maybe, they're not the right partner."
Deval Patrick:
And ultimately, we found just a marvelous enterprise in Texas called Rodeo Dental that had built their whole model on the Medicaid population, and it was incredibly efficient. And there were all kinds of use of metrics and data to make it as efficient as possible, to reach as many kids as possible, and to make money, and they were making a lot of money and doing it in an incredibly effective and respectful way bringing as well services to bear for the moms who were sitting in the waiting rooms waiting for their kids.
Deval Patrick:
And they were growing like mad, and they were looking for a capital partner to help them grow. And they want it. As a lot of entrepreneurs, I think Len would agree, they wanted a capital partner who understood all of what they were trying to do, not just what was on the financial documents. That was one example.
Deval Patrick:
Another is a company called Rural Sourcing that was really capitalizing on the on-shoring of outsourced technology work, something that has been on trend for the last decade or so, and ensuring that those opportunities were going to talent in smaller cities, in rural community. Think of Mobile, Alabama, for example, and not just to big firms on the coasts. It's an explosive and an exciting company, very, very well run. We bought it. We scaled it. I won't tell you what the exit will be. But it will be multiples of what we bought it for and a lot of demonstrable impact on the talent grown and made available to do work for the Googles and the Facebooks and the rest of it in the central part of the country.
Lisa Lynch:
So, it's interesting hearing these two examples that you shared. I think one of the things that strikes me is the due diligence and the time and care that you and your team put into identifying the right partner. So, it's both not having the short-term vision, having a broader notion of who the stakeholders are, but finding the right person to collaborate with that seems to me part of your vision of what a responsible capitalist does.
Deval Patrick:
Well, first of all, thank you for acknowledging that, and it runs both ways. I mean there's a point I made at Bain. If there is a mission-driven founder, they don't want to feel like when it's time to scale that they are abandoning the mission in order to get the cash. And, frankly, in some cases, it took some talking to, to get the founders to be persuaded that Bain Capital, whatever it is they thought they knew about Bain Capital, that Bain Capital was the right partner.
Deval Patrick:
So, I would say there were a couple of instances where we got close on price, but either they or we thought this is not a partnership that's going to work because that's the nature of it. We're not looking to run it, and there were other occasions where we thought we had just the right kind of company. But the mission was very secondary from the perspective of the executive team, and we pass on that as well.
Lisa Lynch:
I hope our future entrepreneurs pay close attention to the model that you've been sharing today. Now, Deval, I know you and I have talked over the years about your commitment to civil rights and addressing inequities in our economy. You've just shared two great examples of how impact investing can bring together both value and values in mutually reinforcing and beneficial ways. But given the inequities and access to capital for blacks and women, in particular, what can be done to increase their direct participation as responsible capitalists or impacted investors themselves?
Deval Patrick:
I love this question because I think it's enormously important, and we didn't get it all right. But I will say that in the last year, there's a lot more focus on this all over the country than there has been in a long time, and that's really encouraging. I mean we were definitely on the hunt for minority and women entrepreneurs and founders. That wasn't a criteria. It is for some funds.
Deval Patrick:
The Rodeo Dental founding team was very integrated which was marvelous. We changed out a COE in one of our companies because it was time. And when we were casting about for the right CEO, we found an African-American woman who was perfect, and she's now running that company. We've tried to be conscious of who gets a chance to serve on these boards, incredibly important, and you get one. And then, others start to come because, sadly, I would say that board experiences still feels to me a little bit like a club.
Deval Patrick:
But I think the other thing is our third investment area, investment theme, at the outset, was something we call community building, and this is the one that has evolved into educational workforce development. And it was supposed to be place-based focused on urban and rural communities that had high levels of chronic underemployment or unemployment.
Deval Patrick:
At the top of the urban was my old neighborhood on south side of Chicago. And at the top of the rural, I think at that time, was West Virginia. And to find those, you had to go look because a whole lot of those companies weren't looking for Bain Capital. They weren't looking for an investment banker and didn't know an investment banker was going to introduce those kinds of opportunities to us. We had to go find them.
Deval Patrick:
And we found a couple where the great profitable companies where they could scale, but where the entrepreneur didn't have any real familiarity with outside capital, was worried about the loss of control, was really running it for the benefit of him or herself, and their family, and their kids and so on, all honorable. But my point is that the familiarity with what private equity can do, what outside capital can mean and doesn't have to mean, that's new in a lot of communities.
Deval Patrick:
And so, I love this idea of having incubators, for example, not just in Kendall Square, God bless them, or out in Silicon Valley, but in Roxbury, and in East Palo Alto, and in neighborhoods around San Jose. You understand what I'm saying because there is entrepreneurial activity. There is entrepreneurial history, but the idea of having coaching and exposure and capital and partnerships with folks who are outside the neighborhood is still relatively rare, I think, but coming on strong as I say I'm encouraged by what's going on.
Deval Patrick:
And then, I would just say that I didn't realize until the day my joining the firm was announced, that I was the first black partner at Bain Capital. And I remember what Doug Wilder said to me. Doug Wilder, the first black governor in America elected after reconstruction. He was the governor of Virginia, and he said, "Being first doesn't mean a thing unless there's a second."
Deval Patrick:
And so, the very first person I hired into our group was another black partner. And our team is still the most integrated intentionally so in the firm, and it's a model and a kind of an incentive, I think, for others.
Lisa Lynch:
And I'm sure because of again that intentionality of how you construct your team, your ability to identify and successfully partner with the right venture is, I suspect, easier because of that different composition of your team.
Deval Patrick:
It can be. It can't be, and you know what? Don’t get me wrong. It's not all about what we look like or where we come from. There's a sensibility. We had a couple of regular way long career at Bain Capital private equity investors, who we attracted to the team. And now, they are evangelists because this idea of having meaning in your work, not just what you do after work, but having meaning in your work, it's a powerful idea. And to be able to make money alongside it, why not?
Lisa Lynch:
Absolutely. So, this brings to mind another area that Dean Graddy highlighted in her introduction about you, and that has to do with Israel's startup ecosystem. That's something that you immersed yourself in as a governor and after your wonderful service to the Commonwealth as governor.
Lisa Lynch:
As Dean Graddy mentioned, you served as the inaugural chair of the board of advisors for Our Generation Speaks program at Brandeis. And for those in the audience who are not familiar with OGS, this is a very unique program that brings together young Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs to the Brandeis campus and to the Greater Boston area to develop social impact ventures together.
Lisa Lynch:
So, I know I mean you were really such a critical person in the establishment of OGS. Can you share your assessment of now, sort of five years later, how successful this startup incubator has been in using entrepreneurship to bring together a new generation of emerging Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed to building a new infrastructure of hope for the region?
Deval Patrick:
Well, you used the founder and Brandeis graduates' marvelous phrase when he talked about the importance of an infrastructure of hope in the region and his experience as a member of the Israeli military never having been exposed-
Lisa Lynch:
This is Ohad Elhelo.
Deval Patrick:
Ohad Elhelo.
Lisa Lynch:
IBS graduate.
Deval Patrick:
Yes, who hadn't had exposure to Palestinians except by having to survey them, surveil them, in his military role. And I remember him describing how he's watching these families from his lookout, wherever it was, day after day doing exactly the same things that his family did in the village where he grew up. They were the same. They were trying to figure out how to put the day together and get the kids fed and do their chores and think about and work toward the future.
Deval Patrick:
I don't know that Ohad always describes it this way, but I think of it as having a mechanism, a meaningful mechanism, meaning this collaborative entrepreneurship by which people can build both prosperity and relationships, that they can know each other. And as you mentioned, folks apply. They have an idea about a company. They get selected based on who they are and what it is they are proposing. And then, they come together at Brandeis in the summer, and they work out which ideas survive and which will not. And they narrow it down to a much smaller number of enterprises where the teams are integrated, Israeli and Palestinian, and they go back and launch those businesses in the region.
Deval Patrick:
And I think, first of all, that I came to know the startup culture of Israel in office because we were looking for partners all over the world who shared the notion that innovation was the way to build an expanding and more inclusive economy was the most dynamic way, and that we had all those tools in Massachusetts with the concentration of brain power, the research institutions teaching hospitals and so on.
Deval Patrick:
And so, we had that sort of strength to play natural and embedded strength to play to. And Israel was one of the places where it seemed we could make real progress. We had a path, but we didn't have a highway. Most of all, we didn't have a direct flight.
Lisa Lynch:
Yeah. I was just going to say that was critical as I recall.
Deval Patrick:
Yeah. We spent a lot of time on that. But I think when we took, and you were on this trip, when we took the steering committee, the advisory committee, to the region after, what was it, two or three-
Lisa Lynch:
I think two years or so.
Deval Patrick:
... after two years to visit the fellows and check out their businesses. I think for some, it was the first time in the region. For me, it was the first time in Palestine.
Lisa Lynch:
Yeah. I think for many people in our group, it was the first time in the West Bank.
Deval Patrick:
Yeah. And I think it was revealing what kinds of businesses can work collaboratively and which ones were more complicated. It was revealing to folks who knew Israel at a different time, just how separate people were today, and how different that was from a time before.
Deval Patrick:
Also, revealing, I think, to folks and encouraging how innovative and flexible and creative people were in helping their businesses grow and thrive. And some are now multinational as it were. But I remember at a gathering where was it, maybe it was Bethlehem where everybody could be there, both the-
Lisa Lynch:
I think we were just outside of Bethlehem.
Deval Patrick:
Outside Bethlehem with the Israeli fellows and the Palestinian fellows. And the energy was electric. And at the debrief, at the end of the time together, I and others raised the question whether the thing that mattered most was the success of the businesses or the success of the relationships.
Deval Patrick:
I mean I hate to rank them, but those relationships will pay dividends for a long time. And the more that there are, the more opportunity there will be for understanding and prosperity. And the ways in which those two things together can help bridge to a more hopeful future one fellow at a time, two fellows at a time and so on is incredibly meaningful, and you got to see it to believe it, but there are conversations that fellows were able to have at Brandeis, hard and uncomfortable conversations, the sort of thing we're talking about in the United States today between black people and white people and others of difference. These were the first times that people had been able to have those conversations.
Deval Patrick:
And they were always uncomfortable, as I said. They were not always successful because they're not always going to be successful, but they were in every case well intended. And I think there was some lasting value that comes from that as well.
Lisa Lynch:
When I think back to the trips that we've taken to the region to see the ventures and talk with the fellows, one of the things that strikes me is that they really have created a human infrastructure which I think is so critical for... Everybody talks about infrastructure in terms of broadband and roads and bridges, et cetera. But for that region, and I think more broadly, that human infrastructure and that ability for people to make connections with groups that they wouldn't necessarily be connected with in real and meaningful ways is just so critical for long-term success.
Deval Patrick:
I think it's always valuable wherever and whenever it happens and with whomever. It's just an important life lesson to step across whatever line you think is there and learn to listen.
Lisa Lynch:
Absolutely. Well, we have a bunch of questions that have come from the audience. So, let me start first from Joel Schwartz who just stepped off of the International Business School's advisory board. So, he actually accompanied you on three international trade missions, one to Brazil and the two to Israel. And he asked the following interesting question. These two countries are at the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to COVID impact. Why do you think the success in Israel is so radically different to what's going on in Brazil. And what does that say about government's role in a crisis? Let's start with easy questions for you.
Deval Patrick:
Hi, Joel. This is so like Joel too.
Lisa Lynch:
Exactly.
Deval Patrick:
Well, first of all, I have to say I feel really humble about trying to offer a perspective as an American when I think our own response has been so wobbly or was. I co-chair something called the COVID Collaborative with a former governor of Idaho, a Republican where we convened. We started this last summer. We convened science and public health experts and educators and business folks and organizations ranging from the US Chamber of Commerce to the NAACP to try to get come together around some consensus policies for lack of a better... or understandings about best practices because we weren't getting any of that from government.
Deval Patrick:
Many of our members have gone into the new administration which has, to my way of thinking, really shown terrific leadership in extraordinary circumstances, and I say extraordinary because never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined we could politicize a public health emergency, but it is a hard bill to unring.
Deval Patrick:
In Israel leaving aside, and it's a big thing, but leaving aside the differences in the size of the country and the countries and the populations, in Israel, government is very much a presence. I mean, geez, politics is very much a presence. It's just all around you, and there is a pretty darn good national healthcare system. I think it's pretty well respected as well in Israel. I think that's true. And so, there was a framework and a relationship with government, citizen government, that made it possible to say, "Look, this is what it's going to take, and this is what we're going to do." Now, they had their issues with the Hasidim, with the ultra-conservative community. And those may continue, but I think there was progress made there as well.
Deval Patrick:
In Brazil, you have a leadership who denied that COVID was real. I think when he got it and survived, thank God, I'm not sure it really changed his tone that much. So, there wasn't the leadership of setting the tone that this is a real emergency, and we all have a stake in solving it. And I don't underestimate the importance of that tone from my own limited experience.
Deval Patrick:
I mean the marathon bombing, it'd be hard to imagine saying to Boston or Watertown, "Good luck. Let us know if you need anything." So, very, very different approach to leadership, and I would say that the relationship between citizens and government in Brazil in my experience there as governor and as an executive at Coca-Cola and at Texaco before then where I met a lot of folks in government and a lot of folks who weren't. It's a lot more uneven. It sort of depends on the power at the time and what the government is trying to do or not do and with whom.
Deval Patrick:
So, I do think, look, I'm always at pains to say, "I don't believe that government can or should try to substitute for the private sector. That's not the kind of democrat I am. It's not the sort of vision of government I had, but I will say that the US is one of those countries. And one of only a few I can think of where the line between government and the private sector is so bright.
Deval Patrick:
And in a lot of other places in the world, there is much more collaboration between government and the private sector, and I like that. And I think that can serve us well here. And I think as we started to get traction in fighting the pandemic, it has been that collaboration that has made such a meaningful difference.
Lisa Lynch:
Yeah. I would add as well as sort of speaking from the point of view of higher education, the sort of acknowledgement of science research. And that has been critical as well, I think, in shaping who has been more successful in addressing Covid. I got one looking at our time. And you and I, we could chat for all afternoon.
Deval Patrick:
We have done.
Lisa Lynch:
Which we've done, but let me finish with one last question from another person who I know, Jay Kaufman. From Jay, we obviously live in an era of deep divisions and tribalism. Those of us in this conversation are drawn to look at questions at redefining and revitalizing capitalism. How do we engage those less comfortable with raising those questions or raising the heat needed to make progress on this front?
Deval Patrick:
Well, I mean it's another impossible question. I'm glad we're almost out of time. First of all, I think some of this is happening like it or not. I was trying to describe to my daughter in a way that she would hear it as a compliment that her generation is the generation I've been waiting for. They are infuriatingly self-involved at times, it seems to me, but they're also very aware of the choices they make and what the impact of those choices, not consistently, still human beings, not perfect by any means, but much more aware of what impact the choices they may had on the planet and on other people.
Deval Patrick:
And that to me is incredibly hopeful. And for a business of almost any kind, not just consumer businesses, of almost any kind the winners are going to be the folks who get ahead of that trend who aren't just dragged there although some will be, but the ones who get ahead of that trend, and I think celebrating those and lifting those up is important. That's part of what impact investing is about, but there are other ways to do that.
Deval Patrick:
I think trying to be woke, as the young people say, is a good thing, is a fine thing. My friend, Anand Giridharadas, said in this absolutely beautiful speech I heard him give years ago that the big challenge today is whether the woke will leave room for the still waking. And I think that's the hardest part about right now that we can move capitalism in this direction. We can move our society in a better, in a more equitable direction, and we can be intentional instead of just accidental about that, and we must be for the survival of capitalism, and I think for the survival of America.
Deval Patrick:
But if we do it by saying only those who already agree with everything we agree with are welcome, it's a huge mistake, and we'll miss some lessons that might not have occurred to us, some strategies, some insights that might not have occurred to us, and you've heard me say when I was in office, I just don't think that any one governor or any one leader has a corner on all the best ideas the way, and I've tried to live my life that way. You've got to expose yourself and bring in people who see the world and think about the world differently, and you have to persuade them that the outcomes are worthy and maybe even in common and not just shouted them for being wrong. That's hard to do for someone as impatient as me, but I do think that's how we all get to the promised land as a word together.
Lisa Lynch:
Well, Deval or I will always call you my governor, Governor Patrick, thank you so much for your inspiring words today. Again, congratulations this award, and let me turn to President Liebowitz for some final words. Thank you so much.
Deval Patrick:
Thank you.
Ron Liebowitz:
Thank you, Lisa. Just want to close up by saying, first of all, congratulations again, Governor Patrick, Deval, a pleasure to have you here and to honor you at Brandeis, and I think your final comments beautifully summarized the whole idea of this topic about the future of capitalism how we approach it, leaving space for multiple views and viewpoints moving towards a more humane capitalism, but doing so in a way that doesn't close people out. I thought that was beautifully said. So, thank you.
Ron Liebowitz:
I also want to thank Lisa for running such a wonderful interview. Great job, Lisa. Nice to see you again. We've missed you, but we recognize your sabbatical is very worthwhile. We can't wait to see you back here come September. And also, thank you to Len Asper, good friend of Brandeis, for all you do for not only for the business school, not only for the institute, but also for Brandeis University. Can't wait to see you back on campus again too. So, thank you all for joining us. Thank you for the questionnaires. It was a pleasure and a great event. Thanks, all.