This week, we talk to Thomas Wagner, CIO, co-president and co-founder of Capital of Knighthead. The deep value and special situation fund manages $10 billion in assets. He is co-investor with Tom Brady in several sporting assets, including a pickleball team, English Football League club Birmingham City and an endurance motor racing team. Prior to founding Knighthead Capital, Wagner was managing director responsible for managing the distressed and high-yield credit trading desks at Goldman Sachs & Co. Wagner began his career doing hedge fund accounting at Ernst & Young.
Some of the special situations the fund is involved in include buying Hertz out of bankruptcy and taking a substantial stake in PG&E after bankruptcy following the Camp Fire in California.
Wagner has also co-invested in several sporting assets with Tom Brady, including a Pickleball team, Birmingham City FC in the English Football League and an endurance racing motorsport team. There are opportunities beyond the Big 4 professional sports leagues that have the potential to be the next big entertainment investment. He also explains why, to achieve great success, fund entrepreneurs must “put everything on the line.” Founders have to accept risk if they want to achieve greatness, something we tend to forget about the biggest risk takers in society.
He also recalls his experiences on 9/11, watching newspapers with their burnt edges blow out of his office windows onto the Goldman Sachs floor.
A list of his favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.
You can stream and download our full conversation, including all podcast extras, at itunes, Spotify, embroiderer, Google, YoutubeAnd Bloomberg. All of our previous podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Jawad Mian, CFA and Chartered Market Technician, who runs the independent global macroeconomic research and trading advisory firm Stray reflections. The firm focuses on core investment themes and counts many of the world’s largest hedge funds and alternative asset managers among its clients.
Current Reading by Tom Wagner
One second after by William R. Forstchen
Lights out: a cyberattack, an unprepared nation, surviving the aftermath by Ted Koppel
