Goldman Sachs Talks

Julian Salisbury, Global Co-Head of Asset Management at Goldman Sachs

In this episode, Julian Salisbury, Global Co-Head of Asset Management at Goldman Sachs, discusses his global investment approach during the pandemic, his views on investing in emerging markets, and the biggest lessons he learned throughout his career. 

On approaching opportunities early in the pandemic: “I would say there were three focus areas: liquidity, liquidity, and liquidity. Whenever you have a problem, the first challenge is ‘make sure I survive to the other side, and then I can debate what I want the business to look like exactly.’ But surviving through the other side is the first point. So having companies focus on liquidity was paramount. And that [was] across the portfolio.”

On his approach to investing in emerging markets: “I think getting that balance right between having a strong local team that can really find and prosecute interesting transactions, [along] with a global overlay that can tell them they may have found the best possible deal to do in that market, but it’s twice the price of better deals in other markets, so you should do nothing. And it’s hard to tell them to do nothing. Or, in other cases, they may be told ‘that’s some of the best risk we’re seeing globally, you should lean in.’” 

 

This session was recorded on on October 27, 2020.