About this episode
How should investors think about risk when traditional measures like volatility fall short?
David Weisburd speaks with Jeff Blazek about portfolio construction across institutions and family offices, why drawdown matters more than standard deviation, and how allocators should balance public and private markets. Jeff shares first-principles thinking on liquidity, behavioral risk, and building resilient portfolios across market cycles.
Highlights:
Key differences between managing large institutions and smaller endowments
Why drawdown is a more meaningful risk metric than volatility
First principles for building an endowment-style portfolio
The behavioral risks of over-allocating to private markets
How liquidity enables rebalancing during periods of market stress
Trade-offs between public and private investments
Managing denominator effects and secondary market risks
The role of liquid, uncorrelated diversifiers
Why quality investing has overtaken pure value investing
How allocators should think about AI, growth, and regime shifts
Guest Bio:
Jeff Blazek is Co-Chief Investment Officer of Multi-Asset Strategies at Neuberger Berman, a global asset manager overseeing approximately $550 billion in assets. He has held senior investment roles across endowments, pensions, and consulting, including NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Texas Teachers, and Cambridge Associates. Jeff brings over 25 years of experience in portfolio construction, asset allocation, and risk management across public and private markets.
Our Podcast now receives more than 300,000 downloads a month. Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Please email David Weisburd at david@weisburdcapital.com.
We’d like to thank AlphaSense for sponsoring this episode!
Sponsor:
AlphaSense is the AI-powered market intelligence platform trusted by 85% of the S&P 100, helping investment professionals make faster, more confident, data-driven decisions. Built for hedge funds, asset allocators, private venture capital firms, and investment bankers, AlphaSense uses advanced AI and powerful search across premium proprietary content to surface the insights that matter most—before the market moves. Elevate your research and stay ahead of the competition. Visit https://www.alpha-sense.com/howiinvest/ to learn more.
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Stay Connected with Jeffrey Blazek:
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-blazek-cfa-a0a57212
