Apollo's Marc Rowan - Wall Street's Poet and Intellectual

“Institutions are living too much in a two-ice cream world of chocolate and vanilla, of publicly traded debt and equity. They’re about to move to Baskin-Robbins.” - Told by Apollo CEO Marc Rowan when discussing private debt in an interview with Yahoo Finance, September 2023

Another metaphor Rowan uses is alluding to the seismic discovery of the technology of fire. When discussing his strategy for transforming what was a private equity firm into a leader in private debt he muses: "I don't think I discovered fire." Obviously he knows his Greek mythology. Prometheus was known for stealing fire and handing it over to humanity.

To finance that shift from PE Rowan took on the risk of taking over the part of insurance player Athene  Apollo didn't already own. Its long-term law firm for handling its M&A Paul Weiss oversaw that pricey transaction. Some watchers gave it the thumbs-down. But it is spilling off the funds for Apollo's 16 teams to go after and pounce on lucrative private-debt deals. Rowan's vision is for a $1 trillion business.

What hard-charging Rowan, age 61, shows is this: Extreme drive and the love for language and ideas aren't mutually exclusive. Actually, in-house at Apollo Rowan is known at the "professor."

He can give the dying field of the Humanities a boost if he teaches a course at his alma mater Wharton titled "Language and the History of Ideas." With my Ph.D. in linguistics and literature I can be his graduate assistant. We can have a module on William Shakespeare's perception of power. 

Note: Yahoo Finance is primarily owned by investment funds managed by Apollo.

I help with all your communications. That ranges from coaching to strategy and research to writing and editing. Complimentary consultation. Please contact Jane Genova at 203-468-8579 (texting and phone) and janegenova374@gmail.com.


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