{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Carried Interest","title":"From Citibank's CFO in 2008 to Private Equity Investor | Gary Crittenden","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3023,"description":"What does it take to manage a $2 trillion balance sheet through the worst financial crisis in modern history—and come out with your reputation intact?\nGary Crittenden's resume reads like a history of modern Wall Street. He was CFO of American Express during its golden years and CFO of Citigroup through the Great Recession/Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 before spending 16 years at private equity firm HGGC, solidifying his reputation as a leading architect of the PE space. Today, he still operates in the world of global finance as a private investor at Bear Mountain Ranch Asset Management.\nIn this episode, Gary and host Sam Andersen, who Gary has mentored for over a decade, trace a career built on one principle: return on capital. Here's everything they cover:\n— Why the CFO role is strategic first, technical second (and why that's truer now than ever)\n— The charge card vs. credit card insight that unlocked American Express's value creation\n— How Citigroup ended up in crisis and what it took to weather that storm\n— The liquidity discount problem private equity won't talk about—and why it's creating a logjam\n— Why \"we're good at working with management teams\" isn't a differentiated PE strategy\n— How mega funds and mid-market funds produce fundamentally different return profiles\n— AI's impact on finance in three categories: process improvement, revenue generation, and full redefinition\n— The Extra Space Storage story: how fee income and a management business built the highest return on capital in self-storage\n— Gary's framework for evaluating a 2026 deal: basis of competition first, everything else second\n— Concentration vs. diversification, and the Warren Buffett line Gary quotes to his kids\n— Playing the long game in your career: compounding knowledge, reputation, and returns over decades\nIf you work in private equity—or want to—this one's worth your time.\nCarried Interest is a podcast by Affinity.\n🔗 Affinity: https://www.affinity.co\nConnect with Gary:...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/tE0vEynOf6-vTW0wh2g3C8ng06WTGX-YSEnxrYmPKeg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8zZDRk/N2M4NjRmYjk5Nzkx/NDNiYzY4YWQxMTBm/Y2RlNS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}