The Center For Capital™
The CEO Show: Smart Conversations. Innovative Solutions. Actionable Insights.
Toward a New American Ethos
We launched our inaugural season on July 4, 2024, to celebrate the birth of a new America, one based on mutual respect.
The Center for Capital (C4C) is both a streaming business newsmagazine and podcast. New episodes will appear on this page, and on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple.
Our mission is to provide solutions for several of America's most complex problems by amplifying the voices of our nation's most brilliant and diverse talent, while helping to restore trust in the media and hope for the future. We focus on how human capital is creating the world we will live in — innovative solutions — changes that will impact our future, and because of globalization, most likely the world.
Our fireside chat interviews concentrate in four problem areas:
Technology (e.g., fairness and inclusion in AI)
Housing/Real Estate (e.g., the affordable housing crisis)
Impact Measurement and Management: what IDEA initiatives are working and what’s the ROI on each IDEA initiative?
Gen Z/The Craft: giving voice and opportunity to gen Z professionals disrupting industries ranging from finance to the fine arts and beyond.
Interviewers/C4C Correspondents are highly accomplished professionals in the same industries as the guests, who are predominantly women and BIPOC experts in their respective professions, and who provide industry-specific solutions and practical, actionable insights, while sharing their evocative journeys, such as how they overcame personal and professional hurdles.
It is our hope that our show helps to solve some of our nation's most chronic issues, while aiding to create a new American culture based on mutual respect.
Season 1: Trailer
Mark A. Mills, Founder + Executive Director, Elysian Fields TV; Creator, Host + Executive Producer, The Center for Capital
What's my Ikigai, or my Why? I wanted to create a showcase for American brilliance that would also be a safe space for women and BIPOC to share their evocative journeys, so that anyone who feels abandoned, or concerned about the future, can know that they are not alone, and that there are smart and dedicated people -- who look like them -- working tirelessly to improve America. There is an African proverb that says if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. At the Center for Capital, we believe in going together.
Inaugural Episode
Subject Area: Impact Measurement and Management
Kiesha Nix, Los Angeles Lakers, V.P. of Charitable Affairs and Executive Director of the Lakers Youth Foundation.
The Los Angeles Lakers is one of the most iconic brands in all of global sports. At the intersection of professional sports, Hollywood, politics, and community service is Kiesha Nix. The L.A. native and former banker became the Lakers' first Black woman Vice President in 2022. Prior to becoming the Lakers' VP of Charitable Affairs and Executive Director of the Lakers Youth Foundation, Ms. Nix had already paved her road to divinity with countless hours devoted to improving the lives of residents in the City of Angels. U.S. citizen Andre da Costa was born in "The City of God," and witnessed firsthand the impact of local nonprofit organizations while growing up in Rio. The former soccer player sat down with the sports executive to listen to her advice on leadership, how to succeed as a working mom, how we can all have greater impact in our local communities, and how she measures her impact efforts.
Season 1, Episode 2
Subject Areas: Tech (Sustainability) + Gen Z
Patricia Garcia is the founder of Unithrifts, which she started in her college dorm room. She has won over 25 student pitch competitions, thousands in investment funding, and numerous national and international awards for entrepreneurship.
C4C Correspondent and Google Account Executive, Chelsea Ziadie, interviewed her to learn her secrets to pitching success, why she turned down financial giant Blackstone to follow her entrepreneurial dream of scaling Unithrifts (the sustainability platform enabling a circular economy on university campuses), and how her family and humble beginnings inform her approach to her life and career. A native of Miami's Little Havana, Ms. Garcia earned her B.S. in Mechanical/Interdisciplinary Engineering from Florida International University (a leading Hispanic Serving Institution or HSI). The GEM Fellow went on to graduate from the University of Southern California (USC) with a Master's in Product Development Engineering and Product Development Systems. USC's School of Engineering selected Ms. Garcia as its 2022 commencement speaker. Since our 2022 interview, the former MIT researcher has won the Fulbright Entrepreneurship Award, which is awarded to only one student annually, and covers tuition and fees for the MSc in Entrepreneurship at the UCL School of Management. The Fulbright is one of the most prestigious awards in the world.
Season 1, Episode 3
Subject Areas: Tech (AI Issues) + Gen Z
Dr. Mandela Patrick, CEO of generative AI photo app, Vybe. Wanna have some AI photo fun? Vybe's got you and your crew. Dr. Patrick, who is also a calypso singer and aficionado, shares his thoughts on product-fit, running and funding a start-up, and much more.
Dr. Patrick earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Harvard University and his PhD in Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems CDT from the University of Oxford. The Rhodes Scholar discusses his journey from being an international squash champion and college varsity athlete to joining Meta AI and ultimately becoming the CEO of his startup, Vybe, which is less than two years old. Since the taping of this interview, Vybe has closed on a $4.75 million seed round, and he and his co-founder have been featured in TechCrunch magazine. During the C4C interview with Google exec Chelsea Ziadie, Dr. Patrick discusses fairness and inclusion in AI, where AI is going in the next six months to five years, and the lessons he's learned from his early days growing up in Trinidad to now.
Season 1, Episode 4
Subject Area: Housing/Real Estate (Homelessness)
John Maceri, CEO, the People Concern, a leading nonprofit provider of evidence-based solutions to homelessness.
By investing in solutions for the unhoused, communities can reduce emergency service costs, increase workforce participation, and enhance overall economic productivity. Homelessness is also closely linked to various public health issues, e.g., mental health problems, substance abuse, and the spread of infectious diseases. By investing in solutions, communities can reduce emergency service costs, increase workforce participation, and enhance overall economic productivity. Homelessness is also closely linked to various public health issues, including mental health problems, substance abuse, and the spread of infectious diseases. Providing stable housing can improve overall community health and reduce healthcare costs, which are astronomical and rising. Most importantly, every person deserves a safe and stable place to live, especially in the richest country on earth. Solving U.S. homelessness ensures that humans have access to basic needs, which is a fundamental human right. One-third of America's homeless live in California. L.A. real estate developer, Edgar Baek, sat down with John to hear his thoughts on L.A. Mayor Karen Bass's plans to end homelessness, and his organization's solutions to this growing crisis.
Season 1, Episode 5
Subject Area: Impact Measurement and Management
Ian S. Fuller, Chartered Financial Consultant®, is the CEO of wealth management firm Westfuller, a Black- and Woman-led company with a demonstrated commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Its strategic partner, Bivium Capital, is an asset management firm that has been honored for its DEI practices. The combined assets under management of the two firms is more than $4 Billion.
Studies show that DEI can spur innovation, improve decision-making, enhance customer service, mitigate risks, attract top talent, and contribute to addressing historical and current inequities, such as implicit biases. By measuring DEI outcomes beyond demographics, organizations can identify disparities, pinpoint improvement areas, and track progress. This allows for informed decision-making, effective resource allocation, and tailored initiatives. Every organization with DEI initiatives executes them differently, so we talked with Mr. Fuller about his wealth management company's top-down approach to DEI, and why it's important for Bivium Westfuller.
Season 1, Episode 6
Subject Area: Housing/Real Estate (the Housing Gap)
Ashley Bete is the CEO of the startup Leap, a fintech real estate investment company whose mission is to use a new type of financial product, Home Equity Agreements, to help close the housing and wealth gaps.
Home Equity Agreements (HEAs) allow homeowners to access their home equity without taking on debt: Homeowners sell investors, such as Leap, a fraction of their home's equity and a portion of its future appreciation in exchange for a lump sum payment. No monthly payments are required. The homeowner has the ability to buy back their equity stake at any point during the course of the agreement (typically 10-30 years). The HEA industry is relatively new and growing. Former real estate attorney Kelly Shapiro met with Ashley to discuss how his startup uses HEAs to help close the housing and wealth gaps, which only continue to widen. Leap has been featured in a number of industry periodicals and media outlets such as Urban Geekz magazine.
Season 1, Episode 7
Subject Area: Technology (Offshoring IT Dev, Scaling a Startup, et al)
Ashley Bete is a Morehouse graduate who majored in Computer Science. He has been the CEO of the fintech startup Leap for approximately three years. In 2024, he released his real estate investment company's app, which uses ML and AI to help eliminate implicit biases in the homeowner review process.
How do you build an IT company? Should you offshore certain tasks, as it can reduce IT development costs by 40-80%? How do you successfully scale a fintech startup? Kelly continues the conversation with Ashley to hear his thoughts on the pros and cons of offshoring; why thorough due diligence is critical; how to protect yourself as an IP owner; how he decided on Leap's organizational structure; why he utilizes the Agile Methodology for projects; and last but certainly not least, why mentoring women is vitally important. After the episode was filmed, Leap was accepted into Northwestern Mutual's accelerator program, Gener8tor: approximately 500 companies applied; 10 were selected.