Howard Marks

Well, oak trees, I think the thing we're known best for is investing in distressed debt.

And when we started that in 88, my partner Bruce Karsh and I had this idea.

It was actually Bruce's idea, but he joined me and I'd been in the high yield bond business for 10 years at that point.

People would say, well, that's crazy.

You're going to buy the debt of companies that are bankrupt?

They're not going to repay the debt.

And the answer is, A, we're not going to repay it in full, but they're going to pay part.

That may be enough.

Or if the creditors are unpaid, they get the company.

That may have value.

But that was good for me.

It was great for Bruce Karsh.

It wasn't the right thing for Andrew.

So fortunately, we gravitated in the right direction.

How did each of you think of those?

Well, having spent my first 17 years at Citibank, which is a management intensive bureaucracy, I was pretty good at those things.

I was not a guy who started in a garage, you know, and so processes and deliberateness were right up my alley.

But on the other hand, we started Oaktree at a time when the quest for alternative investments was extremely strong.

The demand, I think, outstripped the supply.

Most people kind of gave up on getting the returns they need from stocks and bonds.