Michael Castine Managing Director at ZRG Partners with Matt Bird at Greenwich Economic Forum

Share

Michael Castine, Managing Director of ZRG Partners on capital markets, alternative and impact investing with Matt Bird at Greenwich Economic Forum (Greenwich, CT)

HIGHLIGHTS

  • ZRG Partners is one of the fastest growing global executive search firms in the nation
  • ZRG has experienced a compound annual growth rate exceeding 38%
  • ZRG pledges 10% of its net profits to help other companies provide meaningful employment within the New Jersey community

FULL COVERAGE

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: Michael Castine, Managing Director at ZRG Partners with Matt Bird

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 00:00

Welcome back to the Traders Network Show broadcasting worldwide from Greenwich, Connecticut. I’m Matt Bird, and our continued coverage of the Greenwich Economic Forum. My next guest is Michael Castine and he’s the new managing director of ZRG. Michael, welcome to the show. And I think I just broke news.

Michael Castine – Managing Director, ZRG Partners: 00:19

You did. I actually retired in August from my previous firm, Ridgeway partners and I was asked to be an advisor to ZRG and I got to know the people and the product that we have that cutting edge digital use for executive search and private equity back. And I thought, wow, this is a really great platform. I’m coming back in.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 00:42

Oh, congratulations Michael. That’s outstanding. You know, I met [inaudible] believe it was Bruce, the other managing partner and, and we had dinner last night, which was terrific and I got the chance to get to know you both along with some of the other contributors, Jim and Bruce and Ray Rivers. It was a terrific time. Thank you. Be our eyes and ears for a little bit. We’ve got a lot of thought leadership going on in the room. Yesterday we had a polarizing day of speakers, right? We had the Byron Allen, we had the governor of Connecticut, we had Pete Tesei we had Ray Dalio, The list goes on and on. Give us some of your key takeaways from yesterday.

Michael Castine – Managing Director, ZRG Partners: 00:59

Yeah, I think it’s phenomenal what Bruce and Jim are doing for the economic forum and bringing this kind of talent to Greenwich. I’m a grad and resident and really love to see Greenwich being put on the map in a very positive way. And you know, the state has had some economic troubles recently in our governor’s working to alleviate those. And I think by bringing people here and they see, still see where a vibrant economy and a community and you know, so a lot of good is happening from this kind of event.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 01:55

You know, I got to ask you, so the importance of a public private partnership that would created today’s events. How important is that? The local economy?

Michael Castine – Managing Director, ZRG Partners: 02:02

Oh, a hugely important. And I’ve been a proponent of public private partnerships for about 30 years myself. And you’re bringing the best of each world together and usually some great things come out of it and things that each side can’t do alone. If you can alleviate the regulatory issues and things hearing from the business side and vice versa. And you know, you heard Ray Dalio and some of the other guys are sponsoring programs to help the inner city kids that wouldn’t necessarily get a college education and you know, an educational information that they weren’t, be privy to if the private sector hadn’t stepped in to help supplement what’s going on in the state.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 02:44

You know, speaking of supplemental and influencers and impact. We cover the World Economic Forum and I see a lot of familiar faces that we normally see in Davos here in Connecticut. And a lot of them are actually local residents, right. What’s happening next? Pete Tesei is, you know, he’s coming to the end of the world record new record term, right? 12 years, I think six terms. As the mayor, we got a new economic development cycle happening, a lot of structure being put in place. What do you see is his up next? What’s on the horizon?

Michael Castine – Managing Director, ZRG Partners: 03:29

Yeah, I mean a lot of good things that we’re starting to lose Peter, but he’s a at a point in his career where he said time to do something else. And but I think, you know, what we need is Greenwich housing prices to come back. We need more jobs in the state. We need less people leaving the state. And I think that was the governor’s key message yesterday that, you know, don’t go give us a chance and you know, we’ll be a place that you really want to be part of.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 03:40

You know, I caught that. That’s exactly why I took out as well. ZRG, what’s going on, what can we expect from ZRG the next five years?

Michael Castine – Managing Director, ZRG Partners: 03:51

Yeah, it’s the fastest growing search firm in the middle market area. When I say middle market, we’re not a boutique and we’re not one of the biggest firms yet, which allows us to, an opportunity to really get you know, a lot of great candidates for clients without being blocked and where you can’t go, which happens in a lot of the bigger firms. It’s got a digital platform that most firms wouldn’t have. You can do search now with our proprietary platform on your iPhone so you could be on the way to the airport and you know, score candidates on what you thought about them. You see real time what your colleagues thought about it. It’ll shrink the time it zeroes in on great candidates and finds the best talent in a compressed venue without using a validity.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 04:16

You guys have a pretty substantial brick and mortar presence of 35 offices around the world. Excellent. Well, listen, Michael, I’d love to have you back. I know you’re about to jump in a car and headed to the airport and I appreciate you taking the time to come on here. Michael. All right everybody, you’re watching the Traders Network Show as we’re wrapping up day two of our coverage of the Greenwich Economic Forum. Michael, thanks so much again for coming on. We’ll be right back with our next guest. Don’t go away.

See related article: Peter Tesei First Selectman for Town of Greenwich with David Nelson at Greenwich Economic Forum | ESG News – Greenwich, CT