Shaping the Future - Milken Institute

panelists
Irving Azoff is Executive Chairman of Live Nation Entertainment and Chairman and CEO of the Front Line
Management Group, the world’s largest music management firm. He is the personal manager of the Eagles, who he has
managed since 1974, along with Christina Aguilera, Neil Diamond, Van Halen and Steely Dan. Azoff also founded Full
Moon Records, home to the soundtracks of Azoff-produced motion pictures including “Urban Cowboy” and “Fast Times
at Ridgemont High.” In the 1990s, he founded the Azoff Entertainment Company, a joint venture with Time Warner (in
2001, Time Warner acquired his interest in the company). In 1983, Azoff was named chairman and CEO of the MCA
Music Entertainment Group, which he revitalized into an industry powerhouse, setting sales and earnings records
while diversifying into concert promotion, amphitheater operations and merchandising. In 2008, Azoff was named the
Advertising Age “Marketer of the Year” and Pollstar magazine’s “Personal Manager of the Year.”
Joseph Azrack, the Managing Partner of Real Estate for Apollo Global Management, has 30 years’ experience
in real estate investment management. Prior to joining Apollo, he was president and CEO of Citi Property Investors
(CPI), chairing the firm’s Management and Investment committees, and guiding investment policy and strategy. He
was also a member of the Citigroup Alternative Investments Management Committee and Investment Committee,
and a member of Citi Infrastructure Investment Committee. Prior to joining CPI, he was CEO and chairman of AEW
Capital Management LP and founder and president of the AEW Partners Funds; a director of Curzon Global Partners;
and founder and chairman of IXIS AEW Europe. Azrack is a past adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate
School of Business, where he is a member of, and for many years chaired, the Real Estate Program Advisory Board. He
holds a B.S. from Villanova University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.
Steve Baffico is a Senior Managing Director at Claymore Securities, a Guggenheim company, and is Head of U.S.
Retail Distribution for the firm. Within the Private Client Group, he oversees areas including sales, marketing, product,
key accounts, business analytics, product specialists, strategic initiatives and support teams for intermediary-sold
investments. Guggenheim–Claymore’s Private Client assets total more than $15 billion across exchange-traded, unit
trust, and closed-end funds and strategic investments encompassing nearly 100 offerings. Prior to Guggenheim,
Baffico was an executive with BlackRock for more than 10 years, serving in various senior leadership capacities across
sales, sales management, investment banking and strategy. He received a bachelor’s degree in history and political
science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Deepika Bajaj is Founder and President of Invincibelle, a company empowering women and a diverse,
multigenerational work force to thrive in a multicultural world. Prior to starting her company, Bajaj spent more than eight
years in telecommunications consulting and corporate marketing. She has served on the board of various professional
organizations, including the National Society of Hispanic MBAs and Women in Intel. The author of DiversityTweet:
Embracing the Growing Diversity in Our World, she is at work on a second book about her experiences as a global citizen
and what is shaping the new voice of diversity. She speaks and consults on diversity, blogs at www.deepikabajaj.com
and writes a column on social media for ActiveGarage. Bajaj received a bachelor’s degree from Bangalore University in
India and an M.B.A. in marketing from Fordham University in New York.
Shawn Baldwin is Chairman of Capital Management Group, an investment advisory firm. CMG provides advisory/
investment banking services to institutions. Since 2002, it has participated in 75 capital markets transactions for more
than $68 billion. CMG has built a global network via its economic conferences of academics and institutional investors.
Baldwin was previously chief operating officer of a publicly traded registered investment advisory. He also worked
for American Express and US Bank. The second African-American member of the Chicago Stock Exchange, Baldwin is
a member of the CFA Institute for chartered financial analysts. He has been featured in The Economist, BusinessWeek,
Forbes, Fortune, Investment Dealer’s Digest and Money magazine. He is also a commentator for Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC,
NBC and CBS. Baldwin received a master’s degree in financial strategy from the University of Oxford and a bachelor’s
degree from Antioch University.
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