00:00Well, he's a 15-time NBA All-Star, a philanthropist, and now Shaquille O'Neal is stepping into the infrastructure space.
00:08The NBA legend is joining Jack Mill Infrastructure as a founding partner.
00:12Earlier today, Romain spoke with Jorge Mora, co-managing partner at Jack Mill Partners, and Shaq about why this new venture is personal.
00:20Well, you know, there's a tremendous need in the U.S. for better infrastructure.
00:24You know, you see it in your roads, you see it in your airports, your train stations, and I want to help make that change.
00:30And, you know, Jack Mill is the partner that can help me do that.
00:34You know, when I met Jorge and Nick, you know, they approached me, and, you know, we kind of have the same values.
00:40I like to invest my time and money where it can make a difference in people's lives and have a positive impact on the community.
00:47So, you know, I thought it was the right thing to do, because I live in a town where we definitely need better infrastructure.
00:53So, if I could, you know, partner with a company like Jack Mill, I do it every time.
00:59And a lot of cities, of course, across the U.S., Shaquille, are in that same position.
01:04I mean, one of the deals that the infrastructure project had been involved in was, of course, the redesign, redevelopment, if you will, of LaGuardia Airport in New York.
01:13And, Shaq, I mean, as somebody who spent, you know, 19, 20 years in the NBA, I'm sure you've been to pretty much every airport in the United States and beyond.
01:20When you look at the infrastructure in the transportation space, what does it say to you?
01:26Man, it says that, you know, whoever has their contract is doing a great job, and I know the work that Jack Mill does.
01:32My hometown is North, and part of the airport has already been redone.
01:36You know, I would definitely love to be involved in, you know, the expansion of that one.
01:42But, you know, as long as we have companies like Jack Mill doing their thing and, you know, bringing what they bring to the table, it's beautiful.
01:50So what they did with, you know, LaGuardia, it's definitely why I wanted to be their teammates.
01:56You know, every time I win a championship, it's because I have great teammates.
02:01You know, along with Kobe, I'm winning in a broadcast with your best friend, Charles Barkley.
02:05So I want to also win a championship in the infrastructure space.
02:09So, Horry, I am curious, with regards to the projects going on through the infrastructure fund, I mentioned, of course, what went on in LaGuardia, also a big project at JFK, Hartsfield down in Atlanta.
02:22Is your focus going to primarily be in, I guess, the aviation space, or are you looking to do something more broadly?
02:29We're going to be looking at other spaces.
02:31I mean, the transportation space in particular is one of our core focuses.
02:37And we also recently did an investment into the energy space.
02:42Unfortunately, we can't disclose it, but it was a large, almost $100 million investment.
02:47And then we're also going to look at digital.
02:48What we try to do is we try to pair the competencies that we have in-house with the different sectors we're investing in.
02:56In the digital space, we happen to have a senior advisor who has done an enormous amount of investing in digital for the last 25 years.
03:05And in transportation, we happen to own a design engineering firm that has worked in close to 100 airports in the U.S.
03:12And so we're trying to stick to what we know, where we can bring some added value.
03:17And then by having Shaquille as one of our founding partners, we can really focus on the community engagement into those big projects.
03:25We mentioned LaGuardia a couple of times.
03:27If you've flown in or out of LaGuardia, you can see that there's all these local businesses that are in the terminal, restaurants, et cetera.
03:35And it also has the impact on the employment in the community.
03:39So our value add is that we're going to try to bring that organic and more natural connectivity that a group like Jack Mel can bring to a project like that when partnering with large infrastructure investors, either strategic or financial.
03:54Well, we'll expand on that a little bit, because, I mean, as someone who goes through LaGuardia almost every other week, it's very obvious that there is an intent with that redesign to highlight local businesses.
04:05And I am curious as to what that conversation looks like, Jorge.
04:09Are you you're talking with the airport authority or are you talking with just the local government leaders?
04:14What is that conversation?
04:16It's a combination of all of that.
04:18Right. It's understanding which businesses in the local community we want to bring in what also what investors from the local community we would like to group into our investment group to to just tie to the community to make sure that their needs are being listened to.
04:36So in any new project, for example, new work has been talked about.
04:40It hasn't been announced yet.
04:41Hopefully it will be in the next few months or year when that happens.
04:45Having Shaquille as our partner, having the fact that he grew up there, I think will will give an edge to any group that we work with and in delivering that community and engaging with them properly.
05:00Maybe, Shaquille, you can talk just a little bit about Newark and your connections there.
05:04Obviously, you are raised there and you've been a big investor there a long prior to this deal with Jackmo.
05:09You know, when I met with Jorge and Nick, I told him I want to do business that's going to have positive impact on local community.
05:17Born and raised in Newark, flew in and out of the Newark airport many times.
05:23And, you know, would love to be a part of this, you know, project.
05:26You know, it just goes with a legacy.
05:29You have a kid who was a medium, a juvenile delinquent.
05:31Now he's partnered with a company like Jack Mel and we're redoing the airport.
05:35You know, we're making the airport better.
05:37So, you know, this would be big if we could land that deal.
05:40But, again, when I met with Nick and Jorge, I told him, I said, I want to have a positive impact on local community.
05:46That's all we want to do.
05:47We want to, you know, help create jobs.
05:50You know, just whatever it does to make the community better, that's definitely what I want to be a part of.
05:55Do you have any ambitions for having more deeper ownership in the sports world in terms of sports franchises?
06:03Actually, no.
06:04I've always been the—I can remember when I was taking my business marketing class, a professor gave me a book on the side.
06:13He said it was the dummies guide of starting your own business.
06:17And my favorite chapter was joint ventureship because I realized that in order to be a great leader, you have to have people that are smarter than you as teammates.
06:26So I applied basketball to business, and I was like, you know what, I need to get guys that are better in whatever space I'm trying to invest in than I am.
06:35Imagine me trying to run the five guys by myself.
06:38Imagine me, you know, trying to run Reebok by myself.
06:40Imagine me trying to do this infrastructure by myself.
06:43So you have to get great teammates.
06:45I mentioned this early.
06:46I won championships with Kobe Bryant, D-Wade.
06:50I'm winning with Ernie, Kenny, and Chuck.
06:52So, you know, when it comes to, you know, finding great partners, Jorge and Nick are the best in this business, and we will definitely win.
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