Our recent Next Generation Summit was a great success. At the start of June, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) hosted around 60 guests ages 18 to 40 at our New York office, where over the course of two days, attendees participated in workshops and lectures geared toward developing entrepreneurship and leadership skills. In engaging sessions, speakers covered everything from turning passion into purpose to sustainable investing. Various social events and meals throughout the summit enabled attendees to practice their networking skills and foster genuine connections. Read on for a recap of the summit’s main events and key takeaways.

Day 1

After breakfast and welcome remarks by Lindsay Hodgkins, executive director of the BBH Next Generation Experience, and Mack Dowling, associate director of the Next Generation Experience, attendees toured the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). John Santos, head of BBH’s Global Credit Administration Department, spoke about the NYSE’s history, foundation, and purpose.

The first of the event’s lecture sessions featured an entrepreneurial discussion with Dave Salvant, co-founder of Squire, a business management app for barbershops. Salvant talked about his journey from working in finance to running a $750 million company, describing the highs and lows of the entrepreneurial process. He emphasized the importance of persistence, especially when first getting your business or idea off the ground, and the value of always having a sense of urgency.

Following this, former Navy SEAL and CEO of VIRSIG Brian Valenza led attendees through the Navy SEAL Foundation (NSF) Leadership Course, explaining how the grueling SEAL training program teaches the power of grit, resilience, and above all, teamwork. Guests learned what it was like to go through some of the most challenging weeks at training camp and how the benefits of the rigorous exercises stretch far beyond physical preparedness. The SEAL “secret sauce” is not just physical strength, but also highly mental and emotional: The key to success lies in teamwork and humility. Valenza explained how to apply these values to the business world through a selfless commitment to excellence.

Next, BBH Partner and Chief Investment Strategist Scott Clemons covered five key principles of investing:

• Money is a means to an end: Investing can transform your present obscure human capital into future financial capital.
• Risk is absolute: It is impossible to avoid risk, so be smart about your decision-making – and sometimes, a big risk might pay off.
• There’s a difference between money and wealth: If you have wealth, you have purchasing power. The difference between the two comes down to inflation.
• Compounding is the most powerful force in the universe: It is smart to invest and save sooner rather than later for bigger returns down the road.
• Time is your friend: The stock market is volatile by nature, so allow compounding to work for you.

These principles form a guide to wise investing practices, and remembering them is key to understanding not only how to invest, but also why you do it in the first place.

We rounded out the day’s lectures with an exciting, dynamic conversation with Brophy Tyree, co-founder of Wasted*, who spoke about turning his passion for the outdoors into a mission to improving sustainable waste practices and lessons learned along the way. He shared how he capitalized on a space open to disruption – the porta-potty business – and implemented his idea after a long road of development and fundraising. He also explained the hardest lesson for him to learn: How to manage people, especially when it comes to hiring and firing.

After evening cocktails and before dinner, attendees participated in a workshop led by Tommy Ragsdale and Ben Barrontine of 360 Privacy, a security firm specializing in digital protection for high-profile individuals, families, and companies. Ragsdale and Barrontine advised on ways to protect yourself against any malicious individuals trying to hack into your devices or steal your information – from changing settings in your iPhone to avoiding suspect free charging stations.

Day 2

The final day began with a lecture from Makho Nsibandze, BBH senior client associate, on defining sustainable investing and deconstructing common misconceptions. Attendees learned about incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) values into their investing practices. Nsibandze described common “greenwashing” trends seen by the different ESG rating agencies and gave a comprehensive overview of BBH’s approach to sustainable investing.

This was followed by breakout discussions on wealth planning with BBH Relationship Manager Brandon Taylor and investing basics with BBH Equity Analyst Sid Arora. Taylor led his group through the basic estate planning documents and the “how to” of education planning. Attendees learned how to save “time, taxes, and trouble” when arranging their estate and why this is important at all ages. Meanwhile, Arora reviewed the key tenets of BBH’s investment criteria, covered the importance of value chains and monopolistic/duopolistic businesses, and relayed key lessons learned from personal errors of commission and omission over the years.

BBH Partner Kathryn George rounded out the event with a session on building your personal brand. She described how your brand travels with you everywhere you go and why it is so important to be mindful of your brand value. To build your personal brand, she emphasized, you need to think about what differentiates you from the crowd, especially in the context of your career progression.