Please . David people wouldnt recognize me if my tie was fixed, but ok. Just leave it this way. All right. I dont consider myself a journalist. Nobody else would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though i have a day job of running a private equity firm. How do you define leadership . What is it that makes somebody tick . David many people in the investment world have bought sports teams. Im not one of them. But i do admire others that have fulfilled their ambitions to get involved in sports. One of them is steve ross. He bought the Miami Dolphins a number of years ago, we developed the stadium area and this year, he was the host for the super bowl. It is an incredible diversion from all of the successful things he has done. Almost everything he touches works out quite out well. His business interests, his real estate interests, and now his sports interests. One of the early signers of the giving pledge, he has given away hundreds and of millions of hundreds dollars for education among other major purposes. I really admire him as an investor but also as an humanitarian. You are going to be the host of the super bowl this weekend. So is it hard to get to be the host . Does anybody did they just call you up or is it harder than that . Stephen it is very competitive. I think every team and every city really wants super bowl. It is such a Great Economic Development tool for the city and the impact that it has, it is fantastic. I think the fans, they love coming to miami. We have the best weather this type of the year all the time. It is the policy of the nfl to reward teams who build new stadiums to get at least one super bowl. But i think this is the 11th , the super bowl, which is the most of any city that the super bowl has been in miami. David ok. So how come your team is not in the super bowl . Stephen that is a good question. Hey, you know. It is not as easy as you think. [laughter] david so let me ask about this. When will the dolphins be in the super bowl . Anytime soon . And i read that tom brady might be a free agent. I dont know if you are allowed to talk about that as an owner. Stephen i heard he was going to be a free agent. But i would say that we are not allowed to talk to him until sometime in march. And you know we are a team that , is building. I dont know why he would want to come to the dolphins. He is probably one of the fiercest competitors there is. And you know we are at the stage , where the dolphins are trying to really build the team for the future and doing it through the draft. David when it was announced super bowl is coming here, did a one of your friends say, by the way, i would like some tickets . How do you get tickets for this . Stephen i have been inundated with requests for tickets. Really the nfl takes over the whole stadium. They control all the ticketing. I have to buy my own box. In the city that i own, i have to buy my own box. Stephen do you get a discount . Or not . David not really. David do you together often with owners . What are those meetings like with those owners . Are they nice people and not complaining or anything . Stephen they are not really what you would expect. I think the nfl realizes you have 32 egos and that you divide and conquer. So i think that the nfl really kind of controls the meetings. You are not finding all of these individuals standing up and stating, you know, all these different reasonings. They are pretty calm. David lets talk about when the , team was owned by wayne, you bought it originally i think in 2008 or so. Stephen 2008. David you bought 49 with an obligation to buy another 51 or so. Stephen we had a bycell on the other david you bought it the subsequent year and you paid roughly 1. 1 billion. Stephen 1. 1 billion. David is it worth 1. 1 billion today . Stephen no. David it is worth more . Stephen a lot more. David would you ever sell . Stephen no. David never going to sell . Stephen no. David ok, and were you a Football Player when you were younger . Stephen i played high school football. David really . What position where you would work stephen i played tackle. David there are a lot of owners who are jewish. Were there any jewish Football Players . More and more players who are jewish. Stephen actually we have a jewish quarterback. Josh rosen. David wow. Stephen the answer is david there are actually some jewish players. Stephen i wish he were a better quarterback. [laughter] maybe even playing today. David did you ever think you would be an nfl player . Stephen not a quarterback. David lets talk about how you became an nfl owner. It is not that easy to buy a team. Lets talk about your background. You grew up originally in the detroit area . Stephen yes. David your father was an inventor . Stephen yes. David what is an inventor . Is that like a real job . Do you just tinker with things . Stephen he was always tinkering and always trying to do something. Shery is that a steady income when you are just tinkering . Stephen not really. He married my mother. She had a wealthy father. David what did your mother do . Stephen she was a housewife. David you grew up in the detroit area and he went to ninth grade there but then your family moved to miami for high school. Stephen right. David why did they move to miami . Stephen my grandfather had bought a hotel and my fathers inventing days were over and he went down to help manage the hotel. Real mom and pop. David what was the name of the hotel . Stephen the martinique. David you went to high school, you did reasonably well in high school. Stephen not really, but anyway. David you didnt do but you were a Football Player. Stephen you werent supposed to david originally you went to the university of florida . Stephen i went there for the first year, then i transferred to the university of michigan. David you liked the cold weather . Why did you do that . Stephen it was always a dream to go to university of michigan and i did not have the grades to get in right out of high school so i was able to transfer from florida up to michigan. It had a real impact on my life and i think that was one of the , reasons why i have been so active with the university of michigan. David you have given the university of michigan about 400 million . Stephen maybe a little more. David more than 400 million. Has university of florida every said to you, well, you are here for one year why dont you give , us something . Stephen i dont think they know who i am. Dont tell them, either. David i think they know. You go to the university of michigan and you try to be a lawyer. You go to wayne state law school. Right . Stephen right. David did you want to be a lawyer . Stephen not really. David why did you go . Because you are jewish . You had to go to law school or medical school . Stephen at that time, we had a draft. I stayed in the army. Until i was about david after 26. Wayne state law school, you went to nyu to get a masters in tax . Stephen yes. David ok, then you went back to detroit and worked in an Accounting Firm . Stephen i was a tax lawyer. David tax lawyer. And then you went to new york . Stephen right. David in investment banking. Stephen that is where i ended up working in investment banking. I was thinking i will go back to detroit eventually. It is like i came home to a , place i had never been. Once you are in new york, it is an exciting place for people who really want to succeed. David ok. So you work at bear stearns and then you got fired. Stephen right. David and did you get fired because you just were smarter than everybody else and they is they did not like smart people . Stephen that sounds good. [laughter] david all right. How hard is it to call your mother up and say i have a law degree, a masters in tax, and i have been fired . Is that hard . Stephen i needed money. [laughter] i wanted to stay in new york. I did not know what i would do. I did not think i would be able to get a job. I did not want to go through that process again. So you know, i kind of thought at that point in time, what do i know where are the opportunities and where do i have my interest and passion . And i thought of the process and wrote out a business plan. And i started, you know my own , company. David your mother lent you 10,000 . Stephen i had to live. David did you ever pay it back . Stephen yes, more or less. David why didnt she she did not want equity in your company . If she had equity, she would be pretty wealthy. Stephen i told you, i had a good mother. David so nobody negotiated for equity for her. You started a Company Called related. Right . Stephen yes. David where did you get that name from . Stephen when i started looking at real estate and there are so many aspects of how it is related, related development, related management and it is a name that made sense from that standpoint. It was a bad enough name that nobody had ever used it before. David all right, so you have the name related and originally you are syndicating deals. You go to wealthy people and you say, would you like to invest in this project or Something Like that . Stephen in those days we had a lot more business cycles, as you know. It was either boom or bust or real estate. I saw the idea that you had to have a steady stream of income and then you could invest those profits into development because that is really where you can make large sums of money. So it was like we had this Financial Service arm which was the syndication side. The point it was selling tax losses to wealthy investors. We had a different tax law at that point in time. Using those profits to plow it back into development. And since i did not know anything about development at all, and i saw the opportunities in Affordable Housing, i did for the first six or seven years of my career, all i did was Affordable Housing. David so to people who are not real estate developers, what does a developer really do . Stephen it is the one who finds the land, prepares the concept hires the architect, works on , the plans, makes sure the building gets built on budget, on time. And then manages it when it is completed and assumes all of those possibilities. David ok. So you became one of the larger developers of lets say low Income Housing or subsidized housing in the United States. Stephen just before i started the company, Lyndon Johnson had the Great Society programs that really set up the government to provide the funds for Affordable Housing. And then they had the section eight programs the government initiated after. It was really a question of taking the government subsidies and applying them across the country, and i saw, when i read it this is too good to be true. Reallyted the company, developing in 1972, and by 1980, we had built something close to 8000 units. David plus lets suppose i want to buy an apartment in hudson yards. What would it cost to buy an apartment there . Stephen now is a good time to buy because the Real Estate Market in new york is soft. So david and he deals stephen i got a deal for you, trust me. Stop the interview right now and lets make a deal. David so you were doing a lot in this area of subsidized housing, low Income Housing, Affordable Housing, and ultimately you built a development that became the Biggest Development in new york at that time which was the timewarner Development Center right on Columbus Circle south of central park. How did you get the right to do that and why was that such a big deal . Stephen i was motivated. You know like most people, you , want to do something impactful in life. You know, and it is not a question of money. You are not really working because of money. Everybody can make money. But you want to do something impactful and that is meaningful and challenging. David all right, so timewarner became a big development. It had apartment buildings, it had lots of office space. Timewarner had its office there and you lived there as well. Stephen correct. David ultimately, you decided to build something bigger which became the biggest Real Estate Development in the history of our country called hudson yards. For people who dont live in new york or visit new york, what is the big deal about hudson yards . Stephen hudson yards, what is happening in new york over 60 , of the buildings were over 60 years old in new york. They were obsolete, and new york was growing, and the hottest area of new york was a place called chelsea which was down there. And i saw the idea when hudson yards came about through creating a liveworkplace environment. People are looking for sustainable developments, and hudson yards, by building a liveworkplay environment right in the middle of new york, there was a real need for it. We were able to attract corporations because they were looking for talent. And chelsea was really the hottest part of the city where the young people are. David you got the right from new york city to build this around 2008, and that is around the time the recession was going on. Was it scary to get that right then . Stephen we had just went under contract in 2008 before the the crisis really started, if you will follow that. And then before we signed the contract we had signed our letter of intent and put up some money, but before we went hard, we had negotiated some points of the deal that we would not have to start the project until a certain events happened. The office there would be an , office market, an availability of money, and that the condo market would be able to absorb. Units. David for hudson yards the , total Square Footage is 16 million square feet . Something like that . Stephen it started outcome of the city roughly four 13 request for proposals that was roughly 13 million square feet. Our development will be over 20 million square feet. David how much did the total Purchase Price how much did you and the investors have to put into this to make it work . Stephen right now we are in it for probably 15 million to 18 million. David million. David 25 billion to 30 billion. Stephen 25 billion to 30 billion. David ok, and you are going to make a profit . Stephen i would hope. [laughter] david no project in the United States history, commercial project has ever been that expensive. Even Rockefeller Center was modest compared to this. Stephen if you looked at the Square Footage, it is the way you manage the size of something it is the largest , private development ever in the United States. David why didnt you consider calling it the ross center . You did not want to put your name on it . Stephen no. David you have a sculpture that is very famous. Some people think it is great. Some people think it is not so great. Stephen who does not like it . David well a couple of , architects that i read. Stephen the New York Times doesnt like anything that we do. David explain what that is. Architect,the something you saw at the olympics that he designed. , what is this sculpture . Stephen it is this 150 foot high series of steps that you can walk around. And we want to create the new heart of new york. And so i looked at it it had to , have some type of iconic structure. And if you look at new york, you take Rockefeller Center, which i looked as being the heart of the city. Every tourist, especially during christmas, everybody goes to Rockefeller Center. And so i wanted some type of structure that would be a 365 Day Christmas tree. So i, you know, looked for it and i found this designer. Thomas heatherwick. I selected it. I did not know what the cost was. Everybody thought i was nuts. But i think david what did it cost . Stephen what did i i thought it would cost 75 million and it cost probably about 160 million. David you convinced a lot of famous companies, blackrock, kkr, to move there. Do you personally have to go to larry fink have blackrock to say move from where you are to hudson yards . Stephen i was involved in selling all of that. The appeal was corporations , today survive by getting talent. And you want and they solve instantly obsolete space and they know that this is where they wanted their talent to live. When we sold them, they could see what we were creating, and we were very fortunate to get probably the Top Companies in each field in new york. It was not one industry. We hit across all industries. Without building it and opening it, i mean, i am very i love saying it, you get the highest rents in new york. It is probably the area that is most in demand. David you dont mean to say the highest rents. You mean the rents that are most appropriate. Stephen for the great thing that we built, yes. David lets suppose i want to buy an apartment in hudson yards. What would it cost to buy an apartment there . Stephen now is a good time to buy because the Real Estate Market in new york is soft. You know, so david any deals i could get . Stephen i got a deal for you, trust me. Stop the interview right now and lets make a deal. David if somebody is watching this i want to be like steve , ross, what is the skill set . Stephen i think to be successful in anything you have , to have a passion for what you are doing. David lets talk about your philanthropy for a moment. You have signed a giving pledge with Warren Buffett and bill gates. Why did you do that . Why did you agree to give away half of your net worth . Stephen i dont think i have anything to complain about, lets start there. But yes, i am giving away most of my net worth, i have taken care of my children. And i just believe in giving back. You know some people look at it, dynastic. Mily is i believe i was very fortunate that i want to give it back in doing something that is significant. I think i kind of grew up with that idea. I dont think, you know, a feeling of not feeling entitled. David what are your passionate causes and philanthropy . Stephen you want to do things that are impactful. You just dont want to give it away. I have certain interests that really im very involved in. You know, one first of all you start with education and , making the cities and places where you live better. But today, i mean to me the , biggest area of concern that i have is the environment, climate. I think that, you know, that impacts everybody. Whenisease you might give two, you talk about survival, there is nothing more impactful than that. David if somebody is watching this, or somebody is in the audience and says i want to be , like steve ross, i want to be a successful real estate developer, what is the skill set . Is it smart, hardworking, luck, money from your mother, what is the thing that makes it possible . Stephen all of the above. I think to be successful in anything, you have to have a passion for what you are doing. And you know, and if you have that passion, i mean it was great. I looked at Affordable Housing from the standpoint of you are doing well and you are doing good at the same time and using that as a basis. Today Affordable Housing is , still probably the greatest need that we have in america. And it will continue to be one of the great things. To be successful, as you know company, it was a question you have an idea and , you expand upon it and you connect the dots as you grow. And you never stop working. David so when you build your company related, like my Company Carlyle at some point you say , somebody else can run it day today. You might reach a certain age when you say somebody else can run it. I am not the coceo any longer, i am the coexecutive at my firm. Are you the ceo . Stephen i am the chairman. You only Grow Companies by really surrounding yourself with great people with likeminded ideas and thoughts and doing things. And i think, you know i , attribute most of my success, if not all of my success to the people i am surrounding myself with and my partners. I look at them in working together and executing is probably the most exciting thing in life. David did your parents live to see your success . Stephen partially. I mean david did they say, you should have worked harder . You should have stayed as a lawyer . Stephen my mother never could describe what i did so i was always a lawyer. David you have this incredible career, you have become a very wealthy person, wellrespected, team, aa football happy family. Any regrets about what you have done with your life . Stephen i regret not going to the super bowl this weekend in miami. Not really. I really love what i do and i still have great passion for it. David look a very successful , career. Thank you for taking the time. I know you are very busy this weekend because everybody here wants your time and wants a ticket. By the way if i need a ticket, how would i get one . Stephen you want a condo, i got a ticket. Haslinda hello. I am Haslinda Amin in singapore. He is an entrepreneur with skyhigh ambitions in the world of luxury hospitality. Deepak ohri has built his reputation at the very top of the asian skyline as founder and ceo of lebua hotels and resorts. Deepak ohri is todays high flyer. Raised in india, based in bangkok, deepak ohris signature