Transcripts For BLOOMBERG The 20240704

Table, and it is also my filing system. Over much of the past three decades, ive been an investor. [applause] the highest calling of mankind, ive often thought, was private equity. [laughter] and then i started interviewing. I watched your interviews, so i know how to do some interviewing. [laughter] ive learned from doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top. Jeff i asked him how much he wanted. He said 250. I said fine. I didnt negotiate with him. I did no due diligence. David i have something i would like to sell. [laughter] and how they stay there. You dont feel inadequate now because being only the second , wealthiest man in the world, is that right . [laughter] Dan Doctoroff is a former deputy mayor of new york city and a former ceo of bloomberg. I came to know him a few years ago when he created target als , design to raise funding to help cure als, a disease which killed his father and uncle. Recently, sadly, dan was also diagnosed with als. I sat down with dan at bloomberg recently and talked about his life, philanthropy, and his desire now to do what he can to help cure als. Dan, recently, about a year ago, you were diagnosed with als, which is a very sad, tragic disease. What was your reaction when you heard about this . Dan i was actually shocked, despite the fact that my father and uncle died of the disease. And i didnt expect it at all. I really hadnt felt many symptoms. But i went away on a trip to iceland with my wife. And i had breathing problems. And i couldnt climb rocks. I got exhausted climbing hills, which is really weird, because i was in pretty good shape. And so i decided to go see a doctor, not thinking it was als. And he noticed my muscles twitching and brought in the head of neurology at the hospital that i went to, and he almost immediately declared i probably had als, given my family history. So then, i reached out to other doctors who i knew in the als field and they basically confirmed it with a series of tests. Dave your father, who died of als, and your uncle, who died of als, they had a gene, which is kind of an als gene. You had earlier been tested for that gene years ago and were told you did not have it. Dan no, i had never been tested. I never wanted to be tested because i didnt want to have tell my kids if i tested positive. So, everyone sort of assumed i had als based on my results and my family history. But when the genetic testing came back, i did not have the same genetic mutation that my dad and my uncle and, by the way, their first cousin had. So its throughout my family, but i did not have the gene, which has happened, like, five times in history. David so, for people who were not familiar with als, it first became wellknown to the public when lou gehrig, the famous baseball player, contracted it and died relatively quickly thereafter. He was in his 30s, i believe, at the time. Since that time, since the 1930s, have we made that much progress in diagnosing or treating als . Dan so, there had been virtually no progress for 140 years, from the time it was discovered in 1870. My uncle died in 2010, and in 2010 i decided, look, in my family, its hereditary. My dad had died in 2002. Ive got to do something. So i hired a team of scientists to understand why there was so little progress made in the disease. And we came up with a set of theories and created an organization around those theories that included funding of consortia, funding of core scientific resources that anyone in the world can draw on, bringing in biotech and pharma into the process. And theres been an explosion of progress over the last 10 years. Im really proud that that organization, target als, has played a major role in catalyzing the progress. David now, when you were told recently that you had, about a year ago, that you had als, you did not say i am now going to take life very easy. You decided youre going to raise another 250 million for target als. Why did you say you wanted to put the energy and effort into that, knowing it probably would not help you . Dan because, first of all, this affects my family. Even though i dont have the same genetic mutation that my dad and uncle did, i may have another genetic mutation that has not been discovered yet. And my cousins, my brothers, might have als. So, its very personal for me. But the other thing, and most people dont recognize this, one in 400 people who are alive today will die from als if we dont come up with treatments. And so, target als has been amazingly successful over the last 10 years and i thought there was nothing more important that i could do than to scale up target als and hopefully see real treatments that save peoples lives within the next five to 10 years. And hopefully we will be at a , point within 10 years that we can see a day when everybodys lives get extended and saved. Dave a number of years ago, there was the socalled ice bucket challenge where i think people were having water dumped on their heads. And it was designed to raise money for als. I think it did raise a fair amount of money, over 100 million, but that was not for research. That was for care of those who already have als. Is that right . Dan some of it went to research, but most of it went to patient care, which is important. I mean, this is a devastating disease. What happens in als is, the signals that get sent from the brain to the muscles, to move, die. And when that happens, people get paralyzed. And it is just a progressive disease where you lose more and more control. So, patient care is really important. We have to always find the right balance between patient care and research, because, at the end of the day, the thing that is going to save the lives of those one in 400 people is treatments, and we need a lot of effort to actually come up with effective treatments. Dave now, today, we still do not know what causes als. Is it a genetic thing completely, or is it environmental, or is it some combination . What do we really know about what causes als . Dan well, there are certain genetic causes that we know are responsible for als, but thats only about 10 of the cases. The other 90 , we dont really know. We know now what the biological pathways are. So, we have a much better understanding of the science, and that is leading to potential treatments. But really understanding the cause, i think we are still we have got a long way to go. Dave you know that, within three to five years, it is more likely than not that you will not be alive. So how do you deal with that every day when you get up . Dan i have been in an amazing mood ever since i have been diagnosed. I stopped thinking about the future. David id like to talk a little bit more about als in a moment. Let me talk about your background. Where are you from . Dan i grew up in birmingham, michigan, a suburb of detroit. David ok, and your father was . Dan my father was a lawyer who became the chief judge of the Michigan Court of appeals. David and at what age did he contract als . Dan 66 years old. My mother, who was a psychologist, had just died of a rare neck cancer at 64 and literally within weeks of her dying, he started to show symptoms that would later be diagnosed as als. He started to limp, basically. David you are at what age now . Dan today, i am 64. David so about the same age as your father. Dan a little bit less. David where did you go to college . Dan harvard. David what did you study there and what did you want to be . Dan i did not know what i wanted to be. I studied government because i did not know anything better. But my biggest achievement in college was meeting my wife freshman year. Weve now been dating or married 45 years. So, that was my biggest achievement in college. David big achievement. So after college, you went to law school at the university of chicago . Dan before i did that, i was a political pollster, for a firm called Market Opinion research. And i would be flying all over the country as a 22yearold advising candidates, and the , fact that they listened to me e discouraged me so much that i decided to go to law school. David the fact that they were listening to a 22yearold made you nervous. Dan correct. Exactly. David you went to law school at the university of chicago. What did you do after you graduated . Dan i went to work for lehman brothers. David so you were an investment banker. And how long did you do that . Dan three years. David then you went into the higher calling of private equity, right . Dan a firm that became oak hill partners. David so you did that for how many years . Dan 14. David all right, so how did you become close to, or get to know Mike Bloomberg . Dan its actually a funny story. So, back in 1994, i was sitting in the stands of the world cup semifinal game out at the meadowlands in new jersey. It was italy versus bulgaria. A friend literally dragged me to the game. I didnt want to go. It was like 100 degrees. We took the bus. It took forever. But i walked into the stadium that day and i thought it was the most amazing sporting event i had ever seen. Everyone was painted in bulgarian and italian colors. You couldnt sit down. So i was standing there through the match thinking to myself, you could play this game in new york with any two countries in the world and it would feel exactly the same. And then i started thinking about the olympics, which i had always been a fan of, and saying, why has the most International City in the world never hosted the most International Event . And i left the stadium that day with this vague notion that new york ought to host the olympics. And so, i built a plan with advisors about how new york could host the olympics, and eventually i showed it to Mike Bloomberg when he was running the company. He wasnt contemplating running for mayor. He gave some money. He went on the board. And then, when he shockingly won to be mayor, he asked me to join him in city hall. David what did you do at city hall for Mike Bloomberg and the city . Dan i was responsible for everything economic and financial. So, my title was deputy mayor for Economic Development and rebuilding. First task was rebuilding the World Trade Center site. But then we really rethought the future of new york, physically and financially, by having a five borough Economic Development strategy. David now, after serving as deputy mayor of new york for development and other projects, dealing with Economic Development, you left after how many years . Dan i was there for six years. And then mike, one day, Mike Bloomberg, we sat in this bullpen in city hall. Its an open space. And i sat basically behind him. One day, he wheeled around and he said, what would you think about going over and running bloomberg . And i said to him, what are you talking about . In the six years that we have sat here together, we have discussed the company for one hour total. And he said, no, i think you would be really good. I had never run a big company before. I didnt know anything about bloomberg. When i was in private equity, i was a light user of bloomberg. I knew one person at the company and he said, no, i think you would be really good. So i said, ok, i will think about it. So i came back the next day and said, ok, im going to do it. But im not going to do it for the same salary i was getting paid in government, which was 1. And i started about six weeks later. And after it was announced publicly that i was going to go run bloomberg, i said to mike, ok, i am doing it. What do you want me to do . He said, i dont know. I havent been there for six years. You go figure it out. And i did. David so, how many years did you run bloomberg . Dan seven. David seven years. And the company grew pretty nicely during that period of time . Dan yeah. I mean, as soon as i got there, the financial crisis happened, but we grew from, i think, 5. 4 billion in revenue to 9 billion in the seven years i was there. David after mike finished his third term as mayor, he came back and resumed the position of being ceo. You left the company and started another Company Called sidewalk labs. What was that . Dan that was a company that i formed with larry page and google, became alphabet, that was focused on urban innovation. And what we wanted to do was build the most innovative place in the world, but also, by focusing on building a place, develop ideas, urban innovation ideas, that could dramatically transform cities. David so you are running the company and then, when you got the news that you had als, you decided, im out of this, i am going to devote myself to target als. Is that right . Dan basically. I am still on the board of a couple of the companies we created, but yeah, my focus was definitely on als. And, you know, i also wanted to spend much more time with my family, with friends, travel, do things that i had always wanted to do. And it has actually worked out amazingly well. [announcer] if youre thinking about earning your degree online, snhu can help you get there. I felt supported throughout the whole process, even from the first call. [graduate] my advisors consistently reached out and guided me along the way. It was like i was talking to a friend, like someone that i had known for years. The instructors were very helpful with everything that i was going through. [announcer] well be with you from day one to graduation to your dream job. It all starts the moment you find your program. [announcer] go to snhu. Edu to get started. David how do you think new york city is doing today . Mike bloomberg is no longer mayor. There was a mayor after him, and now we have a new mayor in new york, eric adams. Do you think it is as safe as it was when you were in government . Dan it is not as safe as it was. Crime is clearly rising. It is not back to the dark days of pregiuliani in the early 1990s, but we have got to be careful, because safety is the foundation of everything. I know the current mayor is committed to reducing crime, but were going to have to be incredibly aggressive in making sure crime does not increase. David are you involved any longer in any new york city matters . Or are you advising, usually . Dan yeah, the mayor and governor asked me to cochair a panel or task force on reviving the commercial districts throughout the city. So i have been in the middle of that. Later this fall, we will produce the report, that hopefully will be pretty inspiring here and in other places. David one of the other projects you conceived of is the shed. And you were for awhile the chairman of it for a long time. You got it off the ground. What is the shed . Dan we wanted to put a Cultural Institution on the Far West Side of manhattan. So what we decided to do was create a new kind of Cultural Institution that would be remarkably adaptable. The spaces could be adapted to anything. They could accommodate virtually all forms of artistic expression. Theres many different venues in it. The building literally moves back and forth. It is so flexible. Its sort of an architectural marvel. And i am really proud of it. David perhaps the most favorite the most famous person who had als was lou gehrig. Of course, some people still call it lou gehrigs disease. Another famous person who had it was stephen hawking, and he lived for some 30plus years with it. How do you explain that sometimes people can live for 30 yearsplus . Dan a couple percent of people live beyond 10 years. One of the decisions that im going to face, because my major symptom is respiratory, and thats why people ultimately die, is to get a tracheostomy. Which means that you cant breathe independently. You also cant eat and you also generally cannot talk. So you communicate by looking and spelling out words on a computer screen. And, you know, a lot of people dont want to live that way. I think i probably would. I want to see my grandchildren grow up. I still think i could be engaged in things. Again, thats sort of my optimistic nature. That its not just about believing theres a cure, but its sometimes about believing that the better of two bad alternatives is something worth doing. So, you know, faced with that choice, i think thats what i would do. And, you know, i will need a lot of help, but fortunately i can afford help. David the word progressive is a word used for als and other diseases as well. Progressive is a euphemism for, its never going to get better, its going to get worse. Progressive in the case of als means you are going to die much sooner than you would otherwise die. Dan absent some sort of miracle progress, which i dont really expect, for 80 of als patients die within three to five years. David many people, when they face death and the certainty of death and everybody is going to die at some point, but people generally think it is way down the road or over the horizon. You know within three to five years, it is more likely than not you will not be alive. So how do you deal with that every day when you get up . Dan you know, the interesting thing is i have been in an amazing mood ever since i have been diagnosed. I have had maybe one down hour cumulatively in the last year. And ive had many theories to try and explain it. The biggest one is, when i was diagnosed, i stopped thinking about the future. It was not something i tried to do. I think it was sort of my optimistic nature protecting me. And its not like i am in denial. I know the statistics. I spend lots of time with als patients. I had lived with it with my father, my uncle. My College Roommate died of als. So i know whats going to happen. But i stopped thinking about the future. And that has been just an enormous benefit for me. I have a lot of other theories to explain why i have been so unfazed by the disease, why i have been so happy. That includes, ive had a great life. I have a wonderful family. Ive got great friends. Ive done what i wanted careerwise. Ive done outside things like the shed or the olympics that i wanted to do because i was passionate about them. I have had a great life. And obviously i want it to continue, but if it doesnt, i am grateful for the life that i have had. And then, you know, i have been bathed in sort of like, the love and support of so many people. When i announced that i had als, i got thousands of notes. Lots of people talking about the impact that i had had on their life, etc. I literally felt like i died and witnessed my own funeral. But then the last part of it is, i feel like i have got purpose. With target als, i feel like i can contribute to saving peoples lives maybe my own, unlikely. My kids, my family. But those one in 400 people. And theres nothing more important than that. So i feel like im on my last mission, and it gives me a real sense of purpose. Sleepovers just arent what they used to be. A house full of screens . Basically no hiccups . You guys have no idea how good youve got it. 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