Interview With Sean O'Hara, Chief Investment Officer, Obsiido
Ben Sinclair
Joining me today is Sean O'Hara. Sean is a co-founder and the Chief Investment Officer at Obsiido. Prior to this role, Sean was a founding partner and CIO at XFO Private Asset Solutions, and was also Chief Investment Officer at Cygnus Investment Partners and WC Private Council, along with many other great roles across his career. So, Sean, thank you very much for joining me today.
Sean O'Hara
Thank you, Ben. Good morning and I'm thrilled to be here.
Ben Sinclair
Likewise, Sean. So maybe you could just take me back a little bit. Prior to your current role, you had a very extensive background. You were a CIO at three different firms prior to Obsiido. Can you tell me about how those experiences shaped you and how they led you to join a startup?
Sean O'Hara
Yeah, no, I'm happy to. The CIO role that started my private markets journey, which I've been on for the past 11 years of my career, was when I took on the CIO role at Cygnus Investment Partners here in Toronto. This was back in 2015, and what was very unique and very different about the Cygnus investment platform was that it represented the KKR investment platform in Canada, targeting Canadian investors that essentially weren't large enough to deal with KKR on a direct basis in New York.
As the CIO of the firm, I was responsible for speaking day to day with the KKR portfolio management team, getting to really understand their platform and their products. I was lucky enough to attend various KKR conferences including their America's Private Equity Conference in California on two occasions, and KKR's credit conference in New York. What I really took away from that experience which has shaped my view of things somewhat is that when you get up close to a manager like KKR and understand not only what they do and how they do it, but the quality and the scale with which they're operating in the private markets across all asset classes, you really just get an appreciation of what a firm like that brings to the table.
And just the quality of the organization, the quality of the people they recruit, and it left an indelible mark and really gave me a true appreciation of what you get working with a big, large-scale global manager like a KKR. As I think you know Ben, KKR is a manager that we are working with at Obsiido. So that relationship with KKR very much continues.
Ben Sinclair
So tell me about the founding story of the company. Still, it must have been a big leap for you joining a startup with those experiences behind you.
