Member Profile: Sam Luft of MEL Global Advisors

Sam is a Global Capital Markets specialist who founded MEL Global Advisors to assist entrepreneurs with capital raising, asset restructuring, corporate advisory, and seed finance in the Asian markets. Sam is based in Singapore and Hong Kong and has many years of North American Capital Markets expertise.

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Biography

Sam has three decades of Global Investment banking experience, working with entrepreneurs and private clients.

Sam has held a range of senior management positions for domestic and international institutions.  Some of the roles have included Chief Global Market Strategist as Folio Asset Management in Toronto, Head of Investment Management for Credit Agricole’s Private Bank in the Bahamas, Chief Executive of Bank Safdie, USA and the co-founding of First Degree Global Asset Management in Singapore.

Sam has successfully launched real estate companies and technology platforms.

Sam is a frequent lecturer around the world on business issues plus is a former member of the NY Institute of Finance and Terrapin Training.

Sam holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration from McGill University in Montreal Canada.

Q&A

What defines a successful leader?

A successful business leader is an individual who can mobilize a whole team towards achieving and being committed to a common goal. To be able to accomplish this task a leader must be able to leverage employee skills and allocate resources in today’s disruptive environment. To execute such a strategy, the leader must create a culture that allows staff to grow, be committed, and be passionate while having a common goal.

Transparency is of the utmost importance.

Culture and talent are important to any company’s success. How do you engage and inspire your workforce?

A major part of my business effort is communication and listening. I spend a lot of time traveling to meet my staff and management in different parts of the world to have feedback and brainstorming with all levels of personnel. I am continuously keeping the team updated of where the company is heading.

I maintain a culture of information and connection.

Innovation and disruption are reshaping industries everyday. What do you see as the number one game-changer facing businesses today?

The major challenge and game-changer facing business today is ensuring comfortableness and training to all levels of management so that they can become productive and welcoming to technological disruption. We must constantly evaluate how technology is impacting our company and ensure management is made to feel secure with this disruption so that people do not feel threatened by it, but rather embrace it.

Challenges abound in today’s fast-changing business environment.  What keeps you up at night?

Volatility in today’s capital markets are moving at breakneck speeds.  My portfolio management training and asset allocation expertise has taught me that a well diversified portfolio with well controlled risk analysis is the only way to deal in today’s volatile and uncertain times. It is through executing this strategy that I am able to sleep well most nights.

Geopolitical volatility keeps me up at night as that is difficult to factor in.

Why did you join Bloomberg Breakaway?
This forum, on a global basis, provides me a tremendous opportunity to interact with driven and passionate CEO’s from around the world who are very entrepreneurial in their business thinking and come from well diversified industries.

Even CEOs need downtime. How do you recharge?

I find that spending time with family, exercise and reading allows me the ability to recharge and face the exciting challenges in today’s volatile markets.

Video

Hear from Sam at the 2018 Breakaway CEO Summit: 

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Sam Luft

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