This episode features an interview with Degas Wright, CEO at Decatur Capital Management, and West Point class of 1985. Degas talks about his experience transitioning out of the military, founding DCM, and his philosophy behind becoming a successful leader of character.
This episode features an interview with Degas Wright, CEO at Decatur Capital Management, and West Point class of 1985.
Degas served as Corporate Treasurer for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), managing its reserve funds. He studied econometrics and received a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Texas at El Paso. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army after earning a Bachelor of Science from West Point. Along with founding Decatur Capital, Degas is also currently a CNBC contributor and is featured on CNBC’s Fast Money Half Time Report.
In this episode, Degas talks about his experience transitioning out of the military, founding Decatur Capital Management, and his philosophy behind becoming a successful leader of character.
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“Service is where I start as a leader. And I know that this was something that was instilled in me when I watched my father during his military service. I learned that when I was at West Point, the example of the upperclassmen assisting me with the swim test. Service is so critical for our leadership, for a leader's journey. And if you don't have service, you're not going to be successful as a leader.” - Degas Wright
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(02:10) Degas’ West Point experience
(08:40) Transitioning careers
(19:21) Founding Decatur Capital Management
(26:04) Degas’ leadership philosophy
(33:18) Involvement in Do More Together and AOG
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West Point Association of Graduates
Narrator: Hello and welcome to the WPAOG podcast. This episode features an interview with Degas Wright, CEO of Decatur Capital Management and West Point Class of 1985.
Degas served as Corporate Treasurer for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, managing its reserve funds. He studied Econometrics and received a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Texas, El Paso. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army after earning a Bachelor of Science from West Point. Along with founding Decatur Capital, Degas is also currently a CNBC contributor and is featured on CNBC's Fast Money Halftime Report.
In this episode, Degas talks about his experience transitioning out of the military, founding Decatur Capital Management, and his philosophy behind becoming a successful leader of character.
Now, please enjoy this interview between Degas Wright, CEO at Decatur Capital Management and a West Point class of 1985 grad, and your host, Ian Faison, CEO at Caspian Studios.
[00:01:16] Ian Faison: Welcome to the West Point AOG Podcast Network. I'm Ian Faison, CEO of Caspian Studios, and today we are joined by a very special guest. Mr. Degas Wright. Degas, how are you?
Degas Wright: I'm doing well, Ian. It's great to be here with you.
Ian Faison: Great to have you on the show, excited to chat about your background, all the cool stuff that you have been up to since the glory days at our Rockbound Highland home. So let's get into it. Can you tell us a little bit about your current company?
[00:01:45] Degas Wright: Yes. My current company is, we founded the company in 2000, it's Decatur Capital Management and we focus on being good stewards. For our clients, financial resources, be they institutions, corporations. families, foundations, endowments, because we feel it's important to assist our clients by designing customized investment solutions to meet their objectives.
[00:02:10] Ian Faison: And so flashback all the way to West Point. Can you tell us what led you to go to West Point in the first place?
[00:02:18] Degas Wright: Well, it really starts with my parents. I was very fortunate and blessed to have my paternal grandparents adopt me when I was three months old. And that made all the difference in the world for my life.
I recall that my mother, Katie Lou Williams Wright, graduated from Fort Valley State College and was the first person in our family to graduate from college with a teacher's certificate. And she instilled in me the love of learning. My father, Claude Wright, was a career soldier, serving 31 years and, uh, was in World War II and the Korean conflict, and so I learned service.
by watching his military career. And then both parents instilled in me a faith that I carry on today. And so growing up, I always wanted to be like my father. And I told him that, you know, I want to be a soldier like him. And he looked at me and said, son, if you're going to be a soldier, I want you to be an officer.
And so that led me in high school to join the GRTC program. And my military instructors Put me in for a nomination because of our unit, because of the Junior ROTC program. And I was very fortunate to get that service nominated pathway to West Point.
[00:03:39] Ian Faison: My dad said the same thing. He was a PV2 and he told me, uh, never made it to specialist, never made it to PFC, but uh, he told me, Hey, if you go in, uh, you got to go in as an officer.
That's started my story too. So it's funny how that stuff works. Exactly, yes. How did your upbringing guide and affect you on your journey to West Point Military and work after? Yeah,
[00:04:02] Degas Wright: so it really guided me through the process of the love of learning and also service and faith. Those became my North Star as I went through life, going to the military academy, service in the military and out through the military.
That really became my true North and I continue to follow that today. You had
[00:04:25] Ian Faison: a meaningful stop along the way at MARTA. I have a loving and tender place in my heart for when we went to the Georgia Tech Army game when I was at West Point and spent a lot of time on MARTA. It's such an important part of Atlanta, obviously.
And such a cool place for someone who is in the, in the military to go work at a place that is so sort of like foundational to transportation and just like everything that, that is Atlanta. Pretty cool that, uh, that you got to spend time working technology, uh, there. It was a great
[00:05:01] Degas Wright: place to work. I started at MARTA.
I started out as an analyst, became a manager, assistant treasurer, and then treasurer, but there's one job in particular that I really leaned into my West Point experience. And that was when they asked me to, uh, unfortunately, the leadership of the technology department really wasn't meeting the CEO's expectations, general manager for Marta's expectations.
And they had a major project, and they asked me if I would take over the department. Well, I leaned in, and recalling that North Star of love of learning.
And I realized that I needed to pull into that also my education on how to be a leader from West Point. And I really think about being a courageous leader because the way I look at it, courage is not the absence of fear, it's how you overcome fear. And so, you know, I have this mnemonic that I've used through life, and that mnemonic is fear, and the F stands for find out the source of your fear.
E stands for engage that fear, that source. A stands for ask an acceptance of assistance, and then R stands for rejoice. So as I went through the opportunity at MARTA, I was selected to be the Vice President of Technology, the Chief Technology Officer for MARTA, and it was so much. Different from what I was doing as the treasurer, I had to learn about cyber security, I had to learn about how to use legacy technology, how to transition it to new technology, and also,
[00:06:56] Narrator: as I was learning all this,
[00:06:57] Degas Wright: I had to keep the trains running because that was on the technology system.
And so I went back to that mnemonic fear, and I said, first of all, I have to be able to deliver what the CEO wants. So that was the first, that, that elf there, that fear of failure, not being able to deliver. And then... E was engaged. I had to really dive into that love of learning and service because I had to get to know the employees, I had to get to know the management team of the department, and I had to ask them for assistance to get the job done.
After so many months, we became more and more successful. We were able to meet the major project. And so we really rejoiced. And that major project was something, it was a little project called Y2K. And we were able to meet that,
[00:07:51] Narrator: you know, meet that golden
[00:07:52] Degas Wright: objective. And on that day when the clock strolled over to 2000, everything worked at MARTA because of the work that we and the technology department did accomplish together.
[00:08:04] Ian Faison: It's incredible. I mean, I think it's one of the things that West Point and the military prepare you most of all for is jumping into a job that you have no experience in, right? It's like every step of the way, you know, you're going to get thrown into a role that you've never had before in the military most of the time.
And then even if you've been in that role before, you get dual hatted with something else. Right? Like, ah, and by the way, you're also going to be the, you know, whatever you're going to do. Uh, going to be the, the post inspector for XYZ and you're like, wait, what am I doing? So I feel like it's part of the system.
How did you, uh, how did you sort of adapt to being a technologist after spending time in finance? Well it goes
[00:08:46] Degas Wright: back to the love of learning. I had to quickly understand the different software and hardware from the vantage point of knowing how to direct the team and what would be the priorities for the department.
So once again, that love of learning played a key role. And then going back to that mnemonic, I had to engage with the team on an ongoing basis. So one of the first things I did, you know, you may remember doing this in the army, you would go out and meet with your privates and if they're doing a task like in the motor pool, you start asking questions, you start looking over their shoulders and you allow that private in the army to teach you their job.
Because that shows to them that they are worthy of your attention and time, and that builds morale. And so what I did is that I went out to all the different technology locations, and if I was talking to a programmer, I would talk to the programmer, I would ask them to show me what they're working on.
That built morale within the department. And so as we built that morale, I then started learning what would make them successful. As you recall, uh, Ian went from your military service, you wanted to give your soldiers the best opportunity to be successful. Because you knew that if they were successful, the team would be successful.
And that's the approach I took. When did
[00:10:10] Ian Faison: you come up with the fear mnemonic? Well, it
[00:10:14] Degas Wright: started back when I was a plebe. There's two stories I'll tell about plebe year. One talks about the faith and how faith can really play a key role as your time at West Point. I was selected as a Protestant Sunday school teacher, uh, to the West Point staff's children.
And I was given the task of passing out Bibles to my classmates. And so I was, you know, doing that task, walking down the hallways, going into each of my classrooms, uh, classmates, uh, rooms, delivering the Bibles. So I was out in the hallway and I had this junior, as you know, we call them cows, stop me and say, Mr.
Wright, what are you doing in my hallway? And I look straight ahead. I say, sir, I'm delivering Bibles to my
[00:11:04] Narrator: classmates. And
[00:11:06] Degas Wright: all I heard
[00:11:07] Narrator: was just laughter all around me. And that
[00:11:09] Degas Wright: upperclassman looked at me and said, Mr. Wright, carry on. And that upperclassman never hazed me again that whole year.
[00:11:18] Narrator: So that's an example of how faith can really make a difference.
[00:11:22] Degas Wright: And so with that, that leads into that mnemonic fear, because as you remember, we had to pass a swim test. Oh yeah. So I was part of what was referred to back then as the rock squad.
[00:11:37] Narrator: And so I would go and practice swimming,
[00:11:40] Degas Wright: but you know, that fear mnemonic really started to develop then because I had the, that elf fear of failing that test because I realized I had to pass that test to stay at West Point.
E, I had to engage. So when I went to practice at the pool, I was
[00:11:56] Narrator: really committed. I was really focused.
[00:11:59] Degas Wright: And then A, though, was ask and accept assistance. I had a upperclassman, a senior, firstie, come to me one day during formation, and he said, Mr. Wright, I understand that you're in the rock squad.
[00:12:16] Narrator: And I said, oh boy, he's
[00:12:17] Degas Wright: going to haze me about this, because he was the captain of the water polo team.
And he said, Mr. Wright, what we're going to do is that you're going to meet
[00:12:28] Narrator: me in the afternoon at the pool, and we're going to practice. And obviously being a plebe, I said, yes,
[00:12:33] Degas Wright: sir. We went to the pool, he prepared me, he practiced, he told me all the nuances and tricks of how to do the test properly. And for a whole week, he met at the pool and he worked with me.
And so the day of the exam came, the test came for the swimming test. And I was so
[00:12:55] Narrator: confident
[00:12:57] Degas Wright: when I got there, I was just looking forward to the test because I knew I was going to pass. And I went
[00:13:03] Narrator: through, passed
[00:13:04] Degas Wright: the test, and I was in formation the next day, and, uh, the upperclassman came to me and said, Mr.
Ratt, I understand you passed the
[00:13:11] Narrator: exam. And I looked at him with a smile
[00:13:15] Degas Wright: and said, yes, sir. Thank you, sir. And he just smiled and walked
[00:13:18] Narrator: away. But that was a, uh, as you know, a plea, but in a first, that was the extent of
[00:13:23] Degas Wright: our celebration. But I was able to rejoice because of his. ability to help me, to assist me through that process.
And that really talks about West Point and what West Point means, because sometimes you are the one being assisted. Other times, you can assist others. And Ian, one more story. As I was a little bit older, at this time, I was a Cal, I was a junior, and I was still teaching Sunday school, probably as a Sunday school teacher.
And I went to a, someone that was a, a sophomore, a yearling, and asked them, would they like to join me and be a Sunday school teacher? And he joined us and did a great job as a Sunday school teacher. The reason I want to share that is that many years later, I found out that that's individual. I was actually thinking about resigning and leaving West Point that week, but by me just asking them to help me teach the class, they renewed their interest in staying at West Point.
And so by me just doing what any cadet would do, that
[00:14:41] Narrator: had an impact that
[00:14:42] Degas Wright: sometimes we don't know. So sometimes you can help others and
[00:14:46] Narrator: sometimes you're the one being helped.
[00:14:48] Ian Faison: I always go back to cooperate and graduate. Being such a foundational element of a place, one of the things that I think makes it so special is that you're all competing for your branch and your post and you're ranked all the time, 24 7.
And I remember looking at those rankings over and over and over again and take a test, you'd see, look at your GPA and see what it was. And yet, Everyone is there to support each other. And the best upperclassmen always were like that, right? That they understood when you needed to be coached, and they understood, like, hazing has a purpose, and what the purpose is to, you know, create structure and development and get people motivated to be better and not to be Like just this punitive thing that is like meant to be mean and you know those little stories of the person who helped you when they could have been doing something else right like that upperclassmen could have been doing something else that would have benefit him in some way that would have helped him get you know better grades or better classes or he could have been going to the gym or whatever and you decided to help you and like that makes all the difference.
And it's so funny because you can remember all those people like I remember, shout out James Long, my classmate, I would have never made it through physics, James didn't help me. And it's like, we'd sit there, 30 minutes, an hour, whatever, working on that stuff. And I just wouldn't have got through it. I would have struggled.
And like, I think I got a B minus my last second semester in physics, and it's like 100 percent because of this guy. And like, that took away time from him studying for other stuff. Like, no doubt, it had a negative impact on him studying for other things. Like, that's what's so special about the place. Well, you know, and
[00:16:38] Degas Wright: also what carries on now or carries forward is that your classmates that you went through that, uh, period with, you know, four years of being at the academy, what happens after you graduate, you still have that bond.
And you know, Ian, you probably, uh, have had this occur to you. You get into a room of alums, old grads, and everyone can relate to each other. Everyone can share stories. And I'm still very close with my company mates, uh, the F4 Frogs. Uh, we have a virtual book club for the last three years, and we meet virtually every week or once a week, and we talk about different books that we're reading.
And so we have read several books over this period of time, and we're looking at history through conflict. And we started with the American Revolution, and now we're into the Indian Wars, uh, West. But that has actually continued to build that bond. And so now we get together twice a year for different activities.
[00:17:40] Ian Faison: I love that we do something very similar, but completely the opposite, which is we have a fantasy football league that me and a few classmates are in. And so it's mostly just us talking on a text thread about fantasy football, but, uh, and then we get together once a year for the fantasy football draft, but like it is, it's so special.
And I think that one of the things, you know, you can catch up. So quickly as if a day hasn't passed, uh, when you get the time with, uh, with your classmates because you, you did something that, uh, nobody else would really understand. You had a, uh, an experience with your first roommate at West Point. Can you tell us about that?
As everyone knows,
[00:18:19] Degas Wright: uh, you know, we have those great granite buildings on campus. And so one day my roommate, uh, and I were walking, uh, You know, down the various, uh, sidewalks and looking at the buildings. And my roommate just complained and said, uh, these buildings are just, just gray and very, uh, you know, sad, just terrible buildings.
Uh, and what I saw was just these buildings were like silver to me. Um, I really enjoyed being there. This was my dream school. But we had two different perspectives. And so, uh, that roommate left after freshman year. And I had the great privilege and blessing to have, you know, continued through and was able to graduate.
And so that taught me very early on, it's your perspective that makes all the difference.
[00:19:21] Ian Faison: So flash forward to you're the CTO of MARTA and you're working on big problems, obviously, and you decide to move on and create Decatur Capital Management. Why'd you do that? Early
[00:19:35] Degas Wright: on in my career, I was serving as a consulting, putting together what was called disparity studies, and disparity study was a study to analyze, evaluate the amount of discrimination that occurred to people of color.
The disparity studies that I was working on was looking at business formation. So, that planted the seed that one day I would like to start a business, to be an entrepreneur, for all those that came before me that did not have that opportunity. And from that seed grew Decatur Capital Management.
[00:20:13] Ian Faison: And now, 20 something years later, what's it like seeing the growth of the organization over the years and managing something for so long that is enduring?
Well,
[00:20:24] Degas Wright: thank you for that. To me, the difference or the impact is serving as a steward for our clients. So that extends that service is that North Star for me. And we become that steward. We become that firm that assists our clients to meet their financial objectives. And that's very important. And to extend that stewardship, that service.
We're involved in the community with a college intern program, and we've had a college intern program for over 20 years now. And so many of the alums of my, of the intern program are now mid level managers. Uh, we've had, uh, a, uh, intern that went on to become a White House fellow. We have, uh, business owners that were college interns.
And now we also have. Managers that when they have a hiring need, they go to our website because on our website we have, we've listed all the interns, all majority of the interns on the website, and we usually put where, what college they graduated from or what corporation they're working for. So now this becomes a resource.
Not only for the interns while they're working with us, but also later on in their careers. And so this is, uh, comes for SOCLs because we wanted to set up a network and it's happening, it's coming together. And so that's been very rewarding to stay in touch with the interns over the years, but also to see their success.
It also
[00:22:05] Ian Faison: is just great having young people around the energy, the excitement to learn all those things. It's really important. We just brought on our first intern, uh, this year at Caspian and we have a pretty young team just generally. It's been fun working with our intern, working with some of our associate producers who are a little younger and just getting, getting a different lay of the land than, you know, than the way that you see things.
Tell me a little bit more about Decatur, about the principles, your work, and the goals, and how that sort of evolved over the years. Yeah,
[00:22:38] Degas Wright: so what we started with was just really wanted to provide the investment services around investing in International, domestic U. S. companies, be that stocks or bonds, and customizing that to be able to really meet the objectives of our clients.
And our clients have been some of the largest institutions in the United States. We also work with families, corporations, foundations, and endowments, because each one of those clients May have different needs and each client may have a need for a more customized approach because the most important thing we can do as being stewards and fiduciaries for their funds is to first listen to what they want to accomplish.
And once we have a good understanding of that, we can then put together. a strategy around their objectives. And so that's what makes this exciting. And also this goes back to that love of learning. Every day, I get to understand a company better because I get to focus on what that leadership team is doing to develop a competitive advantage.
Because if a company has a competitive Advantage that's going to benefit my clients. And so we want to be able to identify those companies, but that requires me to continually learn about companies, continue to learn about those companies that have the best competitive advantage. And one of the things too, going back to my West Point days is, uh, my major.
I have to give a shout out to the class of 1985 because we were the first class with majors. My major was mathematical science and I use that training, that education to this day in what I do because we put together quantitative models. And for those old grads that still may remember the HP 12C, I still have mine and it still works.
So, uh, and that goes back to, once again, what I learned at West Point, I use to this day.
[00:25:02] Ian Faison: You still have your, your computer from West Point? I
[00:25:06] Narrator: do. So, uh, I do, I
[00:25:08] Degas Wright: still have the HP 12C.
[00:25:11] Narrator: It still works. Uh, I still bring it out. What's occurred
[00:25:15] Degas Wright: now is that you have all the math you need on your phone so I can do it on my phone now.
But before that occurred, I used to bring it out and still use it when I needed to do calculations. But now, once again, I'm trying to stay up with technology.
[00:25:30] Narrator: So I use my iPhone now.
[00:25:32] Ian Faison: That is too funny. Obviously, um, you've studied leadership your whole life. You talk about the importance of leadership, both for your organization and also, you know, externally.
Can you tell more about your leadership philosophy?
[00:25:48] Degas Wright: You know, my leadership philosophy is that a leader must first serve. And that's what I aspire to do every day, because what I've learned through this journey is that by serving my team, my clients, first, the team, I have to really understand their roles in the firm to make sure they have the best tools possible, because if I can ensure they have the best tools possible, and I also ensure that They're doing what they enjoy doing.
They're going to be successful. And at the end of the day, our firm will be even, uh, will even be more successful. And so service is where I start as a leader, and I know that this was something that was instilled in me when I watched my father doing his military service. I learned that when I was at West Point, the example of the upperclassmen assisting me with the swim test.
Service is so critical. for a leadership, for a leader's journey. And if you don't have service, you're not going to be successful as a leader. You've
[00:27:03] Ian Faison: also, uh, kept yourself physically fit, which is a hard thing to do. How do you think about sort of staying fit and being well rounded, uh, not just working your brain, but also your body?
Yeah, because, you
[00:27:16] Narrator: know, that's something that's very important. And as you mentioned, Ian,
[00:27:18] Degas Wright: as we get older, it becomes harder to stay physically fit. And so I enjoy being outdoors. And one of the things that my son got me involved in was scouting. And so, uh, as I got involved in scouting, we would go camping, uh, on the Appalachian Trail or Suffolk Island, Georgia.
Or even, uh, Philmont, New Mexico. And each opportunity provided me a opportunity, a chance, a really privilege to share my love of the outdoor with other Scouts and my son. And I enjoy cycling because that's really
[00:27:55] Narrator: testing. And so
[00:27:58] Degas Wright: I will go on cycling trips with my son Leland, but also with my daughter Sydney's class.
I would enjoy that because that's something that we share, jumping on the bike, riding together. But I've also been able to challenge myself cycling by doing 100 mile charity rides. So, once again, it's that challenge of staying fit, uh, and I try to find different ways of doing that.
[00:28:24] Ian Faison: Yeah. I, uh, I was an Eagle Scout.
And so I was involved in the Scouts once I got, um, got out of the military for a little bit and then sort of haven't been for a while. Starting companies and whatnot tends to be very time consuming, but my, my nephew just started, he's 12 and he's in, back in the Scouts and my brother's the Scoutmaster.
And so I'm starting to. You know, get back into it. And I think it's incredibly important to be involved in the outdoors. I was so against it when I was in my time in the military, because like, you know, going camping after you spend a week in the field in Colorado, where I was stationed, that's the last thing that I wanted to do.
And then now I just find myself doing anything I can to get outdoors. And I think that there's something about sort of that West Point experience and an appreciation of You know, the outdoors about harsh climates and doing things and getting them done and scouts is like a great vehicle for that as well.
[00:29:25] Degas Wright: Well, yeah, you know, and one of the things, Ian, is that about, you know, your scouting journey, we each have that scouting story that we can tell and share, but it also gives us a common ground because we all have that love of outdoors. And as you said that when you were, uh, going through it, uh, initially, you may not have had that same love, but now, It's coming around and you really have appreciation.
So we also have to be mindful of what can we do to preserve. That beauty of nature for the next generation. And that's something that, you know, I really get to focus on also.
[00:30:01] Ian Faison: Fun fact about West Point, Lusk Reservoir. Amazing fishing place. My buddy was a teacher at West Point. He was teaching marketing and he would take his, he's a big fishermen, and he would take his daughters and they would go and catch like huge bass at Lusk.
I didn't even know, four years there, never once even thought about fishing in Lusk, but apparently it's, it's amazing.
[00:30:23] Degas Wright: Exactly. But once again, it's great, uh, that your, uh, classmate is able to share that with his kids.
[00:30:32] Ian Faison: Degas, you're also... An artist in addition to all these other things. Can you tell us a little bit about your art?
Yeah,
[00:30:38] Degas Wright: so the art really springs from I love the outdoors. I'm able to capture what I see on the canvas. And the medium that I use is watercolor. And so I have to thank my wife, Pat, for encouraging me to take art lessons. And that's really helped me to develop my talent for art. And so there are several themes that I use, and these themes really reflect my interests.
The outdoors, West Point, scouting, and sports. And so I really enjoy that. I'm able to share it with others through my website. And, uh, it's been a really fun
[00:31:19] Ian Faison: journey for me. You obviously have had this lifetime of service in the military with your company, with volunteering. And you've also done a bunch of speaking with CNBC and promoting global financial sustainability before Congress.
So, like, why did you do this? Uh, why did you feel like this was important to speak before Congress, uh, in 2019? Yeah, this goes back
[00:31:43] Degas Wright: to, uh, what I talked about. Serving our clients and my focus has always been providing the best service and identifying those companies that give us an opportunity to return shareholders value.
And so that's been the driving force of working with our clients. Out of that work, I was doing research and finding out that if we don't have all the information that impacts a company, We may not be able to give the best fiduciary responsibility being a good steward for our clients. So I started working with an organization that then identified that we can have greater disclosures.
And once we started talking about disclosures, Congress reached out to us and talked about, could we come to the Capitol and testify to talk about how do we develop. Disclosures that's going to identify material events for a company. And so that was really the genesis of how I got involved with this movement of looking at sustainability.
And also interesting, if we talk about scouting, it goes full circle because I'm looking at opportunities for companies to buy for our clients that would add value. But at the same time, sustainability has an impact on our environment, and you know, we all are very familiar with what's happening with the wildfires.
in North America, in Europe, and now in Maui. That has a link back to the preservation of this beautiful nature, and that's sustainability. And so it comes full circle now that I'm able to not only look at it from a client perspective, the way we invest, of identifying the best investment possible for our clients, to look at how things are disclosed, but also how this may impact the environment.
And we want to make sure that we can preserve the environment for the next generation. And then, it's been a great privilege and honor for me to be on CNBC to talk about the capital markets.
[00:34:04] Ian Faison: You also served on the African American West Point Alumni Group and being involved in West Point AOG, of course.
How important is it to be a part of West Point, to be a part of the AOG, to be a part of being a grad? Right. Yeah, so,
[00:34:21] Degas Wright: and this goes back to... And when we talked about the relationship I have with my classmates, but what we want to do, and I'll just talk about Do More Together, uh, the African American alumni group for West Point, we wanted to make sure that every graduate feels a connection.
And so by serving, uh, in that, uh, I serve as a board member for Do More Together. We're able to make sure that all grads and cadets feel that connection. And so that's one of the things that's very important to me. And through that, uh, my Frog classmates nominated me for the advisory council for the, uh, Association of Graduates.
So now I'm able to connect with other alums, other grads. I'm able to connect with the staff at West Point and also cadets. And so, that's been, I guess, a, something that I take a lot of pride in being involved in. Uh, just recently, this week, Ian, I was able to, uh, talk to a high school class about the benefits of West Point.
And so, because, you know, I think as a grad, we feel that West Point is a special place, and we want to make sure that others get to benefit from that. And so, that's been, uh, very exciting for me to be a part of it.
[00:35:48] Ian Faison: Any insights there on, on talking to younger grads and like not feeling necessarily like a part of West Point?
I know obviously, you know, when you're still in the military and you got a lot of stuff going on and then, you know, you get out and you're trying to get your first job and then maybe you're starting a family and, you know, it can get very busy. But yeah, any insights from talking to, uh, to younger grads?
One of the things
[00:36:12] Degas Wright: I tell younger grads is to really connect with the network of grads, you know, and I really focus on that because I think you bring up a good point. We don't really understand or we may not understand the full benefit of the network that we have at West Point. And because I will share with you that there's a grad out there that's doing exactly what you want to do.
And it's just a matter of you connecting with that grad for them to assist you because as you know, Ian, grads like to talk and like to share their story. And so there's a grad out there that's doing exactly what you dream about doing. And it's just a matter of you connecting. And one of the great things about that is that you can go through and use the Association of Graduates.
as that way of connecting. And so I really encourage younger grads to make the most of that connection. I got
[00:37:13] Ian Faison: a huge start in my career and help from, uh, Anthony Dottoto, the late Anthony Dottoto. And he taught me about This thing they called like naive networking and he's sort of like essentially this idea of like, you know, don't ask for a in person meeting when a call will do.
Don't ask for a call when an email will do. Don't, you know, ask for an email, uh, send an email when a text will do sort of a thing and sort of how to do that. And I always. That framework really helped me when I reached out to other grads when I needed support on something to say like, Hey, you know, I don't need an hour of your time.
I just, this is what I'm looking to do. If there's any way that, you know, you could support me, whether it's, you know, via a chat, or whether it's via just pointing me in the right direction or pointing me to someone else. And he was super helpful, not just that advice, but opening his network up to me. And like, I wouldn't be here.
You know, in this where I am now without his, you know, a ton of support from him when I was trying to do some stuff and like there's so many grads that I've connected with over the years that have been so helpful and you just never know and like I've got the opportunity to pay some of that stuff for it as well.
But like you said, there's someone out there doing the thing that you want to be doing and even just talking to him and saying, how did you get here? Is sometimes, you know, the, the push you need. Exactly. Yeah, final question here. So obviously we've been talking about it this whole episode, but how did your experience from West Point in the military prepare you to, to be a leader and set you up for success?
That's a great
[00:38:48] Degas Wright: question, uh, Ian. And, and so going back to the, uh, North Star of. Love of learning, of service to others, and faith has really been that North Star for my whole career, be that at West Point in the military or after the military, because, you know, one of the things that I've experienced is that it drives me to, and that goes back to a Bible verse that I remember, Luke 12, 48, I believe, to who much is given, much is required, and so I feel that I've been blessed with And it's just part of that faith that allows me to try to give back, try to, you know, inspire others to follow the path less traveled because that usually makes all the difference.
And so for me, that's what is that drive that I have that was, uh, you know, planted very early on in my life. It was nurtured at West Point. I was able to experience a lot of great things in the military and then after the military with the company, with other opportunities. And so that's what really drives me to this day.
It's
[00:40:11] Ian Faison: been absolutely awesome chatting with you. Any final thoughts here? Well, it's been a
[00:40:16] Degas Wright: great privilege to be on with you and to talk about West Point. And once again, we just want to inspire others to appreciate the opportunity of West Point, but also to pay it forward, as you mentioned, because there's so much that we can do, not only at West Point, in the military, but in the greater community, because the need for leaders You know, cannot be easily addressed, and so there's always going to be that need for leaders of character.
[00:40:49] Ian Faison: I couldn't agree more. For our listeners, you can go to DecaturCapital.com to learn more about Decatur Capital Management. Degas, it's wonderful having you on the show.
[00:40:59] Narrator: This has been a production of the WPAOG Broadcast Network. Please take a moment to rate and review the show, and join us each week for a new episode.Thank you for listening.