Speakers: Megan R. Baca, Helen Gugel, Neena Reddy
On this episode of Women @ RopesTalk hosted by IP transactions partner Megan Baca, litigation & enforcement partner Helen Gugel returns for another engaging conversation, this time with Neena Reddy, general counsel of Blue Owl Capital, an alternative asset manager with nearly $200 billion in assets under management. Neena shares her journey from private practice to in-house counsel, detailing the exponential growth of Blue Owl, the challenges and strategies of managing legal affairs for a global firm, and her role in fostering a culture of women supporting women. The conversation also delves into Neena's multifaceted role, her approach to leadership, and her personal insights on work-life balance and the importance of networking in the legal industry.
Transcript:
Megan Baca: Welcome and thank you for joining us on our latest installment of Women @ RopesTalk, a podcast brought to you by the Women's Forum at Ropes & Gray. I'm Megan Baca, a partner at Ropes & Gray. I'm the managing partner of our Silicon Valley office and I co-lead our IP transactions and licensing practice. I focus on life sciences, technology, and AI-related licensing and collaboration transactions, and I also lead our digital health initiative. On this episode, I'm joined by my colleague Helen Gugel, who's based in New York. Helen previously did an episode with us on Women @ RopesTalk with Cari Robinson from Revlon, so we're really thrilled to have her back. Hi, Helen—thank you so much for returning for another discussion. I'm really glad you're here. Can you go ahead and reintroduce yourself to our listeners and provide an overview of your practice?
Helen Gugel: Of course. Hi, Megan—I'm very glad to be joining you today. I'm a partner in the litigation & enforcement group based in New York. I focus on government-facing and internal investigations spanning a wide variety of industries.
Megan Baca: Who's the special guest that you'll be interviewing on this episode?
Helen Gugel: I'll be interviewing Neena Reddy, who is the general counsel of Blue Owl Capital.
Megan Baca: What should our listeners know about Neena?
Helen Gugel: Neena is just awesome. I find her so compelling, as an individual, as a friend, and as a professional colleague. She has accomplished so much in her career. She comes from a number of different vantage points—she has worked at a firm, she has worked in-house at a large institutional bank, and now she has come to Blue Owl. Over the course of her time at Blue Owl, she has worked on a whole number of different initiatives, she has worked on a number of public company transactions, she helped take the company public, and is always learning and challenging herself, and bringing out the best in everybody around her. On top of that, she's a huge champion for women, within Blue Owl and in the broader community.
Megan Baca: That sounds fantastic. With that, I'm excited to turn it over to you and Neena.
Helen Gugel: Neena, I'm so delighted that you're able to join us today. I'm so excited to tell the audience a little bit more about what you do. You wear so many hats and have so many different titles—you are the general counsel, chief legal officer, and secretary of Blue Owl Capital. For the benefit of our listeners, can you talk a little bit about what Blue Owl Capital does, and your role?
Neena Reddy: Absolutely. Thank you, Helen, for having me—this is very exciting. At Blue Owl Capital, we are an alternative asset manager—we are approaching $200 billion in assets under management. We're publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OWL. We have over 900 employees globally, with three main strategies—credit, GP stakes, and real estate.
Helen Gugel: I take it that in your role, virtually everything at the firm comes across your desk, so can you tell us a little bit about what a typical day might look like?
Neena Reddy: I don't think there really is a typical day. In my legal career, I started out in M&A but really focused on asset management—a general asset management background—so I know the business of Blue Owl very well. But as I evolved into a true general counsel, that does mean everything legal really rolls up to me—that's everything from our public company M&A, to launching our funds and our products, to all of our vendor contracts, and we have an event space, where somebody on my team is working on the liquor license for that event space, to our real estate contract for our office in Dubai, or HR issues. It's really everything. If there are other lawyers that are listening, sometimes people just ask lawyers any question just because we feel like a good place, so we really do become true advisors to people for whatever's crossing their desk.
Helen Gugel: How do you prepare yourself or acclimate to such a wide-ranging role, where you really have to be up for everything and able to both provide good strategic legal advice, business advice, and merge a lot of different constituencies and geographies all across the world?
Neena Reddy: It's a little bit of a mile wide and an inch deep, learning how to be a really good issue spotter, but most importantly, it's having a great team, either internally or externally. Finding the right people to work on my team—I've hired a lot of experts in areas that I knew nothing about—and then having really good external advisors. So, knowing how to dig in on issues and finding the right people to help advise you along the way.
Helen Gugel: Are there particular things that you look for when you are selecting outside advisors that differentiate one lawyer from another?
Neena Reddy: Yes, absolutely. First and foremost, it has to be somebody that gets us. We have a very specific culture and approach to doing business here. Legal and compliance is at the forefront at Blue Owl—it's a very important pillar to what we do. We operate with mutual respect, strive for excellence, and constructive dialogue, which all sound like a bunch of platitudes, but we have a very particular way that we approach what we do, with legal and compliance really being a partner to the business. So, having found advisors that really understand how we approach that I think is really the key.
Helen Gugel: You joined Blue Owl before it had been listed. I think there was a predecessor firm named Owl Rock, and you saw Blue Owl through the listing process. I assume that the corresponding growth within the firm has been astronomical. Can you talk a little bit about that process?
Neena Reddy: It's interesting. I was at GSAM, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, for close to 10 years. I had a very diverse practice, did all kinds of alternative asset management, so private equity and hedge funds—very broad. I had a special expertise in credit—we had a lot of private credit. When I joined Owl Rock in 2019, they were just private credit. They hadn't been around—they were a couple of years old, very new. So, it was a little bit of a risk leaving Goldman to go to Owl Rock, but I remember when I joined, they had $9 billion in assets under management. It's permanent capital, so that capital isn't going anywhere. If you think about the viability of this business in the long run, I was like, "Okay, I'm joining a $9 billion asset manager with permanent capital that's going to clip the management fee. It feels like this is really de-risked for me as a lawyer." I joined in 2019—I was around employee 100. Then, in 2021, Owl Rock merged with Dyal, and listed and became Blue Owl. And we acquired Oak Street, which is now our real estate division, and we've done a couple of other acquisitions along the way.
If I look from when I was Owl Rock in 2019, private, $9 billion assets under management and 100 employees, to now, I'm Blue Owl in 2024 with $165 billion, public, and 700 employees, it's just a world of difference. I just think about when I was joining at $9 billion, I was like, "This is great." It's been exponential growth, and it's been a lot of fun. For a lawyer to be able to go through all of those different transformations and growth, and to be at the table for that was very exciting. I guess the other fun fact I should add is that our transaction when we merged with Dyal and listed in May of 2021, that was really out of COVID, so 90% of our work was all remote—more than that... 99% was all remote. So, that was also very interesting.
Helen Gugel: I was thinking that as you were describing this exponential growth in this two-year period, and, of course, there was a lot going on in the world at that time, also a lot of uncertainty with markets in that period. I'm sure trying to navigate a quickly growing team, particularly when you're newer to that particular role and doing it remotely was a challenge. Are there any kind of considerations that you had top of mind when you were trying to keep the trains on the track and promote the culture and that level of integrity that you were describing earlier?
Neena Reddy: I think when I came to Owl Rock—I had been in asset management for 10-15 years before I joined Owl Rock—I kind of took for granted the importance of my network. When I came to Owl Rock, and then we were in COVID and we were evolving, I really relied on the network and just the relationships I had developed more broadly, whether it's people I used to work with at my prior firm or people that I'd met at law firms. Just really figuring out how do I tap into that network, because if you have that prior relationship with people, you have a common language, you have a common understanding, and it really helps to grow the team and what we were doing in this organic but intentional way. Now, in hindsight, I am so focused on the network I have, I'm so appreciative of the network I have, and that's the number one thing I tell people, is really think about your network in an authentic way, because I think that was the thing for me. I never really thought about networking, but then, I realized I'd been in this industry for a long time—I knew a lot of people, and they were just my friends, and I think that really made a difference. Even talking to you, Helen—having this relationship with you, I met you socially through our kids—it's really great to just develop these connections with people and then realize it can turn into something else.
Helen Gugel: Yes, exactly—and then a chance sighting at the airport that brought it all together. And here we are, I'm so happy to be here with you. As part of that network that you were talking about and cultivating those relationships across the firm, in addition to the many hats that you were already wearing that you've described, you also had taken on a new leadership role as the head of the women's network at Blue Owl. Can you describe what that entails and a little bit about the efforts that you're making on that front?
Neena Reddy: Yes, absolutely—that's my most favorite thing to talk about right now. I am so stoked to be the executive sponsor for the women's network, because I do think that we really have the best women working on the street here at Blue Owl. I really cherish the friends and the colleagues that I have here. We're obviously focused on being impactful and being differentiated, so we just launched with a big what I call "kickoff party" or "pep talk" that sets the tone and the theme, and the theme for this year is "women supporting women," which is something I think you hear a lot. "Women supporting women" means you'll have mentorships, opportunities, and sponsorships—that should be a given for any women's network—but what we're really trying to do is create what I'm calling "horizontal relationships," and really developing our relationships with colleagues and peers, and ultimately as friends. So, how do we amplify our peers and colleagues? How do we support them? How do we give feedback? This comes down to having just authentic relationships.
At our kickoff event, we had a woman come speak—her name's Kaylin Richardson, she's a U.S. Olympic skier. To me, she embodied this "women supporting women" idea, and so, I have to give her credit for this—I was like, "You have to trademark this." Her talk was about how do you achieve "women supporting women," and she discussed this "reach in, reach out, reach everyone." Her first pillar of this is you have to "reach in"—if you can't support yourself and be your own best supporter, you're not going to be able to support anyone else. So, she said, "Start by being your own best supporter." I think a lot of us don't do that. "Reach out," that's to be vulnerable, ask for help when you need it, but also, reach out when you don't need help—develop those relationships. And then, "reach everyone," it's to be part of a community. I love that because it's catchy, but I think that idea of "reach in, reach out, reach everyone" really resonates. Then, I told my women's network—we had a lot of allies, it wasn't just the women, we invited the whole firm, and we had a really great turnout—if we really create a culture where women are supporting each other, it's really infectious, I think it's fun, and everybody wants to be a part of it. I've seen it play out, and so, I think it ultimately just creates that kind of energy and a supportive and effective environment, because if we're not competing and we're all rowing in the same direction, it's going to be better for everyone.
Helen Gugel: Exactly. A rising tide lifts all boats. And it seems like there's no better person to head the women's network given everything that you've accomplished in your own career, and being the first woman at Blue Owl specifically to serve on the executive committee. Is there anybody that you credit in your own career for giving you those sponsorship opportunities that you're describing, for being that resource when you needed help in your own career and your own life?
Neena Reddy: There are so many. On the "women supporting women" front, my chief compliance officer Karen Hager—we run the legal and compliance team together—she, for me and our relationship, really embodies "women supporting women." I give her a lot of credit for our collective success and for the success of our firm. I will say also, our co-CEOs, Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz, started Owl Rock, which is now Blue Owl—they had a storied career before they started it. They really did start the culture of the firm with "everybody has a voice" and "everybody has a seat at the table." "If you have something to say, I want to hear it—it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from." That really played out for me—so, I had a voice, I used it, and they listened. And they were very supportive of legal and compliance. They understood the importance of building a strong legal compliance foundation at a financial institution because it keeps your firm safe, but it also sets the right reputation and culture for the firm. "This is how we want to do business, and this is how we want people to understand people perceive us." So, I will say Doug and Marc have also been incredible advocates.
Helen Gugel: Maybe turning to a more personal note—you mentioned children, and, obviously, my children know your children. Are there particular things that you like to do with your kiddos for fun?
Neena Reddy: There are lots of things I like to do with them for fun. In this post-COVID world, I don't know how people's attitudes towards working remotely have evolved, but I learned that there are some key moments that if I'm there for them are so impactful—like, more impactful than other things. And so, for me, I, nine times out of 10, walk my kids to school. If I'm there in the morning and I get to walk them to school, and I see a couple other parents and I see a couple of friends, that's a high-impact time for me. I used to worry a lot about, "I need to be at my desk by 8:30—that's when the portfolio managers are already at their desks." But in this post-COVID world, I have given myself the freedom to be like, "If I need to do a call with Japan in the morning, I can do that. But, if I can be there for that hour that's breakfast and walk to school, that's amazing." So, I've kept that as a really core piece to me.
Helen Gugel: I love that, because you're so right about certain times of day and certain moments having more impact than others, especially when you can actually be present and not harried and setting that foundation for what the rest of the day is going to look like. And because ice cream is one of my favorite things in the entire world, do you have a particular sweet treat that you really like?
Neena Reddy: We eat ice cream every day, Helen—every day in our house.
Helen Gugel: So do we.
Neena Reddy: You do?
Helen Gugel: Yes, every day.
Neena Reddy: Oh my gosh. We're big ice cream heads at our house. My kids and I are big on the mint, so mint chocolate chip or mint cookies and cream. My husband likes something a little bit nuttier. But yes, we're big ice cream people at our house.
Helen Gugel: I'm so glad to hear you say that because when we load up at ice cream at the store, they think we're having a party, and they're always like, "Have fun at your gathering." It's so embarrassing to be like, "No, this is just for this crew."
Neena Reddy: Yes, we'll have to do ice cream.
Helen Gugel: My kids love mint, too, and chocolate. I'm a coffee person myself. Neena, thank you so much for your time today. As always, it was just such a pleasure talking to you and hearing a little bit more about your work.
Neena Reddy: Thank you so much, Helen, and thank you to Ropes & Gray. This has been great. And I look forward to seeing you in the neighborhood.
Megan Baca: Helen and Neena—thank you both so much. And as always, thanks to our listeners. For more information about Ropes & Gray and our Women's Forum, please visit ropesgray.com/women. You can also subscribe to this series wherever you typically listen to podcasts, including on Apple and Spotify. Thanks again for listening.
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