Robert F. Smith

They invited...

the billionaire investor Robert F. Smith, to commence their graduation ceremony.

And at the very end of his commencement, by the way, you can YouTube and check it out, he stated to all the 400 plus students, today, my family is donating a $34 million grant to pay all your student debt.

You can't imagine what happened in that graduation, right? That day, they were African-Americans indeed, man.

We're learning tonight that New York State officials will rename New York City Parks' cultural center for the philanthropist chairman of Carnegie Hall.

Robert Smith, who is also one of the largest donors to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, said, donated $1 million to the Cultural Performance Center at the Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park in Harlem.

The New York Times reports that Governor Cuomo will announce later today that the center will be renamed the Robert Frederick Smith Center for the Performing Arts for the Gift.

Cuomo says the gift will ensure Riverbank as a centerpiece to West Harlem's vitality.

It's so interesting.

I had a very similar conversation with Robert Smith of Vista Equity Partners, one of the foremost experts on investing in software, and suggested sort of the same idea.

If you look at all the buzz and the hype around Muse, for example, that's sort of the story that you're telling as well.

Yeah, and I think if you wind back the clock to when the iPhone came out in 2008, the App Store didn't launch until 2010.

They still...

I mean, look at Robert Smith.

I don't know if you see what's happening with him, but you know, he's a billionaire.

A- and I believe the richest or was the wealthiest Amer- African American, and you know, he has a, a situation coming for him.

We got a blockbuster afternoon, uh, by the way, I want to remind you of from Case here in Beverly Hills on Closing Bell.

Vista Equity Partners CEO Robert Smith is gonna join us here, The Case CEO Matt Brown, and Fortress CEO Drew McKnight.

So we're gonna continue to kick around, uh, the alternatives space, whether it's right for you.

Uh, you've heard about allocation size and what you think should be the right allocation for your own portfolios, and we'll ask our experts over the last hour.

And that's really, of course, what really stands out, that it went out, nothing happened here.

And listen, I've made it perfectly clear to HBCU advocates that the only way to move on this, there really would have to be, and I've said this to, you know, I remember I was talking to Robert Smith, the billionaire, and I said, listen, there needs to be a fund set up to suit all these universities.

I said, because here we are advocating for HBCUs, and you've got, I mean, listen, I get it.

UNCF and Thurgood Marshall chose to sign on to that Protect College Sports Act because they promised to spend a billion dollars on infrastructure upgrades.

some successful, suc- very successful people, you know, people use Oprah and Jordan to say the gap is closed.

What about Robert F. Smith? You think about Ken Chenault, Rosalind Brewer, Mellody Hobson, um, Thasunda Duckett.

Um, these are Black leaders at the top of finance, uh, and corporate America.

They exist in a different type of, you know-

He wrote a freaking textbook.

Robert Smith is amazing.

I didn't see the same textbook with Smith, even though there's something to learn.

I study everyone.

I look and say, what's the path? How did we get here? Robert Smith is awesome though.

I mean, he paid off a bunch of student loans.

He's doing amazing things for people.