Alan Quasha Report

In an article in Forbes.com, Alan Quasha, founder, president and CEO of Quadrant Management, shares his thoughts on the “Magic in Mistakes.” He explains how mistakes can actually help people in the business world, and why people should appreciate this chance to learn lessons.

As Alan Quasha explains,

“We first must acknowledge what should be obvious: Mistakes happen. And, in fact, contrary to popular perception, that’s a good thing. As the great UCLA baseball coach John Wooden once said, the team that makes the most mistakes wins.

Mistakes only become a problem when very smart people or institutions lack the humility to acknowledge the likelihood of mistakes; fail to adequately plan or measure downside risk; or dismiss information that challenges a decision in favor of data that reinforces initial beliefs.”

The new Senate Bill will have an impact on those involved in private funds, as well as companies such as Vanterra Capital (a global private equity firm), where Alan Quasha is a Partner.  It will have an effect on “the registration of private fund advisers and restrictions on the relationship and activities of banking organizations with private equity and hedge funds.”  As well, the Bill includes laws on “specific executive compensation and corporate governance practices at U.S. public companies generally and, accordingly, would affect a subset of the portfolio companies of private equity, venture capital and other private funds.”

When it comes to making an investment, “risk and time are the two variables” to be weighed ahead of time.  Of course, everyone will make a different decision vis-à-vis how much bonds and cash they will choose to add to their stock portfolio, but the rule is the same for everyone:  they need to “factor [in] time and risk tolerance to the amount of money [they] put into stocks.”

News at Richemont, of which Alan Quasha is director, is its “acquisition of shares in NET-A PORTER Limited.”  What this means is that the company will “hold an effective economic interest of more than 93 per cent in the issued ordinary capital of NET-A PORTER.”  This is somewhat impressive since NET-A-PORTER Limited (which owns NET-A-PORTER.COM, the “premier online luxury fashion retailer”) boasts fashion collections from more than 300 leading world designers.  Its customer service is top notch and it exports its fashions to more than 170 countries around the world.  The company’s latest milestone was its one millionth order.  As a result, the company is doing incredibly well financially, with an “unaudited turnover for the financial year which ended 31 January 2010 [being] approximately £120 million.”  This data spells great news for Alan Quasha and the staff at Richemont.

If you have a bit of extra cash lying around and you are looking to invest it wisely, you should first do your homework.  In his article entitled Sunday Morning Coffee, Roger Nusbaum (a.k.a. Random Roger as he likes to be known), provides some tips on investing in markets

Vanterra Capital, where Alan Quasha is a Partner, has two main components. They have fund investments where they focus on “best of class” lower-middle-market private equity funds. They look to invest in funds that show a specific competitive advantage over other funds.

In addition, they do direct investing where they invest directly in lower-middle-market companies. These investments include co-investments with their Fund Investments and investments that originated from the proprietary network of Vanterra and its affiliates.

Alan Quasha – who played on his university’s squash team while studying at Harvard University – would certainly be pleased at his old college’s latest sports news.  Harvard’s softball team recently played in a way that would have made Quasha – and all other Harvard sports supporters – very proud.  Harvard played against Cornell, beating the team 4-2.  It was senior Jen Francis who really pulled Harvard out to the top though, “blasting a three-run dinger to straightaway center.”  At some point in the game things weren’t looking all that rosy for the Harvard team.  But that was what made it exciting.  And when Harvard did get the edge, it made everyone on the team – as well as all the team’s supporters – smile.

Active Harvard Graduate Alan Quasha

When Alan Quasha himself studied at Harvard, he didn’t spend all his time buried in books.  Although he took his studies very seriously he also found himself on the squash and tennis teams.  To this day Quasha credits his youthful looks to his dedication to sports.  Everyone knows how important it is for the mind and body to stay in shape and Alan Quasha seems not to be an exception to this rule.

Alan Quasha, chairman of the American Brain Trauma Foundation, works with a whole crew of highly educated and inspiring individuals.  One of these people is Mary Kay Bader MSN, CCRN, CNRN, who has been in the field for over two decades.  Anyone in the Neuro Nursing field will be familiar with Bader who works as Mission Hospital’s Neuro CNS (in Viejo, CA).  Like Alan Quasha, she has extensive knowledge on TBI and has presented lectures on this topic as well as: critical care, stroke, etc.  Many of her works have been published in nursing journals as well.

Alan Quasha’s Work on TBI

Someone like Mary Kay Bader is extremely well-suited to serve on the Brain Trauma Foundation’s Medical Advisory Board.   She probably is involved in very similar research to the type that Alan Quasha and his peers carry out.  She has been given several awards, including: Ernest Codman Award from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital/Organizations in 2000, as well as the first Bayada Technology Innovation in Nursing Practice Award in 2004.  These are just two of many awards Bader has received for her outstanding work in the field.

Alan Quasha, Chairman of the American Brain Trauma Foundation, understands the importance of preventive care.  This foundation always pushes the importance of riding a bike with a helmet.  Recently however, there have been studies which have shown a vitamin can help!  By taking an extra vitamin a victim of an accident-induced brain injury might have an easier recovery and rehabilitative process.
Unfortunately today, the fact is that a large percentage of Western society is substantially deficient in Vitamin D.  A study in Holland has shown that if one lacks this vitamin and is suffering from brain injury, there is a greater chance of them thereafter being victim to chronic fatigue.   Indeed, eighty percent of those tested who had chronic fatigue after their brain trauma, were Vitamin D deficient.  Forty percent of those who were not fatigue sufferers, showed sufficient levels of vitamin D.
Since taking extra vitamins is relatively easy, Alan Quasha and his foundation might very well start advising people to supplement their diets with vitamin D.

The Brain Trauma Foundation works tirelessly to help medical personnel to better treat brain trauma patients. In addition, they educate the general public about brain trauma, including concussions, and more.

The Brain Trauma Foundation, with Chair Alan Quasha, has found proven results in brain trauma care with their TBI Guidelines. This has been true across the board, starting with pre-hospital care and extending all the way through long-term care.

For pre-hospital management, the guidelines help ambulance workers and other personnel to correctly identity TBI, treat it correctly in the ambulance and directly transfer the patient to the TBI trauma center.

Their in-hospital guidelines have led to reductions in ICU days and costs; a 30-50% reduction in deaths and disabilities and improved neurological outcomes upon discharge and more.