Recording:
From the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, welcome Inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange is your go-to for the latest on markets, leadership, vision, and business.
For over 230 years, the NYSE has been the beating heart of global growth. Each week we bring you inspiring stories of innovators, job creators, and the movers and shakers of capitalism here at the NYSE and ICE's Exchanges around the world. Now, let's go Inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Lance Glinn.
Lance Glinn:
Each month on the Inside the ICE House Podcast, we engage in insightful conversations with business leaders, CEOs of NYSE listed companies, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. We explore their journeys, the challenges they've overcome, and their aspirations to shape the future. You can tune in every Monday on all major podcast platforms to catch these discussions and watch full video episodes on tv.nyse.com and on the NYSE YouTube channel.
November was a quieter month Inside the ICE House as we aired four new episodes covering a diverse range of industries, from mortgage technology to banking and finance and the beer industry. In a couple of our conversations, we even worked in some football and golf talk as well. We kicked off with episode 445 featuring Tim Bowler, president of ICE Mortgage Technology, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, that's NYSE ticker symbol ICE.
Beginning with its 2018 acquisition of MERS, ICE has been assembling an end-to-end digital housing finance ecosystem with the goal of benefiting American homebuyers and owners. With its most recent acquisition of Black Knight in 2023, Tim discusses how ICE is delivering a faster, more transparent and seamless experience for everyone involved.
Kristen Scholer:
September 5th marked one year since ICE completed its acquisition of Black Knight, following earlier acquisitions of Ellie Mae in 2020, Simplifile in 2019, and MERS in 2018. What was the vision behind this series of deals?
Tim Bowler:
Oh, that's a great question and actually at a high level, pretty basic one to answer. The mortgage market in the United States, the process of buying a home, financing that purchase, and then making payments on that mortgage over the life of the mortgage to the point in time which you either refinance it or on that happiest day in the homeowner's life when they pay off their mortgage, it's just far too complex and riddled with too many points of friction.
And from our standpoint at Intercontinental Exchange or ICE, we thought by creating an end-to-end technology ecosystem from that point in time in which that homebuyer is looking for a property to live in from when they're decided, when they've decided and have found the right home, trying to figure out how to best finance that property in a way that's affordable and sustainable for them.
And then once they're in that house with that mortgage, making it as easy as possible for them to make their mortgage payments, and then optimize their homeownership journey, whether that be through a refinancing down the road or a home equity loan down the road, or as I mentioned earlier, the day that they're ready to pay off that mortgage.
We want it to make that as seamless as possible with the least amount of costs and the greatest amount of flexibility and optionality that could be delivered to homeowners. But we needed to do that within the context of a technological apparatus that could easily dock into the various constituents and that interface with homeowners and the mortgage ecosystem in the United States.
Because in our country, as you know, you have mortgage lenders, which provide the financing to families and individuals. You have mortgage servicers, which are the entities that interface with those households, those individuals, those families in the homes.
Once they obtain their house and use a mortgage to finance it, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to provide life of loan solutions to those households or those individuals that have bought a home and then own a home over the life of that mortgage. And that's what we think we can deliver by tying together world-class software that helps the mortgage origination be as seamless as possible.
And then once that mortgage is originated, recorded, and registered, and then ultimately serviced for the life of the mortgage, make that servicing process as an easy and straightforward and as frictionless as possible for that family and facilitating that being done through best in class technology that we're providing to our clients that can then be on shared with American households.
Lance Glinn:
Episode 446 features two guests, Ana Botín, executive chairman of Santander Group, that's NYSE took a symbol SAN, and two time major winning golfer, Jon Rahm. Santander has embraced innovation and expansion, growing from a primarily European presence to entering the United States in 2010.
Over the last almost 15 years, the bank's presence in North America has steadily grown. And now with the launch of Openbank throughout the country, its US market presence is poised to increase further. Ana and Jon joined Kristen Scholer Inside the ICE House to discuss the launch, the challenge of entering a new territory, and the impact that golf has had on both their lives.
Jon Rahm:
Having never been in the US prior to arriving for the first time, there's a lot of little things and just little sentences that I just wouldn't understand, right? There was a lot that would get lost in translation literally. So it was a solid two months before I thought, okay, I think I have a decent handle on things. And trying to get through classes with that was difficult. Luckily, early on, my professors were very understanding.
My head coach always tells a story that I was so clueless at first that he didn't think I was going to make it past two weeks, let alone graduate and have a four-year successful career on and off the golf course. So that language barrier was the most difficult one. And then I think as you grow as a person, just trying to understand the differences in the culture, the differences in a country like the US.
Spain is relatively small. I think when I left, we were maybe 50 million people in population. The US being much larger, much more diverse in that sense. So there was a lot of things I had to learn I would say culturally to be properly integrated. I always say the same thing, which is first year I was in school, didn't understand a lot of jokes. A lot of conversations I wasn't really a part of because I didn't fully understand.
Second year, I started understanding. And it wasn't until my third year, junior year, where I had the confidence to start making some jokes within my group of friends and now a group of friends just because I felt like it took that long to get an idea of what the US was like and what is considered correct to say and correct not to say because it does change drastically from country to country.
So if it changes from state to state, we can imagine what the differences is in country. So adaptation to a new world, which would feel like a new world to me, is the biggest, but the language obviously being the biggest change.
Kristen Scholer:
You seem pretty comfortable now.
Jon Rahm:
I am. Well, after 12 years, American wife, three American children, I think she said it earlier, I mean, to say 50% American, I think it's slowly creeping over the 50% mark at this point. So yeah, my life is based here, so very few people guess I'm not American when they hear me and they meet me for the first time. Because it's also not the most Spanish sounding name in the world, unless you say my second last name, which is Rodriguez, and then at that point, you get it.
Ana Botín:
Absolutely.
Jon Rahm:
But yeah, Jon Rahm, it doesn't scream Spanish. It's definitely been so far a very interesting transition.
Ana Botín:
So if I may say something here.
Kristen Scholer:
Yes.
Ana Botín:
I so much sympathize with Jon when he said that he had learned English, but it was more UK, and so I had the opposite experience. I lived in United States from 17 to 30, so I thought I understand the Brits. I got sent many years later to run Santander UK. I was CEO of our bank there. And for the first three months, I thought I was in a different planet because the English don't think the same.
They don't speak the same. They say something, they mean something totally different. And I was American English at this point. Actually I had to learn faster than three years, because after three months I figured out that when an Englishman tells you at the meeting, "Oh, that is really interesting," it means that's rubbish and so on. And so it was like a total culture shock. Same language, very different.
Lance Glinn:
Inside the ICE House for episode 447, I welcomed Fernando Tennenbaum, CFO of AB InBev, that's NYSE ticker symbol BUD. A veteran in the beer industry, Fernando has journeyed through the ranks, first starting at subsidiary Ambev, that's NYSE ticker symbol ABEV, to now leading the company's financial strategy.
He joins me to discuss the evolution of the beer industry and to detail how AB InBev is progressing alongside it, ensuring that their products and services meet the needs of the changing consumer. What significant trends have you observed over the course of your time with AB InBev?
Fernando Tennenbaum:
One trend that is a constant, no matter which market you go to, is premiumization. So the market's getting more premium. And when the economy's good, the market's getting more premium. When the economy's not so good, the market is also getting more premium. And this is kind of you say, oh, but this is true in a developing market. Yes, it's also true on a developing market.
This is impressive. The other one, and that is a good example here in the US is, for example, this active lifestyle. And then Michelob Ultra is part on the trend. You see the brand growing a lot, gaining a lot of momentum. It's a more premium brand, is what we call [inaudible 00:10:37] and it's also one designed to active lifestyle. So it's growing a lot. The other interesting thing is what we call this fourth category or beyond beer.
This is another development that is quite interesting and plays to the strengths of the beer companies. If you look, for example, we have two brands here in the US, Nütrl and Cutwater. Nütrl is like a vodka seltzer. Cutwater is canned cocktails. And they have been growing quite a lot to the extent that if you look the hard liquor industry, we are not a player.
We are a beer company. But given these brands, we have 1.5% if you look at Circana data of this industry. But over the last quarter, we were like more than a third of the dollar growth of this industry, just to show the potential of this new segment and how this can benefit the beer companies.
Lance Glinn:
Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up because you have these ready to drink cocktails essentially. You have obviously non-alcoholic beers as well too, sort of growing more niche segments within this general beverage industry, beer industry. Can you go into more detail on how AB InBev is addressing these growing markets and how you plan on being more of a player and growing your already significant position within them?
Fernando Tennenbaum:
I'm going back to our strategy. Pillar one of our strategy is lead and grow the beer category, and we have some expansion levers that we can leverage on that. In the beginning, when you see a less developed market, it's about bringing consumers to the category. So it's what you call participation. And then once you bring consumers, then the next step, you start creating occasions.
Then you have the new occasion, other occasions. And then for example, we were talking about non-alcoholic beer. It's a fantastic way for you to tap occasions. If you have someone that would love to drink a beer, but it's during a working day, during lunch, now we have an alternative. We have the non-alcoholics. It's targeted for beer drinkers. But then beer drinkers in occasions that they were not considering a beer, now they can consider.
Lance Glinn:
November's final podcast, episode 448, saw Phil McConkey join me Inside the ICE House. A Navy veteran, Super Bowl '21 champion with the New York Football Giants, and now president of Academy Securities, Phil brings a unique perspective to the nation's first post 9/11 military veteran and disabled veteran owned investment bank and broker dealer. He and I discussed his military service, how he and Academy Securities are benefiting service men and women transitioning to civilian life, and of course, his time with the Giants and six year NFL career.
Phil McConkey:
Similar to my military experiences prior to that and my business experience post that, that team and the reason we were Super Bowl champions, it's a great lesson that I learned in the military. We go back to talking about being on a ship or flying a plane or submarine or Marines or whatever. Everyone's important. Yeah, the commanding officer is important.
Yeah, the quarterback or the head coach is important, but the second class petty officer that's tightening the bolts on that helicopter is as important as the pilot flying that aircraft. And I recognized that back then. So I remember being made to feel important, and we try to make everybody feel important because we have a job to do and we need everybody to win.
Everybody, not just top person. So the Giants at that time recognized that the leadership, the coaches, down to the football players with Simms and Harry Carson and George Martin and Lawrence, all these guys understood we needed everybody to win. So I'm a lowly punt returner. I'm the last guy on the roster, but they treated me to be as important as the quarterback, Phil Simms.
So when you're made to feel important on a team or an organization, you give more of yourself because it's for someone else. You've got more to give as a human being when it's for someone else than if it's just for yourself. I found that out in my life. Your family member, a teacher, whatever, you will give more for others when you're made to feel included. And I was made to feel included on that team. They made me feel as important as Lawrence Taylor.
So I would do anything to succeed and to win for them more than for myself. And it's the same thing I learned in the military. And I think that's what we've taken at Academy Securities, and I think that's why we've been thriving and continue to get better. And we understand too, you got to keep going. My college coach George Welsh used to say something that didn't make a lot of sense to me early on, but it did as I'm matured.
Lance Glinn:
Now it's an epiphany.
Phil McConkey:
As I got older, now it makes so much sense. Every day he would say to us, "Fellas, you're either getting better or you're getting worse," to prod us to practice hard and study hard and do all that. And like, okay, yeah, what does that mean? But he's right, and I've learned in my life, there's no status quo. You're either getting better or you're getting worse at your job, your family as a parent, whatever.
You're either getting better or you're getting worse. And if you think you're just skating along doing things that got you to that point, you're actually getting worse. So it's a constant battle to win. Why doing business now that keeps me going? Physically, I still think I'm not good enough. I'm still training hard. I'm still running strength and doing all those things that I've done my whole life because there's another thing that I learned.
I'm comfortable being uncomfortable. Going to the Naval Academy, you're very uncomfortable, and it's constant. There's no let up. Or you go to practice, it's constant, it's uncomfortable, or studying. All that stuff. But what happens is you get so used to being uncomfortable that it becomes your ally, your friend. You get used to being uncomfortable to the point where when you're not uncomfortable, you're leery.
You're like, what's going on, man? Waiting for some shoe to drop. So I think that, again, I've studied highly successful people my whole life in the military, in sports, in politics, in business, and just another common denominator, just hating to lose more than you like to win, and always being uncomfortable.
Lance Glinn:
You can listen to these episodes along with all past and future Inside the ICE House episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Full video episodes are also available on tv.nyse.com and on the NYSE YouTube channel. Be sure to join us every Monday for inspiring conversations with leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. I hope everyone has a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you again next week.
Recording:
That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen and follow us on X @ICEHousePodcast. From the New York Stock Exchange, we'll talk to you again next week Inside the ICE House.
Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, and do not sponsor, approve, or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes.
Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.