Sixers

Joshua Harris was Tasked By Donald Trump to Rebuild America’s Infrastructure

By Kyle Scott

Published: May 25th, 2017 · 4:06 PM EDT

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Reader Cameron forward me this excerpt from a private equity newsletter, which is the most Joshua Harris thing ever written:

Last night, I attended “Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma” along with several hundred other people from Wall Street. Among them was Leon Black, co-founder of the Melanoma Research Alliance and co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management. Black said he was very excited to be at the event and noted that the FDA has approved 11 drugs in the last five years not only for melanoma but for other cancers. “Great progress is being made,” he said.

Black introduced Joshua Harris, an Apollo co-founder and senior MD. Harris, who also owns the Philadelphia 76ers, said he was appointed by President Donald Trump to help develop infrastructure in this country. Harris said he began studying infrastructure in the U.S. six months ago. “This is really bad,” he said of current infrastructure conditions.

Harris noted that planes flying in the U.S. still use radar, not GPS. Many areas of the country still don’t have broadband, while renovation of New Jersey’s Bayonne Bridge needed more than 10 years to get approval, he said. Approval for bridge construction should have taken just a “couple of years,” Harris said.

“This will be an area leveraged finance can play a role,” Harris told the crowd filled with bankers, private equity executives and a couple of reporters.

He later added that it’s “really awesome to make the world a better place.”

If he puts Scott O’Neil in charge of the project you’ll have to pay a toll to pull out of your neighborhood, and bid on train tickets in a dark pool. Trust the process.