The View from the Office.

I met up with Lee Bressler, the founder of Spring Close Advisors at Le Pain Quotidien near Columbus Circle. I had the granola and berry parfait and coffee. He had the omelet.

Lee started his career in investment banking at JPMorgan and worked at Harvest Partners before going back to Wharton for an MBA. He did stints at the hedge funds Millennium and Balyasny before working in capital markets at Microsoft. 

Five years ago, he founded his advisory firm. 

Lee is a natural salesman, and at breakfast he was pitching me on the virtues of attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, which started in 1971 and is coming up in January. 

Lee has been five times. He said Davos isn’t about the speeches and panels, but the parties and popups and people you meet there in ways you couldn’t anywhere else. 

The first time he went was in 2019 when he worked at Microsoft. He got a call from Howard Lutnick’s office. Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, wanted to meet some Microsoft people. On the fly, Lee helped arrange an event and connect him with CEO Satya Nadella.

Our conversation derailed from business to me peppering him with questions about the logistics of attending Davos. It’s one of those annual events that have become the modern rite of passage, with the calendar running from Davos to South by Southwest to Berkshire’s annual meeting to the Milken Institute to Burning Man and finally Art Basel Miami. 

Lee’s advice on Davos includes:

–First timers should consider hiring a facilitator to find a room and get hotel badges 

–Fly into Zurich before Monday to beat jet lag

–Book a room outside the village but within walking distance 

–Monday is a light day; Tuesday & Wednesday are the main attractions 

–Skip the events, walk the promenade, and focus on the branded lounges

–Figure out a way to get invited to the Swedish Lunch

–It gets quiet by Thursday afternoon and is a ghost town on Friday

–Stay for the iconic Friday-night Shabbat dinner 

Lee has a wealth of knowledge about many things, but especially Davos. 

You can connect with him on LinkedIn or DM me for a warm intro.