Grey Matter with Declan Kelly: Inside the Minds of the People Who Move the World

Ruthie Rogers: The Heart Behind One of the World's Most Beloved Restaurants | Grey Matter with Declan Kelly

For nearly 40 years, Ruthie Rogers has run one of the most celebrated restaurants in the world on the banks of the River Thames in London. The River Cafe has held a Michelin star for decades, launched the careers of some of the most acclaimed chefs in the world, and drawn a loyal following that spans generations and continents. And yet, what its guests most often describe is not just the exceptional food. It is how the restaurant makes them feel. That quality begins with Ruthie. She is self-taught, shaped by a childhood in upstate New York where community and hospitality were simply how life was lived, and she brought those instincts to London at 19 and never stopped applying them. Under her leadership and that of her late co-founder Rose Gray, the River Cafe became something restaurants rarely achieve. A place that feels entirely uncontrived, where the warmth is real and the food reflects it. The goal every single day is to leave people feeling better than when they arrived. In this episode of Grey Matter, Ruthie sits down with Consello Founder, Chairman and CEO Declan Kelly to discuss what it means to build something genuine in a world that rewards the manufactured, and how a commitment to hospitality, simplicity, and human connection can sustain an institution across four decades of change. In this conversation, Ruthie discusses: · How a childhood shaped by immigrant grandparents and a household that always had room for one more person informed her approach to hospitality · Why she turned down additional Michelin stars rather than change what made the River Cafe what it is, including the paper tablecloths · The collaborative kitchen culture she and Rose Gray built from day one, and why it remains unlike anything else in the industry · How she rebuilt and reopened the restaurant after a fire without outside investors · What she has learned about grief, resilience, and continuity through the losses that have marked her life and career · Why food is, at its deepest level, a form of refuge and how a restaurant becomes a stage for the full range of the human condition About Consello Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships. Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth. About Grey Matter Host Declan Kelly Declan Kelly is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Consello, one of the world's most influential boutique advisory firms. A trusted advisor to dozens of CEOs leading the world's top companies, Mr. Kelly has built or run four global consulting companies over the last three decades prior to founding Consello. Mr. Kelly also served in government as US Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland during the Obama administration.

Ken Burns: Finding America’s Source of Truth | Grey Matter with Declan Kelly

For nearly half a century, Ken Burns has been the keeper of America's story and the filmmaker who has done more than perhaps any other single person to help a country understand where it came from and who it has been.  Throughout his career, he has returned to the same question: Who are we?  He has asked it through the Civil War and jazz, through baseball and the American Revolution, through the lives of Lincoln, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, and George Washington. He has never answered it, and that is by design. The work is not an answer. It is a lifelong act of deepening, of opening doors, excavating corners, and releasing what has long been waiting to be found. In this episode of Grey Matter, Ken sits down with Consello Founder, Chairman, and CEO Declan Kelly [https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fconsello.pulsecreative-clients.com%2Fleaders%2Fdeclan-kelly&data=05%7C02%7Cmatt.arnhols%40consello.com%7C7845a3c59afb4aa1049e08dea63a9948%7C522fc43c3a6a4e90960bcc55df927ded%7C0%7C0%7C639130967801192201%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=oKNgsGdb7pf6xH%2Fy1JuqX%2B1CeL5ZUS0tHM70IIzibIY%3D&reserved=0] to discuss the intent behind the work, the philosophy that has sustained it, and what it means to spend a life in pursuit of a question you know you will never fully answer. In this conversation, Ken discusses: · Why the goal of every film is subtraction, not addition, and what it means to distill 500 hours of material into the truest version of a story · How an internal compass built over decades allows him to hold a standard of craft entirely independent of outside judgment · The difference between loneliness and solitude, and why deliberate isolation is inseparable from the work · What the narcissism of the present gets wrong, and why a study of history is the most clarifying thing a person can do in uncertain times · How he thinks about ideas large enough to be afraid of, and why biting off more than you can chew is the only way to grow · Why he has made the same film over and over again for 45 years, and why that is a philosophy, not a limitation  About Consello Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships. Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth. About Grey Matter Host Declan Kelly Declan Kelly is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Consello, one of the world's most influential boutique advisory firms. A trusted advisor to dozens of CEOs leading the world's top companies, Mr. Kelly has built or run four global consulting companies over the last three decades prior to founding Consello. Mr. Kelly also served in government as US Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland during the Obama administration.

Tony James: From Signal to Scale - The Foresight that Shaped Modern Finance | Grey Matter with Declan Kelly

Tony James has spent over four decades seeing what was coming next and acting on it long before anyone else. He built DLJ from a mid-sized brokerage into one of the most influential platforms on Wall Street by creating the leveraged buyout and private capital businesses that became the model the rest of the industry eventually adopted. He joined Blackstone as COO and constructed an entirely new set of investment businesses, helping transform the private equity firm into the world’s largest alternative asset manager. At Costco, he has spent four decades helping build and safeguard a company around a single principle — always do what is right for members, and the shareholders will take care of themselves. Every one of those calls looked unconventional at the time. None of them do now. In this episode of Grey Matter, Tony James sits down with Consello Founder, Chairman and CEO Declan Kelly to discuss the instincts behind those moments, the decisions that defined it, and what a career built at that scale ultimately teaches about judgment, patience, and knowing what to do next. In this conversation, Tony discusses: ·  Why he turned down Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley out of school and how he built DLJ's leveraged buyout business ·  The culture he built at DLJ and later rehabilitated at Blackstone, and why teams that root for each other without incentives beat individual talent every time ·  Spending a billion dollars on a distressed credit team in the middle of a market collapse, and why it was one of the hardest and most consequential bets he made at Blackstone ·  Why he turned down a senior role in government after an honest assessment of where he could be most effective ·  What four decades at Costco taught him about the power of doing one thing extraordinarily well and refusing to get distracted by anything else About Consello Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships. Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth. About Grey Matter Host Declan Kelly Declan Kelly is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Consello, one of the world's most influential boutique advisory firms. A trusted advisor to dozens of CEOs leading the world's top companies, Mr. Kelly has built or run four global consulting companies over the last three decades prior to founding Consello. Mr. Kelly also served in government as US Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland during the Obama administration.

Brian Moynihan: Steady at the Helm | Grey Matter with Declan Kelly

When Brian Moynihan became CEO of Bank of America in January 2010, he inherited an institution that had grown rapidly through six major acquisitions in six years in the wake of the worst financial crisis in a generation. From his first days in the role, he moved decisively to simplify what had accumulated, clearing away what no longer served the institution so its greatest strengths could be brought to bear. What followed was fifteen years of sustained transformation, driven by the same steadiness that defined his earliest days in the role. Moynihan led a digital reinvention that changed how the bank served its clients, drove customer satisfaction to record levels, and built an institution that today looks fundamentally different from the one he inherited, while never losing sight of the purpose and obligation that guided him from the start. In this episode of Grey Matter, Brian Moynihan sits down with Consello Founder, Chairman and CEO Declan Kelly to discuss what it means to lead an institution of that scale through successive periods of historic change, and how staying steady at the helm can shape not just how an organization survives a difficult moment, but what it becomes in the years that follow. In this conversation, Brian discusses: •Walking into the board with a single page outlining everything Bank of America needed to exit, and why simplification was the foundation of everything that followed •What it means to absorb the weight of a moment so that the people around you can keep moving forward •The moment Warren Buffett called offering $5 billion, what was behind the decision, and what it meant to the people and institution he was backing  •How the bank's digital transformation reshaped the institution over fifteen years, and what that journey reveals about leading through change  •The role of purpose in holding an organization together when conditions are changing faster than any strategy can anticipate About Consello Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships. Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth. About Grey Matter Host Declan Kelly Declan Kelly is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Consello, one of the world's most influential boutique advisory firms. A trusted advisor to dozens of CEOs leading the world's top companies, Mr. Kelly has built or run four global consulting companies over the last three decades prior to founding Consello. Mr. Kelly also served in government as US Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland during the Obama administration.

Carl Lewis: The Business of Being the Fastest Man in the World | Grey Matter with Declan Kelly

Carl Lewis is widely regarded as one of the most dominant athletes of the modern era. For more than a decade, he was the fastest man in the world, winning nine Olympic gold medals, going undefeated in the long jump for ten years, and becoming one of the most recognized athletes on the planet. Over the course of his career, Lewis came to understand that dominating track and field had a dual effect. It brought extraordinary visibility and influence, allowing him to challenge the sport’s amateur model and advocate for athlete compensation. It also placed him under constant scrutiny, where anything less than perfection was viewed as failure and every position he took invited resistance.  In this episode of Grey Matter, Lewis sits down with Consello Founder, Chairman and CEO Declan Kelly to discuss what it means to occupy the top position in the world for an extended period, the responsibility and scrutiny that followed, and what that level of sustained success demands.  In this conversation, Carl discusses: * How his parents taught him to track personal bests instead of placements and why that shaped his entire approach to competition * The decision to follow Tom Tellez to the University of Houston and why choosing what he asked for over what felt comfortable defined his career * Why he became one of the first advocates for professionalizing track and field and the resistance he faced from every direction * The mental discipline and strategic intimidation required to remain undefeated in the long jump for an entire decade * What the losses to Mike Powell and Joe DeLoach taught him that winning never could * Why he returned to coaching at the University of Houston, doing exactly what his parents did before him About Consello Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships. Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth. About Grey Matter Host Declan Kelly Declan Kelly is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Consello, one of the world's most influential boutique advisory firms. A trusted advisor to dozens of CEOs leading the world's top companies, Mr. Kelly has built or run four global consulting companies over the last three decades prior to founding Consello. Mr. Kelly also served in government as US Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland during the Obama administration.