NEW YORK - For Richard Hurowitz, an investor educated at Yale and Columbia, insights can come from everywhere: art, literature, history, politics, and economics.
That sensibility is reflected in The Octavian Report, the quarterly he publishes dedicated to bringing the deepest, most inspiring thinkers together for a sophisticated and influential global audience. The magazine has already developed a cult following in C-suites, family offices, and government ministries.
This October will see the Report launch its inaugural Octavian Forum, a dynamic and immersive live version of the magazine. The Forum will be hosted by Sotheby’s in New York. With headline panels featuring artist John Currin, billionaire investor and collector Thomas Kaplan, hedge funder Michael Steinhardt, chess legend Garry Kasparov, author Erica Jong, former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar, economist Nouriel Roubini, diplomat Dennis Ross, and many others, the Forum is already being described as Davos meets the Aspen Ideas Festival.
ERICA JONG DEFINED A GENERATION'S IDEAS ABOUT FREEDOM AND FEAR. PHOTO: MARYANN HALPIN.
The Forum will embody the same serious and eclectic spirit the magazine does. In what other publication could you find an essay on Picasso’s Au Lapin Agile a few pages away from George Shultz on restoring America’s damaged reputation? Where else will a powerful meditation on Velázquez get the same billing as England’s former top banker Sir Mervyn King explaining the big risks in the monetary system? Or a leading historian explaining Napoleon’s secrets to efficiency following an interview with one of the immunotherapy revolution’s pioneers?
Hurowitz’s approach to strategy in the financial world has rested on drawing connections between apparently unconnected events and relying on the input of experts to draw those connections. The Report grew out of this holistic but analytical approach. The magazine launched in 2014 with a coverage mix that includes art and the art market, risk analysis, geopolitics, and creative leadership. It found the unseen ties that bind very disparate-looking fields. It has despite its relative youth featured real luminaries as contributors, ranging from Prime Minister Ehud Barak to journalist Ted Koppel to Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff.
THOMAS KAPLAN, A MODERN-DAY RENAISSANCE MAN. PHOTO: PHILIPPE QUAISSE / PASCO.
As it enters its third year, the publication is branching out. July saw a redesign spearheaded by Hurowitz and his wife Sharon, a Sotheby’s alumna, as well as the launch of a weekly podcast, the Rostrum, to help its audience keep pace with the seemingly endless flood of news.
Why a live event now? Hurowitz believes that in the current political climate, efforts to bring inspiring and creative people together are all the more important. The Forum will offer attendees the chance to get insight on the thorniest contemporary issues from big thinkers and doers – providing a powerful and receptive atmosphere for sparking conversation and creating a community. What sets the Forum apart from other events in the ideas space is its commitment to cross-disciplinary thinking: it expresses its founder’s vision that experts in every field have significant things to say to each other.
You can learn more about the Forum – and subscribe for regular updates on its programming – at the Report’s website.
LEAD IMAGE: GARRY KASPAROV: HUMAN-RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND CHESS LEGEND. PHOTO: KASPAROV.COM.
