Valerie Red-Horse Mohl, the executive director for Social Venture Circle, got her first job out of film school working on the team of notorious investment banker, Michael Milken who created the modern high-yield bond market and later spent 22 months in prison for securities fraud. Val later applied her skills running her own investment banking firm, completing $3 billion in transactions, mostly serving the native American community. Never forgetting her filmmaking studies, she has directed and produced films, including the PBS film Mankiller, a film about Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. Val also teaches a course in race and ethnicity at Stanford and sites on the board of the Center for Race and Ethnicity. Her daughter plays on the beach volleyball team for Stanford. Much of Val’s success and positive social impact relates to the skills and lessons she learned directly from Michael Milken in the 1980s, suggesting that finance and capitalism aren’t inherently good or bad but serve as tools that can be wielded for good and bad. Michael seems to have learned the lesson himself, having devoted much of his post-prison career to social impact. Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.
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