Masters in Business · Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Mike Kelly detailed the transformation of Franklin Square (now Future Standard) from a product and distribution firm to a ninety billion dollar multi-strategy alternative platform. He explained this evolution involved forming partnerships with external managers like KKR and GoldenTree, hiring internal talent such as Andrew Beckman for private credit, and making strategic acquisitions. Kelly emphasized the shift from a diversified asset manager to a true 'platform' with interwoven strategies and collaboration.
“And that is where I was introduced to Michael Foreman and his vision for what he was doing with Franklin Square and had been doing. And he had built this incredible chassis around productizing andributing income strategies and convinced me to join up with him as president. To go join him and you know, be the chief investment officer, help build out the asset management capability.”
“And just like Netflix figured out how to digitize their business and create their own in house TV and movie studio. You know, that was my pitch to Michael, as you could eventually diversify this product base and you could bring in house capabilities so long as the quality is still very high, you can put it through these channels and offer them to private wealth clients. And so that's what we set out to do.”
“So it started out with forming multiple partnerships with various outside firms that Michael and I had relationships with the likes of KKR and Golden Tree, Rialto and real Estate EIG, Magnetar Wilshire in order to create some diversified strategies that we could offer to clients with best of breed managers across various disciplines.”
“And so it was a combination of an evolution of external partnerships, in house hiring and talent and development and growing those and acquisitions sort of inorganic acquisitions of capabilities and managers to bring on.”