narrator: our world today is wealthier than ever. but not everyone shares in this wealth. today's young business leaders are challenging this. changing the way we think about money -- its power and its purpose. this is a new generation. this is the new philanthropy. ♪

zach: what drives me every day to help others be successful is family and friends. supporting those things. making those people proud who have had a big influence in your life. narrator: the hottest ticket in new york isn't to the mets or the yankees. it is an invitation to an exclusive club in chelsea where once a year, some of the brightest and most successful young professionals in the city meet for a good cause. this lucrative event is the brainchild of a 30-year-old investor named zach coopersmith, and he believes that partying hard can redefine philanthropy in america's financial capital. pat: you're in an organization that must operate with the heart of a charity and the mind of a business. that's zach. zach: my name is zach coopersmith. i'm from chevy chase, maryland. i am a partner in a small private equity firm. we invest in lower middle market, distribution companies. i enjoy business.

i enjoy negotiations. i enjoy the hunt and the thrill of the chase of success. ♪ zach: so i worked at lehman for a year and a half right out of school. i was 22 when i was there, and my responsibilities, i would like to look back and think i had these grandiose responsibilities. but it starts out getting coffee and keeping track of spreadsheets. they were very good at giving responsibility quickly to young people. you are thrown in the fire pretty quickly. working to build models and to track performance of businesses, and then very quickly given your own book and p&l responsibility, where you are responsible for investment decisions and trading decisions. i was going to california for the weekend to go to an ohio

state football game at the rose bowl, and i remember landing back from my california trip sunday night, and flipped over to my bloomberg account, and it was just red, all caps, red, all caps. breaking news, lehman filing for bankruptcy, chapter 11 protection, next, next. oh, my god, how did this happen? how did this happen? i went up to my desk and the trading floor was full of people taking stuff out of their desks and putting it into boxes. people were smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor. there were pizza boxes were everywhere. it was quite a scene to be sitting on the fourth floor of the lehman brothers and watch everything around you kind of collapse. when it through no action of myself, anyone on my floor, really anyone in my building, the main reasons that lehman collapsed. that was eye-opening for me. ♪ zach: when i was there, was i happy?

i was happy at times, but i was not happy making a career working at lehman. it was frustrating to be investing in businesses without being able to help impact those businesses. we would own $10 million of bank debt of general motors, but i had no impact on the future of general motors. i much more cared about what was happening with the actual business. i won't call it an epiphany, but it was frustrated by the lack of impact and change we could have on our investments is what started me down this path to form leading ridge where we have an impact and the ability to affect change in our portfolio. ♪ zach: for me, starting leading ridge was about regaining control of my own destiny. whether i am successful or not, at least i will have control over that future success or future failure, and i was ok with that.

♪ david: i am david hughes, president and ceo of rugby architectural building products. we are a nationwide distributor of specialty building materials. we operate 28 locations across the united states. we are selling like gangbusters. we are selling it in a lot of markets now. we bring it here, and we have u.s. distribution for that. our relationship with zach coopersmith and leading ridge capital started in august, 2011 when zach invested in rugby. through growth capital provided by leading ridge partners and affiliated investors, we have grown the business to approximately 300 million in sales from 76 million in sales. having partners like leading

ridge and zach -- it has been a special relationship. there has been good chemistry. i think we have been able to grow faster and handle more opportunities as a result of my partnership with them. >> hey, buddy. >> what is going on, man? >> just keeping dry. zach: what we do is help solve problems for small businesses. we have been able to provide a solution for a number of small family businesses that have meant that the employees keep their jobs, the customers keep their suppliers, suppliers keep their distributors, and all told successfully grow those businesses and continue to provide more opportunities for their employees. ♪ david: zach is wise beyond his years. he is not much older than my kids, so i think about that, how young he is. he is obviously a very bright guy. he provides a very good perspective because the --he challenges business decisions,

he is always asking questions. zach: what i love about what i do -- you really get to know the people you are dealing with and get to make it more than just about a spreadsheet, more than just about a business. it really becomes about their family, their wife, their kids, their aspirations, their goals for life after business. ♪ david: so there is still some cleanup to be done here. zach: as far as when the time is right to be able to help others, waiting until the time might be perfect, until you are 100% comfortable and you know you never need to earn another penny in your life -- then it is too late. when you have the opportunity to write a check or have the opportunity to volunteer and make a difference, take advantage of that opportunity. there is never a perfect time. ♪

♪ narrator: investor zach coopersmith has used his skills to help transform the investment

scene in new york city. his career has taken him from wall street to the companies that made up the nuts and bolts of the american economy. zach: how are you? good to meet you. narrator: business has been in his blood from an early age. warren: my name is warren coopersmith. i am 69 years old. i am zach coopersmith's dad. our family business was mainly selling candies, snacks, and goods to movie theaters. -- to stores and movie theaters. it morphed into selling into video stores when they started coming about. we experimented with other things, tobacco, fancy foods, some failures, some successes. zach: my earliest memories are working in the warehouse of the candy distribution company. i got paid a quarter an hour. we grew up, summers and weekends in the family business, and always talking about business. everything i know in business, i learned from watching my dad.

watching him wake up at 4:00 in the morning loading trucks for 25 years. he has been through a lot. the house was mortgaged twice for the business to be successful. all kinds of sacrifices to be made. but he was always at my baseball game, my soccer game. he was able to find that balance. i think i try to emulate that a bit. work is important, being successful is important, but if you miss the rest of life, it's all for nothing. warren: zach's early business ventures were numerous. he started selling rocks that he would take out of a person's garden and try to sell it back to him. he was age 2 or 3. he had some success there, but no investment, so i guess that was an incredibly successful venture. that moved on to selling paper products in the neighborhood. since i stocked them in the warehouse, he put samples together.

it actually grew a little bit, he actually had an assistant in the neighborhood, put these little packs together, and he would run around the neighborhood. he did all right with that type of thing. zach: if you want to talk about the first llc that was formed, i had a moon bounce rental company that i started off with a friend in my sophomore year of high school. we were 15 i guess when we started it, borrowed the money from our parents, bought a moon bounce. formed a business, insurance, the whole bit. six months in, we had no -- six weeks in, we had no business. we sat down and said ok, what can we change? then we opened up the yellow pages and made phone calls, and that day we booked 14 jobs, which was a month and a half or two months of work in like a six-hour period. we were running around the basement. i remember it like yesterday. james was my partner, high five. we were going absolutely crazy. i went to college a few years later, and we were able to sell

the business for more than we had invested into it at the end. even though it was on quite a modest scale, it was starting a business from scratch, and we ended up selling it three years later for a profit. ♪ zach: as far as an early influence with philanthropy in my life, it would be my parents. again, i think from a very early age, it was instilled in me that when you are blessed in a way that allows you to help others, it is your duty to help others, whether in a small way, a big way, or somewhere in between, it is critical to do so. the first memory i have of philanthropy was a small county fair in virginia where we sold popcorn and cotton candy to raise money for a group of special needs children in the area. we woke up at 4:30 in the morning, went to the fairgrounds, set up shop, sold cotton candy and popcorn for a dollar apiece and raised a lot

of money to me at the time, to donate the money. we did it for a number of years. that was from the ages of 4, 5, or 6, early on, though, small dollars in the global philanthropy, the lessons learned, the values on philanthropy and the importance of philanthropy were certainly instilled from an early age. warren: you either within you have the instinct and the desire to give and share, or you do not. i think there should be a desire within that if your lifestyle changes and you are able to, and then you want to give back. ♪ zach: really no different than when we go look for a business to buy. i was looking for a charity to partner with and attach myself to, and make a wish was a very well known organization, a very fiscally responsible organization where most of the dollars donated go toward

granting wishes, and most importantly, i love the mission, what they did, why they existed. the impact they had on families and on children. ♪ [cheering] ♪ pat: i am pat clemency. i am ceo and president of make-a-wish in metro new york and western new york. the mission of make-a-wish is to grant wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions, to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy. we understand the importance today of the wish experience. it is part of patient care. we also understand its impact, not just in that moment, but over the lifetime of a child, of a family, of everyone in the

community who has been touched by that wish. zach: you become a better fundraiser, philanthropist, the more personally involved with the mission. directly impacting children and their families. ♪ zach: toast to wishes started six years ago. i was sitting around with a few friends and just saying hey, we go out in the city and we have fun, wouldn't it to be nice to go and try to have fun but do some good while being together? we felt like there was a void in the market, so to speak, of really fun charity events that supported great causes. just like a business finds a void in the market and fills it, that is what we did here by starting toast to wishes. we created a fun event that people love to come to, supporting a charity that people love to support.

we minimize cost and maximize the chance of success. the way it was set up, there was a venue that was going to close otherwise, so there was no opportunity cost, all the liquor and food was donated, all the music was donated, all the auction items were donated, so the only cost was paying the staff there that night. how badly could it go? what was make-a-wish's reaction when i first approached them with this event? i guess their reaction was been there, done that, not going to work. you need to be persistent. if you believe in something strong enough, don't take no, and continue to push until you get what you want. for me, it was worth trying to help make-a-wish, trying to help kids, trying to grant wishes. do not stop me from doing that. we are going to be successful. we are going to raise a lot of money. let us raise the money. ♪

♪ narrator: investor zach coopersmith was on the board of make-a-wish when he spotted a gap in the new york philanthropy scene. the result is an annual party. it is attended by some of wall street's youngest and richest leading lights. zach: first of all, welcome, thank you so much for coming. we set out with a goal of $10,000, and hopefully have 150 people show up, and the first year we raised $45,000 and sold the venue out with 220 people. we were beyond excited. it was a cool spot, open bar, great food, small auction, and everybody had a great time. it snowballed into a really neat, annual event. we are now in our sixth year. we have raised $1.5 million. we have 600, 700 people every year. we continue to sell out. we are looking for a bigger venue that is still a lot of fun. people come back because they love make-a-wish, they love

making a difference, and they love having fun while doing it. i think that is what it does, give people an avenue through which to donate money to a great cause, and for that, they are appreciative. and by the way, they get to have a whole lot of fun while making that difference. and the average wish costs, it moves around a little bit, but it is about $8,000. you can take $1.6 million, $1.7 million that we have raised, that is a lot of wishes. ♪ pat: that very first year when zach and his friends raised $40,000, that in itself is pretty remarkable for a first-time event. next year, when it raised $175,000, i think everyone really sat up and took notice. i think what was so remarkable about it is that you could already see how important this event was, not only for raising money but for building the next generation of leadership for

make-a-wish, and really creating a long-term commitment for the cause. zach: i have been involved with a number of wishes. the one that came to mind that truly was a life-changing experience, and i do not say that lightly, with a child from salt lake city named jacob. becky: i am becky shelton. my son is jacob shelton, and he is a make-a-wish child. and that's how we know zach. ♪ becky: we lived in a rural town, so doctor's appointments were 2.5 hours either way. so, i got very good at getting the kids breakfast, putting them on the bus, driving to the doctor's office, getting back. getting the kids off the bus. that was our daily routine.

zach: jacob was battling illnesses his whole life, and his wish was to go to "sesame street" to meet elmo, and he came from salt lake city with his mom and his mom's friend to meet elmo, and the make-a-wish people teamed me up with the family, with becky and jacob and her family to go to sesame street. becky: when jacob saw elmo, it was like his blankie, his soft thing, his place to go, so whenever he was sick, whenever we had to have a procedure done in the hospital, our go to thing was an elmo video. that would take his mind off what was going on for a little while. elmo was his happy place. elmo was where he felt safe. zach: he got in the limousine, put the wheelchair in the back, got him into the limousine, becky pulled off his shirt and stuck a feeding tube right in his stomach.

it was something i had not seen before, something i had not been exposed to, and wow, things just got really real, really fast. ♪ zach: it was really a special time. it was not go meet elmo, shake his hand, and call it a day. we were on set for six hours. jacob got to meet the camera man, he got to go backstage, he got to meet the puppets. ♪ zach: he was interacting with the muppets like they were people. >> you are in my heart forever now, jacob. right here, feel my heart. ♪ becky: his face was as bright and the smile was as big as i had ever seen, and those eyes could light up the world. and he just loved it. he was jacob -- not a care in world.

he was jacob right there with his buddy. zach: you realize what they have been through as a family, and it makes you realize the trivial issues that we deal with on the trading floor at barclays, goldman, or i deal with with our companies day to day. just how trivial some of those issues are. they are not meaningless, but look at what this family is dealing with, what they are seeking to overcome, and you look at those hurdles and your hurdles, and it makes your hurdles easier to jump over. ♪ becky: there are moments that now that jacob has passed away i have. and those memories will always be with me. for that, i will forever be grateful. ♪

zach: putting on an event is very similar to planning a business. we talk about leadership, how do you start an event and end up six years later with an event that looks like what we have today? it is about leadership. it's having a group of people who are passionate about what they do, passion about the cause, the vision, the mission, and rally people around them, and that is what we have done. it's no different than as ceo of one of our businesses or what we try to instill in the management of our businesses. it's the same thing here. let's get a group of people, get them excited, get more people around us, get them excited, and continue to grow. that is what we have done with the event. that is what we have done with the new leadership council, and what our successful businesses have done within their companies as well. pat: i think the new breed of philanthropies is really asking questions about not only wanting to participate and give time or give money, but really looking at the opportunity to see the results of their work. so, if anything, i think they

are bringing a sensibility about understanding the impact of where they make their donation of time and money. zach: my personal approach to philanthropy is really to generate as many smiles as you can for the dollars to which you are donating and raising. and i did not want to wait until later in life to be able to make a difference. at the end of the day, we are here for the mission of make-a-wish, what make-a-wish does, the impact it has on children facing life-threatening illnesses. ♪ zach: neighborhood by neighborhood, area by area, our generation really is making a bigger difference than maybe past generations have at this age, and we will continue to make even a bigger impact. ♪

♪ francine: welcome to "leaders" with me, francine lacqua. pearson is an international publishing company, with its biggest businesses in education and books. earlier this year, it sold two of its most well known brands, the "ft" and "the economist." in an exclusive interview, i speak with the group's ceo, john fallon, about his vision for the company, and the impact of selling those established brands. john fallon, thank you so much for speaking to bloomberg. we have been talking about an "ft" sale for as long as i can remember.