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Michael is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Evercore Wealth Management, managing investment assets for families, foundations and endowments.
Michael joined Evercore in 2019 from Fieldpoint Private, a boutique private bank headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he served for two years as a senior investment advisor, providing asset allocation, security selection, and estate and tax planning advice to high net worth clients. He previously worked for 13 years as a senior portfolio manager at U.S. Trust, managing $2 billion in assets for families and foundations.
Prior to joining U.S. Trust, Michael worked in education and policy as a charter member of Teach for America and as the manager of external relations at the Manhattan Institute.
Michael received a B.A. at Rutgers College and an M.B.A. from the New York University Stern School of Business. He serves on the board of LEEP Dual Language Charter School in Brooklyn.
Kidney disease forecasting, drywall hanging, pizza delivery and crop management: These are just a few examples of activities being transformed through technology. The digital economy (ecommerce, software, tech hardware and so on) now represents more than 10% of the U.S. economy.
And there’s more to come. More than half of corporate capital expenditure, or CapEx, is now being invested in productivity-enhancing investments like cloud technology, artificial intelligence and vision technology, as well as robotics and the like. The $700 billion projected to be spent globally over the next decade building cutting-edge software for the cloud may herald exponential growth in related data applications, such as autonomous vehicles and automated manufacturing. At the same time, the investment payoff timeline is accelerating. Investments in robotics, for example, now pay off in half the time that they did 10 years ago.
The technology companies are both the beneficiaries and drivers of these trends, as John Apruzzese observes in his article, Powering Up: Technology Continues to Drive the Markets. Amazon spent more on CapEx in the past two years than it did in the previous 20, and Microsoft is working with thousands of organizations around the world to grow and combine their physical and digital worlds, and to explore collaboration opportunities in the metaverse.
A few other examples of current new economy investments in general, and digital investments in particular, by companies in the Evercore Wealth Management core portfolio holding include:
As these and other corporations continue to invest in improving their productivity, economy-wide productivity should also increase.
Michael Kirkbride is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Evercore Wealth Management. He can be contacted at michael.kirkbride@evercore.com.
Volume 44 of Independent Thinking® by Evercore Wealth Management examines the impact of global events, inflation, and technological advancement on markets and long-term financial planning.
The publication analyzes how the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its geopolitical ramifications may influence inflation, energy prices, and investment opportunities, particularly in Europe. It explores the differences between today’s inflationary environment and that of the 1970s, highlighting the roles of productivity, demographics, and wage dynamics.
The issue also discusses the ongoing dominance of technology in driving market performance and the importance of regularly revisiting financial goals in a volatile world.
Throughout, the emphasis is on maintaining a disciplined, long-term perspective and adapting strategies to emerging risks and opportunities.
Investment and Wealth Management services are provided by Evercore Wealth Management, LLC an investment advisor registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Trust and custody services are provided by Evercore Trust Company, N.A. a national trust bank regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Client retention rate is based on data from 06/30/24 – 06/30/25. Assets under management are as of 06/30/25
