Josh Harris co-founded Apollo, but his ownership of the 76ers and Devils was a distraction and a 'source of tension' for former employees.

Hi. I'm Aaron Weinman. Josh Harris has been a busy bee of late. He stepped away from day-to-day activities at Apollo Global Management — the private-equity firm he co-founded — in May last year. He has since been building his new shop, 26North Partners, which will launch with more than $5 billion in assets.

He also holds ownership stakes — through his family office — in the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's New Jersey Devils franchises.

Insider's Casey Sullivan and Hayley Cuccinello interviewed nine former Apollo employees and executives about how Harris' personal activities affected the culture at the private-equity shop in the years leading up to his exit.

Before we dig into that, all eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve today. The central bank is likely to hike interest rates by 75 basis points in a bid to tame stubbornly high inflation.

And if you can't wait until 2 p.m. ET for the Fed's decision, my colleague Phil Rosen has a full rundown of what to expect in this morning's edition of 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.

Now, let's get started.

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1. Josh Harris upset Apollo insiders with the amount of time he spent on personal investments. During meetings for Apollo matters, Harris would sometimes take phone calls unrelated to the company, one person told Insider. Meanwhile, Apollo staffers were left "just sitting there, waiting for him to get off the phone."

Harris would also use Apollo employees to help on personal investments. Few people dared to object to the private-equity executive's business, given the sizable influence he held at the firm.

Employees would worry that there would be pushback from investors over how Apollo would allocate its resources. People who worked on Harris' personal investments became "untouchable" within the organization. And it created an awkward environment, my colleagues report.

At the heart of the matter here is that Harris' role at Apollo and his personal investments can blur the line between private-equity and family-office investing.

Former employees opened up about how Harris' ownership of professional sports teams became a distraction.

Check out the full story here.

In other news:

2. An early investor in Blue Bottle Coffee and Sweetgreen said he has found the "holey grail." (Yes, "holey.") That so-called hole happens to be a Hawaii-based doughnut chain that is taking on the industry stalwarts.

3. Goldman Sachs is expanding its cash-management services for companies into the European Union. The bank is seeking steadier sources of revenue away from the choppy investment-banking and trading businesses.

4. Staying on Goldman, the bank has struck a credit-card deal with T-Mobile, Bloomberg reported. This is the third partnership for Goldman, following credit-card partnerships with Apple and General Motors.

5. Chamath Palihapitiya is shutting down two special purpose acquisition vehicles. Both SPACs, worth more than $1.6 billion, trade on the New York Stock Exchange. They are being wound down as the sponsors could not find a target company to merge with.

6. American Express said it is looking to hire around 1,500 people for tech roles. The new hires would fill up roles like data scientists and software engineers, among others. Insider analyzed H-1B visa-holders salary data to give job seekers an idea of salary expectations.

7. Artificial-intelligence company 4M Analytics has raised $45 million in Series A funding. Here is the exclusive 22-page pitch deck the company used to raise the capital. Plus, check out our searchable pitch deck database to see how other companies raised millions.

8. Companies are rethinking corporate travel policies as business class tickets sometimes hit highs of $20,000. For some companies, these soaring airfares mean that executives fly coach, or not at all, per this story from Bloomberg.

9. The world is staring down a brutal winter of soaring energy prices. But there is a clear solution to the crisis — if we are not too scared to use it.

10. Two families are suing the owners of a $10,000 luxury Hamptons rental home. They claim that the owners prevented them from adjusting the cooling system by two degrees.

People moves:

• Edison Partners has promoted its general partner, Kelly Ford, to chief operating officer. It is a newly-created position. She will oversee operations, including the new Edison Edge value-creation platform. Ford has worked at Edison for more than eight years.
• Independence Point Advisors, a women-owned investment bank and advisory firm, has made three senior hires:
• Dean Keller has joined as head of the firm's power and energy-transition unit. He joined from Guggenheim Securities, where he was a managing director.
• Randi Abada has joined Independence to lead consumer coverage and investor relations. She has worked across banking, finance, and investor relations for more than 25 years.
• Mariquit Corcoran will lead the firm's fintech advisory and venture-capital advisory group. Previously, Corcoran was a managing director at Barclays.

Curated by Aaron Weinman in New York. Tips? Email aweinman@insider.com or tweet @aaronw11. Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.