The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Beverley Gower-Jones, OBE FEI is Managing Partner at The Clean Growth Fund and Chief Executive Officer at Carbon Limiting Technologies. She is an independent member on Governments Net Zero Innovation Board (NZIB). The Board provides strategic oversight of government funding of net zero innovation programs.   Our conversation starts with Beverley’s start studying geology and working in industry in...

Hunter Somerville, a partner at Stepstone Group, where he focuses on venture capital investing with a particular specialty of digital assets and micro venture capital. Based in the Baltimore area, we reflect on what made him stay in and return to that area and the path he took to get to venture capital. Our conversation digs into the weeds of venture capital investing including digital assets, blo...

This summary is less a trailer than a highlight reel. The year started with a new administration in the US and an explosion of the culture wars and backlash against DEI and ESG labelling. Even engagement has become more cumbersome and some may feel the hard won policies of years ago are going into reverse.  Because we had lined up a list of industry experts with a focus on sustainable investing fo...

Chelsea Smith is Senior National Director, Family Office Services at Bernstein Private Wealth Management, based in Chicago. She started her career as an equity trader, and in recent years has been heavily involved in diversity initiatives designed to attract a more diverse pipeline into the finance industry.  Our conversation starts with Chelsea's upbringing - as one of three triplet girls, she ha...

Denise Le Gal is Independent Chair at Brightwell as well as a Chair and Trustee Director of JP Morgan Chase Retirement Plan among other portfolio roles  She was Chair of the Brunel Pension Partnership Limited for close to 8 years. Our conversation goes back to Denise's roots, and she describes how she grew up in a large family on a farm near Winnipeg - a place where nature and its force loomed lar...

In this special episode we are thrilled to share the stage with Robert Morier, host of the Dakota Live Podcast and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital at Drexel University.  We reflect on what podcasting has taught us, how our respective platforms have evolved, how diversity factors in to our guest list and our approach, and what the future looks like for podcasting, for our industry...

Abdiel Santiago is Secretary (CIO) of the Fondo de Ahorro de Panama, a role he has held for over 11 years. He holds a number of board roles in addition – including Advisory Committee Member of the Export-Import Bank of the US, a Board Advisory Committee Member of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds and a Committee Member of the Milken Institute. He is also a Board Leadership Fellow a...

Stephen Oxley is founder of Oxley Capital Connections (OXC) a firm he founded in the UAE in 2024 dedicated to helping global investment managers raise capital in the Middle East. He was formerly held a serious of business development functions in the Middle East and Europe and worked as an investment consultant. I have known Stephen for many years, and have always known about his fascinating backs...

Why does every organization have to be a "learning organization"? What is the future of computing? How can quantum computing be a force for good? This bonus episode with Kelly Richdale is a master class in the potential of quantum computing how the essence of cyber security has changed - to become cyber resilience. Kelly is an independent board director and advisor with a portfolio of internationa...

Stephanie Niven is a Global Sustainable Equity Portfolio Manager at Ninety One. She started her career as an equity analyst and subsequently held a series of portfolio management roles.  She was previously an ambassador for the Diversity Project and sits on the Advisory Board of Girls Who Invest.  Our conversation traces Stephanie's love of sport, and water polo in particular, and we discuss how t...

Our guests on this episode, Rob Gardner and Eoin Murray, both previous guests on this podcast, join us again to discuss how they have come together at Rebalance Earth.  Rob is the CEO and CoFounder of Rebalance Earth, which redirects the flow of capital to protect and restore nature at scale. He was a guest on this podcast in 2021 when we discussed his Redington journey and again last year when we...

Anastasia Guha is a sustainable investing expert at Redington with over 17 years of experience.  She advises on sustainable investing strategy and beliefs, best practices for integrating ESG factors into investment projects, engagement and ESG reporting and measurement.  Our conversation starts with Anastasia's roots and the discipline of learning that was laid down within her family. We then trac...

In this podcast - which was recorded with co-host Tom Raber of Alvine Capital, the co-hosts sit down with Björn Thelander, who is an experienced Family Office manager with broad international investment and industrial experience. His background is varied and involved many stints in emerging markets, punctuated by market crises which often necessitated a pivot - or two. We discuss how this shaped B...

In this second of our short series reflecting on the lessons and takeaways of the 2024 year in The Fiftyfaces Podcast, we chat with Jeanie Coomber, executive coach and podcast host who featured on our podcast this year in Episode 278 ( https://www.fiftyfaceshub.com/278-jeanie-coomber-a-chief-igniter-encourages-us-to-become-warriors-at-work/ ). Jeanie is the founder of the Warriors at Work platform...

In this podcast John Harney, associate partner at AON, actuary and expert on pensions - see https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnwilliamharney/ leads the discussion on what was learned over the course of 2024 - how we separated the wood from the trees and what trends we perceived. Both Episode 270 Penny Green ( https://www.fiftyfaceshub.com/270-penny-green-pensions-and-trustee-veteran-putting-members-a...

Steve Neel is Deputy Chief Investment Officer at the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board.  He spearheads the substantial alternative investing program at the fund. Our conversation starts with Steve’s childhood in the wettest state in the US – Hawaii – and how he ended up in one of the driest – New Mexico.     We discuss his ascent through the ranks at the New Mexico Educational Retirement Boa...

Do you ever over order? This year, as is the case every year we were bursting at the seams with guests and talent here at Fiftyfaces Productions and were delighted to produce a bonus series featuring 8 inspiring guests at the end of 2024. We hope you can take some time over the break to listen back to some big themes – neurodivergence and the workforce, system change, moonshots and deep dives - al...

Raudline Etienne is the Founder and CEO of Daraja Capital, an investment and advisory firm providing seed capital to new, diversely owned, private fund managers and independent sponsors.   She has over 25 years of experience in institutional investing and consulting and previously served as CIO for the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the third largest public fund in the U.S. Prior to her ro...

Frank Dixon is an expert on Systems Change.  He has been interested in sustainability since his MBA, joined one of the first ESG research firms, saw ESG wasn’t enough, and has been working on system change ever since.    Our conversation traces the evolution of Frank’s thinking around the need for system change and what this actually means. He established Global System Change and developed the Sys...

Carol Geremia is president of MFS Investment Management® (MFS®) and head of Global Distribution. She leads the firm's worldwide client-facing teams as well as product and marketing strategy. Since joining MFS in 1984, Carol has held roles focused primarily on fiduciary responsibility, stewardship and sustainability, and she has actively engaged with clients at all levels to ensure that the firm bu...

Steve Foresti is a Senior Advisor, Investments, at Wilshire, where he has spent almost 30 years.  He previously held a role as Chief Investment Officer, among other roles and is currently in a part-time role as he pursues other interests.  Steve was recommended to us as a guest because of his extraordinary career arc in which he overcame a substantial loss of vision as a child to pursue a fulfilli...

Matt Whineray recently retired from the role of Chief Executive Officer at the NZ$77 bn NZ Super Fund, where he had spent close to 16 years in a series of roles, culminating in CEO but which included 4 years as CIO. He previously worked in a series of corporate finance roles, and currently holds a number of Chair and Board roles.   Our conversation starts with his early career in finance, which sa...

Tiffany Wilding is a managing director and economist based in the Newport Beach office of PIMCO.  She leads PIMCO’s Cyclical Forum, crafts the firm’s outlook for the global economy, and analyzes key macro risks for the firm’s Investment Committee. Previously, she was a U.S. interest rate strategist in two firms and a Treasury market policy analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where sh...

Veena Aiyer has launched a community app for neurodiverse audiences called QRKIEZ.  The goal of QRKIEZ is to be an innovative platform designed to support neurodivergent individuals by fostering social connections, providing mentorship and offering tailored professional services. She previously worked in a series of startups  and tech companies. In our conversation Veena describes her upbringing i...

Lindsey Stewart is Director of Stewardship Research and Policy at Morningstar Sustainanalytics, where he is a sustainability and governance specialist. Based in London he writes regularly about how institutional investors engage with companies and policymakers on environmental, social and governance themes and is a regular speaker on these topics. He previously was head of Stakeholder Engagement a...