The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Julie Koeninger is Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager in Agriculture at Manulife Investment Management, where she leads business development for Manulife Investment Management global agriculture strategy.  She has over 30 years of experience in agriculture investing, having worked in a series of roles at other institutions prior to joining Manulife and led the first ever securitization...

Mike Tiedemann was a Founding Partner, CEO and Chairman of the Internal Investment Committee at Tiedemann Advisors, as well as CEO at Tiedemann Investment Group (TIG), before leading the merger that created AlTi. Early in his career, Mike lived and worked in Brazil as part of the equity research group at Banco Garantia and later ran the equity sales and trading operations for Latin America. Mike s...

Sarah Fromson, who is Chair of the Cambridge University Endowment Fund Investment Advisory Board.  She also holds a number of other Non Executive Board roles, including at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Quilter Investors, Capital Generation Partners among others. She spent 11 years as head of Investment Risk at the Wellcome Trust and prior to that was a Chief Investment Risk Officer at RBS As...

Rob Gardner is the CEO and Co-Founder 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, and that show is available here .  He has recently written a book with the title FR££DOM, which advocates three money moves to transform your finances. EARN IT, KEEP IT, GROW IT. This is just one part of his career-long missio...

"An investment in education gives the best returns” Benjamin Franklin Tony Miller is managing director of Excolere Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on the education space.  He holds a number of board roles including Apollo Education group, ACT, Criteria Corp and Go Guardian.  He was co-founder of the Vistria Group, a Chicago based private equity firm and prior to that was Deputy Secr...

Ilya Zaides is CIO and Founder of 14B. He started his career as a lawyer, eventually transitioning to an allocator role within two leading hedge fund allocators. He then made a switch into fund management, founding 14B 15 years ago. Our conversation starts with Ilya’s childhood and the impact of his parent’s immigrant’s journey – in which they   traveled from the former Soviet Union. We examine th...

Jeanie Coomber is the founder of the Warriors at Work platform, and an executive coach.  Our discussion charts her journey from a corporate career at Alliance Bernstein to becoming a coach. We talk about the personality type necessary to be a coach, and Jeanie Coomber highlighted her unique approach to coaching, integrating her mother's psychotherapy expertise. There is more information on the War...

Shan Chen was until recently a portfolio manager focused on mostly private investments at the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, where he spent over 17 years. He previously worked primarily within information technology and did research work in biochemistry. He has recently retired from the PSPRS and is focusing full time on developing AI solutions for investment management.    Our...

Wendy Li is the co-founder and CIO of Ivy Invest, a FinTech asset management firm.  She previously worked in the investment office of the endowment of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. In our discussion we start with her immigrant background in Pennsylvania, and her ascent through studying finance to a role in an allocator.  Our discussion then turns to the founder's journey - the challenge a...

Jennifer Ryan is Head of North American Distribution at Lazard Asset Management.  She previously was Head of UK Institutional Sales at BlackRock and Head of the US Institutional Pensions at Blackrock, and started her career at Goldman Sachs. In our conversation we tackle the craft of fund distribution, and Jennifer highlights the importance of understanding client ecosystems, building trust, and a...

 It has been a highly charged summer.  Between the big year of elections, a series of political and geopolitical surprises and a few market shocks, it has been anything but the silly season.  We have launched a few episodes of Fiftyfaces TV focused on investor identity and responsible investing and we have continued covering the issue of maternal mortality, women in sports and other matters close...

Tammy Parlour, is the co-founder of Women’s Sport Trust.  She works with leaders from across sport, media and business to understand how to practically raise visibility, increase impact and create a stronger women’s sport ecosystem and was awarded an MBE in 2019 for services to gender equality in sport. She is a Master in the Korean martial art of Hapkido, having practiced for over 40 years, and c...

Jessica Karr is the founder and managing director of Coyote Ventures, an investment firm that focuses on backing founders who are solving problems that disproportionately affect overlooked populations with a foundation in women’s health.  She is also a limited partner of Portfolia FemTech II Fund, designed for women who want to back entrepreneurial companies for returns and impact, among other adv...

Jennifer Devine is Head of Wiltshire Pension Fund, and a thought leader in the field of sustainable investing. I was thrilled to welcome her to the podcast in order to capture some of the vision that she implements at Wiltshire and translates for its members in easy to understand and relatable posts on social media and their home page that highlight concrete examples of impact investments. This po...

Marguerita (Rita) Cheng is CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth, based in the Washington DC area, as well as being a Founding Member of Kiplinger Advisor Collective and The Authentic Asian.    A keen runner, she was co-founder of 261 Fearless Incl, a global non-profit organization that uses running as a vehicle to empower and unit women, as well as Girls on the Run, where she is a Soulmate. She is a po...

Penny Green finally retired from the investment industry in June following an over 30-year career.  She started her career in pensions with TPAS, where she was Deputy Chief Executive when she left, then became Chief Executive of SAUL, where, over the past four years I have had the privilege of working with her on the investment committee. Upon retiring from the Chief Executive role in 2014, she be...

Tony Dote, just recently retired from a role of Managing Director at Lazard Asset Management, where he spent over 40 years, focused on business development with a particular focus on large institutional investors including public pension funds. He started his career in insurance and later investment consulting.  Our conversation starts with Tony’s upbringing in a large and close Italian family in...

Ghiané Jones, is Deputy CIO at the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, where she is based in their Chicago office. She previously was Managing Principal at Meketa Investment Group, a role she held for over 6 years, and prior to that worked in a range of financial services roles including in institutional ETF Sales at Invesco and Northern Trust, and as a Regional Consultant at Gol...

Jai Jacob has had a 25+ year career at Lazard Asset Management where he headed up the Quantitative, Alternatives and Multi-Asset Investment Group which oversaw c. $35 bn in AUM.  He is a member of the Board of Trustees of The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, New York, and plays the electric guitar.    We hear about his upbringing in Montreal, how he changed his major in college and ended up somewha...

Cary Carbonaro, is an award-winning financial advisor, a women and wealth expert and a CFP board ambassador. She is currently senior vice president of Advisors Capital, where she was noted in the 2024 NASDAQ Advisor Council and as a Top Advisor in 2023 Investopedia.   In this first of two dynamic podcasts featuring leading female voices in financial planning today – the other is Marguerita Cheng -...

Kristina Blaschek, is Director of Business and Technology within the Investment Management division of William Blair, based in Chicago. She started her career in investment banking, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Auditorium Theatre.   Kristina starts our conversation describing her education and what drew her to the world of finance. We hear about her early career pivots and how...

Keri Findley is Chief Executive Officer of Tacora Capital, which focuses on Asset-Based Private Credit Opportunities in Specialty Finance and Insurance.  She was previously a partner at Third Point Our conversation starts with her childhood and in particular her high school years, when Keri spent up to 40 hours per week practicing figure skating alongside academic commitments.  With a strong aptit...

As we enter high summer here we come with some summer bounty here at Fiftyfaces Podcast as we launch Series 4 that is bursting with wisdom and insights. Because life is not linear, these stories are not linear either – and they stress the power of the individual. Hear from an introvert who found her calling in connecting with people in private wealth, a pensions expert whose entire career has been...

Kurt Summers is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Public-Private Partnerships in Blackstone’s Infrastructure Group. In this capacity, Mr. Summers is responsible for investment strategies in partnership with governments, public entities, civic and labor organizations, and broader stakeholders to help advance local infrastructure priorities and he also advances Blackstone Infrastructure’s ESG e...

Kevin Leonard is Partner and Practice Group Director – Public Funds and Taft Hartley at NEPC. He has had a long career in consulting and started his career as an accountant. Kevin has had a career of over 30 years in investment consulting, and it had a somewhat “accidental” start – being driven more by location and convenience than a calling.  Things quickly shifted however, and Kevin found that w...