LSE Focal Point Podcast

Join us for another fantastic episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Michael Gidney! Mr Gidney is the CEO of Fairtrade Foundation. He has spent the last 20 years working in international development with a focus on reducing poverty and developing small enterprises. Prior to his role at Fairtrade, Michael was the Director of Policy at Traidcraft where he led projects on issues includin...

Join us for another interesting episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Jonathan Goldstein! Mr Goldstein is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cain International, the real estate investment firm. Prior to Cain International, he was Head of European Real Estate and Direct Investments at Guggenheim Partners and the Deputy Chief Executive of Heron International, where he played a central role in R...

Join us for another brilliant episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by David Greenbaum! Mr Greenbaum is the CFO at CPI Property Group. Prior to his role as CFO, he worked at Deutsche Bank for 16 years specialising in debt capital markets in London, Singapore and New York. After graduating from Cornell, David worked briefly at Alliance Capital Management and Credit Suisse First Boston. R...

Join us for another remarkable episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Manfredi Catella! Mr Catella is the CEO and shareholder at COIMA RES and COIMA SGR and Chairman at COIMA, the Italian real estate company. Prior to his role at COIMA, he worked at JP Morgan in Milan, Caisse Centrale des Banques Populaire in Paris and Heitman in Chicago. Currently, Manfredi is the President of the Fo...

Join us for another fantastic episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Rt Hon Jesse Norman! Dr Norman is a Conservative Politician and has been the Financial Secretary to the Treasury since 2019. Prior to his role in Parliament, he was a senior fellow at Policy Exchange and founded the Conservative Co-operative Movement. Jesse was a Director at Barclays until 1997, after completing an u...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Jean-Jacques Barbéris! Mr Barbéris is the Director of the Institutional and Corporate Clients Division and ESG at the French Asset Management firm, Amundi. Most significantly, prior to his role at Amundi since 2016, he was the Economic and Financial Affairs Advisor to the French President since 2013 and was a member o...

Join us for another interesting episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Paul Cuatrecasas! Mr Cuatrecasas is the CEO and Founder of London-based, technology focused investment bank Aquaa Partners. Prior to founding Aquaa Partners in 2010, he has experience as the founder of Alegro Capital in 2003 and as the co-founder of ARC Associates back in 1993. Paul has an MBA from Columbia Busines...

Join us for another inspiring episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Max Cartellieri! Mr Cartellieri is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of AlphaSights, a global leader in knowledge search. Before founding AlphaSights, he was the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Ciao, a consumer price comparison website that was eventually sold to Microsoft. Max met his Co-Founder at AlphaSights when studying at Sta...

Join us for another interesting episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Kamal Ahmed! Mr Ahmed was the Former Editorial Director at BBC News. Prior to his role at BBC News, he was the Business Editor of the Sunday Telegraph and the Executive Editor of the Observer. Kamal is currently the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of the News Movement, a news start-up that aims to deliver trustworth...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Terri Duhon! Ms Duhon is the Non-Executive Chair of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. She also balances other roles as an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School, Oxford, and is a member on the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee. Earlier, Terri began her career at JP Morgan and worked as a derivatives trader...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Christian Ulbrich! Mr Ulbrich is the CEO and President of Jones Lang LaSalle otherwise known as JLL. Christian joined JLL in 2005 as managing director for Germany. In 2009, he became CEO for the EMEA region, becoming Global CEO in 2016. Before this, Christian spent seven years as CEO of the Hamburg-based HIH group of...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Kevin Hewitt! Mr Hewitt is the EMEA Chairman of FTI Consulting. Before becoming Chairman at FTI, Kevin was the head of FTI’s EMEA Corporate Finance Practice and prior to joining FTI, Mr Hewitt spent 25 years working in EY’s restructuring practice, having made partner in 1998. Recorded in November 2020.

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we are joined by Dominic Ashcroft! Mr Ashcroft is the Co-Head of EMEA Leveraged Capital Markets at Goldman Sachs alongside Luke Gillam. Mr Ashcroft started his career at Goldman Sachs in 2002 as an analyst in the UK Advisory team. In 2003, he moved to the High Yield Capital Markets desk and became a VP in 2008 and was named managing d...

One of my personal favourites! Join us for a special episode at Focal Point where today we interview Scott Bok! Mr Bok is the CEO and Chairman of Independent Advisory firm, Greenhill & Co. Prior to working at Greenhill & Co, Scott was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley in the mergers, acquisitions and restructuring department and before that started out practicing mergers and acquisitio...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Yuri Khodjamirian! Mr Khodjamirian is a Fund Management professional and investor with ten years experience in UK and international equity markets. Yuri was responsible for building and co-managing a top-performing Fund while at Majedie Asset Management, a premier independent investment management boutique in London. He i...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Chris Grigg! Mr Grigg was the CEO of British Land for 11 years, one of the largest property development and investment companies in the UK with a portfolio of commercial property worth over £10Bn. Prior to joining British Land, Chris joined Goldman Sachs in 1985, rising to partner and left in 2005 to become Treasurer of B...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Ralph Schlosstein! Mr Schlosstein is the Co-CEO of Evercore. Before joining Evercore in 2009, Mr. Schlosstein was the Chief Executive Officer of HighView Investment Group and was the President of BlackRock for almost twenty years, the largest asset management firm in the world which he co-founded. Mr Schlosstein also work...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Pierre Lagrange! Mr Lagrange has had a varied and fascinating career. He is the Non-Executive Chairman of Huntsman which he acquired in 2014. Huntsman is one of the oldest and most prestigious tailors on London's Saville Row and is also the setting for the Kingsman film franchise. Before acquiring Huntsman, Mr Lagrange co...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Dietrich Becker! Mr. Becker is a Partner and Head of Perella Weinberg Partners’ Advisory business in Europe. Prior to joining Perella Weinberg Partners in 2006, Mr. Becker served as Co-Head of Morgan Stanley’s Global Industrial Group. Mr Becker advised on the hostile takeovers of Mannesmann by Vodafone, the largest M&...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Andrew Hill! Mr Hill is an Associate Editor and Management Editor at the Financial Times and was named Business Commentator of the Year in 2016. Andrew is the author of Leadership in the Headlines and also writes in the FT's fortnightly satire Work Tribes. In 2014, Andrew conceived the "Strategy Live" concept for The 125,...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Jay Bregman! Mr Bregman is the CEO & cofounder of Thimble, a start-up designed to make insurance simpler for small businesses which has now raised over $30M from investors. Prior to Thimble, Jay founded Hailo, a ride-sharing company in London backed by investors such as Sir Richard Branson, Hailo was acquired by Daiml...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Michael Seibel. Mr Seibel is the CEO and partner of Y Combinator, Y Combinator is a start-up accelerator headquartered in California that has helped launch the likes of AirBnB, DropBox, Twitch and Reddit. Prior to working at Y Combinator, Michael co-founded Justin.tv/Twitch and was also CEO of Socialcam which he later sol...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Dr. Colin Light! Dr. Light is a Partner at Strategy& as well as the UK Strategy& Consulting Practice leader and a member of the EMEA Strategy& leadership team. Prior to his work at Strategy&, Colin was a Partner at PWC in Hong Kong and Mainland China as well as having been the Interim Chief Corporate Devel...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Stephen Newton! Mr Newton is the CEO and Founder of Elixirr with the vision of building the best consultancy firm in the world. Prior to founding Elixirr in 2009, Stephen was a managing partner at Accenture, a partner in Financial Services at IBM as well as a Global Account Principal at KPMG. Recorded in September 2020.&n...

Join us for another exciting episode at Focal Point where today we interview Benoît Durteste! Mr Durteste is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Intermediate Capital Group (ICG), a global alternative asset manager with over €45BN of assets, specialising in financing private debt, credit and equity. Benoît has had considerable experience within financial services, prior to working at ICG, Benoî...