Money Maze Podcast

Economist John Stuart Mill observed that “landlords grow rich in their sleep". Yet, as evidenced by the failure over the years of many real estate businesses, success is also highly dependent on entry price, debt levels and execution.  Brookfield , based in Toronto, has developed over 120 years into one of the world’s largest alternative investment management companies, with over $1 trillion of as...

Peter Frankopan is a Professor of Global History at Oxford, and author of The Silk Roads . His work has been both profound and enduring, with the book being translated into more than 45 languages and selling nearly 3 million copies worldwide. The updated version has just been published.   In this conversation, Peter reflects on the potent forces at work both within and outside of Asia. He assesses...

If you are an asset allocator, what is the most effective way to widen your lens on identifying potential investment managers? And if you are an investment manager, how can you be more effective in meeting some of those key allocators who might transform your business?  In April 2020, Ron Biscardi launched iConnections , whose platform allows managers to share fund information with allocators.   R...

Today we welcome one of the Middle East’s most successful angel investors and venture capitalists, listed in 'FORBES 100 Most Powerful Business Women 2025'. Noor Sweid explains her journey, from early career in management consultancy and relocating to Dubai, followed by growing and listing a business on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Dubai in 2008 ( Depa ), through to establishing her VC bus...

From the 1950s onwards, the foundations of investment consulting were laid, as pension funds and institutional investors sought professional guidance on asset allocation and portfolio management.  This was enhanced in the 1960s & 70s by the introduction of Modern Portfolio Theory by Harry Markowitz and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) by William Sharpe.  Today, the investment consulting...

Through direct, entertaining & insightful interviews with masters of the real life money maze, we hope to learn about different approaches to allocating capital, making business decisions and navigating the pitfalls that line the paths to prosperity. Each episode, with invite leading figures from the investment management and finance sector onto the show, who share their investment insights an...

 Chris Wood, former guest and highly respected global strategist, recently made a bold prediction, namely that the US stock market has reached its all-time relative peak, similar to Japan in 1989.  His recent commentaries include one describing Trump’s “Liberation Day” as “Impoverishment Day” and that Trump is the “Bull in the China Shop”.  In this conversation, Chris gives his take on whether US...

Economic theory suggests that when competition decreases, remaining firms may have more market power, which can lead to increased opportunities to expand, innovate, or capture a larger market share. Does that analogy apply to the world of shorting? And even if you are considered one of the best in the business, can you stay afloat with a rising tide of bullishness and asset inflation? To discuss w...

Some of our conversations are deliberately different, and the man I interview here has cost me a lot of money! I also consider him a friend and somebody whose perspective I have valued.   It could be said that Neil Woodford, CBE, has had a career of two halves, the first of which encompassed extraordinary investment success at Invesco Perpetual and then at Woodford Investment Management (2014-2019...

In the world of mythology, Apollo is one the most revered and significant of all the ancient Greek and Roman Gods.  It was also the name given to an asset management business created in 1990 and today with assets of over $750 billion*, it’s a leading provider of alternative asset management and retirement solutions.   In this conversation we understand Apollo’s growth, reach and specialisations. M...

When Warren Buffet singles you out for praise, it might be fair to say you have summited the investment equivalent of K2, Annapurna and Kangchenjunga, the most challenging of mountain peaks!   In a capricious investing world, where success is often transient, reputations easily tarnished and hubris punished, to have not only stayed the course for 55 years, but thrived, built Oaktree Capital into o...

In this episode we’ve been very fortunate to find someone who ranks amongst the most qualified anywhere in the world to discuss this topic. He was the former CFO of Billiton, then as CEO, built Xstrata into one of the world’s largest diversified mining companies, helping grow their market value from US$500m to US$60bn, at one point employing over 90,000 people. In this conversation we examine the...

Star Trek’s opening lines were potent: "Space: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its mission? To boldly go where no man has gone before!” Whether Star Trek or Star Wars, such films offered tantalising glimpses of another world. But it’s actually here now! The WEF & McKinsey predict that the space sector will reach a value of $1.8tn by 2035. That’s only 1 dec...

In today’s episode we have the chance to talk to one of the most successful investors of his generation, James Anderson, Former Partner at Baillie Gifford. I'm joined by Mark Wallace, MD of Rothschild & Co, who brings his expertise on US tech equities to this discussion.  From 1987 until 2022 he led their flagship fund, the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust. His early investments in Google th...

Enjoy a variety of career tips & life lessons from finance leaders in this New Year compilation special.  This episode brings together some of the most insightful lessons and perspectives we’ve gleaned from past guests, covering everything from life wisdom to industry-specific strategies. You’ll hear from an extraordinary lineup, including Sir Chris Hohn, Nicolai Tangen, Mathieu Chabran, David...

Today is the first time we welcome back a guest who has changed firms between interviews. We recorded Luba Nikulina, on Thanksgiving day, 2022, and our guest was then Head Global of Research at WTW, an organisation advising on over $3 trillion of assets. Today Luba is the Chief Strategy Officer at IFM Investors , a leading asset manager in infrastructure with a significant presence in other asset...

In this episode, Simon shares an update on the show, reflecting on notable interviews and summarising the wide range of initiatives under development beyond the Money Maze Podcast itself. Although we have said this for each of the 5 years since we started, this year has been incredibly exciting, surpassing both out expectations, and 2+ million global downloads, officially releasing over 200 episod...

With Christmas coming up, we thought today would be the perfect time to replay one of our older episodes! Very occasionally one individual can have a disproportionately powerful impact on a collection of people, but very rarely does that person’s impact grow in time and reach, and expand beyond anyone’s expectations and for millions, be responsible for enhancing their lives. In this episode we exp...

Today’s guest is the new US Treasury Secretary, serving under Donald Trump. The role gives him immense responsibility for managing US obligations and finances, including circa. $7 trillion of annual US federal spending, the $35+ trillion fiscal debt pile and continued inflationary pressures on both US businesses and consumers. Prior to this, Scott was a globally respected and market-moving hedge f...

In 1932, the United States was in the grip of the Great Depression. One in four Americans were unemployed, nearly 9,000 banks had failed. Franklin Roosevelt was elected to the first of his four terms as President of the United States, and a retirement system for state employees was established in California. It became the California Public Employees' Retirement System  (CalPERS). Today it’s Americ...

The episode brings Sir Patrick Sanders, a British military officer, back to discuss geopolitical issues, specifically focusing on the precarious state of global affairs today compared to the 1930s. The conversation delves into the complexities surrounding Donald Trump's foreign policy perceptions and Norway SWF's approach to defence sector exclusions.  This episode was recorded in Norway at the Gr...

Technological revolutions are by their nature rare events: the printing press, mobile telephony and the internet. The associated excitement can capture the imagination, spur a raft of associated breakthroughs, encourage investors to dream of extraordinary returns, yet their byproduct is often to create excessive short-term exuberance, and expectations that might be correct in time, but invariably...

Four years ago we had the chance to record a US election special ahead of the vote to determine whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump became President. We welcomed Anthony Scaramucci; Harvard Law, Goldman Sachs, political fundraiser and, for 11 dramatic days, Donald Trump‘s Director of Communications. Since then he has developed his finance business, run the SALT conferences, been a crypto evangelist...

This recording took place at the London Value Investor Conference over summer, where Simon hosted a discussion with Joel Greenblatt. Joel not only founded and runs Gotham Asset Management, but was also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School for 20+ years. Joel previously ran Gotham Capital, where he achieved 50% annualised returns between 1985-1994 (34.4% net) . Joel also helped Michael...

Today we travel back to Melbourne, Australia, having had previous conversations with Ben Samild (now CIO of the AFF) & David Neal (CEO of IFM Investors) .  AustralianSuper , Australia’s largest super fund, manages approximately USD $230bn for 3.4m members. Mark Delaney has been at its helm as CIO for almost 20 years.  Mark describes the goals, the organisation and its investment principles. He...