Searching for Mana with Lloyd Wahed

It was a big year for Searching for Mana, and that means one best-of show wasn’t enough. That’s right: we’re back with another edition of amazing clips from some of the most interesting people in FinTech and entrepreneurship. This week, we have tidbits from an additional roster of amazing guests: Romi Savova, (PensionBee), Zihao Xu (Octopus Ventures), Alf Rehn (University of Southern Denmark) and...

As 2020 draws to a close, we look back on some of the brightest moments from Searching for Mana over the past year. And what a line-up it is! Listen through for amazing conversations with FinTech luminaries such as Conrad Ford (Funding Options, Allica Bank), Joe Parkin (BlackRock), Ned Phillips (Bambu), Adam French (Scalable Capital) and Romi Savova (PensionBee). Plus, Lloyd discusses each guest a...

Billon Co-Founder and CTO Andrzej Horoszczak joins Lloyd from Poland to discuss how DLT could lead to the advent of fully digital currencies. It’s an episode that touches on finance, technology and entrepreneurship, all of which are Andrzej’s specialties. After studying computer science and business in the US, Andrzej gained extensive experience as a portfolio manager, IT specialist and CEO. Each...

Aryze CFO and Co-Founder Morten Christorp Nielsen joins Lloyd to discuss how digital assets have the potential to revolutionise financial inclusion. After starting his career with such vaunted names as JP Morgan and UBS, Morten turned his attention to socially responsible finance. That’s how he got involved with Aryze, which aims to leverage blockchain and DLT to take the cost out of moving money...

Mana Labs Co-Founder Mimi Nguyen is in the host’s chair this week as she and Ayman Jawhar tell us how to hire product managers properly. And who better to ask than Ayman? With product experience at tech giants like PayPal and smaller firms like Hudl, he knows how to optimise product teams at companies of all sizes. And as a lecturer for INSEAD and a mentor at Seedcamp, he’s helping great start-ups...

We’ve got blockchain on the brain this week as serial founder Alex Mashinsky sits down with Lloyd to talk DeFi, crypto and so much more. As Founder and CEO of Arbinet, Alex made his name in the ‘90s as a pioneer of VOIP. From there, he went on to found eight more companies that raised a total of $1 billion in funds. Today, he runs Celsius Network, a P2P crypto lender that boasts more than $1 billi...

Luck is on your side this week as NYU and LSE faculty member Christian Busch joins Lloyd to discuss his new book, The Serendipity Mindset . The Director of NYU’s Global Economy Program, Christian has extensive experience with social entrepreneurship. He co-founded the Sandbox Network, a global hub for young innovators, and has advised companies like TED and Haier. And with The Serendipity Mindset...

It’s time to get innovative as Lloyd welcomes acclaimed writer and speaker Alf Rehn. From becoming the youngest university chair in Finland to serving as a chairman to a Gold Lion-winning ad agency, Alf has led a vast and varied career. Today, he’s a professor of innovation, design and management at the University of Southern Denmark and the author of Innovation for the Fatigued: How to Build a Cu...

Dr. Louise Beaumont joins Lloyd for a far-reaching conversation that covers the future of open banking, the history of UK FinTech and everything happening in between. Louise is an ideal guest to comment on it all. Since completing her PhD in just 15 months and working as a consultant for Capgemini, she’s led a versatile and varied career, making an early investment in Funding Options and advising...

The future of money is here as Octopus Ventures Partner Zihao Xu sits down with Lloyd to discuss how he finds tomorrow’s fintech behemoths. After starting his career with renowned strategic consultancy Roland Berger, Zihao moved into the venture capital sphere with Octopus, which identifies “unusually talented entrepreneurs” and offers early-stage funding. In this in-depth conversation, Zihao tell...

PensionBee Founder and CEO Romina Savova joins Lloyd to examine a sector that’s ripe for disruption: pensions. That’s the idea behind PensionBee, which Romina founded after working at behemoths like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. When she tried to consolidate her pensions in one place, she found the task impossible and received little to no help from financial advisors or her provider. That led...

Meniga Co-Founder and CEO Georg Ludviksson sits down with Lloyd to outline how to found a successful FinTech. That’s a topic Georg has plenty of first-hand experience with. After developing one of Iceland’s most popular video games, Georg moved into tech, partnering with Nokia on an early mobile internet venture. That led him on to Harvard Business School before he founded Meniga, a digital bankin...

Scalable Capital Founder Adam French tells Lloyd Wahed how he went from a student at LSE to the founder of a wealthtech leader that partners with the world’s largest asset manager. So what accounts for Adam’s tremendous career growth? After interning with Goldman Sachs, he quickly moved up into director roles within the bank’s trading division. But his relentless pursuit of self-betterment led him...

Searching for Mana dives deep into WealthTech this week as Ned Phillips (Founder and CEO of Bambu, co-host of the WealthTech UnWrapped podcast) sits down with Lloyd to talk robo-advisors, sales and so much more. After starting out as a London insurance salesman in the early 1990s, Ned found success in the east as Etrade’s Managing Director for Asia. Since then, he’s become a leader in the global W...

Julie Ashmore Dann (CEO, Rapid Cash at NatWest) sits down with Lloyd to talk about how her company is making loans simple for SMEs. After entering the industry as a remittance processor, Julie developed her expertise in small-business lending at such companies as Bibby Financial Services, HSBC and Growth Street. In January 2020, she joined Rapid Cash, which helps SMEs get loans in a matter of days...

Michael Brown (Senior Market Analyst, Caxton FX) joins Lloyd for a special Thursday episode tackling the latest economic developments in the UK. Since joining Caxton FX in 2016, Michael has shown an impressive knack for predicting developments in the foreign exchange markets. In this episode, he shares why traders are bracing for a no-deal Brexit and tells us which currencies to invest in for Q4 2...

Richard Davies (CEO of Allica Bank, Non-Executive Director at Revolut) joins Lloyd to discuss the state of SME lending post-COVID and what it takes to succeed at the UK’s biggest fintechs. And he should know. Throughout his career, Richard has moved seamlessly between major incumbent banks and innovative digital challengers. He served as a Managing Director at Barclays and as COO at HSBC, but he h...

Gregory Pastore sits down with Lloyd and tells us how financial consultancies are preparing big banks for upcoming changes to global regulations. After building up impressive experience with a major US bank (JP Morgan) and a Big Four consultancy (EY), Greg has made waves as Baringa’s Director Finance, Risk and Compliance. He tells Lloyd about the company’s game-changing work on climate risk, why m...

Drs Beatriz Carrillo Garcia and Vivianna Rodriguez Carreon talk to Lloyd and Mana Search Co-Founder Mimi Nguyen about the hidden factors in great leadership! Since collaborating at the University of Sydney, Beatriz and Vivianna have used their Theory U framework for measuring and imparting leadership skills in students. Joining us from Australia, the duo explains how to prevent personality clashes...

Design: it’s a fundamental way for companies to understand their end users’ needs. Jyothish Nair understands this better than anyone. A VP and associate partner at McKinsey, Jyo has been helping clients create optimal physical, digital and spatial experiences for over two decades. Sitting down with Lloyd and Mana Search Co-Founder Mimi Nguyen, Jyo tells us about his journey with McKinsey, whether...

On a special edition of Searching for Mana, Lloyd chats with Nicky Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Cotes. After serving for over a decade in Parliament – a term that included cabinet positions as Education Secretary, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture Media and Sport, and more – Nicky earned peerage in January 2020. In a wide-ranging chat that touches on politics, education and leadership, Lloyd a...

This week, Binance UK Director Teana Baker-Taylor joins Lloyd for an enlightening chat about career progression, crypto and so much more! A financial veteran with over 20 years’ experience at companies like HSBC, Global Digital Finance and Coinfloor, Teana offers incredible insight into both blockchain and financial services in general. Touching on everything from the importance of community build...

On this episode, Lloyd sits down with Joseph George, Managing Director and Partner at Dufrain. In his work with both Dufrain and Deloitte, Joseph has worked with major financial institutions such as Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, JPMorgan and more. Earlier this year, DataIQ named him one of the UK’s most influential people in data and analytics. In a wide ranging discussion, Lloyd and Joseph talk...

This week, Lloyd chats with Dr Karen Elliott, a Senior Lecturer in Enterprise/Innovation at Newcastle University. Karen was voted one of Innovate Finance’s #Standout 35 Women in FinTech, and in 2018, she and her colleagues earned a £1.2-million grant to help Atom Bank elevate its FinTech services. In this interview, Lloyd and Karen discuss the future of work, why a strong sense of purpose is the b...

[03:45]: Charlie explains the importance of anti-money laundering efforts and why it’s ‘the hardest problem within FinTech’. [16:20] After raising $40 million for a company he founded in his room, what challenges does Charlie continue to face? [30:50] Charlie explains how his approach to company culture has changed over the course of the past year. [39:35] How Charlie went from picking fruit to ea...