The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Steve Kim is a partner in investment strategy and risk management at Verdis Investment Management in the Philadelphia area. He has focused over 30 years in his career in implementing and managing operating infrastructures. Prior to his role at Verdis held various Chief Technology Officer roles. He now focuses on integrating his insight from systems modeling and data analysis into an investment app...

Matthew Sherwood, Ph. D. is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of WeVidIt Media, a video streaming platform that leverages data and analytics for a more inclusive and profitable entertainment industry. We met while he worked as an asset allocator, where he headed up public market investments for MMBB Financial Services.  He has spent time as a guest lecturer and an appointed professor at Colum...

Jason Mitchell is co-head of responsible investments at MAN Group, and the host of a Sustainable Future Podcast at the MAN Institute, a podcast that he has hosted since 2018, which has now passed its 55th episode. He writes and speaks widely on sustainability issues, as well as serving on a number of committees such as the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, and World Bank Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalit...

Zia Uddin is President of Monroe Capital LLC, an asset management firm headquartered in Chicago, which invests in middle market companies in North America through a range of products. Prior to joining Monroe he focused on middle market private equity investing for most of his career. Currently, he sits on a range of private company boards, as well as on the Board of a public company.  We start out...

Eve Ellis is a wealth advisor with William Blair, and is based in the New York City Area. She has a particular interest in socially responsible and impact investments and manages two proprietary portfolios, the gender parity strategy, and the Matterhorn Affinity, Diversity and Inclusion strategy. She's also a member of the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. She has received multiple...

Aaron Joseph is Senior Vice President of Investor Solutions at Blue Vista Capital Management, a Chicago-based real estate investment manager focused in particular on middle market equity, student housing and real estate credit. He previously worked as Deputy Sustainability Officer in the Office of the Mayor in the city of Chicago, and as a Strategy Manager at Urban Partnership Bank focused on prov...

Cynthia Steer has had a multi-decade career in investment management, spending time as an investment director, CIO, and Chief Retirement Strategist at a series of large consulting firms, and she now holds a broad range of investment committee and independent director roles. We start by discussing Cynthia's global career, which saw her based in the US but travel frequently around the world at the h...

John Bowman is executive Vice President of the Caia Association, and a prolific writer and commentator on the investment management industry. He has written about the subject of culture, restoring the virtuous reputation of the industry and ensuring that dialogue and education are maximized, particularly in the area of alternative investing. Our conversation starts with his thoughts on being a "ma...

Heather Brilliant is the President and CEO at Diamond Hill Capital Management, a $30 billion asset manager headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. She previously was Chief Executive Officer Americas at First State Investments and prior to that was CEO at Morningstar, Australasia, and formerly Global Head of Equity and Credit research. She's had a career long involvement with the CFA Institute globally, a...

James Penney is Chairman of Darwin Alternative Investment Management Ltd, a firm that offers innovative alpha driven investment solutions for long term investors. Our conversation covers his exceptionally diverse background, and his experience with studying theology, languages and living in Latin America doing mission-based work. Our conversation starts with his varied university career, and how h...

In our summer Series 4 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast we invite you to see our industry through fresh eyes through hearing the stories of 10 extraordinary professionals.  We hear of the training and perspective obtained through playing tennis at a professional level, challenging ice-skating routines and practicing the ancient Japanese martial art of Kendo.  We hear about formative life experiences...

Matteo Dante Puccio, is President International  and a Partner at Wave Financial Group. He's had an extensive career across the wealth management, VC tech investing and family office space. He's currently focused on digital assets at Wave Financial Group. Our conversation starts with Matteo's first love, which was for theatre.  We hear how being raised in the US by an Italian family formed his glo...

Deirdre Cooper  is Co-Head of Thematic Equity at Ninety One, with a particular focus on sustainable investing.  She is an Advisory Board Member at the Imperial College Centre for Climate Finance and an Advisory Board Member of Girls Who Invest.  She previously founded the Clean Tech group in Morgan Stanley where she worked in M&A in London and Menlo Park.  Our conversation starts with her Iris...

Les Bond is CEO at Attucks Asset Management, a firm he founded over 20 years ago.  Attucks is an MBE-certified registered investment advisor which builds portfolios of emerging investment managers- in particular female and minority owned firms.  Our conversation traces Les's college days where a major in sub-Saharan African studies kickstarted his interest in economics and trade.  This saw a trip...

Kerry Duffain is head of institutional client solutions at Fidante Partners.  She has had a long career, that has involved over two decades of working with institutional investors and consultants, but also a number of other intriguing positions, such as her first position - as a newsreader of English news in Bahrain.  This ability to improvise, adapt, work hard and step outside her comfort zone ha...

LaRoy Brantley is a managing principal at Meketa Investment Group. He has over 20 years experience in an investment consulting capacity. We first met when we joined Cambridge associates earlier in our careers. He has had multiple public fund board positions and has a particular focus on raising awareness of diverse investment managers.  Our conversation starts with LaRoy's unconventional path into...

Sinead Colton Grant is Global Head of Investor Solutions at BNY Mellon, based in NYC.  She has over 25 years of global multi-asset experience across investment and wealth management in both Europe and the US, and started out in derivatives sales and later currency management. She was included in the 2022 Worth.com groundbreakers list https://www.worth.com/groundbreakers2022/ Our conversation start...

John Robinson is Chief Executive Officer at Bridge Capital Advisors, a firm he founded in mid 2021.  He previously was Chief Executive Officer at Consequent Capital Management and is a Board Member of Mifugo Hela, a fintech company based in Kenya.  Our conversation starts with John's childhood where he was born into a family of entrepreneurs, restaurant and business owners.  The lessons learned th...

Doug Heron is Chief Executive Officer at CERN pension fund based in Geneva, a role he assumed in August 2021. He was formerly Chief Executive Officer of Lothian Pension Fund, and prior to that held a number of finance industry roles throughout banking and asset management. He's a trustee director of the NatWest group pension funds and was a Member of the Business Council of the Royal Zoological So...

David Vickers is Chief Investment Officer at Brunel Pensions Partnership Limited, which manages assets on behalf of 10 partner funds within the local government pension scheme, representing about £30 billion He has extensive experience and investing in the multi asset arena, where he has spent time managing assets for a range of institutional investors. Our conversation starts with David's upbring...

Chris Hitchen is Chairman of the Border to Coast pension partnership, as well as the Pension Super Fund and Trustee and Chair of the Investment Committee at Nest, the National Employment Savings Trust. He holds a number of other Board and director roles and was formerly chief executive of RPMI representing over £27 billion of pension arrangements for the UK rail industry. Our conversation is a far...

Mike O’Donnell is Chief Executive Officer of London LGPS CIV Ltd., a position he has held since March 2019, following a career of over 30 years in local government including a range of finance-related roles.  He recently announced his intention to step down from that role in March 2023. Our conversation celebrates his roots in Leicester, and notes the learnings from his parents who had emigrated f...

Fabiola Schneider is a doctoral researcher at UCD Michael Smurfit business school, where she focuses on sustainable finance with a particular focus on progressing the UN SDG agenda.  She is Research Co-Lead on Greenwatch, which applies AI to detect Greenwashing in the market.  She is also passionate about issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. Our discussion is a wide-reaching one which cycles...

Robin Powell is a journalist, investor advocate, financial educator and content consultant.  He is Head of Client Education at RockWealth, as well as Editor of The Evidence Based Investor, and executive director of Regis Media and Ember. He is a frequent commentator on investment management and behavioural finance,  often probing the purported value added by active managers and advocating for bett...

Debbie Cunningham is Chief Investment Officer of Global Liquidity Markets at Federated Hermes and has been a portfolio manager for all government and prime liquidity products since 1990.  She previously was Director and President of the CFA Society of Pittsburgh and sits on the board of Robert Morris University, Treasury Market Practices Group and Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.  Our...