The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Constance Freedman is Founder and Managing Partner at Moderne Ventures as well as Moderne Passport – an early stage investment fund and industry immersion program which is focused on investing in technology companies in and around the multi-trillion dollar industries of real estate, finance, insurance, hospitality and home services.  It has just closed its (over-subscribed) second fund at over $20...

Elina Kovaleva, who is head of research at Velox Capital Partners, an equity long/short market neutral hedge fund firm based in London, a position she has held for 3 years. She previously held a number of research and analyst roles, at investment banks and hedge funds.  Our conversation starts with Elina's upbringing in Russia in the 1990s and her route into finance and centers in particular on wh...

David Miller is an Executive Director at Quilter Cheviot, where he manages over £1.1 bn pounds in client funds.  He has been in the investing business for over 40 years and and is the author of the 7 year old “Diary of a Fund Manager” weekly diary, which has a readership of over 15,000 across 57 countries.   Our conversation charts David's entry into finance and why it continues to be his passion...

Alexandra Noble is an independent strategic advisor to financial institutions and charities, and has a particular interest in mentoring the next generation of investment leaders.  Her portfolio career includes a consulting role for Pensions for Purpose, coaching and strategic advice to firms, a Chair role at Future-Fit Ltd and roles as a charity trustee and director.   Our conversation is a broad-...

Tim Hodgson is co-head of the Thinking Ahead Institute at Willis Towers Watson.  He previously worked as an investment consultant. Our wide ranging conversation covers the genesis of the Thinking Ahead institute and what prompted the desire to gather industry thought leaders together to work on the most pressing issues facing not only the industry but the planet. Tim's own career has had many twis...

Eoin Murray is Head of Investment at the international business of Federated Hermes.  He has had a long career in investment management, spending time as a hedge fund manager and a quantitative equity specialist.  He recently obtained a certificate in energy innovation and emerging technologies and is a passionate advocate for sustainable investing, greater awareness of climate change and in drivi...

Susan Soh, is Head of Capital Formation and Business Development at GrowthCurve Capital, a private equity firm focused on building world-class businesses by leveraging data, analytics, and machine learning, combined with a comprehensive approach to human capital, to accelerate growth and drive value creation.  At the time of the podcast recording she was Chief of Strategy and Capital Development f...

Andrien Meyers is a Councilman in the City of London Corporation as well as a Head of Pensions Investments at the London Borough of Sutton and Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.  He is a Non Executive Director of Resonance Limited as well as a strategic business advisor to bfinance.  Our conversation starts with his upbringing in India, and moves through his move to the UK, his early career in...

Pippa Gawley invests in what she describes as deep science hard tech innovations to accelerate the zero carbon transition.  She is the founder and director of Zero Carbon Capital, a fund she founded in April 2019, and holds various non-executive director and mentor roles. She has extensive experience in tech, and, latterly, in climate-tech in particular. Our conversation traces her roots and her c...

Bob Snigaroff, who is President and CIO at Denali Advisors, based in San Diego.  The firm is named after Mount Denali, the highest peak in the USA located in Bob’s native Alaska (and the name for the mountain means "High One or Great One").  The firm is classified as a minority run firm due to Bob’s native American heritage and we discuss his upbringing in a fishing village in Kenai Alaska and how...

In the final series of the main Fiftyfaces Podcast for 2021, we have a number of treats in store - from members of underrepresented groups that we often don't hear as much about - such as the Native American and the Asian American population - from Bob Snigaroff who moved from a fishing village in Alaska to Wall Street - but via one of Alaska's biggest allocators, and from Susan Soh, whose America...

Susan Martin is MD of Greenstone Consulting, a change and and transition management firm.  After a long career in the public sector, culminating in a CEO role at a financial services business, she now holds a number of director roles and works as an executive coach.  Our conversation tracks Susan's childhood and early career, and how she became used to frequent change and adaptation.  This led to...

Amanda Pullinger is Chief Executive of 100 Women in Finance, where she leads a staff team and provides direction to 500 volunteer practitioners globally.  100 Women in Finance is focused on empowering women in the finance industry and inspiring the next generation of pre-career young women and has over 20,000 registered members globally. She previously held a series of roles in asset management an...

Elois Joseph is co-founder of the Greenwood project, which is an organization that connects Black and LatinX students with career opportunities in financial services and fintech. She previously held a series of roles in investment banks and other financial service firms, mainly in the trading support and compliance divisions. Our conversation traces her upbringing in Chicago, the positions and men...

Johara Farhadieh is Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of The Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI), in which she oversees a $20 bn defined benefit fund and a $5 bn dollar defined contribution plan with over 150,000 beneficiaries. She has been at ISBI for over 13 years, and prior to that was a financial analyst. She was named an All-Star Chief Investment Officer by Trusted Insight...

David Vafai is Chief Executive Officer at bfinance International Limited, an investment consulting and advisory firm that he founded over 20 years ago.  The firm is known for its innovative service model, which has shifted some of the traditional structures in investment consulting, manager selection and asset management.  Our conversation traces David's early entrepreneurial roots which saw him c...

Jessica Portis is Head of Member Portfolio Management and Services at TIFF Investment Management.  She previously had a long career in investment consulting, first at Summit and then Mercer.  Our conversation start with her first internships - and the Inroads program that she participated in.  This opened the door of opportunity to her - and not only provided an internship, but committed to broad...

Henry Tapper is the CEO at Agewage, a firm committed to helping people understand their pension pots, and the Founding Editor of the Pension Playpen, which provides guidance on pensions.  He has been involved in financial services for his whole career, and is a high profile advocate for pensions education and transparency.  We start with Henry's background, his year on a herring fleet in Iceland a...

Daniele Beasley is a Board Member at Mission Bank, a role she has held since February 2021, and is also a Chief Client Officer in charge of distribution at Apex Financial Advisors. She is a Certified Financial Planner currently focused on using her 30 years experience in the sector to educate and mentor clients  in what she terms “her mid-life reset”.     Our conversation dives in to the theme of...

Darren Johnson is Chief Operating Officer in Listed Equities and Executive Director at Impax Asset Management, where he is responsible for Global Operations, including Portfolio Services, Technology, Change/Project Management and Client Onboarding. He previously worked in a series of accounting and operations roles.  Our conversation starts with his upbringing in South London and why he was born w...

Anji (Anjuman) Kaur Kang-Stewart is Global Head of Marketing at Man Group, based in their London office.  She previously held a series of senior marketing and business development roles throughout the investment industry and is a Member of the Board of Trustees of Nova New Opportunities and the steering committee of Talk About Black. Our conversation tracks the extraordinary story of Anji's childh...

We are back after an eventful summer with Series 4 of the 2021 Fiftyfaces Podcast, with a selection of 10 stories that provide insights from challenges at the beginning, middle and end of life, and the change and personal growth that happens in between. Social mobility is a core theme of this podcast series and we hear how social housing was so essential as safety net for some families and how it...

Gerald Chen-Young is Principal and Chief Investment Officer at GCY Associates, which provides consulting and advisory services based in Washington DC.  He has over 25 years of experience as a Chief Investment Officer, 14 years of which were spent as VP and Chief Investment of the United Negro College Fund.  He previously held a range of financial services roles at firms including UBS, Paine Webber...

Jennifer Ockwell is a Partner at Triple Point Investment Management, based in London, and previously held a series of senior institutional business development roles at large asset management firms.  She is an ambassador for the Diversity Project with a specific focus on the neurodiversity work stream and is a passionate advocate for neurodivergent individuals and their improved integration into t...

Toyin Alalade's last role was as a Senior Strategy Manager with Royal London. She previously worked in a range of financial and marketing roles at Standard Life and Moody Monday. She recently left Scotland and  returned to her home country of Nigeria, and it was a moving Linked In post that she wrote that led me to her.  Our conversation starts with Toyin's upbringing in Nigeria and what led her t...