The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Rachel Green is Director of Institutional Sales at Nuveen. She started her career in risk management and moved into a sales role in 2014.  She has been a prominent voice in the City of London on issues of diversity and inclusion and is the founder of The Skills Workshop, to help women and young people understand their career options, share stories and to identify with others as well to create a se...

David Hutchings recently retired from Albourne Americas where he was most recently Partner Emeritus having spent over 14 years at the firm where he founded the private equity research practice when he joined. He previously held a range of senior private equity roles in a career that spanned over 50 years. We start with the serendipitous start to his career - how he was tapped on the shoulder while...

Kimberly Smith is Head of Capital Formation at Techstars.  She was previously Director of Marketing and Investor Relations at Owl Creek Asset Management and before that worked at Davidson Kempner and ABN AMRO.  She holds a number of Board Roles and is an active advocate for education. Kim is already known as a force in the world of client development and client service in the hedge fund arena. We...

Welcome back to The Fiftyfaces Podcast in 2022. In this first series we meet with ten more inspiring guests and draw out in particular themes relating to impact and the importance of education.  For some of our guests their commitment to educating the next generation – whether through personal sponsorship, Board Roles, teaching decision making or the founding of The Skills Workshop – there is univ...

In this last episode in this collection we go primarily to the US and Middle East, where we meet with some seasoned as well as newer directors to hear their thoughts on the evolution of the role and the power of diversity. We also hear from two guests, Dr. Rania Azmi and Kimberly Smith, who will feature in the first series of our 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast.   First we hear from Jan Nicholson, who is...

In Series 3 of this FiftyFaces Focus Series focusing on the Next Chapter – and specifically portfolio careers and what makes an effective Board Member and Chari we meet with Alexandra Noble, Daniele Beasley, Susan Martin and Henry Tapper.  We hear from a group of leaders committed to training the next generation of leaders, coaching through change and ensuring that all pensioners get to retire wit...

In our second podcast of our Fiftyfaces Focus Next Chapter Series we hear from four more seasoned voices who are all pursuing a rich and diverse set of roles.  First we meet with Margaret Casely Hayford, CBE, Chancellor of Coventry University, Special Trustee at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and Chair at Shakespeare’s Globe, among other board roles.  She talks about the steep lea...

Caroline Burton has a portfolio career which includes roles as an independent advisor to local authority pension plans and a NED role. She previously spent over 25 years at the Guardian Royal Exchange, where she was promoted to manager at the age of 28. She retired from that organization in 1999 and has since built a portfolio career.  Our conversation starts in what seems like an entirely differe...

Sharmila Kassam is the founder of Aligned Capital Investing, as well as holding a portfolio of Board roles. She was previously Deputy Chief Investment Officer of the Employees Retirement System of Texas, a public defined benefit plan with around $30 bn in AUM, where she held a series of roles for almost 12 years. She previously worked as an attorney and a venture industry professional. She is a Se...

Debbie Clarke was Global Research Chair and Global Head of Investment Research at Mercer for close to 16 years, following an extensive career in asset management and consulting which included 20 years as a portfolio manager.  She retired from her position at Mercer in June 2021 and is building a portfolio career, including a NED role on the EMEA board of Blackrock and a member of the UK CFA Instit...

We are issuing this replay of Sally Bridgeland's podcast - Sally featured in the first series of The Fiftyfaces Podcast in August 2020.  Sally Bridgeland needs no introduction in London institutional investing circles. Following a long career as an actuary, investment consultant and investor, culminating in a role of CEO at BP Pension Trustees for the 19 BN GBP BP pension fund, she has pivoted to...

In this inaugural "next chapter" podcast episode, we hear from four extraordinary leaders in investment management circles - each pathbreakers in their own right, and each of whom is dedicating this current chapter of their career to a portfolio of Board and other roles. Many executives enter a portfolio or "plural" career once they finish up a traditional executive role, but there is a distinct l...

Margaux O’Brien is Investment Director at the University of California investment office, based in Oakland, CA.  She previously spent over 14 years in the fund of hedge fund area, where she specialized in equity long/short and other equity hedge funds. Prior to that she was an investment consultant.   Our conversation starts with Margaux's upbringing in South Africa, her introduction to investment...

Adam Demuyakor is the founder and managing partner at Wilshire Lane Capital, a venture capital and private equity firm that focuses on PropTech solutions based in Los Angeles California.  Born in the US to a family originally from Ghana, Adam started out on Wall Street in investment banking and held a number of private equity and venture capital roles before found in Wilshire Lane.  He also holds...

Pat Lynch, who was Founder, President and CEO of Chicago Equity Partners, a Chicago based asset manager for over 20 years.  He now holds investment and strategic advisory roles within the investment industry and is on the board of directors of Loyola Business School, as well as the Ballmer Center for Social Justice. Our conversation covers Pat's decades of experience in finance, including starting...

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...