The Fiftyfaces Podcast

For our second series of 2021, we have a particularly diverse group of 10 inspiring guests who bring different backgrounds and skillsets to the world of investment. We meet with a retired police officer who entered the investment world through representing the pension scheme, a city trader turned Netflix TV producer, an investor in African SMEs, a venture capital investor, a leader of a think tank...

Jenny Segal is a motivational speaker, author and photographer, with a focus on building resilience, improving communication and building better workplace cultures. She had a long career in the investment industry culminating in senior leadership roles in institutional business development and distribution areas and is currently a Senior Investment Officer with Nesta among other positions, includi...

Doug Shaw is Bursar at St. Peter’s College, Oxford, a position he has held for over two years. I got to know him when he was in a COO role within one of Europe's most successful hedge funds, The Children's Investment Fund, and in his investment career he has held a series of fascinating roles, both at start up firms and in large firms such as Gartmore and Blackrock. He has spent time in derivative...

Bridget Uku is Group Manager Treasury & Investments at a UK local authority, where she has spent over 14 years, and she previously worked as Investments and Insurance Finance Manager at the Greater London Authority. She is frequent participant on the local government conference circuit, which is where we met. We talk about Bridget's upbringing in Nigeria, and her time at boarding school in the...

William Bourne is a long-time adviser to the local government pension schemes in the UK, and has over 30 years experience on all sides of the asset allocation business. He in the founder of Linchpin, which provides advice on investments and governance to institutional investors, and has worked in sales as well as investment roles, and has spent a considerable amount of time in Japan. He is a frequ...

Justin Onuekwusi is a Fund Manager and Head of Retail Multi-Asset Funds at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) based in London. He started his career as an investment consultant in an actuarial consulting firm, and moved to a research and portfolio manager role, where he has specialized in multi-asset fund management. Our conversation starts with Justin's upbringing in Manchester, and...

Terry Mellish just recently retired from a head of international public policy diversity and inclusion role at Natixis Investment Managers, capping a career in the city that spanned over 50 years. He is continuing in an active role in the industry as an ambassador of The Diversity Project where he heads up the ability work stream, and is a frequent participant in industry networking events and div...

Robert (Rob) Gardner is Director of Investments at St. James’s Place Wealth Management, a position he has held since early 2019. He was a co-founder of Redington, a consulting firm, where he spent 14 years and remains a non-executive Director. Rob describes himself as a financial activist – on a mission to make money a force for good for people and the planet and create “financial wellbeing in a w...

William Heard is the founder and CIO of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based hedge fund firm that he founded when he was in his 20s, and where he is distinguished by a high conviction concentrated investment style. He was recently named one of Fortune’s 40 under 40 in the finance sector. Our conversation looks back to William's entry into finance, what sparked his fascination with markets and his early...

I’m joined today by Cary Krosinsky who is a lecturer at Yale University where he teaches and advises on sustainable finance, energy studies and climate and investing. He also holds posts at Brown University, Columbia University, and Xian Jiaotong University. Hs is a published author, most recently of “Modern China: Financial Cooperation for Solving Sustainability Challenges” as well as other publi...

Luba Nikulina is Global Head of Research at Willis Towers Watson, based in London, where she oversees the quality of research and investment decisions, new investment solutions as well as technology and strategy in research. She is a Non-Executive director at the Investor Forum, which focus on positioning stewardship at the heart of investment decision making. She has a strong interest in ESG and...

We are absolutely delighted to be back with our 2021 series of The Fiftyfaces Podcast, which is like seeing a group of old friends - something long overdue for many of us. In this first series we continue our exploration of some of the fascinating backgrounds behind some of our investment industry colleagues, and discuss their struggles, their triumphs and their guiding beliefs. We learn about the...

In this very special bonus episode of The Fiftyfaces Podcast we provide a preview of our next spin-off series Fiftyfaces Focus - Inspiring People in the law. The Honorable Judge Victoria Kolakowski, is a judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County, in the Bay Area of California and in November 2010 she was the first Transgender person to be elected a Trial Judge. Judge Kolakowski is a committed...

It seemed to be only fair that after the extraordinary generosity of the 58 guests of the first season of The Fiftyfaces Podcast I should open myself up to the same questions. To do this, I chose one of the best, Ted Seides, interviewer extraordinaire, and host of The Capital Allocators Podcast, which you can check out here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/capital-allocators/id1223764016 Our...

Bola Tobun is Investments and Treasury Manager at the London Borough of Enfield. She is a frequent participant on the local government conference circuit, which is where we met, and she has a long history of experience in pension fund roles across local government and pensions administration businesses. Our conversation starts with Bola's background in chemical engineering, and how this drove her...

Dr. Ylva Baeckstrom is a lecturer and researcher in finance at King’s College Business School in London, where she has a particular interest in behavioural finance, investment decision making and investment advice, with a special interest in gender and the interplay between advisors and their clients. She previously worked in banking for over 15 years, and also has a psychotherapy practice, which...

Genia Diamond was most recently a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Merlyn Advisors, a special situations advisory and investment firm. She was previously a partner of Cantab Capital, where she headed up the business development area for over 8 years. She started her career in asset management in research and then held a series of business development roles at a range of asset managers. Sh...

Kristin Finney-Cooke is an investment consultant based in Chicago, who works with a range of public pension plans across the Midwest, along with other institutional investors. She has a particular interest in promoting and encouraging diverse asset management firms, particularly those that are female and minority owned. In this conversation we do a deep dive into her rich family history of academi...

Connie Teska is principal and co-founder of Pluscios Management, a fund of hedge funds manager based in the Chicago area. Pluscios is a Greek term meaning wealth, abundance, and riches and the firm, founded in 2006, has two female founders. She has a long history in investment management, particularly in the area of alternative investments. Our conversation returns to Connie's Greek roots, and wha...

Kelli Schrade is an institutional consultant and director at Graystone Consulting, a Morgan Stanley company, and is based in Chicago. She has had a long career in manager selection and investment consulting and is a self-described “market junkie”, who is committed to making change through her work with clients and diverse investment managers, among other causes. She is a Board Member at the Lincol...

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...

Kourtney Gibson is President of Chicago-based Loop Capital Markets, one of the largest privately-held investment banks in the country. After joining the company as an intern more than 20 years ago, she has held various roles at the firm, including spearheading its global equity division for more than a decade. She is a member of The Economic Club of Chicago and sits on the board of trustees of the...

In this bonus series of the Fiftyfaces podcast we meet eight accomplished women who offer a frank assessment of their journeys into the investment world and their experience in it. We hear about being underestimated, and whose problem this is, really. We discuss the imposter syndrome, the high drop-out rate of senior women, and how a Board Director is using her position to drive inclusion and know...

Carrie Pickett has had a long career in asset management, and was recently a founder and principal of Blueprint Capital Advisors, having held a series of roles as Controller, director of operations, and marketing and investor relations in other asset management firms. She is a frequent contributor to the dialogue around the need for more diversity in the asset management industry. Our conversation...

Ariane Barker is CEO of Scale Investors Ltd, based in Melbourne, which invests patient capital in female-founded Australian early stage businesses. She has had a long career in global finance, including roles in investment banking in the US, Europe, Japan and Australasia, and in 2011 was identified as one of seventy high potential board-ready women after being awarded an AICD board diversity schol...