The Purse Podcast

Vicky Pryce is Chief Economic Adviser and a board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).  She was previously Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, Director General for Economics at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service. Before that she was Partner at the accounting and consulting firm KPMG...

Mary Ellen Iskenderian is President and CEO of Women's World Banking, a global nonprofit devoted to giving more low-income women access to financial tools and resources they need for both security and prosperity. Prior to Women’s World Banking, Mary Ellen worked for 17 years at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank. She had previously worked for the invest...

Sara Zulkosky is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Recast Capital, a 100% women-owned platform investing in and supporting emerging managers in venture, with a focus on diverse partnerships. Sara previously served as a Venture Partner at Greenspring Associates (now StepStone Group), where she was responsible for sourcing and due diligence efforts across the platform, managing and supporting e...

Marypat Smucker is a Co-Founder and Principal at Parallelle Finance, a gender lens investment research firm founded in 2019. Prior to founding Parallelle, Marypat was a consultant in investment communications and editorial services for global asset management firms. She began her consultancy following a role as Managing Editor of Institutional Investment Communications at T. Rowe Price. Before tha...

Dr Louann Brizendine MD, completed her degree in Neurobiology at UC Berkeley, graduated from Yale School of Medicine, and did her internship and residency at Harvard Medical School. She has also served on both the faculties of Harvard University and the University of California at San Francisco. She founded the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at UCSF. Her NY Times bestsell...

Jill Pay is a former Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons and she was the first woman to hold this position in 600 years. Her appointment was unusual in that her predecessors all came from a military background, whereas Jill’s experience has been in business management.  She retired in January 2012. Since leaving Parliament, Jill has held a number of senior roles for organisations includi...

Kisha Mays is a successful serial entrepreneur, visionary global business development strategist, a best-selling author, an angel investor and a philanthropist. Her primary focus is on helping to scale 1 million fearless female entrepreneurs generating a minimum of $1 million in annual revenue, turning them into unicorn global businesses through the HerStory Made Angel Fund, which is a fund exclus...

Jordan Dargue is a founding director, non-executive director, Women Angel of the North, investor, talent & business growth consultant supporting start up, early stage and scaling organisations to reach their potential. She is a senior business leader operating across the investment, finance and business growth landscape. Jordan is also a mentor and advisory board member, helping start-ups...

Anna Raptis is the Founder and CEO of Amplifica Capital.  Amplifica Capital is the first female focused VC firm in Mexico. They make investments that have a positive impact on the lives of women to increase their opportunities and participation in the economy. Anna is an investor with over 25 years of experience. Her guiding principle is invest in the change you want to see .  Anna’s exp...

Sharon Vosmek is the CEO of Astia and Managing Partner of the Astia Fund. Astia is a global organisation  that works to level the investment playing field for startups that include women. Ms. Vosmek developed  Astia’s creative, proven approach to investment – called the Astia Expert SiftTM - that eliminates bias in the  investment screening process and contributes to the success of...

Ella Chase Hyland is the co-founder of Wellth Works, which cultivates and develops authentic feminine leaders, showing women that they create success while integrating balance and fun. Ella is a dynamic and innovative speaker, facilitator, and mentor. She is a recognised authority on the psychology of leadership, negotiations, and organizational turnaround. Before launching Wellth Works, Ella spen...

Merryn Somerset Webb is Editor in Chief of Moneyweek, the best selling financial magazine in the UK. She is also a contributing editor to and weekly columnist for the Financial Times. She has just published her second book, Share Power: How Ordinary People Can Change the Way That Capitalism Works - and Make Money Too. We cover the following in the conversation: How have we become a nation of share...

Marcia Dawood is an investor in over 200 early stage private companies. In addition to her own investing, she is a Venture Partner with Mindshift Capital and a part of the investment committee for Next Wave Impact Fund.  She also serves as a board member and advisor to Zive and Misfits Bakehouse.  SheEO is an organization Marcia actively supports. She currently serves as the Chair of the...

Professor Heather Jane McGregor,  CBE  is the Executive Dean of  Edinburgh Business School ,  Heriot Watt University . She is a non-executive director on several boards and received the IoD Scotland Chair’s Award in 2020. She is the author of the ‘Mrs Moneypenny’ column ( Financial Times  1999-2016) and presented the Superscrimpers show on Channel 4.  An earlier caree...

Ann Badillo is a leading business strategist and advisor to executives, entrepreneurs and organizations. She incubates and accelerates startup ventures and ecosystems around the world. Her expertise helps leaders understand new innovative design and leadership frameworks for the 21st century.  Ann is an investor in Portfolia (US based) which designs investment funds for women to invest i...

Angela Atherton (CFA, FRM) is the Co-founder and Principal of Parallelle Finance. Her commitment to financial inclusion and impact investing began at the start of her career when she managed screening and performance analysis for two ESG indexes.  She structured private equity deals at American Capital Strategies. She led risk analysis and management functions at Fannie Mae and Calvert Impact...

Shaun Richards is an independent economist who specialises in inflation measurement and monetary economics. This follows a career in the City of London where he specialised in derivatives (mainly options) on interest-rates and bonds.  Shaun has also worked in Tokyo. He is a Bank of England watcher which covers the issues of monetary policy and money printing or quantitative easing (QE). Shaun...

Shelly Porges is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, a global consortium of venture funds pledged to invest in female-founded firms and Beyond the Billion, mobilising LP investors into TBDF funds . She is also a Board Member of the Financial Alliance for Women and on the Advisory Board for Mindshift Capital, Different Funds and Global Invest Her. Shelly is a globa...

Fiona O'Donnell McCarthy is a Principal at True Ventures. For more than a decade, she has partnered with founders to drive product innovation and help them to create the futures they envision. Her experience spans product management, strategy, and business development for both consumer and B2B companies. Most recently, Fiona was the VP of product for direct-to-consumer food company Daily Harvest,...

Dr. Kate Levinson, PhD, licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT), is the author of  Emotional Currency: A Women’s Guide to Building a Healthy Relationship with Money, published by Random House. Her work focuses on the emotional, psychological and symbolic nature of money.  She assists others in making connections between their money behaviors and the meanings money hol...

Cathy Curtis, CFP® is the founder and CEO of Curtis Financial Planning, a full-service financial planning firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area serving clients in the US. Cathy’s mission is to be a fiduciary financial partner for independent women, so they can feel confident about their finances while pursuing what they love and do best. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and member of CNBC’s Fi...

Christina (CJ) Juhasz is the Chief Investment Officer of WWB Asset Management (WAM,) a subsidiary of Women’s World Banking, responsible for raising and investing private equity funds with a gender lens. Prior to joining Women's World Banking, CJ served in increasing positions of responsibility in Deutsche Bank’s fixed income group in New York and London and Merrill Lynch’s capital markets group in...

Helene Guillaume is the founder and CEO of  WILD.AI . She studied mathematics and financial risks, she was a quant in a hedge fund and management consultant to Fortune500 companies in AI.  She's an ultra-marathon runner, a triathlete, and a surfer. Her favourite combined skillset is vitality+brains. We cover the following in our conversation: Women's health The gender data gap Helene's s...

Isabel Oriol Bastos is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Head of Business Development at  ADA Impacto , a female-founded fintech startup. Isabel spent 10 years in the social impact sector. She started her career in Brazil and Chile, working at the UN and social startups. After studying a Masters in International Development at the London School of Economics (LSE), she founded Ánima Soluci...

Vicky Pryce is Chief Economic Adviser and a board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). She was previously Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, Director General for Economics at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service.  Before that she was Partner at the accounting and consulting firm KPMG...