The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Susana Coutinho is a Research Director at MainStreet Partners, a firm that provides investment Advisory and Portfolio Analytics on Sustainable, ESG and Impact investments. She is Portuguese, and has studied and worked in Italy as well as London, and has previously worked as an ESG analyst and in accounting. Our conversation covers how Susana entered the field of ESG analysis and impact investing,...

Uche Orji is CEO of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, based in Abuja, Nigeria. A native of Nigeria, he has had over 20 years experience in various financial roles including semiconductor analyst in Europe and the US, before returning to Nigeria just over 8 years ago. He also holds a number of Board roles. Our conversation starts with Uche's early career in investment banking and particu...

Series 3 of the Fiftyfaces Podcast 2021 is all about bold thinking. We hear from Uche Orji of the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Authority about his vision for investing in innovation in Africa, and from Faisal Rafi of Riscura, again an Africa based consulting firm, about the ground breaking changes underway in China, and what this means for an investment thesis. We speak with Susana Coutinho about ESG...

Yele Aluko is Chief Medical Officer at EY, a role he has held for close to 4 years. He is Co-Chair, Health Equity Advisory, at the international Well Building Institute, an Advisory Board Member at the Children’s National Hospital and a Board Member at the Wake Forest University School of Business. He has worked as a Cardiologist in hospital settings for over 30 years. Yele was born in Nigeria and...

Aman Kapadia is managing partner at Akaris Global, a hedge fund firm based in New York City. He previously worked at another fund Fir Tree Partners, and before that was an investment analyst focused on an event driven style of investing. Our conversation starts with Aman's childhood which was spent living around the world, and then a taxing academic load, which included both a JD and an MBA, after...

Shruti Van Dyke Gandhi is General Partner and Founding Engineer at Array Ventures which invests in enterprise deep tech early-stage companies. Shruti is also a professor in the computer science department at Columbia University. She spent her early career as a developer on mainframe security, collaboration tools, and data analytics. Post engineering, she invested in early-stage companies at True V...

Mitesh Sheth is CEO of Redington, an investment consulting firm based in London, where he has spent almost 8 years. He started his career as an investment analyst and held various roles in asset management firms and in his own strategy and innovation consulting business. We talk about his childhood first and how he learned to bring his authentic self into the workplace. Something seemingly minor -...

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 differen...

Oli Shakir-Khalil is an investment director in EM Debt at Fidelity International, based in London. We met at an industry conference where he discussed his role as a mental health ambassador within his firm and the industry and his efforts to amplify the importance of mental health awareness. He is passionate about the need to reinforce listening within organizations and the debunk the myth that th...

Andrew Osayemi is a specialist diversity recruiter at Rare Recruitment and the creator of the Netflix TV show Meet the Abebanjos. He started his career as a city trader and then took the plunge into starting a TV production company, MTA productions – although, as he claims he did not “know anything about TV”. He is the author of the book “How my Disastrous Teenage Love Life Will Get You Your Dream...

Heidi Ridley is Co-Founder and CEO at Radiant ESG, based in the Bay Area of California. She has had a long career in asset management, including roles as CEO of Rosenberg Equities, a division of AXA Investment Managers, global head of client service and head of North America institutional sales. She is a member of the Advisory Council at the Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership. Our conversati...

Michiel Timmerman is founder and managing partner at Mbuyu Capital Partners, which is an Africa focused investment boutique focused on financial services and agriculture, as well as Equity for Africa and EFTA, both focused on equipment leasing in Tanzania. He previously held a series of CIO roles across various asset management businesses in the City of London, including Ignis Asset Managemnent, w...

Marisa Hall is co-head of the Thinking Ahead Institute at Willis Towers Watson, where she has spent most of her career, starting initially as an investment consultant. She was named Woman of the Year in the 2020 Women in Finance Summit & Awards Series and was on the 2020 List of Financial News Rising Stars in Asset Management in Europe. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Diversit...

Jim Maloney is a director at the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association and a director of Beachpoint Capital Management. He was a trustee of the Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund for over 11 years, including 1.5 years as interim chief investment officer. He retired from the Chicago Police in 2017, after 35 years of service, which saw him rise to the rank of Lieutenant. Jim has been ac...

Leon Brujis is a Partner a Palladium Equity Partners, a private equity firm, headquartered in NYC. The firm is focused on making investments in middle market companies with a special focus on partnering with founders and family-owned businesses, and a particular focus on the Latinx consumer. He has held a number of board roles, and is currently on the Board of New America Alliance, a not for profi...

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...