The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal #246 David Neal: Oxford Engineer to $240B Global Investor, Building a Sovereign Wealth Fund and Financing AI Infrastructure
Episode #246 features a rare and candid conversation with David Neal, CEO of IFM Investors, a global asset manager overseeing more than A$240 billion. He previously served as inaugural CIO and later CEO of Future Fund, Australia’s sovereign wealth fund managing more than $200 billion in assets globally on behalf of the Australian Government.
In discussion with Vidit Agarwal, David reflects on his journey from a small English town to leading one of the world’s largest infrastructure investors, unpacking values in finance, trust and professionalism, building Australia’s $200B sovereign wealth fund through the Global Financial Crisis, the operational realities of the CIO job, the tension between purpose and price, and the future of infrastructure in an AI-driven world.
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The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, Tennis Australia), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep) and more.