The Fiftyfaces Podcast

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, including an ambassador role with the Diversity Project. Our conversation starts with Jenny's entry into the investment world, the motivation she received from her school and her family and her rise through the ranks in a profession that did not always value diversity. In a profoundly moving segment we speak about a health setback of breast cancer and how that changed her perspective on life, on her self-worth, and on what her next chapter would be. We then turn to Jenny's current focus, which is as a motivational speaker where she works with companies to improve their corporate cultures - drawing upon her own decades of experience as well as personal journey. This is an exciting time for Jenny, as she has recently published a book focused on workplace cultures, and in particular motivating and de-motivating behaviors, and is developing her consulting business under her Speaking with Images brand. There is more information on Jenny's new book: Motivation - Building Better Workplace Cultures here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0923WJ2BT/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jenny+segal&qid=1617993968&sprefix=jenny+seg&sr=8-1This podcast was made possible by the kind support of Alvine Capital, a specialist advisor and placement boutique, based in London.

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 derivatives sales, building a business for charity clients, and in managing hyper-fast growth, and now holds various NED and Investment Committee positions in addition to his Bursar role.Our conversation starts with Doug's first trip to Oxford, what he thought he knew when he emerged, and what it turns out he actually did. In his early investment roles he worked with some disruptors, particularly in the hedge fund arena and built businesses run by strong personalities and serving weighty clients. We speak about what he learned from these experiences and the efforts he is making now, in an area (third level learning) that has been upended like never before. He is passionate about making the investment industry more accessible across the socio-economic spectrum and invites students of his Oxford college to observe the investment process as it relates to the endowment. At every stage of Doug's career he has brought tremendous energy to his tasks in hand - our discussion of his efforts in terms of diversifying access to investment shows that energy alone may not be enough. This podcast was made possible by the kind support of Alvine Capital, a specialist advisor and placement boutique, based in London.

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 UK with her sisters and the cultural shift that that involved. We then move to how she overcame her aversion to maths to embrace a role that involved quite a lot of numbers - and discuss how having a family increased her drive to advance through her career and pursue promotions.Finally, we look back to the family and other industry figures that inspired her and her approach to taking on new challenges and reach assignments. This podcast was made possible by the kind support of Alvine Capital, a specialist advisor and placement boutique, based in London.

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 frequent commentator and participant on the investment advice conference circuit and a co-host of an occasional webinar series with me in which we bring together a lively group of investors and their advisers. Our conversation starts with William's long and varied career which has been both global and hyper-local, and has included many start-up situations, some of which had varying degrees of success. We discuss his investment beliefs, and how helps his client to navigate the current market volatility and how his views have evolved over time.We then dive what William terms his "hinterland", which is a particularly rich one - from his love of small-craft sailing, which included some stormy encounters and even a shipwreck, to his passion for bridge, which is one that he is committed to passing on to younger generations. We talk about some of the under-appreciated aspects of bridge - how it makes you think, and the skills it lays down for life. There is more information about William and Linchpin (including William's blog) on: https://www.linchpin-advisory.com/homeThis podcast was made possible by the kind support of Alvine Capital, a specialist advisor and placement boutique, based in London.

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 some of the challenges that came with it, and then moves to how he became interested in the actuarial profession and ultimately the world of investing. We discuss his recent blog post on LinkedIN called “where do we go from here?” which describes the early age he became aware of racism, learning how to code switch as early as primary school and micro-aggressions that he experienced throughout his career. We explore all of these in more detail, examining what it is to truly feel like you belong, and how firms can create a better sense of inclusion for all of their employees. Justin discusses his passion for mentorship and the circles that he coaches, which enable younger career entrants to develop and ultimately thrive.Justin was pivotal in the recent #talkaboutblack campaign and speaks about what that means, and why it is important to be colour brave instead of colour blind, and to work to improve race fluency. His prescription for this is grounded in empathy, and in creating psychological safety for all colleagues to make mistakes without judgment. See Justin's LinkedIN blog post here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6732603742996299776/ and follow him on LinkedIN for more information about #talkaboutblack and the 10,000 Black Interns campaign that he supports (https://www.10000blackinterns.com/).This podcast was supported by Alvine Capital, a specialist investment advisor and placement boutique, based in London, and the Guild of Investment Managers, which was found in 2015 by a group of investment managers, to combine the benefits of a modern, diverse and dynamic network organization with the traditions of the livery world.

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 diversity and inclusion themed initiatives.Our conversation, and this podcast's title, references an article recently published featuring Terry in which he describes being born "on the wrong side of the tracks" but nonetheless entering the city at a very young age and working his way up. Terry spent much of his life working with institutional clients and he describes his extraordinary work ethic in which he learned to express his opinion only after finding how much it was valued. There were many changes in the City over the course of his career and we discuss whether the City has come far enough in encouraging socio-economic diversity and mobility and how it needs to improve.One of the most affirming aspects of my conversation with Terry is our discussion of the energizing effect that his taking on a diversity and inclusion role had towards the end of his career. This unexpected turn, facilitated by a supportive sponsor, provided a new beginning at a time when careers typically wind down, and acted as launch pad for the next active chapter of his life - post retirement.There is more information on the Diversity Project at: https://diversityproject.com/This podcast was made possible by the kind support of Alvine Capital, a London based specialist investment advisor and placement boutique.

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 world worth living in”. He is a passionate advocate for financial literacy and has written a children’s book on the topic called "Save your Acorns" (see: https://saveyouracorns.com/). He is on the expert committee of the Retirement Investment Systems Reform Project of the World Economic Forum.Our multi-layered conversation looks back to Rob's youth, when he spent a period of time in Argentina and later in a boarding school in the UK. His early days of juggling exchange rates and experiencing the reality of hyper-inflation sowed the seeds for a passion for numbers and finance, and we trace his years in finance before he took the leap to found Redington. We then pivot to some of Rob's core beliefs that guide his current advocacy - his passionate focus on increasing financial literacy, particularly in young children, and his advice around what it means to invest for a world worth living in. We speak about his current work that encourage planning for living to 100 (and beyond) and how investing with a sustainable lens is critical. Rob leaves us with some of the advice he gives to the young people he mentors: that they should begin with the end in mind - and to nurture their three pools of capital: intellectual capital, social capital, and financial capital. This endorsement to keep learning, build networks and to manage risk and finances prudently is a powerful trinity that applies well beyond the walls of finance and investment. This podcast was supported by Alvine Capital, a specialist investment advisor and placement boutique, based in London, and the Guild of Investment Managers, which was found in 2015 by a group of investment managers, to combine the benefits of a modern, diverse and dynamic network organization with the traditions of the livery world.

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 training within a multi-strategy hedge fund firm. A self-described introvert in his style, William discusses how his team relies on debates not screens and focuses on what company management says v. what they do in order to determine where the value lies.We turn then to the decision to launch his own firm, which he took at a particularly young age. We note the support he had from a range of backers who saw talent and believed in it, and how he has now built on his initial traction to gain scale. William has a clear love of markets, their complexity and unpredictability, and this conversation is a refreshing look at what makes them so appealing and filled with opportunity. This series of The Fiftyfaces Podcast was made possible by the kind support of Alvine Capital, a specialist investment advisor and placement boutique based in London.

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 publications in the area of Sustainable Innovation and Impact. He is co-founder of the Sustainable Finance Institute as well as the Carbon Tracker Initiative among other initiatives and has worked closely with institutional investors to develop sustainable investment strategies and goals.My conversation with Cary traces the different phases of his career - which he counts (to date) as five. We talk about his early interest in sustainability, how he approaches cultural differences, particularly when taking the message to China and beyond, and how he has seen the field evolve. His endorsement to be flexible in one's career ambitions, to take time to allow careers to breathe, is one that resonates particularly well in today's volatile times. This podcast was supported by Alvine Capital, a specialist investment advisor and placement boutique, based in London.

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 innovation in investment strategy. Our conversation discusses her upbringing in Russia, her stint as an entrepreneur, her academic journey to London and her move into investment consulting and research. Luba speaks about what excites her most in the area of investment research today and her passion for stewardship and why she believes that this will be central to investment strategy going forward. This podcast was supported by Alvine Capital, a specialist investment advisor and placement boutique, based in London, and the Guild of Investment Managers, which was found in 2015 by a group of investment managers, to combine the benefits of a modern, diverse and dynamic network organization with the traditions of the livery world.