Enterprising Investor

In Episode #328, we visit with Dr. Notebaert,founder and CEO of One Step Ahead—Notebaert Consulting, which specializes in helping companies and people put neuroscience into practice.

In Episode #327, Omar Selim, founder and CEO of Arabesque, an ESG quant asset management firm, sits at the nexus of ESG, machine learning, and big data. In this interview, Selim tells viewers why he believes Arabesque is "the Tesla of finance," what he thinks finance will look like in the next decade, and what it means to build a values-based asset management firm.

In Episode #326, Roberto Rigobon describes the Billion Prices Project, an alternative measure of inflation he developed with a colleague at MIT. He discusses the inspiration behind the Billion Prices Index, its composition and correlation to the US Consumer Price Index (CPI), and the practical implications of this work for policymakers and asset managers.

In Episode #325, John Wilson explains how to integrate key tenets of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing into the equity research process. He also offers insights into the outlook for ESG investing, including the opportunities and challenges it offers, as well as the prospects for improved ESG-related disclosure by firms.

In Episode #324, Christine L. Todd, CFA, shares her outlook for infrastructure spending in the United States and explains both the benefits and risks associated with investing in infrastructure through US municipal bonds.

In Episode #323, Heather Brilliant, CFA, Managing Director, Americas, at First State Investments, explains what it will take to make that shift and what needs to change for the industry to routinely act in the best interests of the client. She also discusses why we need to rebuild trust in the industry and the importance of assembling diverse investment and leadership teams.

In Episode #322, Elizabeth Corley, non-executive vice chair of Allianz Global Investors, a global asset manager owned by Allianz, has worked in the financial industry for 40 years and helped steer her company through the global financial crisis. In this interview, she discusses why it's critical that investment firms create a culture of accountability and inclusivity. She also explains why it's imperative that leaders help employees and clients focus their outlooks on the longer term and discusses the need for more diverse investment and leadership teams. Corley also offers her answers to the questions of what major trends investment firms must adapt to in order to be successful, trends that are most worrisome, and what will be the biggest change to the profession in the next decade.

In Episode #321, Dr. George Friedman, founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures, a firm that specializes in geopolitical forecasting. Dr. Friedman also discusses immigration in Europe, the ramifications of secession movements, and much more, including his view of China five years down the road and why he draws inspiration from Hegel, the German philosopher.

In Episode #320, Andrea Turner Moffitt, a co-founder of Plum Alley Investments, a private investment platform that supports promising women entrepreneurs and gender-diverse teams, provides an overview of early-stage investing — how much was invested in 2016, what is getting funded, and who is making the decisions — and discusses why certain ideas and founders stand out, some of the challenges of being an early stage investor, and why women entrepreneurs need funding. She also shares with viewers the three key takeaways of her book, Harness the Power of Purse: Winning Women Investor, and explains why it is crucial that financial advisers today be "gender smart."

In Episode #319, Wesley Gray delivers a thorough discussion and analysis of factor investing. Gray explores the limits to arbitrage, making a compelling case for investing using opportunities that others hypothesize should not exist.