Episode 2: Series 2 2023 - The Golden Thread

Between Series 1 and series 2 of 2023, we kicked off a brand new focus series – the Love Series – in celebration of love in February 2023.  This had a great response – reminding us of what made people human.  It sent one listener back to his old photo album to remind himself of his showjumping days, and others felt motivated to take up hobbies again.  

Now we are back to our main series focused on investment professionals but love runs through it like a golden thread.  Love, discipline, lessons from parents.  Our guests include a former college football player, who spent time working as a prison guard before returning to university and ultimately entering the investment industry, an expert on music valuation, multiple ESG and pensions specialists and founders of fund companies - large and small.  

Our Series 2 guests are:

Eddie Welch, who is an alternative asset specialist at Nuveen, a role he has held since April 2021.  He previously worked as an Associate at CIM Group, focused on real estate investing, and prior to that and his degree at Ohio State University worked in a wide variety of roles and played college football, all of which we discuss in our podcast.

 
Jennifer Grancio  is Chief Executive Office at Engine No. 1.  Engine No. 1 is an investment firm that identifies value creation opportunities in once-in-a-generation systems changes the economy is now going through. She is based in the San Francisco Area.  She previously founded and ran her own firm advising CEOs on accelerating revenue growth and prior to that was a Managing Director at Blackrock, where she led businesses and global distribution teams for close to 20 years.  She is a Board Member of the MannKind Corporation and Ethic investments. 

Barry Massarsky is a Partner and Co-Practice Leader, Music Economics and Valuation Services at Citrin Cooperman.  The Founder of Massarsky Consulting, which he sold to Citrin Cooperman early in 2022. He is credited with pioneering the economics of royalty cash flows in the early 1990s and together with his business partner, Nari Matsuura, developed a model to guide banks lending to music investors. Last year Massarsky Consulting valued over 300 catalogs totaling more than $6.5 billion. 

 
Maneesha Ghiya is Managing Partner and Founder of FemHealth Ventures, a firm focused on providing investment capital to entrepreneurs focused on women’s health. Investing in healthcare since 2000, Maneesha has invested via public equities, private equities and as a hedge fund specialist.  She is a Senior Advisor to ExSight Ventures, an ophthalmology-focused venture capital fund and serves on multiple boards.  

Adam Saron is Founder of Clara-Pensions, a member-first consolidator of defined benefit pension schemes. He previously ran Black Ant Investment Management, a long-biased value investor, which invested in both public equities and corporate credits. 

Afsaneh Beschloss is the Founder and CEO at RockCreek, an investment firm which invests across diverse sectors with a special focus on climate, affordable housing and education investments in developed, emerging and frontier markets. She is on the Board of Directors of the Global Advisory Council of the Bretton Woods Committee, a Member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds numerous other Board and Trustee roles.

Kate Nevin is President and Portfolio Manager at TSWII Capital Advisors, a role she has held for over 20 years.  She is active with many industry groups (such as The Academy of Institutional Investors and Nexus) and community organizations focused on conservation and gender equality and was a Riley Diversity Fellow. She is passionate about aligning value and investing in diversity.

 
Sarah Whitley is Chair at Future Asset, an organization which connects girls, teachers and advisors to the diversity of opportunities in asset management.  Based in Edinburgh, she was previously Head of Japanese Equities at Baillie Gifford and currently holds a number of director roles, including as External Director at Rakuten, and Chair at the Edinburgh Festival Endowment Fund.

 
John Harney,  is a Senior Consultant with AON, where he focuses on helping pension scheme sponsors to manage pension risks and maximise potential upside.  He is based in the Oxford area.  I cam across John through mutual friends in the industry and because I was drawn in particular to his Linkedin posts that mentioned his joy in cooking and baking, which we discussed as part of the Love series as a bonus episode. 

 
Charlotte O’Leary is Chief Executive Officer and Director of Pensions for Purpose, which exists as a bridge between asset managers, pension funds and their professional advisers, to encourage the flow of capital towards impact investment. She has had a long career in investment management, with a particular focus on pensions as well as ESG and impact investing. She is also a passionate participant in fitness competitions, which we discussed as part of the Love series as a bonus episode. 

Series 2 of 2023 is kindly sponsored by Beach Point Capital Advisors, an investment manager that believes in investment beyond the traditional.  It specializes in credit investments and employs a flexible, value-oriented, risk-controlled focusing on complex and less well-followed opportunities.  

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