Enterprising Investor

In Episode #271, Will Ortel sits down with an investor, Ron Bruder, who has made the transition in the hopes that others can learn from his journey. Ron Bruder established Education for Employment at the beginning of the century to target the problem of Arab youth unemployment. Since that time, his foundation has spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa and won acclaim from the World Economic Forum, The Guardian, and former US President Bill Clinton. In this interview, Bruder discusses how he chose to dedicate himself to philanthropy, the tools he has found useful, and how philanthropy can influence the future.

In episode #270, Dr. Yoshiko Takayama, former board governor of International Corporate Governance Network and a current member of Japan Corporate Governance Forum, shared her perspectives on the subject with us. Many changes have taken place in Japan's corporate governance in recent years. Last year the Stewardship Code was approved with much fanfare and now the corporate governance code. What's really happening on the ground? What can foreign investors expect and what to watch for in the future?

In episode #269, Erika James, dean of Goizueta Business School at Emory University, is well-known for her research in the areas of crisis leadership and workplace diversity. She has written that crises are inevitable and every organization will experience a crisis of some magnitude. In this interview, Dean James discusses how leaders can prepare for a crisis and then take the experience and use it to take the organization to the next level once the crisis ends. She also talks about the business case for diversity and the importance of corporate culture.

In episode #268, Will Ortel and Melissa Cook, CFA, discuss why it's critical for companies and investors to pay attention to the continent, where they can fruitfully devote their attention, and how it is emerging as a battleground for a new category of company.

In episode #267, Clare Flynn Levy is founder and CEO at Essentia Analytics, a software firm that allows fund managers to capture data about their own behavior so they can improve their investment processes. In this interview, she discusses a fundamental problem that investment professionals share: they sell skill, but get paid for performance, and yet the two are not the same. Ms. Levy explains how and why it's important for fund managers to keep track of their investment processes so they can learn to avoid, or minimize, behavioral biases in the future.

In episode #266, Carla Harris, a managing director and vice chairman of global wealth management at Morgan Stanley and author of Expect to Win, explains the business case for diversity in the business world. She also shares career advice, or what she calls "pearls of wisdom," acquired over a nearly three-decade career on Wall Street, and talks about how she hires and how her leadership style has evolved over time.

In episode #265, John Coates, research fellow in neuroscience and finance at the University of Cambridge, researches the biology of risk taking and stress. Previously, he traded derivatives for Goldman Sachs and ran a trading desk for Deutsche Bank. Dr. Coates's book, The Hour between Dog and Wolf, was short-listed for both the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Book of the Year Award and the UK Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize. His research on risk taking has attracted interest from business, medicine, the military, and elite sports teams. Foreign Policy named Dr. Coates one of the most influential thinkers of the year. He holds an MPhil and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

In episode #264, Andreas J. Sauer, CFA, shares key characteristics of his approach to macro investing, which infers market expectations for both real growth and monetary policy. Sauer also discusses how he developed trading strategies based on this approach.

In episode #263, James Clunie, CFA, ASIP, a fund management director at Jupiter Asset Management, manages an absolute return fund with a global long/short investment mandate. In this brief interview, he discusses the role of shorting in the price discovery process, what makes a stock an attractive candidate for shorting, and the risks associated with the practice.

In episode #262, Martin Wolf joins Robert Stammers, CFA, to discuss his newest book and his presentation at the 68th CFA Institute Annual Conference in Frankfurt, Germany. Wolf discusses the causes of the financial crisis and what options are available to investment professionals and policy makers to strengthen the financial system and to potentially avoid additional financial calamities. Martin Wolf also explains the need to change the role and focus of central banks in relation to their part in the crisis, and what they can do to reduce the risk of continued financial insecurity. Wolf concludes the interview with practical insights for investment professionals.