The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Joey Mason is a Venture Partner in Life Sciences at Claret Capital Partners where he has been since September 2024. He has over 30 years’ experience in the sector, and has significant experience in most segments of the Life Sciences industry – medtech, pharma/ biotech, diagnostics, health IT and techbio. He has served on the boards of 20 private and public companies in Ireland, Europe and the USA. Our conversation covers the dynamics of venture investing - particularly in the biotech sector, and the differences between the European and US venture ecosystems. He stresses the need for speed and confidence in execution in Europe, and the massive potential that bold investing techniques can have. This is a salutary reminder of the competitive nature of this field. A special thank you to our sponsors at Baillie Gifford and GCM Grosvenor. Baillie Gifford is a long-term investment manager, dedicated to discovering the innovations and changemakers that deliver exceptional growth opportunities for you.GCM Grosvenor is a global alternative asset management solutions provider, with more than $90 billion in assets under management across private equity, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and absolute return strategies.For over 50 years, the firm has helped investors navigate the complexities of alternative investing through a flexible, open-architecture platform. GCM Grosvenor is also focused on what’s next. Through its Elevate strategy, the firm supports the next generation of private equity leaders, making seed investments in emerging managers and providing the resources, network, and strategic guidance needed to help them grow. With nearly $800 million raised for its inaugural Elevate Fund, GCM Grosvenor is helping drive innovation and expand access across private markets. Learn more at gcmgrosvenor.com.

In this bonus podcast we bring you a short conversation with long-term guest and supporter of Fiftyfaces - Jenny Segal, who has just published her sixth book On Motivation - The Blueprint for Success, which is being launched today - October 6, 2026. In this conversation - our third with Jenny - you can find the rest of Jenny's podcasts on our webpage - fiftyfaceshub.com - she speaks about her "motivation" for writing her sixth book and the surprising insights that she derived from her various interviews with professionals across different disciplines. You can find her video here, a link to her website here, and the book on amazon here.

Anwiti Bahuguna, who is Co-Chief Investment Officer at Northerm Trust Asset Management, where she has spent over three years. She was previously Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Multi-Asset Strategy for Columbia Threadneedle Investments, and has a PhD in economics from Northeastern University. Our conversation starts with her study of labor economics inspired by her mother, who was also an economist. We discuss how she considered an academic career, then evolved into an asset manager, when she discovered a passion for that instead. We dig deeply into the role of multi-asset strategies and how this strategy has matured over time, as well as the differing way that clients are thinking about them in a portfolio. We compare the role of client solutions - whether custom indices for very large institutional asset owners, or index plus returns. We discuss customisation as a "base layer" in client solutions today, as well as the differing levels of risk appetite. A special thank you to our sponsors at Baillie Gifford and GCM Grosvenor. Baillie Gifford is a long-term investment manager, dedicated to discovering the innovations and changemakers that deliver exceptional growth opportunities for you.GCM Grosvenor is a global alternative asset management solutions provider, with more than $90 billion in assets under management across private equity, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and absolute return strategies.For over 50 years, the firm has helped investors navigate the complexities of alternative investing through a flexible, open-architecture platform. GCM Grosvenor is also focused on what’s next. Through its Elevate strategy, the firm supports the next generation of private equity leaders, making seed investments in emerging managers and providing the resources, network, and strategic guidance needed to help them grow. With nearly $800 million raised for its inaugural Elevate Fund, GCM Grosvenor is helping drive innovation and expand access across private markets. Learn more at gcmgrosvenor.com.

Keith Williams is Managing Partner – Credit Strategies and Chief Investment Officer at Crestline Investors Inc. Crestline has a suite of strategies across direct lending, fund liquidity solutions, insurance and reinsurance. Keith was previously a director at Goldman Sachs and an Executive VP at McKinsey in their Recovery and Transformation unit. Our conversation with Keith starts with the work ethic that was instilled in him during his young adult years and how the years working in restructuring shaped his approach to difficult assignments and thinking about tradeoffs. We move then to his launch of the credit strategy within Crestline and some of the ups and downs that came along that trajectory. We end with reflections on what really matters, pulling the lens back to focus on the importance of family and balance. A special thank you to our sponsors at Baillie Gifford and GCM Grosvenor. Baillie Gifford is a long-term investment manager, dedicated to discovering the innovations and changemakers that deliver exceptional growth opportunities for you.GCM Grosvenor is a global alternative asset management solutions provider, with more than $90 billion in assets under management across private equity, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and absolute return strategies.For over 50 years, the firm has helped investors navigate the complexities of alternative investing through a flexible, open-architecture platform. GCM Grosvenor is also focused on what’s next. Through its Elevate strategy, the firm supports the next generation of private equity leaders, making seed investments in emerging managers and providing the resources, network, and strategic guidance needed to help them grow. With nearly $800 million raised for its inaugural Elevate Fund, GCM Grosvenor is helping drive innovation and expand access across private markets. Learn more at gcmgrosvenor.com.

Robert Holley is Executive Director and Pensions Investment Manager at the $4 bn Baltimore City Fire and Police Employees' Retirement System. He has had a career that has spanned both the private and public sectors in financial services. Our conversation charts his journey from the private to the public sector and the investment beliefs that he has developed over time. At Baltimore F&P he has taken a particular interest in achieving excellence in governance, given the constraints that are natural in public fund organisations. This has involved a compelling YouTube video (linked here in this Linked In post)  which touches on resource building, partnerships and collaboration and how to scale a lean organisation. We discuss the current asset allocation at the fund, how it has evolved over time and how it is likely to evolve given the current funding challenges faced by public funds. Finally we look at investment office governance and how to create a sustainable organisation where the centre holds for the long haul.A special thank you to our sponsors at Baillie Gifford and GCM Grosvenor. Baillie Gifford is a long-term investment manager, dedicated to discovering the innovations and changemakers that deliver exceptional growth opportunities for you.GCM Grosvenor is a global alternative asset management solutions provider, with more than $90 billion in assets under management across private equity, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and absolute return strategies.For over 50 years, the firm has helped investors navigate the complexities of alternative investing through a flexible, open-architecture platform. GCM Grosvenor is also focused on what’s next. Through its Elevate strategy, the firm supports the next generation of private equity leaders, making seed investments in emerging managers and providing the resources, network, and strategic guidance needed to help them grow. With nearly $800 million raised for its inaugural Elevate Fund, GCM Grosvenor is helping drive innovation and expand access across private markets. Learn more at gcmgrosvenor.com.

This bonus podcast captures some of the audio we recorded in London on September 4, when we were delighted to host Mark Steed, CIO of the $27 bn+ Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System for a breakfast in London. Our agenda was ambitious, intending to cover three main areas: Football, AI and Decision-Making. We barely got through the first one.We started with the investment by the fund in Ipswich Town football club - an investment made post-Covid that returned (based on publicly available information) 10x on its initial investment to date, traced the value that the fund created through infrastructure and personnel investment and discussed the future for other similar football club investments. The discussion revealed a fascinating intersection of luck, skill and aligning stars - starting with a bold investor with a streamlined and friction-free governance regime. The investment at the time was less than 0.4% of the pension fund’s size so line-by-line approval was not necessary. The management of the investment from afar was achieved by employing a liaison from one of the fund’s manager relationships - a real estate expert, who proved to be critical in catalysing the necessary real estate and infrastructure improvements in the stadium and surrounding facilities. The value-add approach extended to deepening and broadening the team too - the ultimate investment in talent - paying up for star players, investing in a good manager. This proved to be pivotal to enhancing the morale and the performance of the team. The team just secured a promotion to the Premier League earlier this year, its second since the PSPRS investment (its first in 2024-2025 was short-lived), and the pay-packets and team valuation have soared. We discussed the surge in interest in investing in sports teams, the price inflation that is accompanying it and the perceptible development of sport as an investment that is now taken seriously. It is not just a game.Finally - because all stories need both a story arc and an ending, we discussed the recent reduction in the PSPRS stake in Ipswich Town and the entry of Ed Sheeran among a group of other investors. It is true that sports are unifying - uniting a politician, a CIO and a musician.In this follow up podcast recorded 6 days after that breakfast we finished the thoughts that we didn't have time to capture and have a full discussion on the topic of AI and decision making. A special thank you to our sponsors at Baillie Gifford and GCM Grosvenor. Baillie Gifford is a long-term investment manager, dedicated to discovering the innovations and changemakers that deliver exceptional growth opportunities for you.GCM Grosvenor is a global alternative asset management solutions provider, with more than $90 billion in assets under management across private equity, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and absolute return strategies.For over 50 years, the firm has helped investors navigate the complexities of alternative investing through a flexible, open-architecture platform. GCM Grosvenor is also focused on what’s next. Through its Elevate strategy, the firm supports the next generation of private equity leaders, making seed investments in emerging managers and providing the resources, network, and strategic guidance needed to help them grow. With nearly $800 million raised for its inaugural Elevate Fund, GCM Grosvenor is helping drive innovation and expand access across private markets. Learn more at gcmgrosvenor.com.

I’m joined today by Cary Krosinsky who appeared on the podcast in 2021. I have put his previous podcast is here.  I invited Cary back after 5 years which have been transformative for the field of sustainability with notable headwinds and tailwinds that have shifted the emphasis of the field. He has written a new book called Transition Momentum, and in advance of its official launch in Montreal at BDC on September 8. See www.sfipublishing.comIn our conversation we discuss his activity over the past five years and the central argument of the book, which is that we're not making sufficient momentum towards the sort of transitions that we require on the environmental side. That's obviously primarily climate change, but it's also on the ground environmental degradation that's occurring in different parts of the world. We discuss why GDP may not necessarily be the best way to measure success and end with the 10 misunderstandings of sustainable financing. This and many more frameworks form the basis for this challenge to conventional thinking and hope for a richer future.A special thank you to our sponsors at Baillie Gifford and GCM Grosvenor. Baillie Gifford is a long-term investment manager, dedicated to discovering the innovations and changemakers that deliver exceptional growth opportunities for you.GCM Grosvenor is a global alternative asset management solutions provider, with more than $90 billion in assets under management across private equity, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and absolute return strategies.For over 50 years, the firm has helped investors navigate the complexities of alternative investing through a flexible, open-architecture platform. GCM Grosvenor is also focused on what’s next. Through its Elevate strategy, the firm supports the next generation of private equity leaders, making seed investments in emerging managers and providing the resources, network, and strategic guidance needed to help them grow. With nearly $800 million raised for its inaugural Elevate Fund, GCM Grosvenor is helping drive innovation and expand access across private markets. Learn more at gcmgrosvenor.com.

Ali Houshmand, leads the non-traded REIT initiatives for EQT real estate, where he manages the formation, strategy, and portfolio construction of EQRT - EQT’s first open-ended real estate vehicle in the non-traded REIT space. He previously spent close to a decade at the Texas Permanent School Fund, where he helped build that $50 billion endowment's real estate program. We discuss his career journey and his considerable amount of time spent "in the trenches" of property development and negotiation. We discuss his LP-centric approach while at the Texas Permanent School Fund and how he leaned into championing LP viewpoints in which he offered considerable constructive feedback to manager relationships. He highlights the importance of asking thoughtful questions and building relationships, which AI may not replace. At Texas Permanent, he helped grow the real estate allocation from 6% to 11%, focusing on industrial and operator-led strategies. At EQT, he launched EQRT, emphasizing the need for a clean balance sheet and unique operational capabilities. He also stressed the importance of AI in enhancing investment processes while maintaining human judgment and relationshipA special thank you to our sponsors at Baillie Gifford and GCM Grosvenor. Baillie Gifford is a long-term investment manager, dedicated to discovering the innovations and changemakers that deliver exceptional growth opportunities for you.GCM Grosvenor is a global alternative asset management solutions provider, with more than $90 billion in assets under management across private equity, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and absolute return strategies.For over 50 years, the firm has helped investors navigate the complexities of alternative investing through a flexible, open-architecture platform. GCM Grosvenor is also focused on what’s next. Through its Elevate strategy, the firm supports the next generation of private equity leaders, making seed investments in emerging managers and providing the resources, network, and strategic guidance needed to help them grow. With nearly $800 million raised for its inaugural Elevate Fund, GCM Grosvenor is helping drive innovation and expand access across private markets. Learn more at gcmgrosvenor.com.

After an extremely fast-paced summer we are delighted to be back for Series 4 of the Fiftyfaces Podcast for 2026. This series dips into dips into venture capital and private credit, does a double dip into real estate. We explore the challenges of allocator governance (for families and public funds alike) and end with a passionate discussion of how art can transform brands. We startt with a conversation that gets to the heart of how AI can be a liberating force and hear one of the most intriguing transformations of AI - enabling people to be a chief question officer. We discuss how Europe needs to enhance its speed if it is to compete when it comes to venture capital (why time is the enemy) hear about the advantages of transparency when leading, why being true to oneself is essential, and about why customisation is the future.We explore the impact of wealth tech on private wealth and advising individuals (hint: will lead to more customised solutions) and look at what the new wave of family offices actually want in their advisors. We hear also from a public fund leader about how he is being creative doing more with less and never compromising on quality.We end with a powerful bonus episode about the power of art and culture to elevate brands as well as career trajectoriesTune in from September 2 and every Wednesday for a new episode. You can follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your podcasts. Please like and follow us.

Maggie Coleman is Chief Investment Officer Real Estate Equity, North America as well as Global Head of Client and Portfolio Solutions at Manulife Investment Management.  Prior to joining Manulife, she spent most of her career in real estate and capital markets. Our conversation traces her journey in which she considered an academic life, spent time in her own firm, and cycled through various firms across the spectrum of real estate. We discuss the key drivers of real estate returns, its role in a portfolio, how clients are using real estate today and what she sees as the compelling opportunity set today. We hear about the importance of "going to know", and how there is little substitute for on the ground experience and lessons learned through doing, and in particular with developing one's network early. The Fiftyfaces Podcast is supported by Franklin Templeton and Alvine Capital. Franklin Templeton is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of investment solutions, including mutual funds, ETFs, alternative investments, wealth management, and technology-enabled financial services. Founded in 1947, the firm manages approximately $1.8 trillion in assets under management (AUM) and serves individual and institutional investors across more than 150 countriesFounded in 2005, Alvine Capital is a European focused private capital advisory and placement agent that provides capital raising services to investment managers. From its base in London and its office in Stockholm it creates bespoke capital raising programs that blend appropriate investor targeting and sophisticated marketing to deliver a fundraise aligned with institutional expectations.