The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Kirsty Gibson is an investment manager at Baillie Gifford, where she has spent over 13 years.  She is currently focused in particular on investing in US equities with a growth orientation. Our conversation starts with Kirsty’s roots and her training in classical ballet. This was an unusual yet direct route to Baillie Gifford as she first came across the firm when she saw that they were sponsoring a ballet performance they had attended – evidence that sponsorship of similar events does in fact get noticed and yield returns! We move then to her investment beliefs, her Masters in carbon management and what she derived from it and her approach to stock picking. We dive into the cultural aspects that make a firm a rewarding place to work, and about the mindset needed to thrive as an active equity manager today.  This podcast is kindly sponsored by Evanston Capital and Alvine Capital. For over 20 years Evanston Capital has had a key focus in identifying early-stage investment managers it believes are capable of generating long-term, value-added returns in complex, innovative strategy areas. Alvine Capital is a specialist investment manager and placement boutique with a particular focus on alternative assets with significant presence in London and Stockholm.

This inaugural episode of The Long and Short of It with Ian McKnight kicks off with a reflection on a news-filled Christmas period where geopolitics started the year in explosive fashion and markets started to digest the aftermath.Today's episode features Aoifinn Devitt, Senior Investment Advisor at Moneta, as a guest and we discuss topics as diverse as the impact of geopolitics, UK growth, interest rates and the need for the triumph of hope over nihilism!We conduct a health check on US equity markets, looking at valuations and of course the Mag 7, tracing their fortunes along the course of the year, and check in on how stocks such as ‪@tesla‬  have forged their own path and how the "average may lie" when it comes to both earning expectations and returns

Everaldo Franca is CEO at PPS Portfolio Performance, a role he has held since 1996. He has deep experience with advising pensions and institutional investors in Brazil. Our conversation starts with his upbringing in Sao Paolo and the straitened circumstances wrought by the economy  that forced various job changes and a combination of academic and professional pursuits. We discuss what it means to build one's career in an economy under strain, with high inflation, unpredictability and volatility. We discuss then the process behind starting PPS Portfolio Perfomance and the proof of concept that led to traction for the business. We end with a detailed discussion of the challenges facing pension funds and other institutions in Brazil at a time when interest rates for domestic short term rates. Series 5 of 2025 is kindly sponsored by Diamond Hill. Diamond Hill invests on behalf of clients through a shared commitment to its valuation-driven investment principles, long-term perspective, capacity discipline and client alignment. An independent active asset manager with significant employee ownership, Diamond Hill’s investment strategies include differentiated US and non-US equity, alternative long-short equity and fixed income.

Matias Guajardo Marchant who is a Portfolio Manager Farmland at Toesca Asset Management in Santiago. He is an Agronomist with a career fully dedicated to agriculture, firmly believing that this sector is one of the fundamental pillars of both the Chilean and global economy. He is a mentor with Startup Chile and has held a series of financial roles throughout his career. Our discussion dives into the nature of agriculture as an asset class and the potential to structure investments in high-value, sustainable agriculture for institutional investors. Matias describes the favorable political and economic backdrop to this strategy in Chile today where the economy is open and there are numerous trade agreements in effect.We discuss the wave of focus on sustainability and how this can enhance the return for investors as well as how the sustainability impacts are measured. Finally we reflect on some of the learnings that he has internalized over the course of his career - including, memorably, the notion that if you look after the small money, the big money will look after itself as well as the importance of patience, long term thinking, and strategic planning.This podcast is appearing as our penultimate episode in our special Latin American voices focus series.

James Clark is senior managing director at Blue Owl and the Global Head of Institutional Capital. He has 26 years of asset management experience, and prior to Blue Owl, worked for Pimco, Golden Tree Asset Management and Landmark Partners.   We had met on the circuit during my time as an allocator with Chicago Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund, and I recently enjoyed listening to him on this podcast with Ted Seides of Capital Allocators. https://youtu.be/laLuf6XrrDw?si=uixmWOvMGnPNeydfI wanted to catch up with James to capture some of his lessons learned amid such an accomplished career as an institutional capital raiser - he has an innate ability to play the long game, and a sharpened set of skills that enable him to know what a client needs and when, as well as when to dial things back. Diving in to these skills, he notes the value of active listening, core competencies, and the alignment of values in leadership. We end with a discussion of the changing dynamics of the private credit market, and the team’s approach to building strong partnerships with clients.Series 5 of 2025 is kindly sponsored by Diamond Hill. Diamond Hill invests on behalf of clients through a shared commitment to its valuation-driven investment principles, long-term perspective, capacity discipline and client alignment. An independent active asset manager with significant employee ownership, Diamond Hill’s investment strategies include differentiated US and non-US equity, alternative long-short equity and fixed income.

Jamila Osman is a trainee investment manager in the graduate training program at Baillie Gifford. She graduated from Edinburgh University with a First in Chemical Engineering. Our conversation starts with her upbringing in Ghana and the pioneering training high school training program that prepared her for a demanding academic load in science that paved her way to Edinburgh University.We describe how she developed an interest in finance and this then transitions into a discussion as to what her generation is looking for in an employer today. This includes paying more than mere lip service to employee wellbeing, being mindful of mental health, offering flexible work solutions and stretch opportunities. She describes a typically intense and varied work day at Baillie Gifford and the blend of deep research time with industry network events that is so essential in an apprenticeship. This podcast is also being released as part of our Ghanaian voices series.Series 5 of 2025 is kindly sponsored by Diamond Hill. Diamond Hill invests on behalf of clients through a shared commitment to its valuation-driven investment principles, long-term perspective, capacity discipline and client alignment. An independent active asset manager with significant employee ownership, Diamond Hill’s investment strategies include differentiated US and non-US equity, alternative long-short equity and fixed income.

Rebecca Heun, Managing Director at Aksia LLC, blends her early ambition for Broadway with nearly two decades in operational due diligence. They discuss the importance of reading between the lines and understanding human behavior in fraud detection. Rebecca delves into the fraud triangle, emphasizing pressure, opportunity, and rationalization. She offers insights on the growing role of AI in document analysis but warns of its limitations. With captivating anecdotes from her career, she also highlights stress management and the essential nature of on-site diligence.

Jo Natauri is Founder and managing Partner of Invidia Capital Management, a healthcare focused private equity firm founded in 2024, with a focus on middle-market buyouts in North America. She was formerly Global Head of Healthcare Investing in the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs.We start by discussing Jo's path to investment banking and how she chose the business side of healthcare over policy. We discuss her long period of apprenticeship and then leading investments while at Goldman Sachs and her decision to strike out in her own firm. Jo explains the diversity within healthcare, from biotech to hospitals, and the permanent base of demand that makes it a good sector to invest in.  She discusses her core beliefs, including avoiding investments that increase drug prices or target vulnerable populations, and discusses the opportunity set that excites her in the middle market arena. When it comes to mentors Jo has had some legendary investors within her circle and cites the apprentice nature of the investment business as a key aspect to be remembered and observed across the seniority spectrum. Series 5 of 2025 is kindly sponsored by Diamond Hill. Diamond Hill invests on behalf of clients through a shared commitment to its valuation-driven investment principles, long-term perspective, capacity discipline and client alignment. An independent active asset manager with significant employee ownership, Diamond Hill’s investment strategies include differentiated US and non-US equity, alternative long-short equity and fixed income.

Lindsey Bass is Head of Marketing and in charge of Fundraising at ImpactA Global, a position she has held since late 2023. She is a passionate advocate for more diversity in the investment industry as well as emerging managers. She has been active on the Asset Owner Diversity Charter as an Advisory Board Member, and in the Diversity Project – investment industry, where she has co-led the Mental Health Workstream as well as other responsibilities. She has also been an early and consistent supporter of Fiftyfaces – for which we are hugely grateful.Our conversation starts with Lindsey's upbringing and her creative household, which saw her naturally gravitate towards storytelling in TV production, and then later expressing herself via the fashion industry before eventually settling in the world of finance. Moving to her work at ImpactA Global as well as finance more broadly we start out by sketching the landscape in terms of asset classes, large and small participants as well as strategies that create impact and how it should be defined. With the particular subsector that ImpactA focuses on, Lindsey explains the firm's focus on infrastructure financing in lower and middle-income regions, aiming to deliver better economic outcomes and address inequalities. We define impact and discuss some of the unexpected benefits such as the multiplier effect that investing in communities can have. Moving on to other industry contributions Lindsey highlights her involvement in the Asset Owner Diversity Charter, focusing on improving data and conversations between asset owners and managers, as well as her advocacy for emerging managers more generally.Lindsey is a tireless advocate and enthusiastic and creative member of the London financial services industry. It was a pleasure to celebrate her numerous contributions in this forum. Series 5 of 2025 is kindly sponsored by Diamond Hill. Diamond Hill invests on behalf of clients through a shared commitment to its valuation-driven investment principles, long-term perspective, capacity discipline and client alignment. An independent active asset manager with significant employee ownership, Diamond Hill’s investment strategies include differentiated US and non-US equity, alternative long-short equity and fixed income.

George Graham is Director and Head of Fund at South Yorkshire Pensions Authority. He has spent a long career in public service, culminating in the last 8 years at SYPA, and prior to that he spent his career in various finance roles at Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Chorley, Lancashire and LPP. He is Governor and Vice Chair of Barnsley College as well as Independent Chair of the Local Pension Board at Lincolnshire County Council. George will be retiring from his role as Head of Fund at SYPA at the end of the year, and this discussion was an opportunity to reflect on a career in which public service dominated, and against which a dramatically changing market backdrop cast a long - and positive - shadow. We track his early insights into the challenges of local government, and how his finance roles started to overlap with the investment function. This sight of the investment function led him to be an early mover in local government pooling - starting with the Lancashire and LPFA merger a decade ago - and he explains why the rationale is, for him, so clear cut as the demands of institutional investing have grown.We speak too about his commitment to local investing as well as to a sustainability agenda, which, as in many of his endeavours has been bold and ahead of its time. Finally we reflect on learnings from a long and varied career, about the development of a leadership style, about learning to go against a natural tendency to be more introverted and deliberately reach out to team members to support them. We end with a discussion of legacy, which in George's case will be a long and impactful one. Series 5 of 2025 is kindly sponsored by Diamond Hill. Diamond Hill invests on behalf of clients through a shared commitment to its valuation-driven investment principles, long-term perspective, capacity discipline and client alignment. An independent active asset manager with significant employee ownership, Diamond Hill’s investment strategies include differentiated US and non-US equity, alternative long-short equity and fixed income.