The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Catherine Beard is SVP of Alternatives Consulting at Callan, the investment consultants. She has had a long career in investment consulting and allocation with a particular focus on private credit and is based in Chicago. Catherine is a veteran of the private credit arena, having cycled through time on a bond trading desk at a hedge fund, and having the irreplaceable experience of being "in the room where it happened" in the financial crisis of 2008. We briefly tour through her roots in Kentucky and growing up in a family of bankers, then explore her rise in the ranks of finance. The good, the bad and the ugly of the hedge fund world pre and post 2008 is dissected as only Catherine can - with candor, realism and a good dose of humor.We move then to her move into consulting and a spell at an allocator where she built a private credit portfolio before pivoting back into the consulting role. We talk about the private credit opportunity set, distinguish what is sustainable and here for the long haul from the fly-by-night fad strategies.  We look inside the mindset not only of an allocator but also of a credit investor and ask what it takes to stay to course. Some of this includes pattern recognition, and how to flex one's entrepreneurial muscle even within a large firm, because entrepreneurial instincts rarely die away. We look at the strain that can come from M&A at a firm level, and how cultures don't always meld and can ultimately destroy each other. One plus one can sometimes be negative. Finally we turn to Catherine's personal reflections, which may be summed up by the great French icon Edith Piaf, "Je Ne Regrette Rien".  Given Catherine's love of all things French and her inspiring sense of adventure it is a fitting creed for a bold and adventurous career.Series 1 of 2024 is supported by Apollo Global Management, a leading provider of alternative asset management and retirement services solutions. Apollo seeks to provide clients excess return at every point along the risk-reward spectrum and is focused on empowering retirees, building and financing stronger businesses and driving a more sustainable future. 

2024 will be a year of tremendous change, and tremendous noise.  With elections in key regions, we are likely to be subjected to a volley of rhetoric and uncertainty will be the order of the day. In times like this, it seems even more important to reach out to our wise community for their insights on what should stay the same, and evolve, amid this uncertainty. Tune in to hear about the power of networks, the importance of investing in relationships for the long term, the need for certainty and the importance of hearing the bad news early - particularly as a credit investor.  We also talk about the blue economy, the power of capital, company culture and blockages to effective governance, as well as the transformational role of alternatives in individual portfolio.  Tune in to hear from Catherine Beard, about her path through private credit and Jason Singer about what it means to provide solutions to clients on a global scale, and how alternatives will grow as portfolio components.  Uwe Schillhorn charts his career, which involved stints in Latin America and other Emerging Markets, and describes how the desire for certainty drives advisory behaviors even amid great market volatility while Paul Richards takes us deep inside the governance mindset and teaches us some words that every board member and executive should learn.Elizabeth Browne charts her extraordinary career and family history of female empowerment and shares the kind of founder she is now committed to supporting, while Asha Mehta takes us on a journey of her own, describing the Power of Capital, the book she wrote with the same title, and how being an Adventure Capitalist has become her life's mission.Chris Gorell Barnes describes the depths and opportunities in investing in the Blue Economy, and Shane Lanigan describes why credit investors need the bad news upfront, while discussing the opportunity set in Ireland and the UK. Julie Castro Abrams talks us through creating a seat at the table for all women, while Angela Miller May returns to the podcast to update us on her new CIO role at IMRF in Illinois, and how she is determined to leave no stone unturned in making an impact.  Series 1 of 2024 is supported by Apollo Global Management, a leading provider of alternative asset management and retirement services solutions. Apollo seeks to provide clients excess return at every point along the risk-reward spectrum and is focused on empowering retirees, building and financing stronger businesses and driving a more sustainable future. 

In this podcast we return to a former guest, Matt Sherwood, whom we featured in an earlier podcast in this series (see https://www.fiftyfaceshub.com/157-matthew-sherwood-ph-d-of-wevidit-media-determination-vision-and-the-power-of-reframing/) in order to catch up with his new venture, Pothos Partners. The name comes from the golden pothos plant which sequesters carbon particularly efficiently among plants. It is also a resilient plant that is difficult to eliminate. The firm will be focused on delivering asymmetrical value opportunities and is currently focused on the opportunity set in California carbon emission allowances market. Matt describes the window of opportunity in this market and some of the misunderstandings that persist about this market, particularly how it is differentiated from the voluntary carbon offset market. He ties it to the goal that many investors have to achieve net zero targets and how this regulated market can offer real evidence around emissions and progress. Finally we return to Matt's own story of visual impairment and how this has not deterred him from pursuing his passion of value investing, founding a firm and making impact. This bonus series is kindly supported by Sound Mark Partners. Sound Mark Partners LLC is a women-owned and led private credit firm focused on commercial real estate.

Jane Buchan is CEO of Martlet Asset Management, based in Newport Beach CA. She was one of the co-founders of Pacific Alternative Asset Management in 2000, which grew to $32 bn n AUM under her leadership. She was been a chair of the Board of CAIA as well as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and has a number of Board roles. Jane's career straddles academic life and an entrepreneurial and business one, and she describes how her time as a professor taught her to be comfortable being an outsider, and confident in challenging the status quo. We follow her into consulting and then into striking out boldly to service a select group of large institutions - the genesis of what became PAAMCO. The unique structure and approach taken by PAAMCO led it to stand apart from peers, and we discuss some birthing pains that launching a new approach entailed. Moving to her current portfolio of roles, we examine the growth of group think in governance structures, and how developing a voice should be approached. We move then to topics of leadership, decision making and mentorship. Overall this is a richly layered conversation from one of the founders of the approach to hedge funds as we know it among institutions today. This bonus series is kindly supported by Sound Mark Partners. Sound Mark Partners LLC is a women-owned and led private credit firm focused on commercial real estate.

John Teahan is a portfolio manager at Redwheel, which is focused on value oriented UK and global equity funds where he leads on engagement and responsible investing. The firm was formerly known as RWC Our conversation starts with John’s early life on a farm, and the resolute work ethic that that instilled in him. His college education took him into Bank of Ireland asset management and eventually London. There was a detour out of finance into a media role which saw him visit and write about frontier markets such as via a number of emerging market countries including Ethiopia, Ghana and Turkey. We spend some time examining what that experience taught him about impact and sustainability and then move to his move back into finance and learning the art of value investing. We then move to the Climate Engagement Strategy of which John is portfolio manager and talk about the origins of such a product, what it entails and how clients have responded to what it delivers. We take a short detour into the future of engagement and how that is evolving and how it will serve the emerging net zero agendas going forward. This bonus series is kindly supported by Sound Mark Partners.  Sound Mark Partners LLC is a women-owned and led private credit firm focused on commercial real estate.

Sinead Faughnan has worked as a financial advisor with UBS for the past 17 years. She is focused in particular on inter-generational wealth transfer. We start by discussing Sinead's rich Irish roots, her parents were originally from County Kerry and she herself was born in Ireland and moved to the US when she was three years old. She discusses her upbringing in Yonkers and the values that her parents' work ethic instilled in her. When it came to her own career, she was driven to be self-sufficient and once told, along her trajectory, that she was too ambitious for a role. We dwell on that for a minute - asking whether it inspired or deflated her, and ultimately learn how it made her only more determined to win at the game, even it meant playing - for a spell - by some different rules. With a long career in wealth management we trace her mentors, her role models and how she learned to find her own voice with her clients. Ultimately this meant giving them a voice - setting the table around their expectations, learning curve and values and only then, when these basics are set, moving to the investment discussion. We speak about the evolution of financial planning and the role that a compassionate advisor can play. We talk in particular about the concerns of female clients and how we can include them more in the conversation. When it comes to words of wisdom, Sinead suggests saying yes to stretch assignments and dressing for the job you want, not the one you have. This bonus series is kindly supported by Sound Mark Partners, Sound Mark Partners LLC is a women-owned and led private credit firm focused on commercial real estate.

Shari Greco Reiches is founder of Rappaport Reiches Capital Management a firm designed to help clients navigate their most crucial financial decisions. She has a particular focus on “Women in Charge” and is active in a number of affinity groups and holds a number of board roles, including previously ISBI, the Illinois State Board of Investments. She is the author of the book “Maximize your Return on Live” and podcast host. Our conversation starts with tracing Shari's own childhood and her "money story", and we learn the importance of lessons laid down early. These include the reminder that she could have anything she wanted, but not everything she wanted, which instilled the importance of choosing, forgoing some opportunities but ultimately maximizing one's return in life. This concept of maximizing is one that Shari lives out in her private wealth practice as well as the guidance that she gives to her clients. We hear about the heuristics and practices around saving, self-care, choices, open conversations and ranking of values that form the bedrock around her practice and use this to look to the future of wealth management and how it will continue to evolve. Finally, we turn to Shari's book and podcast and discuss the motivation behind each of them and the role of continuous learning in her life. You can learn more about Shari's writing and podcast here: https://sharigrecoreiches.com/book#:~:text=The%20Book%20%2D%20Maximize%20Your%20Return%20on%20Life&text=Her%20personal%20stories%20and%20related,your%20relationship%20with%20money%20today This bonus series is kindly supported by Sound Mark Partners, Sound Mark Partners LLC is a women-owned and led private credit firm focused on commercial real estate.

Saira Malik is Chief Investment Officer at Nuveen, a TIAA company. She is an active voice on social media, regularly posting videos on LinkedIn containing market related and career related content. She recently celebrated her 20th anniversary at Nuveen. We start by exploring Saira's own background, which starts with her grandmother’s determination to study medicine, even though that was not a typical route for women at that time. She succeeded and served as an inspiration for her granddaughter. Saira’s own academic path was an unconventional one and we talk about that and the grit that enabled her to pursue a role in investing. We trace her early investment immersion and then her trajectory at Nuveen.  We discuss then investment beliefs, and the importance of breaking down barriers to promote better financial literacy and access. Saira’s own approach to this is to deliver a prolific amount of bite-sized videos, newsletters, social-media posts and other content that serve to demystify the world of investing and ensure that it is accessible to more. We move then to discuss socio-economic mobility more generally, and the importance of investing in oneself. Leadership styles, mentorship, the power of networks and the importance of visibility – these are all themes that emerge in this rich conversation. This bonus series is kindly supported by Sound Mark Partners, Sound Mark Partners LLC is a women-owned and led private credit firm focused on commercial real estate.

Katie Stitch is a partner at W Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in the NYC area that provides secondary liquidity solutions to private company shareholders and to PE/VC investment firms. She has held a number of Board roles and started her career as an analyst in investment banking. Our conversation tracks her education at U Penn and her discovery of the world of secondary investments. We then do a deep dive into the burgeoning area of secondaries - covering the evolution of the area from largely LP-led to now increasingly GP-led transactions. We compare these investment types in terms of liquidity, return profile and time horizon, and account for the staggering growth in the incidence of GP led secondary transactions as extension vehicles become more and more popular. We examine the investor perspective on all of this and suggest how secondaries could be added to a portfolio and the role they might play. In our reflection section Katie cites her motto of "sharing the credit and shouldering the blame" as well as other words of wisdom gathered over an illustrious career. This bonus series is kindly supported by Sound Mark Partners, Sound Mark Partners LLC is a women-owned and led private credit firm focused on commercial real estate.

Kate Fox is an Investment Manager at Baillie Gifford based in Edinburgh, where she leads the impact strategy Positive Change and is a Partner at the Firm. Our conversation traces her career journey, explores the meaning of "positive change" within an investment context and examines the way to develop a successful career in portfolio management. We start with Kate's upbringing in a small village near Aberdeen and the love of maths and physics that led to finance as a possible career path - discovered through the milk round. She describes her desire to have a positive impact on society, and how, initially, she didn't conceive how a job in finance could deliver that. This sowed the seeds for a focus on how investing could focus on companies with positive change. We move then to what an impact strategy really is, and how positive change is defined and measured. We look at investor demand for and scrutiny of such strategies and discuss the likely evolution of this area in the future. Finally, turning the lens on the finance industry itself, we see what change has happened in a positive direction during Kate's career so far. The future is bright it seems. This bonus series is kindly supported by Sound Mark Partners, Sound Mark Partners LLC is a women-owned and led private credit firm focused on commercial real estate.