The Fiftyfaces Podcast

David Carthy is Managing Partner Ireland of DLA Piper.  He was previously a partner at William Fry in Dublin as well as President of the Irish Exporters Association..  He previously spent over 7 years with the Ireland India Business Association where he spent 5 years as Chairman.   Our conversation starts with David's path into law and his early focus on the commercial aspects of his practice.  He was intentional about building business networks through trade bodies and held various leadership roles in groups that grew in relevance as Ireland's role in international trade increased. Moving to his role as Managing Parter Ireland at DLA Piper we detail how he built the business from scratch - where he was the first employee in 2018 to over 110 lawyers today.  He details how he looked to other branch offices of the firm in order to develop a model as to how to grow the Dublin office and began to recruit using a values-based approach.  The values that he focuses on are a global perspective - a comfort level with working with team members in a network around the world, as well as a boldness and comfort level with change.  Finally, he seeks team members who are genuinely collaborative and go beyond paying lip service to this notion. When the values are aligned around growth, collaboration and reach goals in this way, the organization grows in a cohesive way that can be diverse by design.  David describes the intentionality with which he approached developing a diverse workforce and the office has significant female representation at all levels.  We end with some words of wisdom relating to the satisfaction of working in teams and the introduction of balance between one's professional and personal life.

As we take a short break before Series 5 of 2023 launches, we wanted to share with you some nuggets of a conversation with fellow podcast host Anthony Amunategui that we are launching over on our founders podcast channel. It is jam packed full of insights on leadership, learning to create an image with words and ultimately make the sale. Enjoy! Anthony Amunategui is founder of CDO Group, a women owned business that provides general Contracting and Construction Management. He now spends most of his time as podcast host of The Future Factory Podcast, a podcast focused on diving into conversations about what the future holds for us personally and professionally and the adventures that shape that journey. Our discussion starts with Anthony’s upbringing in Florida and how he got his start – painting houses, and then as a stockbroker. We speak about how he learned to grow his sales technique, and the mentor who taught him about using his language to convey images. We hear about the relentlessness needed to make 300 calls a day, and how he processed the rejection and the no. We jump then to his work in construction management and how he devised the concept of outsourcing construction management and how the business achieved its growth. We hear about mindset – about letting go of some of the baggage that weighs us down, weighing on our confidence and outreach. Anthony is the founder and host of The Future Factory Podcast – which you can find here: https://www.futurefactorypodcast.com He tells us what drove him to gather this collection of leaders and the sparks that unite them. We hear about the importance of working on oneself as an attribute of leadership – of pushing oneself to learn and change. He touts the benefit of coaching in many

Cathie Wood is CEO of ARK Investment Management LLC (“ARK”). Prior to ARK, Cathie spent twelve years at AllianceBernstein as Chief Investment Officer of Global Thematic Strategies where she managed $5 billion. Cathie joined Alliance Capital from Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund she co-founded which, in 2000, where she managed $800 million in global thematic strategies. Prior to her tenure at Tupelo Capital, she worked for 18 years with Jennison Associates as Chief Economist, Equity Research Analyst, Portfolio Manager and Director. She started her career in Los Angeles, California at The Capital Group as an Assistant Economist. This was our second podcast recording together but the first for the Fiftyfaces Podcast. We started by tracing Cathie's upbringing and the fusion of innovation, entrepreneurship and travel that led to a peripatetic youth, including a spell in Ireland. We hear what drove her interest in finance and investing, and how she started her career. Our conversation moves then to the founding of ARK, and the almost spiritual reckoning that led to Cathie's decision to strike out on her own. We hear about her commitment to transparency and openness when it comes to research, and to the overarching importance of making their research open source. The team at ARK believes that this makes their process more robust, more resilient and adaptive, and they give the example of the evolution of their "autonomous cars" segment to embrace all of AI and how they have cross-checked some of their assumptions around growth in other sectors. Given how topical the subject is, we dive into a discussion about AI and its likely impact on the investment management industry. Cathie's thesis is an optimistic one, that should get the industry back to its original, forward-looking focus on themes and creativity. Finally we speak about pushback, criticism and debate that ARK and its theses have occasionally attracted. This podcast will be part of Series 5 of the 2023 Fiftyfaces Podcast which is kindly sponsored by With Intelligence, which has the mission of connecting investors and managers to the right people and data to raise and allocate assets effectively The music in this podcast series - provided by Julia Kwamya - is available on her album on Spotify: Feel Good about Feeling Bad https://open.spotify.com/album/7lTQWSHeaVo3xHuF9q8ilv?si=uvGJZX7FQ9-2wX-0e951ZA&nd=1

Caroline Lovelace is Founding Partner at Rose Hill Park Alternative Asset Managers, as well as Preserver Partners as CIO and Co-Portfolio Manager. Preserver is diverse-owned and Memphis-based. It runs a multi-strategy fund that invests through external managers. She has had an extensive career in researching and investing in hedge funds and in promoting emerging private equity and hedge fund investment programs. Our conversation starts with her upbringing and academic career and the mentors who spotted her talents and nurtured them. We talk about the sometimes painstaking process of learning to take risk, about career setbacks, pivots and restarts. We learn about the importance of plan B and beyond and the importance of developing the agility to pivot to these alternatives. This requires a dose of realism and we talk about how to set expectations appropriately and how to advocate for oneself and to be coachable. Moving through Caroline's various roles, we look at the skills needed to progress successfully through investment banking, then onto the buyside, then into a founder role. We move to speak about the challenges faced by diverse founders more broadly, and how we might move the needle more in this area. This podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Tom Raber and Alvine Capital, a specialist investment advisor and fund placement boutique with offices in London and Stockholm. An early adopter of the “reverse enquiry” form of placement, Alvine relies on insight and dialogue with its pan-European investor base to develop and source investment solutions from a wide variety of industry providers.  

Andy Ayim, MBE is an investor and founder based in the UK, and runs an Angel Investing School designed to “teach people how to invest small tickets in start-ups effortlessly.” He has run the School since January 2020, and is a venture partner and board member of numerous technology companies. Passionate about financial education and entrepreneurship, he has held been entrepreneur in residence at accelerators such as Entrepreneur First, and OneTech and spent time as Managing Director at the London Accelerator Backstage Capital, which focuses on supporting underrepresented founders. He was awarded an MBE in 2020 for services to diversity in technology. Our conversation starts with Andy’s early interest in finance and investing and he describes how his family had to order the Financial Times specially to their local newsagent in Tottenham. He became an entrepreneur at an early age and became fascinated by the business of investing and building a business. We trace this through his love of music and then hear about how he entered an accelerator program. Andy describes what makes an accelerator program successful and he stresses the importance for him of building deep relationships and trust at the early stages of an entrepreneurial venture. We turn then to the Angel Investing School and bust some myths about what it is to be an angel investor and what the curriculum taught at the school entails. We conclude with a discussion of the upcoming London Tech Week and what it offers for entrepreneurs and budding angel investors. Learn more about The Angel Investing School: https://angelinvestingschool.com/ Sign up to Andy’s weekly newsletter here: https://andyayim.com/ LTW: https://londontechweek.com/ Connect with Andy on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyayim/ This podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Tom Raber and Alvine Capital, a specialist investment advisor and fund placement boutique with offices in London and Stockholm. An early adopter of the “reverse enquiry” form of placement, Alvine relies on insight and dialogue with its pan-European investor base to develop and source investment solutions from a wide variety of industry providers.

Tom Raber is the founder and Managing Director of London-based Alvine Capital, a reverse enquiry solutions firm that Tom founded in 2005, with a particular focus on finding solutions for institutional investors in alternative assets.  Originally from Sweden, he previously held leadership roles at Key Asset Management  and a series of investment banks.  We start by discussing Tom's path and education and the determination that he showed to get a job on "Wall Street" where he ultimately arrived via a role in investment banking in London. We chart that path, then learn what led to his move to a fund of hedge funds fund raising during the hedge fund peak and ultimately to founding Alvine Capital. Alvine Capital was, in my view, the pioneer of the "reverse enquiry" form of capital raising. Instead of relying on a push strategy for alternative products it derived a pull strategy from its many relationships with providers of institutional capital. It was a strategy perhaps initially necessitated by the requirement to stay efficient as a small, boutique operator. Ultimately, though, it became a differentiator and value proposition. I asked Tom about how he learned to succeed in sales, and about the need for a thick skin and techniques to actually seal the deal. What follows is a series of insights on preparation, reading the room, reading the client and ultimately finding the moment at which a decision is likely and bringing that decision around, whatever it might be. We discuss the importance of preparation and follow up, two areas which may not always be receiving the right focus. Finally we bring our discussion to the human side of sales, the need to adapt, shift habits, pace oneself. It is a rich discussion with one of the best there is. This podcast is kindly supported by Tom and Alvine Capital who have supported Fiftyfaces Productions every year since its inception by sponsoring a podcast series. This year they are sponsoring Series 4. There is more information about Alvine Capital on the website: alvinecapital.com

Colin Robertson is an independent advisor to two LGPS funds – London Borough of Tower Hamlets and London Borough of Harrow, within a portfolio career that he has had since 2013. He previously held the role of Global Head of Asset Allocation for Aon Hewitt and previously at Mercury Asset Management. He has extensive experience in working with a wide range of institutional clients.  In this podcast we go on a journey from Scotland to the University of California – Berkeley around the end of the Flower Power era. It was there that Colin studied for a year and focused on Game Theory, a subject that he likens to risk management. Colin describes the evolution of his investment beliefs and how they have evolved to incorporate more behavioural aspects.  We cycle through the various roles that Colin has had, in which he spent time working on both equity and fixed income investments before becoming a Chief Investment Officer. He subsequently decided to focus on economics and asset allocation, holding major global positions. After retiring from full time employment, he has taken on independent advisory work amongst other roles. We examine what it takes to be an independent advisor and the level of challenge that is appropriate.   Returning to the topic of behavioural science, we examine what it is that makes people lose some of their over-confidence and arrogance in the investment arena over time. Colin discusses how the role of interpreting the mass of data we have out there is more important than ever and reflects on the satisfaction he has enjoyed from being able to innovate throughout his career.  This podcast is part of a special collaboration with Crispin Derby Limited. 

Paul Guilliotti is Assistant Director – Financial Services – at Richmond and Wandsworth Councils. He has had a long career in local government and is a frequent participant in discussions around leveling up and LGPS pooling. Our conversation starts with Paul’s childhood where he spent some time in Zambia during his early school years. We speak about any take-aways from that time and then dig into the origins of his unusual name a little. We then trace his long years of service in public service, and how he ended up in a pension fund role and the investment beliefs that he developed over the years.  We then cycle through many topics, including leveling up, local investing, the origins and success of local government pooling and the challenges facing pension plans such as his today. We talk about managing a funding level that is now over 100% and Paul’s interest in getting ahead of the pools when it comes to renewable energy investment. We speak also about a certain lack of diversity in the investment industry particularly as it relates to socio-economic diversity and mobility.  The last part of our discussion is dedicated to Paul’s side passion which is for football and we learn that he is a hugely devoted volunteer to a League 2 football team, Sutton United. Paul does a range of different roles for that team and it is now gaining traction although has not yet attracted the Hollywood star wattage of Wrexham. While we hope that this Fiftyfaces Podcast can achieve that, we are not, at this stage certain it can go quite that far – but it is a start.  This podcast is part of a special collaboration with Crispin Derby Limited. 

Betsy Cohen has built financial businesses for her whole career. She is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Cohen Circle, a growth stage investment firm focused on the fintech and impact spaces. She was previously CEO at The Bancorp Bank, which she founded in 2000 and previously worked at Jefferson Bank for 26 years. She sits on numerous boards and has received several awards being named a Forbes 2022 Most Powerful Self-Made Woman, 25 outstanding women bankers and many more. Betsy is Executive Committee member and Secretary of Asia Society; Founding Member of the Asia Society Policy Institute; Trustee of The Brookings Institute; Honorary Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Treasurer, Managing Director, and Finance Committee member of The Metropolitan Opera. Our conversation covers the “series of opportunities” that have characterized Betsy’s arc, which she doesn’t define as a career, strictly speaking. Therein lies the most vivid depiction of her approach to seizing opportunities throughout her career and building businesses where there was “white space”. We look at the fundamentals of financial institutions as well as the opportunity now in fintech, and how she developed an ability to go up and down the capital structure stack at Cohen Circle including launching a SPAC practice. Our discussion then moves to her large number of Board roles and examine what it is that she brings to these roles and what it takes to be successful in them. We end with reflections on a remarkable and ground-breaking path that Betsy has forged through the world of financial institutions and then FinTech, her belief in needing to think on ones feet and not always wait for the precedent and the ability to learn at every stage. This podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Tom Raber and Alvine Capital, a specialist investment advisor and fund placement boutique with offices in London and Stockholm. An early adopter of the “reverse enquiry” form of placement, Alvine relies on insight and dialogue with its pan-European investor base to develop and source investment solutions from a wide variety of industry providers

Brian Portnoy is the founder of Shaping Wealth, a learning technology platform transforming the human experience of money. It combines science and story to show people how to underwrite a meaningful life, and is the source of the term “funded contentment". He previously led investor education across a series of investment firms and prior to that was head of manager selection at a Chicago-based fund of hedge funds. Our conversation starts with a quick summary of Brian's background, his academic journey through politics, economics and sociology and his love of teaching. We trace this speciality into his career in investing, which always involved a deep involvement in learning and education, and then examine his research around wealth, and in particular the study of the goals of wealth management. Brian is credited with coining the term "funded contentment" and we establish what this is, and why the concept has resonated so well with his audience. We also dissect the current state of behavioral science and in particular examine the type of behavior that a chief behavioral officer might focus on. Brian asks whether we should be focusing on the "who" and not simply the "why" when it comes to analyzing a client's objectives. He posits that everyone has multiple versions of themselves now and in the future. He suggests that a really, really good financial plan is going to tap into those multiple identities and that requires the adviser to have some good questions prepared and some thinking on this topic. This is a robust and stimulating discussion about what matters for financial advisors, their clients and the future evolution of the industry. There is more information about Shaping Wealth and their Outsourced Chief Behavioral Officer program here: https://www.shapingwealth.com/ This podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Tom Raber and Alvine Capital, a specialist investment advisor and fund placement boutique with offices in London and Stockholm. An early adopter of the “reverse enquiry” form of placement, Alvine relies on insight and dialogue with its pan-European investor base to develop and source investment solutions from a wide variety of industry providers.