The Fiftyfaces Podcast

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.

If you have heard the term abundance of riches, that is what we have been experiencing this year in terms of our guests. So we are very pleased to bring you this bonus series, sponsored by Sound Mark Partners, a women led real estate debt firm that exemplifies so much of what we endorse and promote in the investment industry. We learn about accidental career paths, innovative strategies such as funds focused on positive change, climate engagement, GP-led private equity secondaries and carbon credit trading. We hear from the CIO of a university endowment about the joy she derives from a role where a university's mission and investment agenda work as one, and about multiple private wealth experts about the challenges in representation in the industry and where they have found opportunities. We include career advice and wisdom for the ages. The guests in our bonus series are: Geeta Kapadia, Chief Investment Officer at Fordham University Apurva Schwartz, a portfolio specialist at Harding Loevner LP Kate Fox who is an Investment Manager at Baillie Gifford Katie Stitch a partner at W Capital Partners a private equity firm Shari Greco Reiches who is founder of Rappaport Reiches Capital Management Saira Malik who is Chief Investment Officer at Nuveen Sinead Faughan a financial advisor with UBS John Teahan, portfolio manager at Redwheel Jane Buchan of Martlet Asset Management and founder of PAAMCO Matt Sherwood, founder of Pothos Partners.

Apurva Schwartz is a portfolio specialist at Harding Loevner LP. She was previously a principal at Rocaton Investment Advisors, where she was a senior member of the investment team. Prior to that she held a series of roles in equity analysis and investing. Our conversation starts with her serendipitous start in finance and how that experience of picking stocks drove her to launch her own hedge fund. Her interest then expanded to analyzing managers themselves and a career in investment consulting. This came full circle then when she chose her next move, which was back into the investment management field. Apurva had a unique lens to apply when selecting her next move as she had spent years analyzing different investment firm cultures, and we spend some time discussing what it is that makes a successful investment company culture. She speaks about the perils of storytelling - of being carried away by the narrative, and of the importance of creating a culture that is conducive to a team's growth. This relates, in particular, to psychological safety and the safety to make mistakes while learning, without a culture of blame. We broaden the conversation then to discuss recent trends in asset allocation, the state of non-US investing and client's use of global portfolios as well as shifts in the industry in light of the rise of passive investing as well as ESG strategies. We end with reflections on the importance of learning from essentially everyone one encounters, the importance of humility and of learning from mistakes. It is a far reaching conversation that I hope you enjoy. 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.