The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Robin Powell is a journalist, investor advocate, financial educator and content consultant.  He is Head of Client Education at RockWealth, as well as Editor of The Evidence Based Investor, and executive director of Regis Media and Ember. He is a frequent commentator on investment management and behavioural finance,  often probing the purported value added by active managers and advocating for better transparency and investor education. Our conversation is a provocative one, which starts with Robin's entry into the world of media, and how he  developed a passion for financial markets. We talk about financial literacy, the importance of transparency, use of plain English and clarity as to value added as well as suitability. We cycle through pension fund investing and individual investing, public markets and private markets and into the emerging landscape of ESG investing. It is safe to say that no stone is left unturned either by Robin in his advocacy or in this discussion. You can find more of Robin's writing on the Evidence Based Investor blog: https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/about/ including articles on Bessembinder research: https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/most-stocks-are-duds-yes-you-read-that-right/articles arguing that passive managers aren’t passive share owners: https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/is-rise-indexing-bad-for-governance/ and the website belonging to Prof Ludovic Phalippou that debunks some of the myths surrounding private equity: https://pelaidbare.com/Series 3 is brought to you with the kind support of Federated Hermes, Inc., a leading global investment manager. Guided by their conviction that responsible investing is the best way to create wealth over the long term, their investment solutions span equity, fixed-income, alternative/private markets, multi-asset and liquidity strategies and a range of separately managed accounts, distributed through intermediaries worldwide. 

Debbie Cunningham is Chief Investment Officer of Global Liquidity Markets at Federated Hermes and has been a portfolio manager for all government and prime liquidity products since 1990.  She previously was Director and President of the CFA Society of Pittsburgh and sits on the board of Robert Morris University, Treasury Market Practices Group and Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. Our discussion covers Debbie's extraordinary career in the fixed income arena, which spanned over 40 years and saw radically evolving interest rate environments and economic backdrops. She describes the fundraising climate and use of money market funds when she joined the firm, and reflects on the changing role of the instruments today. We examine the diversity of the industry at the time that she joined and the way it has changed. Having managed a successful career with a family Debbie speaks to her approach of melding work and family and reflects on her approach to risk throughout her career.  We hear about seizing opportunities, making choices and looking back without regret.Series 3 is brought to you with the kind support of Federated Hermes, Inc., a leading global investment manager. Guided by their conviction that responsible investing is the best way to create wealth over the long term, their investment solutions span equity, fixed-income, alternative/private markets, multi-asset and liquidity strategies and a range of separately managed accounts, distributed through intermediaries worldwide.

Matt Sherwood, Ph.D. is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of WeVidIt Media, a video streaming platform that leverages data and analytics for a more inclusive and profitable entertainment industry. We met while he worked as an asset allocator, where he headed up public market investments for MMBB Financial Services.  He has spent time as a guest lecturer and an appointed professor at Columbia University and The King’s College in New York, and has authored a textbook on the topic of ESG Investing. He is a board member of the Guide Dog Foundation and American Vet Dogs and serves on the Lavelle Fund’s Investment Committee.Matt lost his sight at the age of 24, and became legally blind within a matter of days.  We discuss how he pivoted from a practical perspective, which enabled him to continue his career and to thrive there.  We discuss the inclusion of people with similar disabilities in the professional world, and examine the massive advances in technology which are making access more seamless.  Biases and prejudices however are less  dynamic in changing and Matt reframes the term "persons with disability" as "persons with determination".We discuss many of the organizations and advocacy groups that are furthering better inclusion and then move to discuss Matt's current passion for WeVidIt, democratizing access to this form of investment and the fundamentals that underlie it. We are releasing this podcast as a bonus in recognition of April 27 being International Guide Dog Day.  

Jack Dodd describes himself as a human who talks about mental health. I came across him thanks to a powerful LinkedIn post he made about how boys get sad too, in which he called to normalize expressing emotion, sometimes at work. He is a corporate partnerships lead in the Charity Sector and prior to that worked in recruitment. I asked Jack to join me to talk about the mental health advocacy that is close to his heart and to hear about the response he received to the LinkedIn post that drew me to him.Our conversation starts with Jack's own story, and how he developed the courage to talk about mental health, feeling sad, feeling grief and how to assist others to develop the same vulnerability. We talk about why barriers sometimes exist to this kind of sharing, and how to break them down.This podcast will also appear in our 2022 Pride Series, which will be launched in June 2022. 

Welcome back to the Fiftyfaces Podcast where we are delighted to bring you Series 3 of 2022, which features critical thinkers from all walks of life. We hear about the value added of activemanagement, the robustness of sustainable investing terminology, the role of politics in promoting inclusion and economic empowerment and the opportunity in Africa.  First we hear from Debbie Cunningham, who has had a four decade career at Federated Hermes, in a leadership role within fixed income.  Her journey has seen some fascinating changes in the market backdrop, not least of all in the prevailing risk free rate on money market funds.We then move on to one of the most critical thinkers I know, Robin Powell, UK-based financial journalist and consultant, who presents robust challenges to value added and value for money in actively managed funds.  We might argue that our industry very much needs these questions to be asked, and Robin is certainly not afraid to ask them.We have more critical thinking as well as some powerful, actionable and relatable examples in the sustainability field in our conversation with Fabiola Schneider, who is active in tracking greenwashing and how sustainable investing is translated into practice.  This podcast is essential listening as a primer on many topics.John Robinson takes us on a journey of his start-up career, which has led him now to uncover the opportunity in Africa, while Sinead Colton Grant traces her own career path from Ireland to the helm of solutions at a large money manager in the wealth management division. LaRoy Brantley is a legend in the consulting field and his own background as a classics major, and then a teacher, may be responsible for the powerful way in which he translates investment ideas for his diverse client base. We move then to another kind of legend, one of business development, and chat with Kerry Duffain and hear about her extremely varied early career, but how that all laid the groundwork for an extremely persistent streak that lies behind her business building success. Another pathbreaker has been Les Bond, who founded Attucks Asset Management and has supported a vast network of emerging managers.  We return to sustainable equity investing with our conversation with Deirdre Cooper of Ninety One and hear how product proliferation in sustainable investing products is far from the problem it is made out to be.  We end then with a conversation of another mainstay of UK asset management Matteo Dante Peruccio, who has pivoted yet again to another passion - digital assets.  We hear about that thesis, why it is a multi-faceted one and where we go from here.Series 3 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Federated Hermes, Inc., a leading global investment manager. Guided by their conviction that responsible investing is the best way to create wealth over the long term, their investment solutions span equity, fixed-income, alternative/private markets, multi-asset and liquidity strategies and a range of separately managed accounts, distributed through intermediaries worldwide.

Maureen Downey is a Managing Director in Alternative Assets at The Beneficient Company Group as well as a Venture Partner at DigitalDx Ventures, and has specialized in alternatives investing with a particular focus on secondary investments and ESG integration for over 15 years. Maureen and I got to know eachother at Goldman Sachs in London and it was fascinating for me in this discussion to discover the richness of her hinterland in terms of time spent in Emerging Markets, gaining experience in a range of industries and learning from some of the leaders in the field.As an experienced investor in both emerging markets and private equity, we had a unique opportunity to discuss the intersections between the two areas, and now layer in the complexities of ESG overlays as well as the secondary market and its evolution.We discuss the innovation that is being pursued by The Beneficient Company and how the time in the market is ripe for such a solution.  Finally we reflect on the learnings from a career in international finance and the grounding that different academic backgrounds can provide. 

Meredith Jones is a published author, speaker and consultant with decades of experience in the investment industry.  She is a Partner and Global Head of ESG at a large consulting firm, where she chairs the ESG Think Tank with oversight of global solution development and strategy relating to climate change and ESG.  She runs her own research firm MJ Alternative Investment Research and is on the Board of Directors of Rock The Street, Wall Street.  She is the Author of Women of The Street: Why Female Money Managers Generate Higher Returns and How you Can too. She released a Ted Talk on her life experiences called “Creating Luck for Yourself”.  Our conversation is a very broad-based one that starts with her upbringing, in which the theme of social mobility featured prominently. We trace the mentors who saw her talent and nurtured it, and then move to her ascent through financial services.  Meredith has broken barriers with her research, particularly her findings of the added value of female fund managers.  She has built an extensive network this way, and is a prominent advocate for better diversity in financial services as as on boards.  We talk about her current passion, Rock the Street Wall Street, and the work that that organization does in promoting roles in finance, providing networks, insights and mentorship as well as role models to young women interested in pursuing a career there. Finally we listen to some life truths, such as never read the comments and to not think about careers and progression as a zero sum game. You can see Meredith's Ted talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UR6WvCoNGQ

Nawar Alsaadi is a Senior Portfolio Manager in ESG investing at Canada Post and previously worked as a long-only portfolio manager.  He has led product development for ESG product research and spent time as a private ESG investor. Our discussion covers Nawar's childhood in Iraq, what drove his early interest investing and his transition to ESG-focused investing.  He is a frequent commentator on LinkedIn and it was his insightful and relatable posts there that drew me to him.  We cycle through many themes that he has expanded upon in articles, books and on LinkedIn including: the Russian Doll approach to understanding Net Zero, the concept of regret when it comes to stocks that are now the subject of divestment, the topic of engagement v. divestment and the broadbased adoption of ESG investing.We discuss his writing and what drives him as well as some of the people who have inspired him.There is a moving tribute to Nawar's mother who passed away in early April and whom he mentions on the podcast as an inspiring force in his life, on LinkedIN here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nawar-alsaadi-fsa-sipc-9667b650_iraqi-artist-sawsan-saif-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A9-activity-6919364702162563072-yEbQ?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_webYou can read more about Nawar's stock market adventures here: https://hardbacon.ca/en/investing/nawar-alsaadi-lost-won-millions-stock-market/

Jennifer Coffey is Chief Executive Officer at Bright Capital Advisors, a firm she founded a decade ago that focus on capital introductions and placement for a range of alternative asset managers.  She started her career in foreign exchange research at Lehman Brothers and worked in hedge funds for many years. Our conversation starts with Jennifer's start in the world of finance, how she learned by doing on the trading floor and where she found her natural strengths to lie.  We jump then to her time as an allocator in a fund of hedge funds, and what that taught her about an allocator's mindset, which was to prove extremely valuable in her next role.When she faced a crossroads in her career, Jennifer took the decision to set up her own placement firm, and found that the partnerships with high quality GPs paid dividends in terms of opening doors, and building her own credibility as their representative.  She talks about her persistence and work ethic, and how putting herself in the shoes of an allocator has enabled her to reframe the process of making introductions.  Finally she shares her reflections on her upbringing and the people that inspired her - such as her father, a prolific author with boundless energy.  Bright by name and bright by nature, this bonus episode is an inspiring conversation that is a must listen for anyone interested in business building in the world of investing. 

Nazmeera Moola is Chief Sustainability Officer of Ninety One, based in Capetown, where she previously headed up South African investing.  Our podcasts starts with a discussion of her farming background as a child and the lessons that that taught her in terms of planning, market volatility, the importance of diversification and risk management.  It was an interesting preparation for a career in investing, and we talk through the challenges and opportunities of emerging market investing, particularly in Africa.We move then to her current role in Sustainable Investing, and first ask what a Chief Sustainability Officer does, and then analyze the particular context that living in such a rich country in terms of biodiversity and climate challenges provides.  South Africa has been the cradle of many developments in terms of sustainability - in particular the discussion around extinction accounting, the imperatives around protecting ecosystems and the trade-offs that a just transition may contemplate.We conclude with reflections on risk-taking, career paths and the diversity of the investment profession.Series 2 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of the William Blair Active Share Podcast.