The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Diana Kiluta Amoa, is Chief Investment Officer of Kirkoswald, a US based hedge fund, and she formerly spent over a decade in financial services in a range of roles including fixed income and rates trading, with a focus on Emerging Markets. She is a Board Member of the Global Nomads Group among other roles.  Our conversation starts with her upbringing in Kenya, her education in the UK and how she pursued a Masters in African Studies among other post-graduate programs when she became a Rhodes scholar.  We explore what she learned from that - how it enabled her to draw parallels across different disciplines and see issues in context.  We then turn to her extensive career in investing and the various roles that she assumed at different times, involving the coverage of all of Emerging Markets, to setting up fixed income trading functions to setting up an entire business in Africa and being forced to train up counter-parties (also her competition) in order to ensure liquid, well-functioning markets. We look at the appeal of the asset allocator function and how it relates to being a fiduciary, and examine what that actually means.  We also ask why in emerging markets the support functions provided to women can enable less complicated career paths and ask whether extending similar supports globally would change the trajectory for some professional women. Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund.

Joel Moreland is a Principal Consultant at Social and Environmental Finance. He has worked in early stage investing, corporate finance, fund management and mainstream banking. In this discussion we start with how he was born into a culture of activism, thanks to the work his parents had done, and then delve into a broad and multi-faceted discussion about the issue of climate change and the various steps being taken to address it. Joel's view is that the main issue is "urgency" - the urgency of the problem and the lack of understanding that the naturally conservative approach being taken by scientists in the modeling, arguably, requires much greater action by investors.  We talk about lobbying, the multi-lateral policy changes that are on the horizon, and the difference that concerted action by like-minded investors can make. We learn about the mindset of "doing good" and how it is sometimes incompatible with generating a profit or making a return, and how we need to adapt our services and communication to make progress more likely. We talk about the innovations inherent in climate tech, how being a techno-optimist is not enough anymore and how regulatory change can make a real, positive difference. It is a discussion that blends both high level directions of travel and specific examples of what is going well and less well amid the current environmental challenges.  Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund.

Stavros Siokos is managing partner and co-founder at Astarte Capital Partners. He started his career with Salomon Brothers in NYC in the mid-nineties, was sent to London and later was managing director of Citigroup responsible for the global trading strategies across the firm and for the product solution for all pension funds and insurance companies across the world. He was formerly Head of Investment Management at Piraeus Bank. He is originally from Greece, but has lived outside there since 1990, mainly USA (where he did his Ph.D and Masters) and the UK.Astarte Partners is an asset management firm with a global presence, that is focused on identifying thematic real asset strategies that are usually difficult for investors to access.  They identify the strategies and different teams that they can deliver the strategies, and create asset management businesses. Stavros presents, in an unvarnished way, the challenges and opportunities of start-up life, how it takes, on reflection, double the time, double the money and half the friends.  He speaks about the importance of trust and relationship building and how a friend in life may not necessarily be the right partner in business.During the podcast he dives into some of the real asset strategies that they have launched at Astarte, including a forestry business which can now get the extra "boost" of carbon credits to enhance returns.  We look at the increasing integration of ESG awareness and how this is changing the face of real asset opportunities.Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.  The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund. Finally Stavros reflects on what has been important in his life, and the role that education has played, and how his greatest impact in life is educating other young people.  

Seema Hingorani is the founder and chair of Girls Who Invest and a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Mangement.  She previously was CIO at her own hedge fund and Chief Investment Officer of NYC Retirement Systems where she spent 4 years following a long career in asset management. Seema's story has been told just recently in this podcast hosted by my friend Susan Soh so we took things in a slightly different direction.  We first looked back at Seema's extraordinary career and asked about her career highs and lows.  One of her high points was her time as CIO in the NYC Retirement Systems and we discuss the surprising benefits of a stint in public service. Another highlight was the starting and success of the Girls Who Invest program (see link: https://www.girlswhoinvest.org/) which went from proof of concept to a program that has placed over 100 scholars into the financial services industry and is expanding rapidly from here.  We discuss the pushback that Seema received at the beginning and how she went about proving some naysayers wrong and continues to "flood the system" with impressive talent.We speak about the advice that the Girls Who Invest scholars receive, about how they are encouraged to optimize for career success and then turn to the particular strains that Covid restrictions and impediments to networking have put on young people at this stage of their career. Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.  The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund. 

Simon Chisholm is Chief Investment Officer at Resonance Limited, an investment manager focused on achieving social and place-based impact.  It currently runs funds focused on three themes – homelessness, housing for vulnerable women, and housing for adults with learning differences.  It has over 20 years of an Impact Track Record and has housed over 2300 people in 1000 properties since inception.  Simon previously spent over 16 years in investment banking and also holds a number of Board Roles.Our conversation track's Simon's journey into impact investing and how that whole area has evolved over the course of his career.  We speak about the nature of place-based impact and some of the challenges yet opportunities that present themselves. We ask how this impact can be reliably measured, and look at the evolving nature of products in this area.  Finally in the personal reflection section we look at the importance of staying curious and staying grounded. Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.  The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund. 

Dr. Rania Azmi is the Founder of Alexandrite Decisions, a NATO registered management consultancy and training firm that fuses her three interests of investment strategy, academia and cancer patient advocacy. Based in Kuwait, she was strategic adviser to the Kuwait Sovereign Wealth Fund for over 10 years and has had a long career in academia and is a member of the executive education board at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  One of her particular interests is decision making.  Our conversation traces her career journey, why she chose finance, and how she developed an interest in decision making.  We turn then to institutional  investment in the Middle East and the issues that dominate the discourse there at present, including matters of ESG integration. One of Rania's passions is cancer patient advocacy - an area sadly that she never originally sought, but stepped into when she saw gaps and a need for improvement.  We talk about that as well as her experience in the world of finance as a muslim woman. Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.  The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund. 

Vitali Kalesnik is a partner and senior member of the investment team at Research Affiliates, a Newport Beach headquartered investment firm.  Vitali is based in London.  He has focused his career in equity based research and has a Phd in economics.  He has written extensively in academic journals and has received various industry rewards for his content.  He is originally from Belarus.  Our conversation starts with his upbringing in Belarus and how a basic first computer sparked a love for coding.  A deep commitment by his parents to his education and tutoring led to a branching out in terms of third level education, which saw Vitali study in the US and ultimately pursue a PhD.Given that Vitali's focus is factor investing, we examine the sentiment towards this form of investing and how it has evolved over time, in particular during periods of challenging performance. in particular we look to ESG integration across this arena. We speak about the concept of academic collaboration and how well that type of partnership can work across one's career, even outside the academic realm. We also look at the importance of recognizing one's strengths and weaknesses and addressing those items that promote success - such as presentation skills. Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.  The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund. 

Rachel Green is Director of Institutional Sales at Nuveen. She started her career in risk management and moved into a sales role in 2014.  She has been a prominent voice in the City of London on issues of diversity and inclusion and is the founder of The Skills Workshop, to help women and young people understand their career options, share stories and to identify with others as well to create a sense of belonging. Our conversation starts with Rachel's upbringing in the Caribbean and her move to London as a teenager.  She describes her entry into the world of finance as a "crash landing", which proves to have been a very fortuitous one. We discuss how she started to thrive in the industry and her move to sales.  The most extraordinary part of our discussion is the vision behind The Skills Workshop (https://diversityproject.com/theskillsworkshop) which Rachel launched in 2021, which involved over 60 seminars and 8,000 participants as part of a massive, concerted, volunteer effort. Rachel's description of how a simple gesture and exposure changed her life, and the hope that this effort will have the same, exponential, effect on thousands of life is a true definition of impact. One of the mentor's in Rachel's career has included Justin Onuekwusi, whose own podcast featured in the 2021 Fiftyfaces Podcast (https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/fiftyfaces/episodes/2021-04-08T11_02_52-07_00) and who now has his own podcast series with the extraordinary Darren Johnson (see his own profile here: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/fiftyfaces/episodes/2021-09-08T01_56_57-07_00) The Rolling Start Podcast (https://audioboom.com/channels/5060750).Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.  The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund. 

David Hutchings recently retired from Albourne Americas where he was most recently Partner Emeritus having spent over 14 years at the firm where he founded the private equity research practice when he joined. He previously held a range of senior private equity roles in a career that spanned over 50 years.We start with the serendipitous start to his career - how he was tapped on the shoulder while sitting on a sea wall on a winter's day and how this led to a business school course and ultimately a career in the earliest forms of venture and private equity investing.  David witnessed the birth of the industry as we know it in the UK, and recalls a time when a debate raged as to whether the industry (globally) would ever reach $100 m. We speak about the industry's evolution - how David believes that investors sometimes get lost in the weeds of due diligence and voluminous data rooms and may miss the obvious human aspects of the professionals steering capital.  He believes that private equity remains a people business built on trust and networks and that despite its massive evolution in recent years these factors remain key.We end with the reference to luck being opportunity taken, and how seizing opportunities - whether to make a change in location or to work with an inspiring mentor can determine the course of a career and turn out to be the source of much luck.  Finally, we are reminded of the importance of listening - as a tool to build relationships and truly understand deals and interpersonal dynamics.Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.  The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund. 

Kimberly Smith is Head of Capital Formation at Techstars.  She was previously Director of Marketing and Investor Relations at Owl Creek Asset Management and before that worked at Davidson Kempner and ABN AMRO.  She holds a number of Board Roles and is an active advocate for education.Kim is already known as a force in the world of client development and client service in the hedge fund arena. We dig in to the factors that made her a success - how her belief in "listening to learn" has guided her through her career and towards the importance of building relationships first, long before solutions may be in hand.  But first we focus on her fascinating back story - on a LinkedIn post in which she  mentioned her army veteran father and the path he embarked up on early in life to build a life of education and opportunity for himself and his own family.  We hear about Kim's grandmother, illiterate and employed as a domestic, who put her son on his path in life with $20 in his pocket and a generation's worth of expectations and hope.We hear about Kim's passion for education and how her impact in this area takes many forms - from her work on non-profits and at schools to her insistence that a place at the table is accompanied by a voice at the table. Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.  The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund.