The Fiftyfaces Podcast

Andrew Osayemi is a specialist diversity recruiter at Rare Recruitment and the creator of the Netflix TV show Meet the Abebanjos. He started his career as a city trader and then took the plunge into starting a TV production company, MTA productions – although, as he claims he did not “know anything about TV”. He is the author of the book “How my Disastrous Teenage Love Life Will Get You Your Dream Job”. Our fascinating discussion starts with his upbringing in South London, how he found himself a job in the City and the cultural adjustments that the trading floor entailed. As his career took off and took him to the US, he found himself faced with a challenging choice. His career then took a creative turn as he started to pitch his TV ideas and ultimately started a TV production company. We hear about the series of "Nos" that forced him to focus on "earning a Yes" and what happened when he did, finally, break through the competitive world of TV.The discussion would not have been complete without analyzing how his teenage love life could get me - or anyone - a dream job, and we look at how relationships and commitment to them can be the key to nurturing a career. We then talk about authenticity, gratitude, finding one's voice, speaking up and showing up at meetings and in careers. Andrew is now sharing his advice with the next generation and if you will follow him on LinkedIN you will see that he has an ambitious goal of speaking to 1 million young people this year to talk about his career, his choices and what is possible.

Heidi Ridley is Co-Founder and CEO at Radiant ESG, based in the Bay Area of California. She has had a long career in asset management, including roles as CEO of Rosenberg Equities, a division of AXA Investment Managers, global head of client service and head of North America institutional sales. She is a member of the Advisory Council at the Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership. Our conversation tracks Heidi's entry into investing and how she rose through the ranks to become a C-suite leader. We discuss what true leadership really means and how her early career grit and determination contributed to her own trajectory. Heidi is now also a founder, and her vision for Radiant ESG is a unique one. We examine what motivated her to launch her own firm and some of the challenges that they encountered due to the prevailing market backdrop but ultimately overcame.A key takeaway of this podcast that I won't forget is recasting the image of a bull in a china shop. Whereas this is typically a negative image, I have now re-imagined it as a determined, ambitious force within an organization that may, initially, resist being shaken up. My conclusion is that our industry needs a lot more of them. There is more information about Radiant ESG at: https://radiantesg.com/This podcast was supported by Speaking with Images, a company focused on motivational speaking, focused on increasing resilience, improving communication and building better workplace culture. https://www.jennysegal.co.uk/

Michiel Timmerman is founder and managing partner at Mbuyu Capital Partners, which is an Africa focused investment boutique focused on financial services and agriculture, as well as Equity for Africa and EFTA, both focused on equipment leasing in Tanzania. He previously held a series of CIO roles across various asset management businesses in the City of London, including Ignis Asset Managemnent, where we met. Our conversation covers Michiel's early scientific education and how that hypothesis based scientific method informs his approach to investing. We then discuss how he came upon the SME investment opportunity in Africa somewhat by accident. While he had prepared for failure - he had not prepared for success, and this brought its own complications. We look at the backdrop to investing in Africa, bust some myths associated with it, and describe some of the unique challenges (and opportunities) of investing in the region.

Marisa Hall is co-head of the Thinking Ahead Institute at Willis Towers Watson, where she has spent most of her career, starting initially as an investment consultant. She was named Woman of the Year in the 2020 Women in Finance Summit & Awards Series and was on the 2020 List of Financial News Rising Stars in Asset Management in Europe. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Diversity Project in its ethnicity workstream and is a Standing Committee Member of Investment 20/20. Our conversation covers Marisa's entry into the world of investment and the various nudges that she received that pushed her in different but, ultimately, highly productive and creative directions. We speak about the innovative areas that she is focused on at the Thinking Ahead Institute, as well as her thoughts on the evolution of the investment industry over the next 5 - 10 years. We then examine the question of diversity in detail - Marisa has a unique perspective due to her many mentoring and advocacy roles - and she speaks poignantly about the need to understand the differing mindsets that many of our colleagues bring into the industry and how intimidating the trappings of the workplace can be. There is more information about Investment 20/20 here:https://www.investment2020.org.uk/This podcast was supported by Speaking with Images, a company focused on motivational speaking, focused on increasing resilience, improving communication and building better workplace culture.

Jim Maloney is a director at the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association and a director of Beachpoint Capital Management. He was a trustee of the Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund for over 11 years, including 1.5 years as interim chief investment officer. He retired from the Chicago Police in 2017, after 35 years of service, which saw him rise to the rank of Lieutenant. Jim has been active as an advocate for public fund investors for over a decade and is an active participant in the institutional investor conference circuit – when it exists.Our conversation traces Jim's childhood in the Midwest and his ties with Ireland, including a period spent in the country while growing up, and then what led him to enter the Chicago police. We look at the highs and lows of a career of over 35 years, in which Jim took every available opportunity to advance and take on extra training and built strong collegial ties. We look at what first interested him in investment and how his representation on the Trustee Board of the Pension Fund tilted his life in another direction. Jim is a good friend of mine and was the reason I had the privilege to serve as CIO of the Chicago Policemen's Annuity and Benefit fund for over 3 years. It was a further privilege to interview him here.

Leon Brujis is a Partner a Palladium Equity Partners, a private equity firm, headquartered in NYC. The firm is focused on making investments in middle market companies with a special focus on partnering with founders and family-owned businesses, and a particular focus on the Latinx consumer. He has held a number of board roles, and is currently on the Board of New America Alliance, a not for profit organization committed to building on American Latino success to forge a Stronger America. Our conversation starts with Leon's background, his roots in Latin America and what drove him to come to the US. We then talk about his investment journey, the potential of the Latinx consumer and how the firm he is in today drives value, including the way it integrates ESG issues into the investment thesis. We then move to talk about the current levels of diversity in the investment industry, and how access to capital is the last frontier of the civil rights movement, and how diversity programs can contribute to addressing this deficit. It is staggering that women and minorities who comprise over 70% of the population manage less than 2% of the capital in the industry. The end of the podcast contains a moving segment in which Leon shares wisdom that was shared by his late father, Marcos Brujis, who passed away only a few months ago. These three core pieces of advice are: 1. A Bad arrangement is better than a good fight; 2. You are what you negotiate and 3. Don't take No for an answer. We discuss how Leon learned to negotiate, and how he believes that action = priorities.

For our second series of 2021, we have a particularly diverse group of 10 inspiring guests who bring different backgrounds and skillsets to the world of investment. We meet with a retired police officer who entered the investment world through representing the pension scheme, a city trader turned Netflix TV producer, an investor in African SMEs, a venture capital investor, a leader of a think tank, a private equity investor focused on the Latinx consumer, a hedge fund founder and a consulting firm CEO. We examine how access to capital is the last frontier of the civil rights movement, how supposed weaknesses can actually be a source of resilience and strength, how "earning your yes" instead of focusing on the "no' can be key in a business that is full of rejection and how mindful we have to be of how intimidating our industry can be. We explore how constraints in setting up a business can foster creativity and the right kind of pivots, and how sometimes it is worth being that bull in the China shop and how much grit and setbacks can be the arsenal we rely upon. Tune in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow us on Twitter (@fiftyfacespod).This series was produced by Fiftyfaces Productions Ltd.

Jenny Segal is a motivational speaker, author and photographer, with a focus on building resilience, improving communication and building better workplace cultures. She had a long career in the investment industry culminating in senior leadership roles in institutional business development and distribution areas and is currently a Senior Investment Officer with Nesta among other positions, including an ambassador role with the Diversity Project. Our conversation starts with Jenny's entry into the investment world, the motivation she received from her school and her family and her rise through the ranks in a profession that did not always value diversity. In a profoundly moving segment we speak about a health setback of breast cancer and how that changed her perspective on life, on her self-worth, and on what her next chapter would be. We then turn to Jenny's current focus, which is as a motivational speaker where she works with companies to improve their corporate cultures - drawing upon her own decades of experience as well as personal journey. This is an exciting time for Jenny, as she has recently published a book focused on workplace cultures, and in particular motivating and de-motivating behaviors, and is developing her consulting business under her Speaking with Images brand. There is more information on Jenny's new book: Motivation - Building Better Workplace Cultures here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0923WJ2BT/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jenny+segal&qid=1617993968&sprefix=jenny+seg&sr=8-1This podcast was made possible by the kind support of Alvine Capital, a specialist advisor and placement boutique, based in London.

Doug Shaw is Bursar at St. Peter’s College, Oxford, a position he has held for over two years. I got to know him when he was in a COO role within one of Europe's most successful hedge funds, The Children's Investment Fund, and in his investment career he has held a series of fascinating roles, both at start up firms and in large firms such as Gartmore and Blackrock. He has spent time in derivatives sales, building a business for charity clients, and in managing hyper-fast growth, and now holds various NED and Investment Committee positions in addition to his Bursar role.Our conversation starts with Doug's first trip to Oxford, what he thought he knew when he emerged, and what it turns out he actually did. In his early investment roles he worked with some disruptors, particularly in the hedge fund arena and built businesses run by strong personalities and serving weighty clients. We speak about what he learned from these experiences and the efforts he is making now, in an area (third level learning) that has been upended like never before. He is passionate about making the investment industry more accessible across the socio-economic spectrum and invites students of his Oxford college to observe the investment process as it relates to the endowment. At every stage of Doug's career he has brought tremendous energy to his tasks in hand - our discussion of his efforts in terms of diversifying access to investment shows that energy alone may not be enough. This podcast was made possible by the kind support of Alvine Capital, a specialist advisor and placement boutique, based in London.

Bridget Uku is Group Manager Treasury & Investments at a UK local authority, where she has spent over 14 years, and she previously worked as Investments and Insurance Finance Manager at the Greater London Authority. She is frequent participant on the local government conference circuit, which is where we met. We talk about Bridget's upbringing in Nigeria, and her time at boarding school in the UK with her sisters and the cultural shift that that involved. We then move to how she overcame her aversion to maths to embrace a role that involved quite a lot of numbers - and discuss how having a family increased her drive to advance through her career and pursue promotions.Finally, we look back to the family and other industry figures that inspired her and her approach to taking on new challenges and reach assignments. This podcast was made possible by the kind support of Alvine Capital, a specialist advisor and placement boutique, based in London.