Calgary Connects - A CFA Society Calgary Podcast CFA Society Calgary

Welcome back to Calgary Connects! 
This month, in honour of International Women's Day (celebrated on March 8th), Matthew connects with Geeta Kapadia, CFA, to learn from her experience as a woman in finance as well as her experience being a mixed race, first generation Indian American. Additionally, Geeta has lived and worked in the United States, England, Scotland, and India. Join us to hear Geeta's story - her enthusiasm and energy is sure to leave you feeling inspired!
Geeta Kapadia is the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Fordham University, where she manages the endowment of $1 billion in assets and oversees all aspects of the portfolio management process. Prior to joining Fordham in August 2022, she was the Associate Treasurer of Investments at Yale New Haven Heath System, where she led the team responsible for managing over $5 billion in system assets. She is a CFA Charterholder and serves as Board President of Chester Country Family Academy. 
 

Today's episode features a special face-to-face conversation between Matthew and Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA. Genevieve is the CEO of GRIT, a financial media company democratizing access to institutional insights for the masses. She founded GRIT after realizing that only the top 1% were receiving the best insights. 
Genevieve joined us in Calgary at the 47th Annual Forecast Dinner. While in Calgary, her and Matthew sat down to discuss the inception of GRIT, why democratizing access to financial insights has become such a passion for her, and more. Join us to learn all about Genevieve's career journey!
Genevieve is a CFA Charterholder with a Level 1 Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designation. She and her content have been featured on FOX, Bloombert, VICE, CNN, The Globe & Mail, The National Post, and BNN. Outside of her professional pursuits, Genevieve is an avid skier, tennis player, golfer, and wake surfer. 

Today's episode brings back Hugo Ste-Marie from Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets (GBM) to recap 2023 and dive into what’s in store for 2024. What most surprised Hugo about the markets in 2023 and what surprised him the least? What can we expect in 2024?
Hugo leads the Scotiabank GBM portfolio strategy team, which uses macroeconomic trends, equity market fundamentals, and quantitative models to determine optimal asset-mix, global-equity, and sector-allocation strategies, complementing the top-down perspectives offered by Scotiabank Economics, as well as the bottom-up research of sector-specific analysts.

This special episode features a discussion with Jan Stuart regarding the current situation in the Middle East as it relates to the war in Israel and the implications it holds for both geopolitics as well as the commodities market. 
Johannes (Jan) Stuart serves as Global Energy Strategist at Piper Sandler. A self-described oil-geek, Jan and his team take a micro-fundamentals approach to energy analysis and forecasting – which frequently lands them away from consensus.
Previously, Jan spent 11 years in sell-side research, building leading energy-macro franchises at Credit Suisse, Macquarie and UBS. He was a journalist for much of the nineties and started his career at the International Energy Agency in Paris. 
(Recorded on October 27, 2023)

This episode features a discussion of current trends, hiring practices, and what to watch for in the labour market with Adam Pekarsky. 
Adam Pekarsky is the Founding Partner of Pekarsky & Co. and has been recruiting executives, advising Boards, and offering thought leadership in Western Canada for over 20 years. A frequent writer, teacher, and speaker on topics of interest to the legal and business communities, Adam has achieved success as a member of the management team of a national law firm, a Partner in a global executive search firm and, once upon a time, a practicing lawyer.
An active member in good standing of the Law Society of Alberta, Adam has also earned a reputation for honesty, integrity, and discretion in all that he does.

This episode features a discussion on the wide-ranging world of infrastructure investing with Jared Waldron. 
Jared leads Northleaf’s infrastructure investing activities in North America, with a primary focus on transaction origination, market research, due diligence, execution and asset management. Jared acts as the Asset Manager for a number of Northleaf’s infrastructure investments and serves as a director on several asset-level boards.
Prior to joining Northleaf in 2012, Jared was at ONCAP, the middle-market private equity platform of Onex Corporation, where he was involved in sourcing and evaluating principal investment opportunities and managing existing portfolio companies. Previously, he worked with the Macquarie Group as part of the Public-Private Partnerships and Industrials teams where he was primarily involved in principal acquisitions and M&A advisory assignments.