The Fiftyfaces Podcast Aoifinn Devitt

David Golub is President at Golub Capital, a direct lender and credit manager established in 1994, and celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. As the son of a psychiatrist and psychologist, a path into finance was originally a divergent path, and a somewhat non-linear one at that.As we chart the course of David’s career we chart the arc of Golub Capital’s at the same time – discussing the origins of the concept of a private lending firm and how it had its roots in private equity.  Designed to solve a problem, offer certainty of execution and built on a network of relationships we hear how a lot of hard work – and a little bit of luck – lead to the positioning that they enjoy today.We move then to discuss the nature of the private credit market and how it has evolved over the course of Golub’s history.  We examine its significantly enhanced breadth and sophistication today.One of David’s key personal interests is in culture and we speak in particular about the role that culture plays at Golub.  The firm dedicates significant resources to training, coaching and creating a sense of belonging for its team members. We speak about the role of feedback and accountability as well as the way that junior professionals are mentored and learn how to take risk.  Finally we discuss the role of worrying and how for a credit investor it seems to go with the territory. Series 3 of 2024 is supported by Ruffer and Nuveen. Ruffer is a London based asset manager - founded in 1994 - managing over $25 billion for institutions, pension funds, charities and individuals. They have a single investment approach that aims to deliver positive returns across the full range of market conditions.  Nuveen has provided investment excellence for 125 years. With expertise across income and alternatives, Nuveen continues to expand its capabilities while maintaining its legacy as a leading investment manager. Visit Nuveen.com to learn more. Investing involves risk; loss of principal is possible.  

Derek Walker, is Head of Portfolio Design & Construction, total Fund Management and a member of the Global Leadership Team at CPP Investments, based in Toronto. He previously worked in MSCI in Geneva. We start by discussing what Derek describes as a “non linear” career path, and his road from technology and machine translation to CPP Investments. We turn then to unpacking Total Fund Investing at CPP Investments, and learn how it prioritizes best overall portfolio construction for risk-adjusted returns and involves tradeoffs across different asset classes. We speak about how organization size matters in implementing such an approach and how scale and resourcing lends itself to thinking holistically in this way.  We also discuss how it affects mindset, and true team mindset and accountability. The three elements of governance, diversification and culture are discussed in detail. Digging into some more detail, Derek explains how the team has a reference portfolio and a “factor first” approach around tilting away from that. We discuss the stability of various factors and how the macro backdrop is factored in.  Finally Derek discusses what it is like to work at CPP investments and how the mission of the organization and the fact that it serves over 21 m beneficiaries and contributors across the country is such a motivator.  Series 3 of 2024 is supported by Ruffer and Nuveen. Ruffer is a London based asset manager - founded in 1994 - managing over $25 billion for institutions, pension funds, charities and individuals. They have a single investment approach that aims to deliver positive returns across the full range of market conditions.  Nuveen has provided investment excellence for 125 years. With expertise across income and alternatives, Nuveen continues to expand its capabilities while maintaining its legacy as a leading investment manager. Visit Nuveen.com to learn more. Investing involves risk; loss of principal is possible.

Anna McDonald has a dual role at Moneta, a St. Louis based RIA with over $32 billion in assets under management. She supports athletes in all aspects of their financial lives, preparing them for sustained success beyond their athletic careers. She knows this segment well as she previously spent six years as an ESPN reporter, covering Major League Baseball and the National Football League. During this time she was a spokesperson around health and safety concerns of the NFL.  In addition to her work with athletes, she also serves as Moneta’s Director of Family Learning. In this capacity, she works at the net as client facing teams to facilitate learning programs for families to transfer wealth to younger generations.Having bridged both journalism and financial advice, we start with the mysterious world of professional sports and reporting on them.  Anna describes how she won the trust of athletes, getting them to open up to her as a reporter, and discusses how meeting them at their level of discussion in terms of technical knowledge was the key to rising above some of the “fluff” in sports coverage.  She translated this counseling and advisory capacity into a broader desire to work with athletes to plan their lives beyond their financial careers and her role at Moneta was born.The profile of professional athletes is unique in terms of earning – and can resemble the inverse of a J curve – in that earnings can be front end loaded but can taper off once a career recedes or retirement occurs.  This underscores the importance of planning, budgeting and preparing for a career beyond elite sports, and we discuss the educational and practical components of this.Series 3 of 2024 is supported by Ruffer and Nuveen. Ruffer is a London based asset manager - founded in 1994 - managing over $25 billion for institutions, pension funds, charities and individuals. They have a single investment approach that aims to deliver positive returns across the full range of market conditions.  Nuveen has provided investment excellence for 125 years. With expertise across income and alternatives, Nuveen continues to expand its capabilities while maintaining its legacy as a leading investment manager. Visit Nuveen.com to learn more. Investing involves risk; loss of principal is possible.

Nicci Take featured in our first Pride series in 2021 and shared her story as a prominent transgender advocate, inspirational speaker and coach.  We have watched Nicci’s presence grow and thrive over the past 3 years, she posts frequent inspirational content on Linked IN and we we wanted to ask her back onto the podcast to share some of that wisdom  - particularly as we get ready to launch our pride series of 2024 in coming weeks. Now global head coach at MMC Marsh McLennan, Nicci works with teams to help the company secure more deals.  We speak about the dynamics of being memorable in these presentations, and how prioritizing the needs of the audience is paramount.  We discuss the poor retention levels of audiences, citing the Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting and the staggering amount of information that is forgotten as time passes from the date of acquiring it.  This reinforces the importance of repetition and follow up.  Nicci cites the “day, week, month” mantra for follow up, which sets the cadence for interactions after the initial meeting, and a host of other tips for making presentations memorable, including that it really is not about the presenter.  

Varun Laijawalla is a Portfolio Manager at Ninety One, where he manages long only EM and EM ex-China portfolios.  He started his career as a consultant and moved into stockpicking via Asia focused sales.Our conversation starts with his international background, which saw his family move from India to Holland when Varun was only 4 years old, and the imprint that that multi-cultural yet well-integrated backdrop provided. We hear then about his career journey, which saw him move from management consulting into investing via a serendipitous meeting and reading material, which encouraged him to “follow his dream”.A move to Hong Kong followed, and a career in emerging market investing unfolded, with all of the travel, variety and intellectual stimuli that such a career would suggest. We discuss the features of emerging market investing, the rout that it has experienced over the past few years and the increased investor interest in emerging markets ex-China portfolios.  Finally we reflect on some of the most insightful investor letters that Varun has enjoyed receiving because they provide insights as to how to think. We return to the exhortation to “follow the dream” and examine what makes it worthwhile.  Series 3 of 2024 is supported by Ruffer and Nuveen. Ruffer is a London based asset manager - founded in 1994 - managing over $25 billion for institutions, pension funds, charities and individuals. They have a single investment approach that aims to deliver positive returns across the full range of market conditions.  Nuveen has provided investment excellence for 125 years. With expertise across income and alternatives, Nuveen continues to expand its capabilities while maintaining its legacy as a leading investment manager. Visit Nuveen.com to learn more. Investing involves risk; loss of principal is possible.  

In this bonus episode we meet with fellow INSEAD alumna Avivah Wittenberg-Cox advocates for new thinking in generational and gender balance. She is a consultant, coach and speaker on the rising impact of longevity on the people and on the workplace and provides advice to help businesses thrive. She is the author of seven books on gender, leadership and longevity and the host of the podcast 4-Quarter lives, where she applauds podcasts as a way to create “real conversations in a very noisy world”.   In this very real conversation we talk about Avivah’s path to coaching and the importance of rethinking what we thought we knew about our lifespans, employment trajectories and retirement path. She draws upon her analogy of life having four quarters, and makes the point that most of us have discounted the potential of the third quarter – the years between 50 and 75.  We discuss the perils of trying to compress too much into the second quarter in particular – to try to “have it all” instead of spreading out goals and achievements.  We look at the endless potential of this phase and ask how employers can embrace this and in so doing promote more diversity in the workplace and more sustainable employment practices.  Given that Avivah is a coach we discuss the role of coaching and how it might be integrated into careers at an earlier stage than currently.  We also discuss continuing education and how universities and other institutions should adapt to the demand for lifelong learning.  Finally we look at the role of intuition, and how trusting one’s instincts can be central to career success.