Paul Richards is a decision making expert with a particular focus on investment manager and trustee decision-making. He is the founder of Better Decisions, and was previously Head of Governance and Decision Research at the consulting firm Redington.

Tom Raber is the founder and Managing Director of London-based Alvine Capital, a reverse enquiry solutions firm that Tom founded in 2005, with a particular focus on finding solutions for institutional investors in alternative assets.  Originally from Sweden, he previously held leadership roles at Key Asset Management  and a series of investment banks. 

Elizabeth Burton is CIO at the Hawaii Employee’s Retirement System, a US public pensions plan with over $17 bn in AUM. Before moving to Hawaii in 2018 she was managing director of the quantitative strategies group at Maryland State Retirement and Pension System. Prior to that she ran her own strategy consulting business, and worked as an economist, in portfolio management at a fund of hedge funds and a as fixed income securities trader. Elizabeth is a recipient of the CIO Magazine’s 2019 Innovation Award, and was named as one of CIO’s Forty Under Forty in 2017, and was recently appointed to the Board of CAIA.

An inspiring discussion of a life characterized by sport, competing, a striving for excellence and how this is translated into building a CIO’s team.

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.  

Welcome back to The Fiftyfaces Podcast in 2022. In this first series we meet with ten more inspiring guests and draw out in particular themes relating to impact and the importance of education.  For some of our guests their commitment to educating the next generation – whether through personal sponsorship, Board Roles, teaching decision making or the founding of The Skills Workshop – there is universal belief in its importance.

Impact takes many forms, and includes investment in education, but for some of our guests it also includes solutions to alleviate homelessness, house vulnerable women and adults with learning differences, or address the problem of climate change. 

Luba Nikulina is Global Head of Research at Willis Towers Watson, based in London, where she oversees the quality of research and investment decisions, new investment solutions as well as technology and strategy in research. She is a Non-Executive director at the Investor Forum, which focus on positioning stewardship at the heart of investment decision making.

A fascinating discussion of Luba’s journey from Russia, and the intellectual curiosity that has encouraged her to push limits in research and orthogonal thinking.

Dr. Ylva Baeckstrom is a lecturer and researcher in finance at King’s College Business School in London, where she has a particular interest in behavioural finance, investment decision making and investment advice, with a special interest in gender and the interplay between advisors and their clients.

A specialist in gender equality and finance shares insights from her Ted talk and how things like press coverage confirm biases and impeded visibility for women and underrepresented groups.

Brent Mattis is a Principal at the Cleveland Clinic Investment Office. He specializes in idea generation, manager selection and financial modeling for the investment portfolio and likes to look “off the beaten path” for opportunity. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic in 2017 he worked for 6 years in a family office in NYC with a particular focus on alternative assets, direct private investments and public equitie

Jane Buchan is CEO of Martlet Asset Management, based in Newport Beach CA. She was one of the co-founders of Pacific Alternative Asset Management in 2000, which grew to $32 bn n AUM under her leadership. She was been a chair of the Board of CAIA as well as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and has a number of Board roles.