In this podcast – which was recorded with co-host Tom Raber of Alvine Capital, the co-hosts sit down with Björn Thelander, who is an experienced Family Office manager with broad international investment and industrial experience. His background is varied and involved many stints in emerging markets, punctuated by market crises which often necessitated a pivot – or two.

Andrien Meyers is a Councilman in the City of London Corporation as well as a Head of Pensions Investments at the London Borough of Sutton and Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. He is a Non Executive Director of Resonance Limited as well as a strategic business advisor to bfinance.

A renaissance man with multiple interests and passions, shares his Indian heritage and his work on the anti-racism taskforce of the City of London, how he honours God and Family as he pursues a fulfilling career.

Daniel Gore is a Founding Partner of Orthogonal Partners, a boutique asset manager investing in “next generation” alternative investment strategies. He has had an extensive career in investing, including time spent in angel investing, in a family office and in film finance. He is currently pursuing opportunities in small and mid market UK firms.

This summary is less a trailer than a highlight reel. The year started with a new administration in the US and an explosion of the culture wars and backlash against DEI and ESG labelling. Even engagement has become more cumbersome and some may feel the hard won policies of years ago are going into reverse.  Because we had lined up a list of industry experts with a focus on sustainable investing for this series, we had an excellent opportunity to ask them about the headwinds and the view of them.

Chelsea Smith is Senior National Director, Family Office Services at Bernstein Private Wealth Management, based in Chicago. She started her career as an equity trader, and in recent years has been heavily involved in diversity initiatives designed to attract a more diverse pipeline into the finance industry. 

Denise Le Gal is Independent Chair at Brightwell as well as a Chair and Trustee Director of JP Morgan Chase Retirement Plan among other portfolio roles  She was Chair of the Brunel Pension Partnership Limited for close to 8 years

Anastasia Guha is a sustainable investing expert at Redington with over 17 years of experience.  She advises on sustainable investing strategy and beliefs, best practices for integrating ESG factors into investment projects, engagement and ESG reporting and measurement. 

Steve Foresti is a Senior Advisor, Investments, at Wilshire, where he has spent almost 30 years.  He previously held a role as Chief Investment Officer, among other roles and is currently in a part-time role as he pursues other interests.  Steve was recommended to us as a guest because of his extraordinary career arc in which he overcame a substantial loss of vision as a child to pursue a fulfilling career.

Matt Whineray recently retired from the role of Chief Executive Officer at the NZ$77 bn NZ Super Fund, where he had spent close to 16 years in a series of roles, culminating in CEO but which included 4 years as CIO. He previously worked in a series of corporate finance roles, and currently holds a number of Chair and Board roles.