Karen Shackleton is the founder and head of Pensions for Purpose, a collaborative initiative to promote understanding of impact investment for institutional investors. This is in addition to a portfolio career which includes roles as investment adviser to four local authority pension funds, as well as Chair and Non-Executive Director roles. She has spent most of her career in investment, including time as a fund manager, client relationship manager and chief executive of an Investment Advisory Firm. She is a frequent speaker on the institutional investor circuit and a passionate advocate for knowledge and action in impact investment.

A fast-paced discussion of a career driven by ambition and dedication, which is now evident in the Pensions for Purpose created by Karen which is creating tremendous impact among the pension fund community.

John Teahan is a portfolio manager at Redwheel, which is focused on value oriented UK and global equity funds where he leads on engagement and responsible investing. The firm was formerly known as RWC Partners. 

Francois Bourdon is Managing Partner of Nordis Capital, based in Montreal. He is also Managing Partner in Sustainable Market Strategies, an independent investment strategy research service tracking global developments in ESG/impact-investing worldwide.  He was formerly Chief Investment Officer at Fiera Capital.  

Fabiola Schneider is a doctoral researcher at UCD Michael Smurfit business school, where she focuses on sustainable finance with a particular focus on progressing the UN SDG agenda.  She is Research Co-Lead on Greenwatch, which applies AI to detect Greenwashing in the market.  She is also passionate about issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Simon Chisholm is Chief Investment Officer at Resonance Limited, an investment manager focused on achieving social and place-based impact.  It currently runs funds focused on three themes – homelessness, housing for vulnerable women, and housing for adults with learning differences.  It has over 20 years of an Impact Track Record and has housed over 2300 people in 1000 properties since inception.  Simon previously spent over 16 years in investment banking and also holds a number of Board Roles.

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. 

Susana Coutinho is a Research Director at MainStreet Partners, a firm that provides investment Advisory and Portfolio Analytics on Sustainable, ESG and Impact investments. She is Portuguese, and has studied and worked in Italy as well as London, and has previously worked as an ESG analyst and in accounting.

An enjoyable journey through a varied career that has arrived at ESG analysis and impact investing.