David Semmens is Chief Investment Officer at Cadro and an External Investment Committee Member at Wealthify where he was previously CIO. He holds additional Investment Committee and advisory roles and is an adjunct lecturer at Heriot-Watt University. 

Sonali Patel Wilson is Managing Director and Director of Alternatives, Americas at Wellington Management where she is based in the New York City area. She sits on the investment committee of the Harry and Jeanette Foundation in Baltimore and she is the trustee of EWOB Encouraging Women across All Borders, which helps college aged women and non-binary individuals build their confidence to enter STEM and finance fields. She previously held various positions at PIMCO focused on account management in the alternatives area and has held various investor relations and analyst roles.

Monika Mantilla is the President and CEO of Altura Capital, which provides institutional investors and strategic partners a mechanism of investing in underserved markets including high-performing small and diverse businesses. She is also a Co-Founder and Managing Member of Small Business Community Capital. She is a Member of the Board of Directors of Los Cidrines, based in Puerto Rico and Florida as well as holding a number of other board roles.

Monisha Varadan works at Google focused on Privacy and Partnerships, and is a partner at Zephyr Ventures, an acquisition vehicle set up to invest in profitable, growth businesses. She is Director of the Start up Bootcamp and is Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD, my own alma mater, where she also completed her MBA.

Marah Curtin describes herself as a “catalyst on a mission to promote the empowerment of women and the next generation, financially or otherwise”.  Based in Dublin, Ireland, but originally from the US, she is a Director of Client Engagement at Davy, and has had a long career in financial planning.  She can be found on Instagram under @femolutionist, where she writes about money, careers and life from a female point of view.   She is also the founder of Cents for Kids and Side Hustle.

Stuart Heatley is Managing Director at Capita Pensions where he is a Business Transformation and Growth Leader.  He previously held a series of similar roles at AON and Scottish Life.  Based in Edinburgh, Stuart is passionate about creating access to the financial services industry for people of all backgrounds, and is a Mentor with MCR Pathways. 

It is hard to believe that we are back for our fourth year of the Fiftyfaces Podcast – and in Series 1 of 2023 we hear about unorthodox beginnings such as the twelve year old who arbitraged the price of chickens when growing up in Uganda, and ended up in a senior role in Bridgewater before starting his own firm. We hear about traditional ones too, about investment instincts honed at the family dinner table, or through seeing the world through an artist’s eyes. 

Aaron Joseph is Senior Vice President of Investor Solutions at Blue Vista Capital Management, a Chicago-based real estate investment manager focused in particular on middle market equity, student housing and real estate credit. He previously worked as Deputy Sustainability Officer in the Office of the Mayor in the city of Chicago, and as a Strategy Manager at Urban Partnership Bank focused on providing banking services for impact capital and urban real estate investors.