Welcome to Series 1 of 2026 – we are now approaching the age of 6 – if we were a person we would be entering school, so we have come of age, and we are going deep.

Alison Taylor  is Clinical Professor at the NY Stern School of Business – her Linkedin profile describes her as having “lots of other hats and even more opinions”. She is the author of “Higher Ground – How Business can do the right thing in a Turbulent World”, and has a successful Substack as well as being a member of multiple governance oriented boards such as the FT Moral Money Advisory Board as well as holding senior advisor roles at KKR and Unilever. 

Carol Geremia is president of MFS Investment Management® (MFS®) and head of Global Distribution. She leads the firm’s worldwide client-facing teams as well as product and marketing strategy. Since joining MFS in 1984, Carol has held roles focused primarily on fiduciary responsibility, stewardship and sustainability, and she has actively engaged with clients at all levels to ensure that the firm builds products and services aligned with their needs. Carol is a member of the Investment Company Institute’s Board of Governors, the City Year Seven Generations Board, the MFS Charitable Oversight Committee and as an Advisory Council member for Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Inc.

In this podcast John Harney, associate partner at AON, actuary and expert on pensions - see https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnwilliamharney/ leads the discussion on what was learned over the course of 2024 - how we separated the wood from the trees and what trends we...

Kurt Summers is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Public-Private Partnerships in
Blackstone’s Infrastructure Group. In this capacity, Mr. Summers is responsible for
investment strategies in partnership with governments, public entities, civic and labor
organizations, and broader stakeholders to help advance local infrastructure priorities
and he also advances Blackstone Infrastructure’s ESG efforts. Mr. Summers was
elected and served as Chicago’s 70th City Treasurer until 2019. Mr. Summers also
served as both Chairman of the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, where he led the largest
lighting retrofit project in North America, and Chairman of the Chicago Community
Catalyst Fund, a first-of-its-kind $100 million local investment fund focused on private
investments in Chicago neighborhoods.

It is our last official series of The Fiftyfaces Podcast for 2023 but we have a ton of actionable content for you for the rest of the year. In Series 5 we are looking around the corner at the future of AI, and how it will enable us to go back to the future.  We will look at what lies ahead for digital health and how better inclusion, particularly of people with disabilities, empowers all employees. 

Claudia Buffini is Corporate Responsibility Advisor to the Chief of Staff at Schroders. In this role she supports Schroders on delivering its purpose –whilst being a sustainable business, addressing The Sustainable Development Goal 10, ‘Promoting Equalities’. She previously worked as a communications consultant in the branding industry to help companies articulate their values and purpose to both internal and external stakeholders. Her prior roles include a royal charity, a global workforce operating in an Iraqi oil field and a branding agency.

Michael Halpern is Founder and President of Westmore Capital Advisors, a multi-strategy investment firm that invests across asset classes focused on early stage/growth capital companies as well as investments in more established companies undergoing substantial transformation.  He was previously Co-Managing Member and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Dorchester Capital Advisors, a fund management firm that invested in hedge funds, private equity funds and secondary hedge fund interests. Prior to that he ran a long/short hedge fund Dorchester Advisors that he founded in 1991. He previously held a series of roles in financial services in the Los Angeles area and currently holds a number of Board Roles.