Kelly Chesney is principal and co-founder of Pluscios Management, a fund of hedge funds manager based in the Chicago area. The firm, founded in 2006, has two female founders, and we interviewed Connie Teska, the other founder, in this earlier episode of the Fiftyfaces Podcast.  She has a long history in investment management, particularly in the area of funds of hedge funds, investing and consulting and started her career as an attorney.

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.

Uwe Schillhorn is Program Director at Emerging Markets Investors Alliance.  He previously was CIO at Principal International Americas, where he managed the investment teams and developed the business in Latin America.  Prior to that he was previously a global bond portfolio manager at UBS, and his most recent role was as CIO of a Chicago based public fund. 

Catherine Beard is SVP of Alternatives Consulting at Callan, the investment consultants. She has had a long career in investment consulting and allocation with a particular focus on private credit and is based in Chicago. 

2024 will be a year of tremendous change, and tremendous noise.  With elections in key regions, we are likely to be subjected to a volley of rhetoric and uncertainty will be the order of the day. In times like this, it seems even more important to reach out to our wise community for their insights on what should stay the same, and evolve, amid this uncertainty. 

Apurva Schwartz is a portfolio specialist at Harding Loevner LP. She was previously a principal at Rocaton Investment Advisors, where she was a senior member of the investment team. Prior to that she held a series of roles in equity analysis and investing. Our conversation starts with her serendipitous start in finance and how that experience of picking stocks drove her to launch her own hedge fund. Her interest then expanded to analyzing managers themselves and a career in investment consulting. This came full circle then when she chose her next move, which was back into the investment management field.

Geeta Kapadia is Chief Investment Officer at Fordham University, a role she has held since August 2022. She was previously Associate Treasurer and Director of Investments at Yale New Haven Health where she headed a 5 person investment team, and prior to that had a range of roles in investment consulting and other financial roles.

Julia Kwamya is an associate at Tikehau Capital, the global alternative asset manager, based in NYC.  She has trained as an actor, musician and voiceover artist and has released her first album “Feel Good about Feeling Bad”.  We are featuring songs from this album on this entire Series 5 of 2023.  She has been Creator in Residence at Kickstarter, as well as a casting assistant among other roles in the entertainment industry.  She studied economics at Pepperdine University.

Ben Phillips is Head of Asset Management Global Advisory Services at Broadridge Financial Solutions, based in New York, He has had a long background in consulting at firms such as Casey, Quirk, Deloitte and Cerulli Associates and has focused for much of his career on the dynamics and evolution of the asset management industry. I asked Ben here to let us look over his shoulder into his crystal ball to chart the future course of the asset management industry.