Stavros Siokos is managing partner and co-founder at Astarte Capital Partners. He started his career with Salomon Brothers in NYC in the mid-nineties, was sent to London and later was managing director of Citigroup responsible for the global trading strategies across the firm and for the product solution for all pension funds and insurance companies across the world. He was formerly Head of Investment Management at Piraeus Bank. He is originally from Greece, but has lived outside there since 1990, mainly USA (where he did his Ph.D and Masters) and the UK.

Astarte Partners is an asset management firm with a global presence, that is focused on identifying thematic real asset strategies that are usually difficult for investors to access.  They identify the strategies and different teams that they can deliver the strategies, and create asset management businesses. Stavros presents, in an unvarnished way, the challenges and opportunities of start-up life, how it takes, on reflection, double the time, double the money and half the friends.  He speaks about the importance of trust and relationship building and how a friend in life may not necessarily be the right partner in business.

During the podcast he dives into some of the real asset strategies that they have launched at Astarte, including a forestry business which can now get the extra “boost” of carbon credits to enhance returns.  We look at the increasing integration of ESG awareness and how this is changing the face of real asset opportunities.Finally Stavros reflects on what has been important in his life, and the role that education has played, and how his greatest impact in life is educating other young people.

Series 1 of the 2022 Fiftyfaces Podcast is brought to you with the kind support of Heard Capital, a Chicago-based asset manager invests in public equities in the technology, media, telecommunication, financial and industrial sectors.  The firm was founded in 2011 and manages assets via a long/short fund and a long-only fund.