The Wall Street Lab

Radboud Vlaar is a Managing Partner at Finch Capital, a VC investor based out of Amsterdam.  Prior to launching Finch Capital and its first fund in 2013, Radboud was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, focused on Financial Services, PE, and M&A. Prior to McKinsey, Radboud worked at TPG, co-founded 3 companies. Radboud holds four Master's Degrees from the University in Groningen. Radboud leads the firms' investments in ZOPA, Fixico, BUX, Safened, Salviol, DIG (incl. KNIP and Komparu), Trussle, Supply Finance among others.   This episode is dedicated to VC investments into Fintech startups. We have a look into investing in AI companies with a focus on the financial sector. Radboud speaks about how Finch Capital uses Machine Learning for their own deal sourcing and how a VC investor adds value to startups beyond the money when competing for the best investments. We have a section on raising and investing money over the lifetime of a VC investor. We get into how things change from a first fund to a third fun

Brett King is a futurist, an Amazon bestselling author, an award-winning speaker, host the globally recognized radio show Breaking Banks, is the Founder and Executive Chairman of neo-bank Moven. He advised the Obama administration on the Future of Banking. Brett has spoken at TED conferences, given opening keynotes for Wired, Techsauce, Singularity University, Web Summit, The Economist, IBM’s World of Watson, CES, SIBOS, and many more. He has appeared as a commentator on CNN, CNBC, BBC, ABC, Fox, and Bloomberg. He previously advised the Obama administration on Fintech policy and advises regulators and bank boards around the world on technology transformation. This episode is every Fintech enthusiast's dream. We talk about the current state of banking, what is possible, and where banking is headed. And most importantly, Brett gives some advice on how to be part of the future of banking. We talk about different technologies like AI, blockchain, but also soft skills needed to succeed, like having the right minds

Stephen Stonberg is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Bittrex Global, one of the leading crypto trading platforms. Before joining Bittrex Global, Stephen held Managing Director positions with Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse, the Winton Group, and Goldman Sachs. He was Partner and CEO U.S. of the hedge fund Brevan Howard.  In this episode, we talk about all things crypto. We talk about the newest trends, the latest news, what's going on with regulation in the crypto space, and where Stephen sees regulation going. We talk about Ripple and their quarrel with the SEC. We talk about tokenized equity and leverage tokens. And of course, how to learn to get into the crypto space and why it's an exciting place to be.

Elizabeth Crain is the Chief Operating Officer and a Founding Partner at Moelis & Company where she leads the Firm’s global strategy, infrastructure, and business management functions. Elizabeth has been in the investment banking and private equity industries for over 25 years as a banker, principal, and operations executive. Moelis is a global independent investment bank that has advised on more than $3.5 trillion on transactions, with deal sizes ranging from $100 million to $160billion. Prior to Moelis & Company, Elizabeth was a Managing Director in the UBS Investment Bank where she was the Manager of the Investment Bank Client Committee and a member of the Investment Bank Board. In addition, she was both the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of the UBS Investment Banking Department Americas franchise. Before joining UBS, Ms. Crain was in the private equity industry from 1997 to 2001. She began her career in investment banking in 1988 at Merrill Lynch. Elizabeth was named one

Chris co-founded Class VI in 2005 with a mission to Enable the Entrepreneurial Spirit. Prior to Class VI, Chris spent more than 20 years gaining experience in executive management, marketing, sales, law, and mergers and acquisitions. Chris was a co-founder and President of Expanets, the nation’s largest provider of converged communications solutions. During his tenure with Expanets, Chris led the acquisition and integration of 27 companies, ranging in size from $2 million to over $1 billion in annual revenues, ultimately leading to its acquisition by Avaya in late 2003. Prior to Expanets, Chris was an associate with the law firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati, and clerked for the Honorable Jesse Eschbach of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. Chris is a graduate of Miami University and Harvard Law School and has also studied at The London School of Economics.   In this episode we talk about buying and selling entire business of several perspectives as Chris has experience in both. We explore

Martin is President of FIS Capital Market Solutions business. You might have heard of FIS because of their 43 billion Dollar acquisition of worldpay in 2019, which was the largest acquisition in the Fintech industry to date. FIS is the world's largest Fintech with over 10 billion USD in revenue and over 55,000 employees globally.  In this role, Martin is responsible for developing and delivering the technology and services that facilitate the movement, management and growth of money and global securities. He joined FIS in 2015 with the acquisition of SunGard, where he began his leadership journey in 1998. Over his 20 years with FIS and its predecessor companies, Martin has held a variety of global operational and strategic leadership positions with increasing responsibility in treasury management, asset management, international distribution and the institutional and wholesale business.Before joining FIS, Martin was a senior manager with the Royal Bank of Scotland, a management consultant at KPMG, and started

Weijian Shan is chairman and CEO of PAG, a leading Asia-focused private equity firm. Prior to PAG, he was a partner of TPG, and co-managing partner of TPG Asia (formerly known as Newbridge Capital).   Over two decades, Weijian Shan has led a number of landmark transactions. Previously, Shan was a managing director of JP Morgan, and an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco.    Shan is the author of Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America (2019) and Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank (2020). His articles and commentary have been published in the Financial Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs and many other publications.   In this episode we speak about Private Equity. Shan walks us through the entire process of a Private Equity deal, from sourcing deals, the in

Stephan Feilhauer is a Managing Director at Macquarie Capital, the corporate advisory, capital markets and principal investment arm of Macquarie Group. Stephan leads Macquarie Capital’s growth equity investment, or investments on the firm’s own balance sheet, in the Infratech sector. Before Macquarie Capital, Stephan was a VP at Deutsche Bank, a Graduate Researcher at MIT, a Financial Economist at The World Bank, and a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs. Stephan holds a Bachelors of Engineering in Business Finance from University College London and the London School of Economics and a Masters in Engineering and Economics from MIT. In this episode we speak about principle investing and the differences between investing on a firm’s balance sheet compared to other forms of VC funds. We get into investing in infrastructure and energy technology startups, the process, the decision criteria, the investment instruments and much more. Stephan also shares big trends he’s seeing across the infrastructure tech industry,

Rich Nuzum is President of Mercer’s Investments & Retirement business and a member of Mercer’s Executive Leadership Team. Rich is also the Executive Sponsor for Mercer’s Pride Business Resource Network. Rich’s prior roles include President and Global Business Leader for Mercer’s Investment Management business and global Chief Investment Officer for Mercer’s Investment Management business. Rich holds an MBA (with high honors) in analytic finance and accounting from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree (with honors) in mathematical sciences and mathematical economic analysis from Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute. Rich has repeatedly been named to CIO magazine’s annual list of the world’s most influential investment consultants and received CIO’s 2017 Industry Innovation Award as Consultant of the Year. Mercer is the largest investment consultant ranked by worldwide institutional assets under advisement, reporting $15.96 trillion in

Martin is Chief Executive Officer, Head of Business Development and a member of the Executive Committee of Capital Dynamics. He has over 30 years of experience in sales, marketing and general management. Prior to joining Capital Dynamics, Martin was an independent management consultant and CEO at TestQuest, Inc., a start-up software company in the US. Earlier in his career, he held general manager positions at several publicly traded technology companies in the US. Martin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Capital Dynamics is a global private asset investment company founded 1988 with over $17 bn Assets under Management.   In this episode, we talk about private assets, including a very broad range of private equity topics: from Primary Fund-of-Fund investments to secondaries and co-investing. This is followed by a discussion about the characteristics of private credit. We then talk about clean energy infrastructure, the importanc

Rob is the CEO of IPC Systems, the leading voice trading company famous for their dealer turrets, which you can find on every trading floor. Previously, Rob was the President of Global Trading at FIS, the world’s largest Fintech and a Fortune 500 company. Before that, Rob was COO of several different companies. Rob recently won the CEO of the Year award. We speak about the past, present, and future of trading, especially voice trading. We dive into the effects of Covid19 on the trading world, how trading evolved in a working from home environment and how technology enabled this shift. Rob shares his views on leadership, how to become CEO of the Year and how to lead through transformational times. And of course, with such a high profile guest, I ask for some career advice.

Andrew White is the founder and CEO of fundapps, a regulatory technology company founded 10 years ago. He completely bootstrapped fundapps and grew it from a small startup to over 60 people and 9 trillion USD in monitored client assets. The company provides Shareholder Disclosure software to Hedge Funds and other asset owners. Before founding fundapps, Andrew was a managing director at aquin components, a company that was acquired by State Street.  We start off our conversation by Andrew walking us through the space of regtech, giving us a history of the space, and how the regulation technology industry changed over the years. We talk about the difficulties to adhere to all regulations globally as a Hedge Fund or Asset Owner.  We then take an unforeseen and interesting turn and Andrew gives us a masterclass in the art of Bootstrapping a startup. This part starts at about minute 30. 

Lila Preston is a Partner at Generation Investment Management, and is Co-Head of the Growth Equity platform – Generation’s private equity fund.  Generation was, amongst others, founded by former US Vice President Al Gore. In Addition, Lila serves on the board of several companies. Lila holds a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from London Business School.  In this episode we deep dive into the world of ESG and Sustainable Investing. Lila talks about Generation’s investment approach and process, from research, over pipeline building, deal sourcing, to the decision factors. We take you step by step through the process of what it means to invest with impact into Private Equity. Lila also shares some great career advice and the importance of culture in a company. 

Jacco Minnaar is the Chair of the Management Board and Managing Director of Triodos Investment Management, a globally active, multi-billion Dollar Impact investor.  Jacco has 25 years of experience in the financial and investment industry. Prior to his current position as Chair, he served Triodos across various positions including Director of Energy and Climate, Fund Manager of Triodos Fair Share Fund, and Regional Manager of Africa and Latin America. Before joining Triodos in 2006, he managed the Financial Markets Development Program of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in the Mekong region. Jacco holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Science and is a CFA charter holder. Jacco explains to us what is Impact Investing and why it is important, how you can differentiate yourself as an Impact Investor. We debunk myths about impact investing and lagging returns by looking at the performance drivers of sustainable investments. We also speak about Triodos’ investment pro

Clare Flynn Levy, Founder and CEO of Essentia Analytics, a behavioral data analytics service that helps professional investors make measurably better investment decisions. She also sits on the board of several and before founding Essentia, she was active as a fund manager, both for a company she founded herself and big names like DWS. Clare tells us how data analytics can be used to become a better fund manager by analysing decision patters. She goes into a concept called the alpha lifecycle. We talk about trends in the asset management industry like AI, blockchain, or model delivery.

Toby is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Efficient Frontier Investing, a Swiss financial product engineering firm. He also founded Isla Capital Management, a company that providers bespoke financial Solutions in Asset Management and Advisory Services. Before he was active as as Interim CIO at Status Capital and active in several Roles at Bedrock Group, one of Europe’s biggest Family Offices.  Toby tells us his approach on getting returns above the efficient frontier by understanding, quantifying and managing risk. Toby takes us through their Investment Process and gives us some great insights into the Private Equity Market in Switzerland. We also talk about the importance of Mentoring, a having good reputation and building trust. Toby didn’t mention it in the episode, but sent me the link to a great TED talk on coaching and mentoring he wanted you listeners to know about. The talk is named “Want to get great at something? Get a coach” by Atul Gawande. The link is of course also in the show notes. 

Gregory Zuckerman is a Special Writer at The Wall Street Journal, a 23-year veteran of the paper and a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb award - the highest honor in business journalism. Greg is the author of five books: The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution; The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters; The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History; Rising Above: How 11 Athletes Overcame Challenges in Their Youth to Become Stars and Rising Above: Inspiring Women in Sports. In this episode we talk about his job as a journalist for the wall street journal, how he finds the stories he writes about for his articles and books. We get into his book „The man who solved the market “, and what lessons he learned from his research about Jim Simons, the founder of Renaissance Technologies, probably the most successful trader of all times. 

Howie is the Head of ETF for Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM). Prior to joining LGIM, Howie was the CEO of Canvas, an ETF platform acquired by Legal and General in 2018. Prior to that, Howie trained and worked at Simmons & Simmons in London advising the hedge fund industry. LGIM is with 1.5 trillion USD AuM among the 20 largest Asset Managers in the world. This episode is all about trends. We talk about thematic investments and the underlying trends. Howie leads us through the thematic investment process LGIM makes with examples like changes in e-commerce. We also talk about the three changes in the asset management industry: Quantitative Analyis, Digitalisation, Regulation. 

Today we have some absolutely non-special guests. We talk to…ourselves. To celebrate our 50th episode we made our own random episode, talking about our founding story and sharing some background on our professional lives. We also share some of our favourite episodes, books, podcasts, online learning resources and a bunch of nonsense comments. If you expect deep insights into a new financial topic, better wait for the next episode. If you want to know a bit more about us und get some recommendations, please stay and enjoy the episode.

Peter Chun is the founder of Silverbear Capital, a globally positioned consulting and investment banking firm. Peter Chun has nearly 20 years of International finance expertise. He specialises in corporate restructuring, corporate finance, and M&A. He has worked with and represented companies of all sizes and configurations. He also brings listing experience in Korea, Toronto, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, and in the US, as well as experience in the private equity/ pre-IPO arena. In our conversation we discuss: * Asian mergers & acquisitions trends * The biggest biggest differences in M&A in US / EU and Asia * The 2020 M&A environment expectations * The COVID-19 effects on the market and expected outcomes * US-China-EU trade relations in 2020 * M&A / IB careers in Asia and differences from US / EU As always, please do not forget to take 17 seconds to leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts from. Be well and #stayhome! Luke, Leo & Andy Disclaimer: Informatio