Aoifinn Devitt: This podcast series is brought to you with the kind support of Darwin Alternative Investment Management Limited, which offers innovative, alpha-driven investment solutions that are uncorrelated with traditional asset classes and feature business areas which have not previously been considered by investment funds. The firm aims to create new opportunities for investors to further diversify their portfolios and achieve stable absolute returns. I’m Aoifinn Devitt, and welcome to this special 50 Faces Focus Series, The Next Chapter, focusing on portfolio careers. In each episode, Throughout the episode of this 4-part series, we will hear from seasoned professionals about what it takes to be an effective board or committee member and chair, and we will share some nuggets of their wisdom for careers and life. Our last episode in this collection takes us primarily to the US and the Middle East, where we meet with some seasoned as well as newer directors to hear their thoughts on the evolution of the role and the power of diversity. First, we hear from Jan Nicholson, president of 2 private family foundations, the Nicholson Foundation in New Jersey and the Grable Foundation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jan recently retired from a board role at MDRC, which is where we met, and we had the pleasure of sitting on the investment committee together there. Jan is in the process of winding down a family foundation, the Nicholson Foundation, that has been focused on improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable families in New Jersey through changing the systems that serve them. She has an extensive background in finance, having worked at Citibank and follow-on firms for 25 years. She’s held board positions at Rubbermaid, Ball Corporation, and Radian Group from 1990 to 2015. I asked her about how her investment experience had fed into her board roles.
Jan Nicholson: At Grable and at Nicholson, I am the one person on the board, the one person responsible for oversight that understands investing in the financial markets. In Pittsburgh, we have a model that’s almost like an outsourced CIO. So my role there is to watch and question and follow advice, but occasionally take exception. At Nicholson, I manage the money with— I’ve had some wise advice along the way, but I’ve been hands-on at Nicholson.
Aoifinn Devitt: I asked Jan about what she thought was key to being a long-term effective board member.
Jan Nicholson: I think it’s important to understand the business, and one of my 3 boards was a mortgage insurance company that had bought a bond insurer that may have represented 10% of the value of the company. And no one on that board understood the bond insurance business, and that’s why they brought me on, because I did. And of course, that company went through a crisis in 2008-09, and it turned out that the decisions we made with respect to our bond insurance business were critical for our surviving through that difficult time. And we were able to make the right decisions because we had someone on the board who knew the business. Otherwise, you know, Goldman was trying to buy it cheap from us, and I knew it was too cheap. So I feel that that’s when you can really add value if you understand a business. And my other two board positions were manufacturing businesses. And I’d come up through a finance business, so I didn’t feel that I added the same value on the other two boards. However, in those other two companies, I chaired the audit committee, and there I think I did add value in that role. You know, for anybody listening, you know that you’ve probably felt that if you’re working at a company that the board doesn’t really know what’s going on down in the ranks because the leaders of the company, of course, are managing what the board hears. And knowing that, you know, sitting on a board, remembering that feeling that there are things going on down there under the surface of the sea that don’t come to the surface. I would use my time chairing the audit committee to ask questions and listen, and even I learned things that it was valuable to know that I could share with the board that otherwise wouldn’t have come to light. It was a bit of a battle because captains of industry, the other people on the board, like to be efficient and keep meetings moving, and they don’t have patience with what appears to be wasting time. When you ask staffers at a company questions, you have to sit and listen and follow up with more questions to have things begin to flow. And it’s hard to do that when you have a limited amount of time to accomplish what you need to accomplish for a board meeting. You have to be a little stubborn. But in doing that, I thought I did contribute to both those companies.
Aoifinn Devitt: This was fascinating that she highlighted the importance of really digging in to see what’s going on in the weeds. It made me think that right now, given how scattered and distributed around the world workers and back offices are, that our scenario of working remotely might make that digging into the weeds even harder. Finally, I asked Jan her advice for living well.
Jan Nicholson: I remember my grandfather saying, and that is, if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing graciously.
Aoifinn Devitt: Staying in the US, we spoke with Dennis Archer in our Inspiring People in the Law series. Dennis was a judge in the Michigan Supreme Court and was mayor of Detroit from 1994 to 2001. He was the first Black head of the American Bar Association. He is currently chairman emeritus at Dickinson Wright, a Detroit law firm. In addition to multiple committee and board roles. I sat down with him to discuss his early upbringing, his journey into law, his time with the Michigan Supreme Court, and why he ran for the mayor of Detroit. He talked about his professional life and how he is compelled to give back.
Speaker C: I’ve spent my professional life trying to open up doors for people around me. I am ambitious, otherwise I would not have been a successful lawyer, would not have been elected to positions of presidents of bar associations, of chairman of a major and outstanding chamber of commerce, elected to board of directors, public and trade companies, and more, unless I had something to offer. But I didn’t want me to be the only one because what we are seeing those of us who have been privileged to serve on corporate boards, is that it’s like one and done. For women, maybe one and done, but let me just put it this way. When you take a look at women on corporate boards, there have been a number of studies that have confirmed that corporate boards who had women as a board member, those corporate boards return better shareholder value than those corporate boards with no women at all. Which means that when you have women, and when you have people of color on corporate boards, the corporate boards gets the benefit of the thinking and the knowledge base, and things that make a difference in the lives, that makes it better for a corporation to compete with other corporations around the world or in the United States. And so I think that there’s a recognition that that is occurring and that you lose when you don’t have the contributions and the ability that women have demonstrated in leadership. I am looking for a brighter future for our United States, and my thing is, personally, Remember I said I’m sort of ambitious? I pull myself up the ladder or whatever with my left hand. That’s my weakest hand. I use my right hand or right arm to reach behind me and to pull and slingshot ahead of me everybody that I can to cause them to have a better life than me, etc.
Aoifinn Devitt: Another U.S.-based advocate for diversity and inclusion is Gerald Chan-Young. Gerald is Principal and Chief Investment Officer at GCY Associates, which provides consulting and advisory services based in Washington, DC. He has over 25 years of experience as a Chief Investment Officer, 14 years of which were spent as Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of the United Negro College Fund. He previously held a range of financial services roles, including roles at UBS, PaineWebber, and Riggs National Bank in various capacities. I asked Gerald what he seeks to bring to his professional work and director roles in particular.
Speaker D: I hope to bring a sort of eclectic mix of educational and work experiences, and I should say a global eclectic mix of education and work experiences, and I hope to add to the Alpha component of whatever their missions are. So if the mission is pure profit maximization, then I hope my contribution aids in that cause. If the mission is broader than just pecuniary, then I hope to add to that cause as well. And I’ve had the good fortune of working with different types of institutions, including an Ivy League university that I’ve advised on. I’ve also advised on a smaller university I’ve worked with a multilateral based in Europe, in Switzerland. I worked with them a couple of years, in fact. And the current roles that I have— I serve on the board of a hedge fund group of companies. I serve on the boards of a group of insurance companies as well. And in fact, I chair the investment committee for that insurance group. And so again, what I hope to bring is that global/international, eclectic, meaning varied mix of education and work experiences, to increase the alpha component of whatever their primary mission is.
Aoifinn Devitt: He has had an extraordinary career, but any career comes with highs and lows. Gerald was very open about areas in which he wishes he had pushed harder for change.
Speaker D: I could have been more inclusive in formulating investment strategies, especially at the nonprofit UNCF. Most of my work tended to be through the triangular structure of the investment committee, the outside consultants, and accompanying custodians, individual managers, etc., etc. So one prong being the fiduciary governing body, the IC, the other prong being the third parties, the outside managers, the custodians, the advisors, etc., etc. And the third prong being the internal power structure and hierarchy at UNCF. And I think if I had a chance to do it again, I’d have worked harder on making that third prong a little more present, especially in the formulating of investment ideas and strategies. I know some of our positions became slightly arcane, and there was an element of that as well. Because as I’m sure you well know, it’s a little bit more than just financial literacy. I mean, some of the strategies, especially in the modern era where you have unconstrained mandates, really get into the realm of arcana. And I could have— I don’t say been more pedagogical, but I could have made more effort to bring in the team at UNCF to make them a more inclusive active part in the investment management strategizing and execution.
Aoifinn Devitt: The interview with Gerald was a joyful one, and his parting words for us were a reminder that happiness is a choice, so you choose. Gerald introduced me to Rania Azmi, who’s the founder of Alexandrite Decisions, a NATO-registered management consultancy and training firm that fuses her three interests of investment strategy, academia, and cancer patient advocacy. Rania is based in Kuwait and was a strategic advisor to the Kuwait Sovereign Wealth Fund for over 10 years. She’s also a member of the Executive Education Board at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. And one of her particular academic interests is decision-making. Rania’s full interview will feature in the 2022 50 Faces podcast, but I wanted to first share some of her insights on a portfolio career. I asked her what she brings to her director roles.
Speaker E: I would say always think outside the box. Always try to bring something new, and new not into having a trending or something in fashion, new as to try to make the life of your constituents easier. Whether it’s a charity board membership or it’s a business one or related to academia or the industry, you are there to provide a sounding board to provide good guidance or to support the decision-making. So it would be very helpful to get your records straight. Try to be informed yourself and up to date for the happenings. And try, as I said earlier, to navigate the noise providing direction. So we all see these trends, and I call it switch-on society. We are always switched on, and I’m not going to mention what types of devices, but we are always switched on in terms of news and trends and things happening in the world. But these, if we cannot draw patterns or trends or even analytics of these huge information flow of information, they will be of no use. And worst yet, they can provide confusing signals. So the key role for any board or leader or business director is to provide that direction based in informed, I would call it evidence-based or credible information that you process them one way or another to give you that direction instead of noise.
Aoifinn Devitt: Finally, we meet with Kimberly Smith, who, like Rania, will feature in the 2022 50 Faces podcast. Kim is head of capital formation at Techstars. She was previously director of marketing and investor relations at Owl Creek Asset Management, and before that worked with Davidson Kempner and ABN Amro. She holds a number of board roles and is an active advocate for education. Kim also talked about the current diversity push and how to ensure that it is genuine and effects lasting change, as well as the tone she tries to set in her board roles.
Speaker F: I think that there’s sometimes, you know, now with this diversity push where people, some people are super into it and really understand the importance of having women and minorities on boards and how their diverse voice will help them succeed. But I think to your point, there are also people that want women and minorities on boards for diversity’s sake and don’t want them to opine on issues. And that’s not going to work. That’s not going to be successful for any organization that wants to succeed in the long term. Because if someone is committed to being on a board, their voice matters. And every voice should matter. And I do notice that sometimes. I also notice sometimes that women either maybe they are yes, like they feel like they need to yes, or they’re afraid to speak. And one of the things I’ve noticed often, particularly early in my board roles, is that sometimes women get talked over and interrupted. One of the things I do at the start of board meetings is I lay ground rules. And I know, I’m sure there’s some backchanneling texts that probably call me mom, and I’ll own that title and I’ll wear it very proudly. But I always say, we are here for a reason. Everybody has a voice at this table, and do not interrupt when people are speaking. Wait your turn. Everybody will have a turn. And if people do interrupt, I will interrupt them. But I do that intentionally because otherwise people start to talk over each other and the message gets diluted. And I think it’s really important that everybody, regardless of gender and race, gets a seat at the table, that has a seat at the table, gets a voice at the table, because those are two different things. Having a seat at the table is important, but having a voice at the table is equally important. And I really try to set the tone. At my board work.
Aoifinn Devitt: Setting the tone, starting as we mean to continue. I hope that you found these insights useful across the Next Chapter series. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, and all views are personal and should not be attributed to the organizations and affiliations of the host or any guest.
Aoifinn Devitt: This podcast series is brought to you with the kind support of Darwin Alternative Investment Management Limited, which offers innovative, alpha-driven investment solutions that are uncorrelated with traditional asset classes and feature business areas which have not previously been considered by investment funds. The firm aims to create new opportunities for investors to further diversify their portfolios and achieve stable absolute returns. I’m Aoifinn Devitt, and welcome to this special 50 Faces Focus Series, The Next Chapter, focusing on portfolio careers. In each episode, Throughout the episode of this 4-part series, we will hear from seasoned professionals about what it takes to be an effective board or committee member and chair, and we will share some nuggets of their wisdom for careers and life. Our last episode in this collection takes us primarily to the US and the Middle East, where we meet with some seasoned as well as newer directors to hear their thoughts on the evolution of the role and the power of diversity. First, we hear from Jan Nicholson, president of 2 private family foundations, the Nicholson Foundation in New Jersey and the Grable Foundation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jan recently retired from a board role at MDRC, which is where we met, and we had the pleasure of sitting on the investment committee together there. Jan is in the process of winding down a family foundation, the Nicholson Foundation, that has been focused on improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable families in New Jersey through changing the systems that serve them. She has an extensive background in finance, having worked at Citibank and follow-on firms for 25 years. She’s held board positions at Rubbermaid, Ball Corporation, and Radian Group from 1990 to 2015. I asked her about how her investment experience had fed into her board roles.
Jan Nicholson: At Grable and at Nicholson, I am the one person on the board, the one person responsible for oversight that understands investing in the financial markets. In Pittsburgh, we have a model that’s almost like an outsourced CIO. So my role there is to watch and question and follow advice, but occasionally take exception. At Nicholson, I manage the money with— I’ve had some wise advice along the way, but I’ve been hands-on at Nicholson.
Aoifinn Devitt: I asked Jan about what she thought was key to being a long-term effective board member.
Jan Nicholson: I think it’s important to understand the business, and one of my 3 boards was a mortgage insurance company that had bought a bond insurer that may have represented 10% of the value of the company. And no one on that board understood the bond insurance business, and that’s why they brought me on, because I did. And of course, that company went through a crisis in 2008-09, and it turned out that the decisions we made with respect to our bond insurance business were critical for our surviving through that difficult time. And we were able to make the right decisions because we had someone on the board who knew the business. Otherwise, you know, Goldman was trying to buy it cheap from us, and I knew it was too cheap. So I feel that that’s when you can really add value if you understand a business. And my other two board positions were manufacturing businesses. And I’d come up through a finance business, so I didn’t feel that I added the same value on the other two boards. However, in those other two companies, I chaired the audit committee, and there I think I did add value in that role. You know, for anybody listening, you know that you’ve probably felt that if you’re working at a company that the board doesn’t really know what’s going on down in the ranks because the leaders of the company, of course, are managing what the board hears. And knowing that, you know, sitting on a board, remembering that feeling that there are things going on down there under the surface of the sea that don’t come to the surface. I would use my time chairing the audit committee to ask questions and listen, and even I learned things that it was valuable to know that I could share with the board that otherwise wouldn’t have come to light. It was a bit of a battle because captains of industry, the other people on the board, like to be efficient and keep meetings moving, and they don’t have patience with what appears to be wasting time. When you ask staffers at a company questions, you have to sit and listen and follow up with more questions to have things begin to flow. And it’s hard to do that when you have a limited amount of time to accomplish what you need to accomplish for a board meeting. You have to be a little stubborn. But in doing that, I thought I did contribute to both those companies.
Aoifinn Devitt: This was fascinating that she highlighted the importance of really digging in to see what’s going on in the weeds. It made me think that right now, given how scattered and distributed around the world workers and back offices are, that our scenario of working remotely might make that digging into the weeds even harder. Finally, I asked Jan her advice for living well.
Jan Nicholson: I remember my grandfather saying, and that is, if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing graciously.
Aoifinn Devitt: Staying in the US, we spoke with Dennis Archer in our Inspiring People in the Law series. Dennis was a judge in the Michigan Supreme Court and was mayor of Detroit from 1994 to 2001. He was the first Black head of the American Bar Association. He is currently chairman emeritus at Dickinson Wright, a Detroit law firm. In addition to multiple committee and board roles. I sat down with him to discuss his early upbringing, his journey into law, his time with the Michigan Supreme Court, and why he ran for the mayor of Detroit. He talked about his professional life and how he is compelled to give back.
Speaker C: I’ve spent my professional life trying to open up doors for people around me. I am ambitious, otherwise I would not have been a successful lawyer, would not have been elected to positions of presidents of bar associations, of chairman of a major and outstanding chamber of commerce, elected to board of directors, public and trade companies, and more, unless I had something to offer. But I didn’t want me to be the only one because what we are seeing those of us who have been privileged to serve on corporate boards, is that it’s like one and done. For women, maybe one and done, but let me just put it this way. When you take a look at women on corporate boards, there have been a number of studies that have confirmed that corporate boards who had women as a board member, those corporate boards return better shareholder value than those corporate boards with no women at all. Which means that when you have women, and when you have people of color on corporate boards, the corporate boards gets the benefit of the thinking and the knowledge base, and things that make a difference in the lives, that makes it better for a corporation to compete with other corporations around the world or in the United States. And so I think that there’s a recognition that that is occurring and that you lose when you don’t have the contributions and the ability that women have demonstrated in leadership. I am looking for a brighter future for our United States, and my thing is, personally, Remember I said I’m sort of ambitious? I pull myself up the ladder or whatever with my left hand. That’s my weakest hand. I use my right hand or right arm to reach behind me and to pull and slingshot ahead of me everybody that I can to cause them to have a better life than me, etc.
Aoifinn Devitt: Another U.S.-based advocate for diversity and inclusion is Gerald Chan-Young. Gerald is Principal and Chief Investment Officer at GCY Associates, which provides consulting and advisory services based in Washington, DC. He has over 25 years of experience as a Chief Investment Officer, 14 years of which were spent as Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of the United Negro College Fund. He previously held a range of financial services roles, including roles at UBS, PaineWebber, and Riggs National Bank in various capacities. I asked Gerald what he seeks to bring to his professional work and director roles in particular.
Speaker D: I hope to bring a sort of eclectic mix of educational and work experiences, and I should say a global eclectic mix of education and work experiences, and I hope to add to the Alpha component of whatever their missions are. So if the mission is pure profit maximization, then I hope my contribution aids in that cause. If the mission is broader than just pecuniary, then I hope to add to that cause as well. And I’ve had the good fortune of working with different types of institutions, including an Ivy League university that I’ve advised on. I’ve also advised on a smaller university I’ve worked with a multilateral based in Europe, in Switzerland. I worked with them a couple of years, in fact. And the current roles that I have— I serve on the board of a hedge fund group of companies. I serve on the boards of a group of insurance companies as well. And in fact, I chair the investment committee for that insurance group. And so again, what I hope to bring is that global/international, eclectic, meaning varied mix of education and work experiences, to increase the alpha component of whatever their primary mission is.
Aoifinn Devitt: He has had an extraordinary career, but any career comes with highs and lows. Gerald was very open about areas in which he wishes he had pushed harder for change.
Speaker D: I could have been more inclusive in formulating investment strategies, especially at the nonprofit UNCF. Most of my work tended to be through the triangular structure of the investment committee, the outside consultants, and accompanying custodians, individual managers, etc., etc. So one prong being the fiduciary governing body, the IC, the other prong being the third parties, the outside managers, the custodians, the advisors, etc., etc. And the third prong being the internal power structure and hierarchy at UNCF. And I think if I had a chance to do it again, I’d have worked harder on making that third prong a little more present, especially in the formulating of investment ideas and strategies. I know some of our positions became slightly arcane, and there was an element of that as well. Because as I’m sure you well know, it’s a little bit more than just financial literacy. I mean, some of the strategies, especially in the modern era where you have unconstrained mandates, really get into the realm of arcana. And I could have— I don’t say been more pedagogical, but I could have made more effort to bring in the team at UNCF to make them a more inclusive active part in the investment management strategizing and execution.
Aoifinn Devitt: The interview with Gerald was a joyful one, and his parting words for us were a reminder that happiness is a choice, so you choose. Gerald introduced me to Rania Azmi, who’s the founder of Alexandrite Decisions, a NATO-registered management consultancy and training firm that fuses her three interests of investment strategy, academia, and cancer patient advocacy. Rania is based in Kuwait and was a strategic advisor to the Kuwait Sovereign Wealth Fund for over 10 years. She’s also a member of the Executive Education Board at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. And one of her particular academic interests is decision-making. Rania’s full interview will feature in the 2022 50 Faces podcast, but I wanted to first share some of her insights on a portfolio career. I asked her what she brings to her director roles.
Speaker E: I would say always think outside the box. Always try to bring something new, and new not into having a trending or something in fashion, new as to try to make the life of your constituents easier. Whether it’s a charity board membership or it’s a business one or related to academia or the industry, you are there to provide a sounding board to provide good guidance or to support the decision-making. So it would be very helpful to get your records straight. Try to be informed yourself and up to date for the happenings. And try, as I said earlier, to navigate the noise providing direction. So we all see these trends, and I call it switch-on society. We are always switched on, and I’m not going to mention what types of devices, but we are always switched on in terms of news and trends and things happening in the world. But these, if we cannot draw patterns or trends or even analytics of these huge information flow of information, they will be of no use. And worst yet, they can provide confusing signals. So the key role for any board or leader or business director is to provide that direction based in informed, I would call it evidence-based or credible information that you process them one way or another to give you that direction instead of noise.
Aoifinn Devitt: Finally, we meet with Kimberly Smith, who, like Rania, will feature in the 2022 50 Faces podcast. Kim is head of capital formation at Techstars. She was previously director of marketing and investor relations at Owl Creek Asset Management, and before that worked with Davidson Kempner and ABN Amro. She holds a number of board roles and is an active advocate for education. Kim also talked about the current diversity push and how to ensure that it is genuine and effects lasting change, as well as the tone she tries to set in her board roles.
Speaker F: I think that there’s sometimes, you know, now with this diversity push where people, some people are super into it and really understand the importance of having women and minorities on boards and how their diverse voice will help them succeed. But I think to your point, there are also people that want women and minorities on boards for diversity’s sake and don’t want them to opine on issues. And that’s not going to work. That’s not going to be successful for any organization that wants to succeed in the long term. Because if someone is committed to being on a board, their voice matters. And every voice should matter. And I do notice that sometimes. I also notice sometimes that women either maybe they are yes, like they feel like they need to yes, or they’re afraid to speak. And one of the things I’ve noticed often, particularly early in my board roles, is that sometimes women get talked over and interrupted. One of the things I do at the start of board meetings is I lay ground rules. And I know, I’m sure there’s some backchanneling texts that probably call me mom, and I’ll own that title and I’ll wear it very proudly. But I always say, we are here for a reason. Everybody has a voice at this table, and do not interrupt when people are speaking. Wait your turn. Everybody will have a turn. And if people do interrupt, I will interrupt them. But I do that intentionally because otherwise people start to talk over each other and the message gets diluted. And I think it’s really important that everybody, regardless of gender and race, gets a seat at the table, that has a seat at the table, gets a voice at the table, because those are two different things. Having a seat at the table is important, but having a voice at the table is equally important. And I really try to set the tone. At my board work.
Aoifinn Devitt: Setting the tone, starting as we mean to continue. I hope that you found these insights useful across the Next Chapter series. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, and all views are personal and should not be attributed to the organizations and affiliations of the host or any guest.
