Forum Radio: Sarah Anderson

Forum Radio: Sarah Anderson

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463768/fan_mail/new] This episode sees Jessica Fellowes talking to Sarah Anderson (Boulder), the founding partner of Vault Fund, which principally invests in company builders. Sitting in her round home office – a converted silo – where she lives on 100 acres with her family, Sarah talks with great enthusiasm about the world she works in, one that is very different from the enormous corporations she worked with when at J.P.Morgan (Proctor & Gamble, Facebook, Electronic Arts).  With a great sense of humour and an ability to describe complex ideas simply, Sarah discusses A.I and the current concerns/hopes around it, as well as drawing nice comparisons with her former pole vaulting achievements!  There's also a great moment discussing the number of women and people of colour in finance (not enough, less than there were five years ago...).  "We definitely do still have women that are able to be successful against all odds. But I think when we start seeing large funders roll back, that's when it starts to hurt. And we have made so much progress. So to me, it's quite sad. I think that there are so many capable women. There are so many capable people of color. And to be honest, I don't know that a white man would have started this. It's too different. You have to have a very unique perspective to see it, to do it. And I think that there's just a natural hunger there to prove it out. Not that a white man couldn't have done it. They have so many more opportunities that someone like you or me may not have.  "I tend to think that women and diverse people in this category actually have a huge advantage. Because we're remembered. There aren't many of us." This episode was produced by Vanessa Heaney. Music by Alex Vickers

Forum Radio: James Arroyo

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463768/fan_mail/new] For this episode, we welcome a longstanding friend of Forum 500, James Arroyo, OBE. James is the Director of the Ditchley Foundation, an organisation established to strengthen democratic relations, to help sustain peace, freedom and the rule of law. The Foundation is based in the magnificent setting of Ditchley Park, a Georgian Palladian masterpiece, one of the last surviving country houses of James Gibb and where this interview took place.  One of James's special interests has always been in technology – previously he was director for data at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office – and he has been looking at ways in which fast-developing tech can be aligned to the Foundation's purpose.  "I think one of the things that's going to evolve is going to be an alliance...what do we build together? What supply chains do we have together? [Rather than] about what do we do diplomatically. You can think in some ways of the good old days, the unipolar moment, where it looked like serious questions were going to be settled in the UN. Then, it was important to coordinate between powers as to who would vote for this resolution, the drafting of this, who could find compromise. And that wasn't wrong, because it really was influential. But if very few things are being decided in that kind of forum, and instead things are being decided more combatively, then it changes the terms of trade. I think how are we relevant in Europe to the counterpower that America is now trying to build towards China is going to be really important." This episode was edited by Vanessa Heaney. Music by Alex Vickers

Forum Radio: Anthony Monckton

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463768/fan_mail/new] Anthony Monckton (London, Vienna) is an expert on risk, security, negotiation and conflict resolution, having served as an army officer before moving into diplomacy, specialising in national security. He talks this week to Jessica Fellowes about ViennEast, the company he established over ten years ago as a risk advisory and due diligency consultancy.  ViennEast deals with a wide range of challenges faced by individuals and companies, from retrieving money that has been stolen and transferred across several countries – one case involves dealing with lawyers in six European countries – to personal fraud. Increasingly, too, there are complicated ethical and legal implications around data training in AI. But his simplest and best tip for protecting your own digital data: do the updates on your smartphone apps! Music by Alex Vickers

Forum Radio: Hanlie van Wyk

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463768/fan_mail/new] This week, we talk to Forum 500 member Hanlie van Wyk (Chicago), a social scientist, psycho-geographer and executive coach working with leaders and teams across borders, resolving polarisation and conflict. All of us, no matter what our industry, have faced something of this nature at some point. Hanlie talks about how her own upbringing, in which she witnessed first-hand apartheid and the 1994 transition in South Africa to a democratically-elected government, informed so much of the way she works today. Hanlie brings great insight, too, to how conflict at work often starts small but if left unresolved can lead to very difficult situations: 'Death by papercuts.' There are also the bigger challenges that occur when companies merge or expand quickly, which is often the point at which Hanlie is brought in to help. Hanlie has found recently that it's become even more important to shift attention to the layer just beneath the most senior level of management, to ensure an open and fair culture.  Music by Alex Vickers

Forum Radio: Winston Fisher

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463768/fan_mail/new] Winston Fisher (New York) is a partner and third generation of the Fisher Brothers, the royal family of real estate in Manhattan, founded in 1915. Winston directs the company’s financing and investing activities, property acquisitions and dispositions and oversees all new development initiatives. One of the most exciting of these being Area 15 in Las Vegas, which was developed with Michael Beneville (NY/LA). Winston sits on a number of boards and is also seriously involved in several philanthropic activities, particularly the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Funds, participating in extreme sports to raise funds to support wounded US troops. Alongside all of this, Winston has an active, thoughtful interest in politics, writing a monthly newsletter on current issues. And on the subject none of us can get away from, Fisher has a stark warning for the use of AI in his industry: 'I said three years ago, there's going to be two types of people who are employed. People who use AI will have a job and people who do not will not. At the end of this year, that's going to apply to everybody. Does that mean we're going to let everybody go? No, but if you're not able to utilize it, if you're not able to vibe code, if you're not able to understand sophisticated prompt engineering and multi-agent programs, I don't know if you have a place. It's not terrible. It's exciting.' This episode was edited by Vanessa Heaney.  Music by Alex Vickers