BlackMoss Leaders Lounge

Ron Bundy, a pioneer of the ETF industry and the head of the index business at Morningstar, talks about disrupting a consolidated industry and the role of trust in accelerating change. “There’s a speed of trust that accelerates all the things we want to do in our business.”

Leadership has to adapt — to existential disruption like the COVID crisis, of course, but also to the routine but demanding challenges leaders face in a time of constant change. Like managing people through an acquisition by a competitor. Or navigating within an established business to harness resources for the high-potential business you’ve been brought in to lead.

Our guest for this episode of the Leaders Lounge provides first-hand insight into all these challenges. Ron Bundy built the Russell Indexes — still the leading US equity benchmark for institutional investors — and led the business through its 2015 acquisition by the London

Stock Exchange Group, a merger than dramatically realigned the index world. On

the eve of the pandemic last year, Ron was hired to transform Morningstar’s

index division — essentially a start-up within the big Chicago-based investment

ratings firm — into a disruptor in the industry.

·  Being a leader – versus being a manager

·  Purpose and mission alone won’t make a firm successful. But having a north star makes

decision-making easier and creates a cohesion around big initiatives and big goals

·  Collaboration can slow you down. But “things move so much more quickly when you're not second-guessing somebody's motives.”

·  Giving trust “There’s a speed to trust and I find that giving it early accelerates all the things that we want to do in our business and helps us with our clients as well.”

·  Managing through a merger is about helping people cope with change. “It’s about bringing people into the tent to help solve problems but sometimes it just doesn't work.”

·  Diversity “is about getting people together who think differently than you do, who have different experiences and that try to solve problems in a different way.”

·  Getting resources within a larger organization “You can't just go out and demand resources. They need to want to help you.  We talk about ‘Unleashing the power of Morningstar.’ It goes it goes both ways.”

Mark Makepeace, the new CEO of Wilshire, talks about what it takes to step into the leadership of a company with an established culture and legacy. It's one thing to lead a start-up like FTSE Russell, which he founded in the 1990s, and another to lead an established company like Wilshire. "It's about listening to the talent."  

Summary: Behind our industry's current focus on technology-enabled investing is the story of the rise of stock market indexes from their original role as economic indicators to their place at the heart sophisticated passive investment vehicles that now account for 40% of the market. Having shown that technology is better at stock picking than humans, index providers are well on their way to becoming virtual investment managers.

Larry Black, the managing partner at BlackMoss, continues our Leaders Lounge conversation with Mark Makepeace, who led the index provider FTSE Russell from its founding in the 1990s until 2019. He has now re-emerged as chief executive of Wilshire, the Los Angeles-based consulting firm and asset manager, and home of the Wilshire 5000 index. They talk about the future of investment management and Mark's approach to his new role.

 Topics we discussed:

·     Why Wilshire? Where does Wilshire sit strategically within financial services?

·     How do leaders go about getting teams on board for change?

·     What role will technology play in the evolution of financial services?

·     Are index providers emerging as virtual investment managers?

·     Does the investment industry face a threat from the big technology companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft? 

Wilshire, Wilshire Associates, FTSE, FTSE Russell, LSEG, London Stock Exchange, LSE, index, indexes, indices, ESG, Smart Beta, FTSE4Good, passive investing, MSCI, Wilshire 5000, Refinitiv, London, Big Bang, Dow Jones, FT, Financial Times, FTSE100, Brexit, Roger Moore

Mark Makepeace, the founder of index provider FTSE Russell and now the CEO of Wilshire, talks about what it takes to lead—from a start-up of nine people to a global information services provider with $16 trillion in assets benchmarked to its indexes. "It's about bringing people along on a journey."

Summary

Behind our industry's current focus on technology-enabled investing is the story of the rise of stock market indexes from their original role as economic indicators to their place at the heart sophisticated passive investment vehicles that now account for 40% of the market. Having shown that technology is better at stock picking than humans, index providers are well on their way to becoming virtual investment managers.

For this episode of the Leaders Lounge, host Craig Welch hands over the microphone to Larry Black, the managing partner at BlackMoss, for a two-part conversation with Mark Makepeace, the founder of global index provider FTSE Russell. Larry worked for Mark as FTSE's CMO for the better part of a decade, as it came of age in North America and grew to become, by some measures, the world's largest index provider.  

We discussed:

- How central indexes and passive investing have become to investing and the global economy

- How FTSE grew beyond the UK into a global index provider, securing key prizes in the US and China and rivalling incumbents like MSCI, S&P Dow Jones and Bloomberg

- How his leadership style has been shaped by his personal journey —from Big Bang-era London, to running a global company, to reviving Wilshire

- Revelations from Mark's new book "FTSE: The inside story of the deals, dramas and politics that revolutionized financial market—including the role played by Roger Moore of James Bond fame in the creation of FTSE4Good and ESG investing

- The future of London as a global financial center post Brexit

Topics covered: Wilshire, Wilshire Associates, FTSE, FTSE Russell, LSEG, London Stock Exchange, LSE, index, indexes, indices, ESG, Smart Beta, FTSE4Good, passive investing, MSCI, Wilshire 5000, Refinitiv, London, Big Bang, Dow Jones, FT, Financial Times, FTSE100, Brexit, Roger Moore

Executive coach, Nadine Mendelek Theimann, PhD, PCC, discusses how mindfulness, compassion and purpose can save corporate Leadership. Since mid-March of 2020, we’ve faced an expanding global pandemic, associated extreme economic volatility and mass protests over racial injustice. The convergence of these three crises has many business leaders questioning if their leadership skills that they have honed over the years will be the same skills they will need to face the challenges of the "new normal." In this new normal, leadership is more important than ever before – because the best leaders define reality and inspire hope. Host Craig Welch from BlackMoss Partners spoke with Nadine about what type of leader is needed for the new normal. Nadine has coached and counselled many c-suite executives from various industries including financial services, manufacturing, insurance, high-tech and telecommunications. She is an executive leadership coach who has an extensive career in coaching high-profile executives globally in leadership development. Her clients include Facebook, Apple, Blue Shield, Medidata, Texas Instruments, Columbia Sportswear, Groupon, MSCI, and Legalzoom. In addition to her academic credentials in leadership coaching and counselling, Nadine also holds a PhD in Economics and was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s Department of Economics.