Welcome back to Being Invested, where we explore the personal stories of the people who make the markets. Today’s episode with my brilliant guest Robin Hindle Fisher packs a punch: it’s a story about the power of self-belief and tenacity, bold lifelong learning and reinvention, and how great investment firms need leaders who know how to invest, and how to lead. I have known Robin since he became the Non-Executive Chair of Big Society Capital last year. He brings to his leadership the lived experience of social inequality, having been born with disabilities caused by the drug Thalidomide. Our conversation is wide ranging across personal and professional terrain. We hear how being told not to bother applying for a top City job simply whet Robin’s steely determination and competitive edge, and why he thinks the best place to be in asset management now is in impact investment. I enjoyed it immensely and I hope you do, too.

Robin's career has spanned executive and non-executive roles in the investment management industry. He has been a charity sector trustee for over 20 years, and has practiced as a business coach to Exco level corporate executives for the last 14 years. Along with chairing BSC, he is a Governor at the Motability Foundation, a non-exec director at Oldfield Partners and a founding partner at the business coaching firm Hay Hill Partners. Robin received a Masters in Management, Leadership and Strategy from LBS, has an MA in Coaching Psychology and an MSc in Executive Coaching. He was awarded an OBE in December 2018.

Thank you for listening. Please stay tuned for future episodes and spread the word! 

WHAT'S IN STORE

• "The experience of having been a leader in my earlier life gave me the confidence in organizations to put my neck on the block and to take responsibility for getting things done when others were perhaps happier to go with the status quo."
•  “It's a reality that having arms that are less than half the size of other people's does make me different. I do have to cope with some aspects of life that other people find easy. And I can understand why people give me a second look, because you don't see people like me... on a day-to-day basis. But at the same time, I absolutely expect, and indeed, I am happy to fight for the right to be treated as an equal."
• "Any investor who says that dealing with failure is not part of what they do is either kidding themselves or trying kid their client. Dealing with portfolio decisions that don't go the way that you want them to go is absolutely fundamental to being a fund manager."
• "I think there's too much investment management in the world, ... too many companies doing it. And while I think investment management should have processes and rigor, I think it's best pursued in relatively small entities that are owned, run and led by investors."
• "I don't think the current Western iteration of capitalism is sustainable if there isn't a fairer allocation of the returns that come from enterprise."

IMPACT INVESTING

https://bigsocietycapital.com/

https://www.impactinvest.org.uk/

https://thegiin.org/

FAVOURITES

Music: Springsteen, Elton John, Van Morrison, JS Bach's Six Cello suites

Film: Dr Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, When Harry Met Sally

Books: Charles Handy's writings and "The 100-Year Life'" by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott

I'd love your feedback, and if you'd like to suggest a guest, please message me on LinkedIn.

GRATITUDE

Sound: Alexander Russell, Design: Sophie Hardy, Music: Tom McKean

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.