The Business Brew

First and foremost, Bill owns stock in OppFi.  This episode is not an invitation or solicitation to buy or sell shares in FGNA, the entity that OppFi is merging with in a SPAC transaction.  Second, The Business Brew and Bill encourage listeners to do their own due diligence and talk to their financial advisor before purchasing or selling shares in any security.

With that said, Bill wanted to interview Jared because OppFi sits at the intersection of many Business Brew episodes.  To begin, FGNA is taking the company public via SPAC (See Andrew Walker's episode for a discussion on SPACs).  Next, Mike Mitchell, our first guest, introduced Bill to Kyle Cerminara, a recent guest, who is part of the group taking OppFi public.  Finally, OppFi would have never passed Bill's "smell test" if it wasn't for Tyrone V. Ross' episode where Tyrone talked about the need for serving the underbanked.

In the interest of complete transparency, Bill does not have a significant portion of his net worth allocated to OppFi.  Instead, OppFi is part of a "basket bet" Bill made on Kyle Cerminara.  Within that bet, Bill finds the incentives of all the people involved compelling.  That said, Bill has not done enough work, nor is he convinced enough on OppFi's prospects, to make OppFi a significant weighting in the portfolio.

For the avoidance of doubt, this podcast interview is biased and is part of an open source due diligence project.  Bill may change his mind at any time and does not commit to letting people know when he does so.

We hope you enjoy the episode.

While living in London, Green edited the European, Middle Eastern, and African editions of Time. Before that, he lived in Hong Kong, where he edited the Asian edition of Time during a period in which it won many awards.

Green has collaborated on several books as a ghostwriter, co-author, or editor. One of them became a #1 New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller in 2017. He also worked closely with a renowned hedge fund manager, Guy Spier, helping him to write his much-praised memoir, The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom, and Enlightenment. Green also wrote and edited The Great Minds of Investing, which features short profiles of 33 renowned investors, along with stunning portraits created by Michael O’Brien, one of America’s preeminent photographers.

Born and raised in London, Green was educated at Eton, studied English literature at Oxford, and received a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in New York with his wife, Lauren, and their children, Henry and Madeleine.

Previously, Heather served as Chief Executive Officer, Americas with First State Investments. Prior to that role, she spent nearly 14 years with Morningstar where she served as Global Head of Equity & Credit Research before advancing to Chief Executive Officer, Morningstar Australasia. Earlier in her career, she held several roles analyzing both credit and equity at firms including Bank of America and Driehaus Capital Management.

Heather is a long-standing member of the CFA Institute, a global credentialing organization for the investment industry. She served on the board of the CFA Institute from 2013 to 2020 and was chair of the board from 2018 to 2019. As chair she provided leadership and governance to a board of 15 senior investment management executives. She is also a member of the CFA Society of Columbus.

She is a member of the Columbus Partnership, a non-profit, membership-based organization of more than 70 CEOs from Columbus’ leading businesses and institutions focused on improving the economic vitality of the Columbus Region, and YPO (Young President’s Organization), a global leadership community of chief executives that are committed to lifelong learning and idea exchange.

Heather is on the executive committee of the Ohio chapter of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), an invitation-only membership organization made up of more than 7,000 diverse and accomplished women from 33 nations. IWF’s mission is to support women leaders and build better leadership across careers, continents and cultures by connecting accomplished women both locally and globally.

She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is a volunteer teacher for Rock the Street, Wall Street, a non-profit organization that aims to spark interest in finance among high school girls. Heather was recently named a 2021 Women WELDing the Way® honoree by Women for Economic and Leadership Development (WELD) for supporting the leadership development of other women and women-owned businesses in the community.

Heather earned her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and has a degree in economics from Northwestern University.