Billion Dollar Backstory

What if the biggest problem with “Emerging Markets” is the name?
Edward Lam thinks that label has been doing the category a disservice for decades.

Today, he’s sitting down with Stacy to zoom out and question the category…then zoom back in to what that means for portfolios, risk, and real alpha.

Edward grew up in Hong Kong, went to boarding school in the UK, and landed in EM in 2004. 
He had no training program or mentor, just four walls of books he was determined to read. By the time he left, he’d taught himself accounting, built a research function from scratch, and was running a fund that grew from £1M to £3.5B.
Listen in to hear: 
How Edward built his own training program from scratch and why that became one of his biggest edges
What "subordinate currency regimes" means and how it changes everything we thought we knew about EM risk 
The tension between building something investable and staying true to the thesis
What scaling from £1M to £3.5B actually looks like when you have to earn every rung yourself
Why he walked away from asset management, what the gap taught him, and what brought him back

More About Edward Lam:
Edward Lam entered the fund management industry in 2004 as an analyst at Emerging Markets specialist Lloyd George Management, covering Taiwan and technology. In 2007, he co-founded Somerset Capital Management, where he served as Head of Research and chaired the investment committee. In 2010, he launched Somerset’s EM Dividend Growth strategy, scaling it from a ~$1.5M seed to nearly $4B AUM. Edward left Somerset in 2020, then joined Sloane Robinson in 2023, became CIO, and launched the SR Ocellus fund in 2024.
In his free time, he enjoys reading about the history and philosophy of finance, including many areas that others (based on feedback) find boring. 

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Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus
- - -
Thinking about expanding your investor base beyond the US? Not sure where to start? Take our quick quiz to find out if your firm is ready to go global and get all the info at billiondollarbackstory.com/gemcap

Commenting is one of the most underrated relationship builders on LinkedIn, especially if you want to stay on people’s radar without cranking out content nonstop.
But most people comment in a way that does nothing, or worse, makes things weird.
You know the two classics:
 
1. “Great post!” (nothing burger)
2. And the thoughtful comment followed by an immediate pitch DM. (instant ick)

In this Story Snack, Stacy Havener breaks down how to comment in a way that actually builds familiarity and trust over time, without sounding awkward, annoying, or desperate. 
Listen in to hear:
How to choose which posts to comment on so allocators and prospects start seeing you everywhere (in a good way)
The “what NOT to do next” move that instantly turns goodwill into cringe (and what to do instead)
The mindset shift that will help you stop overthinking and start commenting like a real friend giving out high-fives (not weird pitch slaps) 
Because the people who’ve consistently shown up for Stacy on LinkedIn? She’d run through a wall for them. 

That’s what you’re building toward when you do this the right way. Tune in to learn the right way to approach commenting on LinkedIn. 
This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.

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Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus
- - -
Thinking about expanding your investor base beyond the US? Not sure where to start? Take our quick quiz to find out if your firm is ready to go global and get all the info at billiondollarbackstory.com/gemcap

93% of the population. Almost entirely locked out of an industry that says it wants the best talent.

Laurie Robathan grew up on the wrong side of that statistic. He was raised in inner-city Bristol, went to a state school, and grew up in a single-parent family. He found his way into finance through one thin thread of chance, and he's never forgotten how easily it could have gone the other way.

At some point, that thread started to feel less like luck and more like a problem. Because what about everyone who never gets that thread at all?
So Laurie walked away from a successful career in finance and built Fairfield in its place. It's a charity on paper, but really it's a business proposition designed to fix what he calls an inefficiently functioning labor market. Because when 80% of senior finance leaders come from just 7% of the population, that's not meritocracy. That's a pipeline problem.

And he's not solving it from a boardroom. He's on trains, in school assemblies, at North London career fairs at 8pm. Doing the work.

In this episode, Stacy Havener sits down with Laurie for one of those conversations that stays with you long after it's over.
Listen in to hear:
Why finance doesn't have a talent problem, it has an access problem 
Why the best person for the job may never make it to the interview room 
How Fairfield prepares students to belong before they ever walk through the door
What individuals and firms can do to help

More About Laurie Robathan:

Prior to his retirement from the finance industry, Laurie worked in the City for over 15 years, the last 10 years being at Kepler Partners LLP as Senior Partner. Before Kepler, he had roles at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and Close Brothers Bank. As a member of Kepler’s management committee, Laurie had input into all areas of the asset management business. He holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and has an MSc in Finance & Investment from the University of Bristol.

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Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus
- - -
Thinking about expanding your investor base beyond the US? Not sure where to start? Take our quick quiz to find out if your firm is ready to go global and get all the info at billiondollarbackstory.com/gemcap

You want to post more on LinkedIn. You know it matters. You've probably even got a draft sitting there.
But the fear of being judged, specifically by people who already know you in real life, keeps stopping you cold.

In this Story Snack, Stacy Havener breaks down exactly why that happens, why your brain is making it bigger than it is, and how to move through it without just white-knuckling your way to the post button.

Listen in to learn:
The behavioral bias that makes the fear of being judged feel so intense 
How to make peace with your posts not being everyone’s jam
The art of owning who you are online and letting the wrong people opt out
This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.

---
Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus
- - -
Thinking about expanding your investor base beyond the US? Not sure where to start? Take our quick quiz to find out if your firm is ready to go global and get all the info at billiondollarbackstory.com/gemcap

Robert Gardner has built four ventures in financial services,  including Redington, the UK investment consultancy that’s advised on £800B+ in assets.

Now he’s taking on a new category: Natural Capital.

Because nature has always been “investable”, just usually as a commodity.
The old way looks like squeezing every ounce of value out of the Earth without any regard for long-term consequences. The playbook was essentially cut it down, harvest it, extract the value, and move on. 
Robert thinks that model is outdated, and he’s building the alternative, making nature an investible asset class (more like real estate or infrastructure), where the value comes from what nature does, not what you can take from it.
In this episode, Stacy Havener sits down with Robert to get concrete about what investing in nature looks like in the real world.
Listen in to hear:
What changes when you’re not raising money for a strategy… but for a new asset class
How Robert translates Natural Capital into familiar investing language (property/infrastructure)
A real case study (Nestlé + oyster reefs) and the incentive chain behind it
What underwriting looks like when your revenue is tied to nature doing its job
Why legitimacy comes from repetition + simplicity (not complexity)
The early-stage trust-building lesson every emerging fund manager needs

More about Rob Gardner:

Robert is Co-Founder & CEO of Rebalance Earth, the UK’s largest dedicated Natural Capital asset manager. He previously served as Investment Director at St. James’s Place and co-founded Redington, Mallowstreet, and RedSTART. His work is focused on making nature an investible asset class and proving finance can be a force for good.

---
Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus
- - -
Thinking about expanding your investor base beyond the US? Not sure where to start? Take our quick quiz to find out if your firm is ready to go global and get all the info at billiondollarbackstory.com/gemcap