More Than Money: Backing the New Generation

Every family wants to do right by their children. How do you get behind the new generation and still leave room for them to build their own path?In this High Net Purpose mini episode, ten guests from the archive share what they have seen and lived, from manageable setbacks to talking openly about money. No rulebook. Just thoughtful people thinking out loud.What you’ll hear :• Why manageable setbacks work as “emotional vaccination” | Ian Robertson• What one family focuses on above all | Tom Steyer• Growing up as Estonia opened up | Markus Villig• What his father’s example, and setback, taught him | Greg Greeley• Why “permission to fail” gives you strength | Louise Hill• Why trying matters more than winning | Mark Pollock• When a conversation about giving is about something deeper | Vicky Reynal• One family’s principle on work and purpose | Diego Piacentini • Freedom of choice, and “a blank page” | Ric Lewis• Leaving their world to them, and showing how to live in it | Martha Lane FoxFor parents, the new generation and the advisers who work with both. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the career ladder is the wrong model for a life that may last 100 years?Professor Lynda Gratton joins Joe McCarthy on High Net Purpose to discuss the problem hiding inside one of humanity’s greatest gifts: many of us will live and work far longer than the lives and careers we inherited were designed for.The old model was simple. Education, work, retirement. A ladder to climb.Lynda’s alternative is more demanding and more hopeful: stop climbing and start weaving.That means building a life across mastery, judgement, cooperation, relationships, calm and adventure. Some threads keep us productive. Others stop a productive life becoming a rather efficient form of burnout.Lynda and Joe explore why curiosity and judgement become more valuable as AI makes knowledge cheaper; why expertise still requires practice and difficult feedback; what companies misunderstand about age and development; why friendship cannot be bought late in life; and what our future selves may wish we had protected now.Along the way, Lynda reflects on the father who taught her not to conform, the personal stories that changed how she writes, 40 years at London Business School, and the questions that have driven her career.This is a conversation about using more years well, rather than merely filling them.HNP website: https://www.highnetpurpose.com/All social platforms: https://linktr.ee/highnetpurpose Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of High Net Purpose, Joe McCarthy sits down with Greg Greeley, CEO of Simon & Schuster and former Amazon and Airbnb leader, for a conversation about purpose, customer obsession, Amazon Prime, transformation, AI and legacy. Greg describes purpose as giving back to society more than you take by building companies that serve customers, suppliers, employees and stakeholders. The conversation moves from his childhood in a farming community and the bankruptcy that shaped his appetite for risk, through Amazon’s dot-com-era pressure and the creation of Prime, to his current role leading Simon & Schuster through a period of change. Greg shares: Why his definition of purpose is simple: give back more than you take What he learned building Amazon Prime alongside Jeff Bezos and the team How childhood adversity and family bankruptcy shaped his appetite for risk Why the best leaders stay obsessed with customers, not competitors Why transformation requires builders, not just operators How AI is changing leadership, decision-making and long-term value creation If you're a senior operator, founder, family office principal, or leader navigating uncertainty, this episode will challenge how you think about purpose, growth and long-term impact. The practical test at the centre of the episode is simple: are you building something that will outlast you, and are you building the team that can carry it forward? Greg Greeley | BioGreg Greeley is Chief Executive Officer of Simon & Schuster, the 102-year-old publisher now operating as an independent company. He grew up in a small farming community, where his father moved from selling insurance to farmers into running restaurants - an entrepreneurial household whose later bankruptcy, just as Greg left for college, taught him self-reliance and shaped his appetite for doing hard things.Trained as an engineer with a computer systems degree and an MBA in finance, Greg began his career in aerospace before moving to Sun Microsystems in the mid-1990s. In 1999 he left Sun - then at the top of its game - to join Amazon, initially in finance for worldwide operations. Over nearly two decades at Amazon he led the worldwide media business through the digital transition, created Super Saver Shipping, and was central to the creation and global expansion of Amazon Prime. He went on to join Airbnb in a senior leadership role during its period of hyper-growth, and today applies that builder's playbook to publishing, where he is focused on making a century-old company “work like a 102-year-old startup”.He describes his purpose simply: to give back to society more than you take by building great companies - and to be remembered as a builder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if teaching kids about money was the smartest economic policy we have?Louise Hill did not set out to build a fintech. She set out to solve a problem in her own home. Watching her young children spend money they could not really see, she realised there was nothing to teach the next generation how to handle money in a digital world. That gap became GoHenry, the app that has helped millions of families teach their kids to earn, save, spend and invest.In this episode of High Net Purpose, Louise tells Joe McCarthy the whole story. Founding a company in her forties as a working mum. Breaking the world record for equity crowdfunding. Building across the UK, the US and Europe. And the campaign that put financial education on the primary school curriculum in England. She is honest about the hard parts too, the fundraising rooms, the weight of being the person everything rested on, and what kept her going. It is a conversation about purpose, about impact, and about building something that lasts.Key talking points• Founding GoHenry in her forties as a working mum, inspired by her own children.• Breaking the Crowdcube world record for equity crowdfunding.• Raising over $100m, and the reality of fundraising as a female founder.• Scaling across the UK, the US and Europe, and selling the business twice.• The campaign to put financial education on the primary curriculum.• Why money habits form young, and what the gap before 2028 means for kids.• Staying steady through the hardest moments of building a company.Connect with Louise on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/louise-hill-5197614/GoHenry / Acorns Early - kids financial education apphttps://www.acorns.com/early/Edison Partners - led GoHenry's Series A roundhttps://www.edisonpartners.comUniversity of St Andrews - financial behavioural insights researchhttps://www.st-andrews.ac.ukLouise Hill is Founder and Executive Chair of GoHenry, the money app helping kids learn to earn, save, spend and invest. She co-founded the business in 2012 and built it from the ground up, expanding to the US in 2018, acquiring French fintech Pixpay in 2022, and merging with US fintech Acorns in 2023. A passionate advocate for financial education, she campaigned for years to make it compulsory in primary schools in England, with success. It joins the curriculum from September 2028. She appeared as an expert judge on The Apprentice (Series 19), sits on Innovate Finance’s Unicorn Council for UK FinTech, is a Board Advisor to The Payments Association, and is a dedicated mentor of female founders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the hotseat where Joe McCarthy sits with Sir Ronald Cohen, co-founder of Apax Partners, Chair of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, and author of IMPACT.Sir Ronald is widely regarded as the father of both European venture capital and impact investing. He arrived in London as an 11-year-old refugee from Egypt speaking almost no English, made his way to Oxford and Harvard, and went on to build one of the defining venture and private equity firms of its generation before stepping away to devote himself to what he calls the impact revolution.His argument is simple and radical: governments are stretched, inequality is widening, and relying on taxation and philanthropy alone has failed. The answer is to redirect the trillions already moving through capital markets by measuring impact the way we measure profit. In this conversation he explains why 2026 is a watershed year for that idea, and how AI is changing what is possible.In this conversation, Sir Ronald and Joe discuss the following topics:Why optimising for impact is a route to superior returns, not a trade-offThe hidden risks of impact-blind investing: carbon taxes, consumer flight, and talentWhy carbon tax is the single lever that moves the dial on emissionsHow impact-weighted accounting turns tons of carbon and water into monetary valueThe 1929-to-GAAP parallel and why transparency built modern marketsWhat Harry Markowitz and the measurement of risk teach us about measuring impactWhether public market sustainable investing has any real additionalityMeasuring social impact: pay, representation, and the cost of unemployment to a communityWhere AI meets impact, from education at scale to the first AI-derived drugHow families and family offices should build impact at the portfolio levelGovernments shifting from funding inputs to paying for outcomesHis advice to a younger self: start young, think big, stick with it, and bring impact to itFollow us on:YouTube: @HighNetPurposeInstagram: @highnetpurposeTwitter: @HighNetPurposeLinkedIn: high-net-purposeConnect with Sir Ronald Cohen:LinkedIn: Sir Ronald CohenWebsite: sirronaldcohen.orgBooks: IMPACT: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change (2nd expanded edition, 2025), The Second Bounce of the Ball, ON IMPACT00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview 02:33 Sir Ronald's Sense of Purpose 05:18 Refugee Roots and Early Life 06:44 Oxford Union and Learning to Speak Without Notes 09:14 From McKinsey to Founding Apax Partners 10:38 Building European Venture Capital from Scratch 11:48 Deciding to Leave Apax at 60 13:02 The Government Call That Started the Impact Mission 15:36 The Social Impact Bond - From Idea to Peterborough 17:57 Challenges and Surprises in the Impact Journey 20:03 Why Impact Is Not a Trade-Off for Returns 22:54 Carbon Tax as an Investor Risk 24:52 Consumer Preferences - Cycle vs Long-Term Trend 28:12 Impact Weighted Accounting - Origins and How It Works 33:24 From ESG 1.0 to Rigorous Impact Measurement 35:27 Additionality in Public Markets 38:10 Leaders and Laggards - Sector-Level Impact Transparency 41:36 How AI Is Unlocking Impact Data at Scale 44:00 Monetising Social Impact - Diversity Deficits and Employment 46:58 Impact Lenses Across the Whole Portfolio 51:06 Advice for Families and Entrepreneurs Deploying Capital 55:53 Where to Go for Reliable Impact Information 58:23 Governments, Outcomes Funds and the Systemic Shift 01:03:13 Advice to a Younger Self - and the Second Bounce of the Ball 01:04:07 How Sir Ronald Stays Energised 01:05:29 Closing ReflectionsThis podcast is prepared by Islandbridge Capital Limited who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.All content on High Net Purpose is provided as general information only. It does not constitute any advice or recommendation or representations, and is not intended to influence listeners or users into making any specific investments or any other decisions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two-time Pulitzer finalist on the scientist who won the Nobel Prize and may not be able to stop what he started.What if the person trying to make artificial intelligence safe is also one of the people racing to build it?In this episode of High Net Purpose, Joe McCarthy sits down with Sebastian Mallaby, bestselling author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, whose latest book explores Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind and the quest for superintelligence.Over the course of the conversation, Sebastian unpacks the extraordinary story behind DeepMind: why it was built in London, how Demis held onto a mission formed in childhood, and why the race for AI sits at the intersection of science, ambition, safety and power.From AlphaGo’s victory over Lee Sedol to the battle for AI safety oversight inside Google, this is a conversation about what happens when human purpose meets machine intelligence. It asks whether AI will deepen human potential, undermine it, or force us to redefine what purpose means altogether.Along the way, we explore the role of founders, family offices and capital allocators in a world where the technology changes faster than the rules around it.This is the story of the AI paradox, and the man trying to understand the people building the future.00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview02:31 Sebastian Mallaby on Purpose and His Career05:34 Diplomacy, Complexity and the Economist06:46 How Mallaby Gets Access to Exceptional People09:24 Research as Therapy: The 360 Method10:41 Finding the Central Paradox in Every Subject11:50 First Encounters with Demis Hassabis14:46 Hassabis as Authentic Entrepreneur: The 1993 Vision17:44 Mustafa Suleiman, Geoffrey Hinton and the Co-Founders19:48 Safety Baked In: DeepMind's Founding Tension22:22 Leaked Documents and the Fight with Sundar Pichai25:39 Can Governments Actually Control AI Risk?26:51 The Innovator's Dilemma and the ChatGPT Moment29:35 Hassabis as Leader: Science, Likability and Scale30:32 AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol and What It Revealed33:31 Human Purpose in an AI World35:19 Hassabis on Consciousness and the Meaning of Being Human36:18 AI Investment Framework for Capital Allocators39:27 Health, Writing Discipline and Final Advice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the past two years, High Net Purpose has been a series of conversations about other people’s purpose.What we didn’t expect was how much those conversations would change us. In this episode, we’re taking a break from the usual format to look back at the moments from the first 26 episodes that most influenced our thinking - and ultimately shaped Islandbridge’s journey to becoming the Purpose Driven Multi-Family Office. This isn’t a highlight reel. It’s a reflection on the ideas that challenged our assumptions, sharpened our values, and changed how we think about allocating financial, human, and intellectual capital. Along the way, we revisit lessons from guests including: Martha Lane Fox, Diego Piacentini and David Miliband. This episode is for anyone asking what purpose really looks like in practice - and how listening carefully can shape the way you lead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The most enduring companies aren’t just built on strategy, they’re built on culture. For over two decades, Ric Lewis, founder of Tristan Capital Partners, has been showing what that really looks like. His firm has grown into one of Europe’s leading real-estate investment platforms, managing over $16bn in assets. Ric was also ranked #1 on the Powerlist 2019, recognising him as the UK’s most influential person of African or Afro-Caribbean heritage . In this episode, Ric reveals the cultural architecture behind Tristan: the balance between what he calls the “Ministry of Science” and the “Ministry of Magic” - the discipline to execute and the imagination to differentiate . In this episode, you will learn:How to build a culture that becomes a competitive advantage.Why authenticity and integrity can unleash high performance.Insights into some of Ric’s most important leadership principles.Ric's golden rule for managing time efficiently.Why radical candour is the most important thing in mentorship. If you want to understand what it really takes to build high-performance culture, this conversation is essential listening.Chapters:01:33 Building Tristan Capital Partners02:11 Ric's Personal Philosophy and Purpose10:03 Lessons from Competitive Sports12:04 The Journey to Building a Real Estate Empire17:55 Creating a Unique Company Culture25:42 Challenges and Strategies in Real Estate Investment27:56 Balancing Time and Saying No29:19 The Importance of Self-Care30:09 Finding Time to Think31:38 The Journey of Philanthropy40:21 Challenges in Mentorship42:11 Staying Authentic and Honest49:57 Next Generation and Succession52:55 Maintaining Health and Wellness Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the only way to save nature was to run it like a business?In this episode, we sit down with Peter Fearnhead, CEO and co-founder of African Parks, the organisation protecting more of Africa’s wild landscapes than any other. Under his leadership, African Parks now manages 24 national parks across 13 countries, covering over 20 million hectares - a model that proves conservation can be financially sustainable, socially empowering, and ecologically transformative.Peter shares how he’s built one of the most ambitious conservation networks on Earth - from turning near-bankrupt parks into thriving ecosystems, to uniting governments, investors, and local communities behind a single mission. Along the way, we explore why conservation may hold the key to tackling wider economic, humanitarian, and climate crises, and what true leadership looks like in some of the world’s most hostile environments.This is the story of how business strategy is saving the wild. Chapters:00:00 Introduction to High Net Purpose00:42 Meet Peter Fern: CEO of African Parks02:17 Peter's Early Life and Passion for Nature04:51 Founding African Parks and Early Challenges07:17 The Public-Private Partnership Model11:35 Conservation Strategies and Law Enforcement14:25 Community Engagement and Economic Impact18:10 Restocking Wildlife and Park Success Stories24:07 Scaling African Parks and Future Goals26:09 Competition and Collaboration in Conservation29:12 The Importance of Authenticity in Leadership30:44 Inspiring Individuals in Conservation33:16 Challenges in Selecting the Right People34:43 Managing Media and Mistakes in Conservation36:57 Complex Trade-offs in Conservation Efforts47:51 Translocation and Conservation Strategies56:00 Personal Reflections and Advice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The next wave of billion-dollar companies aren’t being built in Silicon Valley – but everywhere else.For nearly three decades, Linda Rottenberg co-founder and CEO of Endeavor, has been at the centre of that shift. Known as “The Entrepreneur Whisperer,” she’s backed over 350 companies (64 of them unicorns), created “mafias” of founders paying it forward, and built a global movement that’s reshaping economies across 45+ countries.In this episode, recorded at Trinity College, Cambridge, Linda shares:How to scale a business while staying true to your mission.The secret underestimated multiplier behind entrepreneurship.Why the next generation of entrepreneurs will become more women dominant. What makes female founders different.The inside view on emerging frontiers and regions to watch.Linda shows how purpose-driven founders everywhere can scale big - without losing sight of their people or their values.If you want to understand how high-growth entrepreneurship is being redefined beyond Silicon Valley - and why it matters for the future of innovation - this conversation is a must-listen.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.