Success and More Interesting Stuff: Season 2 - featuring Geoff Wilson, Rob Millner, Jun Bei Liu and more...

After a successful first season, we are delighted to announce that seven new episodes of the Success and More Interesting Stuff podcast will be released over summer from mid-December through to the end of January.

Success and More Interesting Stuff goes one on one with some of the most successful investors and company founders in the country. As a fund manager at Centennial Asset Management with 25 years’ experience I have been lucky to meet some of the most successful individuals to have walked the Australian corporate landscape.

We explore their stories and try and unfurl the reasons behind their success. This season’s subjects are a rare combination of high-profile figures in the investment community with well-known brand names right through to some undiscovered gems that have performed the extraordinary on many different levels.

Success and More Interesting Stuff Season 2 can be accessed through your podcast platform. It will also be published as a wire with an edited transcript from my profile on the Livewire website.

Follow my profile and subscribe to the podcast to be notified when each episode is released.

Introducing the guests

Episode 1 features high profile fund manager and my former boss and colleague Geoff Wilson AO. Geoff has built a stunning funds management business through the listed investment company structure and today manages $5.5 billion. In this episode we take a walk down memory lane to the early days of Wilson Asset Management, revisiting some of the key steps that made Geoff and his company such a success.

In Episode 2 we will introduce the mercurial and little-known Associate Professor John McBain. The canny Scotsman was a pioneer in the development of IVF in Australia. From this he profited sufficiently to turn his hand to full time investing in his later years. A string of brilliant stock selections, including a major foray into Afterpay, has seen John become a prominent figure in the small company environment in Australia.

Episode 3 features patriarch of Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Rob Millner. Soul Patts is the closest investment vehicle that Australia has to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. And like Berkshire Hathaway, Soul Patts has been an outstanding success. Rob is only the 4th member of his family to run the company in over 100 years. To date, he has managed to multiply the share price 10 times and increase the dividend 20 years in a row.

In Episode 4 we introduce the good doctor Sam Hupert, founder, and major shareholder of radiology imaging group Pro Medicus (ASX:PME). Out of a modest building in Richmond, Melbourne, Hupert has grown Pro Medicus into a $6 billion global group. Along the way he and his business partner Anthony Hall have amassed fortunes of over $1.5 billion each. Despite the outrageous success Hupert thinks there is a long way to go.

In Episode 5 we turn our attention to a cocktail of sport and markets. We speak at length to AFL legend Chris Judd who, post a career that netted him a premiership and two Brownlow Medals, has turned his attention to trading financial markets. Judd thinks hard about the macro-economic picture and how to make money from his findings. Along the way he expounds the ingredients of success, the prospects for gold and cryptocurrencies.

Episode 6 features the new face of Australian funds management industry in the form of Jun Bei Liu. Jun Bei landed in Australia as a 16-year-old without a social or business network and very little English. From this humble beginning she has worked her way through the ranks and today is managing close to $1 billion of investors’ funds for the well-known funds manager group Tribeca. Jun Bei is tireless and an inspiration for both women and those from outside the establishment in Australia.

In the final Episode we turn back the clock and talk to funds management legend Peter Morgan. Morgan was a Master of the Market in the 1990s and 2000s at the helm of Perpetual Investments and then 452 Capital. Under his watch Perpetual Investments funds under management grew from a few hundred million to $13 billion. While he might have disappeared from the public gaze in recent years, he continues to invest actively trying to pick the eyes out of the market. We discuss how the world of investing continues to evolve. His insights are illuminating.

I thoroughly enjoyed the second season of Success and More Interesting Stuff. Despite being in the professional investment game for close to 25 years, I am still amazed at the unique skills the most successful people bring to their chosen occupation. I think anyone who is genuinely interested in share market investing will find this series a real eye-opener.

Don't miss an episode!

Success and More Interesting Stuff, Season 2 can be accessed through your podcast platform. It will also be published as a wire with an edited transcript from my profile on the Livewire website.

Follow my profile and subscribe to the podcast to be notified when each episode is released.

I would like to thank all the guests involved in the series and Livewire for their support of the product. Let it roll!