The Purse Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Abby Davisson is an award-winning Fortune 200 leader-turned-author and entrepreneur. Prior to founding the Money and Love Institute, her social impact career included nearly a decade at global retailer Gap Inc., where she served as president of the Gap Foundation and co-founded the company’s employee resource group for working parents.

Abby’s prior professional experience includes strategy-focused roles across the public, private, and non-profit sectors, as well as a stint (alongside her day job) as an alumni career advisor and coach at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Abby holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University.

We cover the following in our conversation:

02:37 Why focus on money and love?

08:09 A lesson learned the hard way

10:46 Why decisions feel zero sum

12:57 Clarity and the "Five Cs"

16:41 Scenario 1: choosing a mate

23:09 Scenario 2: family and career

34:54 Scenario 3: breakup or divorce

39:02 Courage and better communication

44:46 Final advice.

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Shaz Bishop is a wealth manager at RBC Brewin Dolphin. With over 21 years of expertise in financial services, Shaz advises private clients on comprehensive wealth strategies, including tax-efficient investments, pension planning, inheritance tax mitigation, trusts, and international investments.

Her holistic approach empowers individuals and families to navigate complex financial landscapes with confidence.

Beyond her advisory role, Shaz is a dedicated advocate for financial literacy and women’s empowerment in wealth management.

As a mother to two young daughters, she champions diversity and inclusion in the industry, striving to create a future where equitable representation is the norm.

She’s passionate about educating underserved communities and breaking down barriers to financial access, ensuring the next generation inherits a more inclusive financial ecosystem.

We cover the following in our conversation:

02:22 Money origins story

03:24 Cash ISA changes explained

05:04 Women and investing shift

08:05 Retirement barriers for women

10:37 Choosing the right adviser

11:45 One size policy limits

13:50 Cashflow planning tool

15:18 Risk and advice framing

17:57 Reviews and life events

18:59 Family planning and pensions

22:37 Measuring success beyond markets

24:02 Industry gaps and wealth transfer

26:54 Closing

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 Vicky Pryce is Chief Economic Advisor at the Centre for Economics and Business Research and Visiting Professor at King's College London.

She was previously Director General for Economics at the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and Joint head of the UK Government Economic Service. Vicky has held senior roles across the private sector, including senior managing director at FTI consulting, Partner and Chief Economist at KPMG, and Partner at London Economics, following earlier positions in banking and the energy sector.

She's also co-founder of Good Cooperation, a frequent media commentator, and the author of many books, including Women versus Capitalism. Her latest book, Mismanaged Decline, co-authored with Andy Ross, will be published by Biteback in November of 2025.

We cover the following:

01:15 Current state of the UK economy

02:28 Business confidence and investment

06:17 Employment trends and challenges

13:29 Impact of AI on productivity

19:57 Inflation and monetary policy

22:41 Domestic price issues in the UK

23:06 Energy costs and market structure

25:42 Trade, global headwinds, and tariffs

30:06 Pensions for growth

32:42 Autumn budget concerns

39:42 Risks and hopes for the UK economy.

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Mary Ellen Iskenderian is President and CEO of Women's World Banking, a global nonprofit devoted to giving more low-income women access to financial tools and resources they need for both security and prosperity.

Prior to Women’s World Banking, Mary Ellen worked for 17 years at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank. She had previously worked for the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Mary Ellen is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a member of the Women’s Forum of New York, and the UN’s Business and Sustainable Development Commission.

A 2017 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Fellow, Mary Ellen holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Most recently, she was recognized in the Forbes 50 over 50: Investment list, which highlights female investors and financial leaders. Her upcoming book, There’s Nothing Micro About a Billion Women: Making Finance Work for Women will be published by MIT Press in March 2022.

We cover the following in our conversation:

• Women's lived experience as it relates to money and power
• Why women's property rights and building women's wealth is important
• Financial inclusion, how big this opportunity is
• Mary Ellen talks to us about her new book
• And how banking institutions need to change in order to serve the female customer better.

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Sara Zulkosky is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Recast Capital, a 100% women-owned platform investing in and supporting emerging managers in venture, with a focus on diverse partnerships.

Sara previously served as a Venture Partner at Greenspring Associates (now StepStone Group), where she was responsible for sourcing and due diligence efforts across the platform, managing and supporting evaluation committees and existing investments, and leading the firm's impact investing initiative. Prior to joining Greenspring, Sara served as a Principal with CNF Investments, a private investment firm affiliated with Clark Enterprises, Inc., focusing on fund and direct venture capital and private equity opportunities in technology, life sciences and energy. Prior to that, Sara participated in Foundation Capital's Young Entrepreneurs Program, where she helped identify promising investment opportunities in the Washington, DC area. Sara was also the Director of Product Management for SkyBuilt Power, Inc., a venture-backed clean-tech company that provided rapidly-deployable renewable energy solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Intelligence Community, and telecommunications industry. She was with the business from its inception, also supporting it as a Project Engineer, Project Manager, and its Director of Engineering.

Sara received a M.B.A from Georgetown University, and a M.S. in Engineering Management and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The George Washington University. Sara is also a Kauffman Fellow.

We cover the following in the conversation:

• The emerging fund manager market
• Women-led funds: why are we starting to see a massive shift now?
• Recast Capital: investment thesis and key criteria used to invest
• Investing in top performing emerging fund managers
• How to diversify and manage risk across the portfolio
• Raising investment & engaging with female LPs
• Breaking into the VC industry
• 50 years from now: what will the VC industry looks like? And how will this impact the market?
• How do we encourage more female LPs to invest?

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Marypat Smucker is a Co-Founder and Principal at Parallelle Finance, a gender lens investment research firm founded in 2019. Prior to founding Parallelle, Marypat was a consultant in investment communications and editorial services for global asset management firms. She began her consultancy following a role as Managing Editor of Institutional Investment Communications at T. Rowe Price. Before that Marypat worked in transaction services for KPMG. 

She started her career in finance working as an analyst at Emerging Markets Partnership, a firm which managed the first emerging markets infrastructure private equity funds. Her focus there was on Asia. 

With an undergraduate degree in Chinese, during her early career she spent several stints living and working in China. She holds an MA in Economics from American University and an MS in Finance from George Washington University. 

She is a CFA charter holder. Through Parallelle Finance, Marypat has published numerous analyses on gender lens and ESG investing.

We cover the following in our conversation:

• Gender lens investing.
• The gender lens scorecard: what is it, why we need one and how investors might use this tool, including VCs. 
• What funds and corporates need to do to close the gender equality and equity gap.

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Dr Louann Brizendine MD, completed her degree in Neurobiology at UC Berkeley, graduated from Yale School of Medicine, and did her internship and residency at Harvard Medical School. She has also served on both the faculties of Harvard University and the University of California at San Francisco. She founded the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at UCSF. Her NY Times bestseller: The Female Brain and its follow-up, The Male Brain continue to be read around the world. 

Her new book THE UPGRADE: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond released on April 19, 2022. Now as the Lynne and Marc Benioff endowed professor of clinical psychiatry at UCSF, Dr Brizendine continues to speak, write, research, and consult.

We cover the following in our conversation:

• The menopause
• What happens to the female brain as women transition in their forties, fifties, and sixties?
• How hormones can be a positive influence on women's cognition, memory and mood.
• How can women protect themselves from dementia and increased longevity?
• How do these changes affect a woman's financial life and financial well-being?
• How can women prepare for the transition so their wellbeing and finances stay on track?

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Jill Pay is a former Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons and she was the first woman to hold this position in 600 years. Her appointment was unusual in that her predecessors all came from a military background, whereas Jill’s experience has been in business management.  She retired in January 2012.

Since leaving Parliament, Jill has held a number of senior roles for organisations including the children’s literacy charity Coram Beanstalk, the women’s business network Savvitas Global and the Women and Enterprise All Party Parliamentary Group chaired by Craig Tracey MP.

Jill leads The Gender Index, the largest ever study into female entrepreneurship in the UK.   She is a major driving force behind the growth  and empowerment of female entrepreneurs.

Jill is a Non-executive Director of mnAI, the data platform that powers The Gender Index.

We cover the following in the conversation:

• Female entrepreneurship in the UK vs US
• The Gender Index and the story behind it
• The key stakeholders in the startup ecosystem and investors: who needs to do more 
• What needs to be done differently so more female founders have access to capital and can scale their business?

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Kisha Mays is a successful serial entrepreneur, visionary global business development strategist, a best-selling author, an angel investor and a philanthropist.

Her primary focus is on helping to scale 1 million fearless female entrepreneurs generating a minimum of $1 million in annual revenue, turning them into unicorn global businesses through the HerStory Made Angel Fund, which is a fund exclusively for female founded companies. She pays it forward by supporting nonprofits worldwide that specifically support and empower women and girls.

We cover the following in the conversation:

• Female founders 
• How to generate a 7 figure business
• Working on your mindset
• Just Fearless and the global $100 million initiative aimed at female founders
• Investing in female founders
• How to invest in female-led innovation
• Cryptocurrencies
• and more

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Jordan Dargue is a founding director, non-executive director, Women Angel of the North, investor, talent & business growth consultant supporting start up, early stage and scaling organisations to reach their potential.

She is a senior business leader operating across the investment, finance and business growth landscape. Jordan is also a mentor and advisory board member, helping start-ups, early-stage and high-growth businesses across the UK connect with the right investors and then supporting those businesses with commercialisation, marketing recruitment and retention to ensure the very best strategies are implemented to and grow and scale commercially.

Passionate about growing the Northern SME economy, Jordan helps the North reach its potential by supporting SME's access funding from regional and national investors. Using her innovation and enterprise expertise.  Jordan has a proven ability to drive start-up and business growth through experience of taking advisory and consultant positions. She uses her experience as an entrepreneur to support them in their growth strategies, building an external marketing profile and sales plan, working efficiently, building management and leadership capacity and identifying future product opportunities.

We cover the following in our conversation:

• The startup ecosystem for female founders in the UK and in the north of England 
• What's changed as a result of the pandemic
• Fund Her North
• How to invest as an angel investor
• Why we need more female investors 
• Advice for female founders who are about to embark on their seed fundraising journey.