The Steward
Legacy, values and the long now, leadership as care and continuity.
Neil Woodford presents throughout this interview as a Steward: someone whose central identity as a leader was defined by obligation to those who entrusted capital to him. Woodford repeatedly frames every major decision, from resisting TMT pressure at Perpetual to backing unlisted science spinouts, as an act of fiduciary care rather than self-interest.
“There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about the poor investment returns that investors who back me endured. It weighs on me, I would say, every single day.”
reflecting on investor lossesundated
“I didn't want to be a small cog in a very big machine. I knew that by going to Perpetual, I could carve a sort of role for myself where one day I would be a fund manager on a fund I could express my views in.”
explaining the move to Perpetualundated
“The unquoted outperformed the broader part of the portfolio. This idea that I had too much in unquoted, I couldn't liquidate them, therefore the fund had to be suspended, is just wrong.”
rebutting the illiquidity narrativeundated
Money Maze Podcast: “From Triumph to Trauma: The Dramatic Investment Arc of Neil Woodford, Founder of Woodford Investment Management”
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