William Blair

With current home sales at historical lows and mortgage rates hovering between 6% and 7%, homeowners who are locked into previously secured low-interest mortgages remain hesitant to sell. In fact, existing home sales have reached depressed levels unseen in three to four decades.

Emerging markets debt held its ground in the first quarter, but staying ahead means staying selective. We’re reassessing positioning across high-, low-, and frontier-beta currencies and rates as trade tensions and U.S. policy inject fresh uncertainty.

So far in 2025, markets have had plenty to absorb: the Trump administration’s tariffs, Germany’s latest investment commitments, the implications of the DeepSeek moment, and escalating military conflicts (now including one on the India-Pakistan border).

Opportunities have increased significantly in frontier markets debt as more countries have made a conscious effort to open their capital markets to international investors and currencies have become more fairly valued.

Global equities ended 2024 on a strong note, driven by the continued dominance of U.S. equities, which were propelled even higher by the reelection of President Donald Trump.

The cosmos, the final frontier, the galaxy beyond: Our collective fascination with outer space has always been intense. But with companies and public figures now dedicating huge sums of money to space exploration, it seems a new kind of space race has been born. In this episode of The Active Share, Hugo sits down with Chris Impey, an astronomer, educator, and author, to discuss the potential economic, environmental, and geopolitical ramifications of space exploration.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to greatly enhance human capabilities and improve lives. But the implications are far-reaching and not fully understood. In this episode of The Active Share, Hugo sits down with Tyler Cowen, best-selling author, podcast host, and Holbert L. Harris chair of economics at George Mason University, for a conversation about the impact of AI on labor, capital, business models, and global connectivity.

Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen joins The Active Share podcast with as much energy and enthusiasm as she brings to the orchestra. As the music director for the Chicago Sinfonietta and chief conductor of recreation of the Grosses Orchester Graz at Styriarte in Austria, Mei-Ann has broken barriers as the first female Asian conductor in this role. Tune in as she shares her journey, her unique approach to conducting, and the power of music in connecting humanity.

We can’t understand current geopolitical events without understanding how fossil fuels shaped the 20th century. In this episode of The Active Share, Hugo sits down with Helen Thompson, a professor of political economy at Cambridge University and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century, for a conversation about energy—how U.S. shale production created fault lines through the Middle East, Western Europe, and Russia; how decarbonization could drive further change; and how other industries (such as semiconductors) are having a similarly disruptive effect.

The idea of lending with interest can be traced back thousands of years. But despite the pivotal role that interest rates play in our economic structures, they continue to be misunderstood. In this episode of The Active Share, Hugo sits down with Edward Chancellor—author, journalist, and financial historian—for a conversation that challenges everything we thought we knew about the cost of money

There’s no debating that we’re in tumultuous times, but who’s coming out ahead and who will be left behind? We asked geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan, critically acclaimed author of The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. Through his work at the U.S. State Department, private intelligence company Stratfor, and his own firm (Zeihan on Geopolitics), Peter has gained a unique perspective of the way the world works and offers some insight about the end of globalization.

According to Gary Gerstle, University of Cambridge professor and author of The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era, we’re moving to a new political order. But will it resemble the welfare state that began with the New Deal? Will it be more like the capitalistic state of recent decades? Or will it be something else entirely? In this episode of The Active Share, Hugo speaks with Gary about what gave rise to the old orders, and what may be coming next.

When Aoifinn Devitt created The Fiftyfaces Podcast in 2020, she wanted to showcase the diversity of the world’s investors by telling their stories. Now, she tells Hugo her own story—from her start as a lawyer to her current role as the first female chief investment officer at Moneta, an investment advisor with $27 billion of assets under management. In this wide-ranging discussion, Aoifinn explains how the Russia-Ukraine conflict could change how we think about ESG, whether we’re in a new investing regime, and what she’s learned from podcasting.

Most organizations are wary of rebels, but they shouldn’t be, says Francesca Gino, Harvard Business School professor and author of Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life. Join Francesca and Hugo for a discussion of the complex problems that organizations face in 2022, and why we need people to embrace their rebelliousness in order to solve them.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) frameworks have led to dramatic changes in corporate strategy and behavior. But it’s easier for a company to change than a country. In this episode of The Active Share, Hugo speaks with Teal Emery, founder of Teal Insights, a boutique research consultancy focusing on sustainability issues in sovereign debt markets, and Yvette Babb, a portfolio manager of William Blair’s emerging markets debt team. The topic of discussion: What does ESG mean in the context of sovereigns versus corporates?

Powerful global forces could cause billions of people to relocate over the next few decades, a transition that may have significant investment implications. In the latest episode of The Active Share podcast, Parag Khanna, Ph.D., founder and managing partner of strategic advisory FutureMap and author of Move: The Forces Uprooting Us, discusses what’s driving migration, including demographics, climate change, and politics.

The future of manufacturing is digital—through sensors, software, robots and cobots, and connectivity. In the last installment of our Convergence series, which examines five growth themes that are shaping the future of investing, Hugo speaks with William Blair Global Research Associate Monika Budyn and Global Research Analyst Andy Siepker, CFA, to discuss the “rise of the machines.”

In the current environment, it’s easy for investors to anchor on concerns about Chinese geopolitical tensions and increasing policy risk. But are these risks overshadowing the growth opportunity in China? In this episode, Hugo is joined by three guests with extensive experience in China who take us on a journey through the evolution of the Chinese system and discuss how investors can successfully navigate related challenges.

Cooking takes place in a high-performance environment but also requires teamwork. Join Hugo and CJ Jacobson, former member of the U.S. National Volleyball Team and current chef partner at Chicago restaurants Aba and Ēma, for a discussion about food and sports, creativity and process, and how COVID has changed the restaurant industry.

Diversity in the financial services industry is an ongoing challenge, but it’s not due to a lack of talent—it’s due to a lack of exposure, education, and opportunity. But two nonprofits are hoping to change that. Join William Blair’s Hugo Scott-Gall for a conversation with Bevon Joseph, co-founder of the Greenwood Project, and Katherine Jollon Colsher, CEO of Girls Who Invest, which seek to connect women, Black, and Latinx students with careers in financial services.

Green can be a moral color, a political color, or an economic color. Join William Blair’s Hugo Scott-Gall for a conversation with Adam Tooze, history professor at Columbia University and author of Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, for a multidisciplinary discussion of how the decade is shaping up from an economic historian’s perspective—including climate change, inequality, geopolitics, and fragile financial markets.

Global utility stocks are typically considered defensive in nature because the dependable reoccurring cash flows they generate make them somewhat bond-like.

Strong leadership, especially during uncertain times, is more important than ever. Join our moderator, Hugo, for a conversation with former U.S. Women’s National Soccer Coach, Jill Ellis, on creating a dynamic environment, making sound decisions, and working with diverse personalities.

Join us on location in the village of Solomeo in Umbria, Italy, the home of our guest Brunello Cucinelli, chairman and CEO of Brunello Cucinelli S.p.A., and his successful luxury-clothing brand. A strong believer in humanistic capitalism, Brunello shares how he created a company that values fair wages and profits, giving back, and the importance of treating people and the environment with dignity.

What do Tiger Woods and Roger Federer have in common with hedgehogs and foxes? Find out as we sit down with David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of The Sports Gene and Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, who argues that in most fields, generalists—not specialists—are primed to outperform.

The November 2016 U.S. elections may go down in history as among the most unconventional, leaving many investors wondering about the investment implications.