Geoff Wilson: Smoking out the doubters

This episode of Success and More Interesting Stuff features high-profile fund manager Geoff Wilson, my former boss and colleague.

I went to work for him in the 1990s — for free, at first, until he could afford to pay me — and cut my teeth in the industry as we jetted around the country seeking investors for his early funds.

Geoff has built a stunning funds management business through the listed investment company structure and today manages $5.5 billion.

In this episode he explains why he likes closed-end capital pools such as LICs and you'll soon see why the market values his funds at more than the sum of their parts.

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.

We also make a few entertaining detours to laugh about the day an angry investor pinned me up against a wall, and the time we almost got stuck in Melbourne because our airline ran out of money.