S8E1: Mark Machin on The Scientific Mindset Behind Long-Term Investing

On this episode of the Going Long Podcast, Sarah Williamson welcomes Mark Machin, co-founder of Intrepid Growth Partners and former CEO of CPP Investments. From neuroscience at Oxford to leading one of the world’s largest pension funds — and now investing in transformative AI companies — Machin shares how an analytical, data-driven mindset shapes his approach to long-term investing and innovation.

Topics include:

• [00:02:00] From Science to Strategy:
  How Machin’s neuroscience background shapes his data-driven, probability-based approach to long-term investing and how early models of AI drew from our understanding (and misunderstandings) of the human brain.
• [00:04:00] Founding FCLTGlobal to Fix Short-Termism:
  The research that exposed corporate short-term bias and inspired FCLTGlobal’s creation, and why the mission to realign incentives for long-term value remains just as vital today.
• [00:08:00] Market Evolution: Private, Public, and Geopolitical Shifts:
  Machin’s perspective on the merging of private and public markets, the rise of liquidity tools, and how U.S.–China tensions are reshaping global capital flows and risk.
• [00:14:00] Investing in the AI Economy:
  Inside Intrepid Growth Partners’ focus on enterprise AI companies with measurable results, examples like StackAdapt and Skin Analytics, and how value is moving up the stack from chips to applications.
• [00:30:00] The Future of Finance and Work:
  Why AI may flatten traditional hierarchies, make advisors smarter (not obsolete), and change how young professionals enter finance, all while creating new opportunities for human creativity.
• [00:41:00] Looking Twenty Years Ahead:
  Machin’s long-range themes: a rebound in biotech, underappreciated Canadian and European tech, a potential commodities super-cycle, and the coming wave of quantum computing.