Today, we return to the subject of investing in the global commodities markets. What are the key narratives out there on Main Street, Wall Street and K Street, and how are they shaping opportunities? How can you sort narrative from thesis? How do policy volatility and geopolitical volatility impact investments? And in a potential return to 1970s-style stagflation, what does that mean for commodities and portfolio theory?
Speaking to our host Paul Chapman on this episode is Shaia Hosseinzadeh, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of OnyxPoint Global Management LP, an alternative asset manager focused on businesses serving the commodities sector.
Read below for our key talent impacts from this episode.
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Key Talent Impacts
How are policy and geopolitics becoming core skills?
Markets are increasingly policy-led, shaped by fiscal dominance, tariffs, export controls and election cycles. This requires talent that can interpret Washington, Brussels and Beijing with fluency, turning volatility into informed strategic positions. Leaders and traders now need the ability to build scenario models, weigh geopolitical risks and clearly communicate implications to investment committees and boards.
Why is credit, restructuring and capital-structure fluency moving to centre stage?
The end of cheap capital has left clean-tech and other segments of the market facing a significant refinancing challenge between 2026 and 2028, with distressed debt levels expected to climb sharply. As value transfers from equity to creditors, firms need professionals who can bridge operating and financial expertise—distressed analysts, liability managers, workout CFOs and investor relations leaders capable of navigating complex creditor negotiations.
Is hard-tech rigour replacing green narratives?
The sector is moving past narrative-driven net-zero promises towards rigorous accountability. Information asymmetry, weak oversight of long-dated pledges and unresolved questions around EROI and lifecycle carbon costs are driving demand for deeper diligence. Companies increasingly require techno-economic modellers, lifecycle carbon specialists, and programme managers who can bridge the gap between engineering and finance, ensuring that measurable interim targets replace vague 2050 commitments.
How is the rise of AI and power driving an Opex-led build-out?
The exponential growth of AI-ready data centres is creating unprecedented demand for electricity and flexible gas, reshaping investment priorities. The real opportunities sit in power services, grid interconnection, origination and midstream rather than upstream technology. This is spurring competition for talent in interconnection and permitting, PPA negotiation, ancillary markets trading and site selection, where energy and real estate expertise must come together.
Is the sector making disciplined operators and integrators the winners?
With shale maturing and supply shifting offshore and into new jurisdictions, broad “long commodities” strategies no longer guarantee returns. Success now rests on company-specific catalysts such as M&A, basin advantage and credit events. That puts a premium on disciplined capital allocators, integrators skilled at executing bolt-on acquisitions, basin specialists in frontier regions, and risk managers who can underwrite a range of outcomes rather than bet on a single narrative.