It seems fitting that the first part of our interview with veteran fund manager Geoff Wilson takes place as he weaves through New York City on foot, looking for an Uber.

Wilson remembers New York vividly, where he was sent as a 30-year-old broker from middle-class Melbourne, working in the city during the 1987 sharemarket crash. After rubbing shoulders with the corporate giants of the time – John Elliott, Larry Adler and Robert Holmes à Court – he found himself thrust into the Wolf of Wall St culture. “It’s all true,” he admits. “If the world’s a zoo, then New York’s the centre.”