Show Notes
When you picture someone who works on Wall Street, Joan Solotar probably isn’t who comes to mind. She grew up in Queens, New York, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and a self-taught mechanic. But with grit, intellect, and determination, Joan built a career at the top of global finance, becoming Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Private Wealth Solutions at Blackstone. From her first analyst job on Wall Street in the 1980s to leading a multibillion-dollar business, Joan has redefined what leadership looks like in a male-dominated industry. She speaks with Bruna Papandrea about the mentors who shaped her, the sacrifices along the way, and why lifting others has become her life’s mission. This is a story about ambition, empathy, and what it means to keep climbing, and reaching back to pull others up. This is Joan’s invisible roadmap.
Invisible Roadmap is a podcast from the Brunaverse.
More from Invisible Roadmap
For decades, Laura Brown and Kristina O’Neill sat at the top of the media world, running two of the most powerful magazines on the planet. Laura was the Editor-in-Chief of InStyle, known for her irreverent wit and celebrity savvy; Kristina led WSJ. Magazine, shaping the cultural conversation with quiet precision. They’d made it. And then they were fired.
In this powerful and revealing episode, Marvin Putnam, one of America’s most respected entertainment litigators and a partner at Latham & Watkins, joins Bruna Papandrea to share the invisible roadmap behind a career built on truth, storytelling, and the pursuit of justice. From one of the lowest socio-economic communites in America, Marvin reflects on the once in a lifetime opportunity that afforded him access to the best academic instutions in the country. From loving the study of literature and theatre to becoming the go-to lawyer for some of the world’s most high-profile media and entertainment cases, Marvin’s path has been anything but traditional and how long the kindess of others is the thing he cherishes most.
Ceci Kurzman has built a career most people have never heard about, yet her influence runs deep through the worlds of music, fashion, and business. A Harvard graduate who began in the record industry, Ceci rose through the ranks at Arista Records and Sony Music’s Epic Records, guiding the careers of some of the world’s biggest artists. She later founded Nexus Management, which began as an artist management company and evolved into a global investment platform bridging culture, capital, and technology across the consumer, media, and tech sectors. Today, she serves on the boards of Warner Music Group, Lanvin Group, Man Group, and Revlon, quietly shaping how creativity and commerce intersect. But behind her success is a story of love, loss, and resilience. When her husband fell ill, Ceci stepped back from her career to care for him. And when he died, she began again. In this moving conversation, Ceci and Bruna Papandrea explore the power of reinvention, the responsibility that comes with influence, and the quiet satisfaction of substance over spotlight. This is Ceci's invisible roadmap.
PART TWO: In the second part of this conversation, James Cameron picks up where we left off. He had been fired, humiliated and convinced he might have destroyed his one chance at directing. But out of that moment came a dream that reshaped cinema. The Terminator. James walks Bruna through the behind-the-scenes story of writing the script under impossible deadlines, the studio threats and the moment someone actually shouted “you will never work in this town again.”
PART ONE: Before The Terminator, before Titanic, before Avatar, James Cameron was a college dropout driving trucks and dreaming big. He was fuelled by a stubborn belief that “why not” was reason enough to try. In Part One of this two-part conversation, James sits down with Bruna Papandrea to retrace his early years: the physicist-in-training with a rebellious streak, the kid building submarines out of TV boxes, and the young man whose father did not believe filmmaking was a real career.