Dr Rania Azmi Strategic Advisor MENA Sovereign Wealth Fund 16:15 - 16:45 A view from the Middle East
Dr. Rania Azmi is
an adviser to one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds and enjoys
15-plus years of private/institutional investing experience. After working
for her father's family office and teaching at her alma mater, the University
of Alexandria, where she came top of her class in Business Administration with
a specialism in Finance, Dr Rania Azmi was noticed by organisations including
the International Finance Corporation, which certified her to train small and
medium-sized businesses on finance and investment, and the United Nations
Industrial Development Organization. From there she followed in the footsteps
of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair in the IV Leadership Programme, which took
her all over the world. She has also been a keynote speaker at the CERN
laboratories pension risk and investment summit. When not advising on
investment, Azmi is a keen activist for women's position in business, politics
and society, having spoken for the World Bank on gender and economics,
and was awarded the Google Prize for Most Interesting and Creative Work.
Designated a global woman of influence by the Women Speakers Association, Dr
Razmi also holds a PhD in Financial Mathematics. | |
Danielle Ballardie Head of Cash Markets Euronext Danielle Ballardie is
Head of Cash Markets and Deputy Head of Markets & Global Sales at
Euronext with responsibility for almost €200m revenues from the core cash
trading business in equities, bonds & ETFs. Danielle is one of the UK
trading industry’s most high-profile female executives and led the sales and client
coverage team in London at NYSE Euronext from 2012 to early 2014. Prior to this
Danielle spent three years as Director of electronic distribution at Barclays
Capital for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where she helped roll-out its
electronic trading business in cash equities and established the bank’s broker
crossing network. Before joining Barclays, Danielle spent eight years at the
London Stock Exchange in various roles focusing on product development,
technology sales and preparing the exchange for the Markets in Financial
Instruments Directive. Danielle has a degree in Law & Spanish from the
University of Wales, Cardiff. | |
Pascal Blanqué CIO and Deputy CEO Amundi Asset Management
Pascal
Blanqué is deputy CEO and CIO of Amundi Group, Head of Institutional Investors
and Third Party Distributors and Member of the Executive Committee since 2005.
He started his career in finance with Paribas in 1991 and joined Crédit
Agricole in 2000, where he was Head of Economic Research and Chief Economist
until 2005. As an economist and a financial historian Blanqué is the author of
several contributions. His research interests and his academic work focus on
monetary issues, the functioning of financial markets and the philosophical
foundations of economics. Blanqué graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure
and Sciences Po in Paris and holds a PhD in finance from Dauphine University. | |
Christian Böhm CEO APK (Austria)
10:20 - 10:30 Welcome from Austria & 11:55 - 12:55 Buy or build? Creating effective pension investment teams Christian
Böhm has been the CEO of APK Pensionskasse AG, a multi-employer
pension fund based in Vienna, since 2002 and a Member of the Executive Board
since 1989. He is also a member of the board of PensionsEurope and Vice
Chairman of the Association of Austrian Occupational Pension Funds. Böhm graduated
from the University of Linz, Austria. He worked as civil servant for the
Austrian Federal Ministry of Labour, Department of Labour Law and Industrial
Relations from 1982-87 and from 1987-89 with an industrial company on the
redesign of the occupational pension scheme. | |
Peter Borgdorff Director, Pensioenfonds Zorg & Welzijn; Chairman, Eumedion (Netherlands corporate governance forum) 16:45 - 17:30 Is activism compatible with the way institutional investors operate? How institutional investors and activist hedge funds are increasingly joining forces As Director of PFZW, Peter Borgdorff is responsible for running the second largest pension fund in the Netherlands, with 2.6m members and €156.3bn in assets. Administration and asset management are outsourced to PGGM. Widely acknowledged as an authority on pensions, he is also the chairman of the Eumedion platform for institutional investors involving governance, social and environmental issues at Dutch companies, and is a member of the consultative board of the Dutch Pension Federation. He is also member of the board of NIBUD (National Institute for Family Finance Information). In October 2014 Borgdorff was nominated as Chairman of the supervisory board of KAS Bank. | |
Mike Boychuk CEO BIMCOR (Bell Pension Fund, Canada) Michael
T. Boychuk is currently the President of Bimcor Inc; one of Canada’s largest
private sector pension plan managers. Prior to his current position he was the
Senior Vice President and Corporate Treasurer of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada
(November 1999-09). Throughout that period Boychuk was responsible for all
Treasury, and Capital Markets activities of the BCE group of companies and
until 2005, he was also responsible for all mergers and acquisition activities
of the Corporation. He joined BCE in 1997 as President and Chief Executive
Officer of BCE Capital, the venture capital arm of BCE Inc. Boychuk, a
Chartered Accountant by profession, began his career with KPMG (Peat Marwick)
and later joined the Montreal Trust Company where he held progressively senior
positions until 1993. From 1994-97 he co-founded Manitex Capital Inc., a
private equity merchant bank. | |
John Bruton Former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and Minister of Finance John Bruton served as Taoiseach between 1994 and 1997. He was first elected to the Irish Parliament (Dáil Éireann) in 1969 at the age of 22 as a member of the Fine Gael Party, becoming Party Leader in 1990 and leading it into government in 1994. During Bruton’s time as Taoiseach he helped transform the Irish economy into the "Celtic Tiger," when it became, for a period of 12 years, one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Bruton was also deeply involved in the Northern Irish Peace Process, leading to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, under whose terms a conflict of allegiances dating back to the seventeenth century was resolved.
Currently, since leaving his position as EU Ambassador to the US in 2009, Bruton is Chairman of IFSC Ireland, a private sector body set up to develop the financial services industry in Ireland. He is a member of the board of Ingersoll Rand plc, of Montpelier Re plc, and of the Centre for European Policy Studies. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Transatlantic Relations in Washington DC, and has been a visiting fellow at the European Institute in the London School of Economics. | |
Robin Claessens Managing Director Redington (UK) 11:55 - 12:55 Buy or build? Creating effective pension investment teams Robin
Claessens, who joined Redington in May 2014, is Managing Director in their
Investment Consulting Practice. He was most recently CFO of BBOXX Ltd, a young
and ambitious start-up which designs and manufactures “plug and play”
solar-based electric systems. Prior to this he was CEO and CIO of Invensys
Pension Scheme where he was responsible for liability management, asset
management, corporate strategy, administration and corporate sponsor strategy.
He oversaw the fund’s Trustee Board and Governance & Audit Committee, and
chaired its Asset & Liability Management Committee. As CIO, he designed and
executed a three-step plan to upgrade the fund’s investments and risk
management capabilities. Claessens started his career at Goldman Sachs working
initially in Corporate Treasury before moving into the Corporate Pension
Advisory Group where he advised European and US corporations and their pension
schemes on all aspects of pension strategy. He is a member of the steering
committee of the Milken Institute Young Leaders’ Circle and the INSEAD UK
Leadership Group. | |
Howard Covington Chairman Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences Management Committee (UK) After graduating from Cambridge University with first class honours in natural sciences and a distinction in post-graduate mathematics, Howard Covington had a career in investment banking and investment management. He was a director of SG Warburg, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, later becoming the European chief executive of US investment bank Wasserstein Perella. In 2001 he became a founding shareholder and chief executive of London-listed New Star Asset Management. Covington left New Star on its sale in 2009. He went on
to become the first non-academic chairman and an honorary fellow of the Isaac
Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University, the UK’s
national research institute for mathematical sciences and one of the leading
such institutes in the world. He is also a fellow of the UK’s Institute of Physics
and a trustee of the London Science Museum. | |
Stefan Dunatov CIO Coal Pension Trustees (UK)
11:55 - 12:55 Buy or build? Creating effective pension investment teams Stefan Dunatov is Chief Investment Officer at Coal Pension Trustees Limited, which is responsible for £20bn of investments of the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme and the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme. Prior to this he was a director at Deutsche Asset Management, portfolio strategist at Equitas, an advisor at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and economist at HSBC. Dunatov holds undergraduate degrees in law and economics from the University of Auckland and a Masters in Economics from The London School of Economics. He is a member of the 300 Club, a group of global investment professionals whose aim is to raise awareness of the impact of market thinking and behaviours in order to improve investment governance and strategy. | |
Benoît Durteste Managing Director Intermediate Capital Group 14:10 - 14:50: An interactive discussion on latest trends and drives in investment and asset allocation
Benoît Durteste is Managing Director, Head of European Mezzanine at Intermediate Capital Group where he is also a member of the Executive and Investment Committee. Durteste joined ICG in September 2002 from Swiss Re where he worked as a Managing Director in the Structured Finance division in London. Prior to Swiss Re, Durteste worked in the Leveraged Finance division of BNP Paribas for six years and as a CFO of a GECC portfolio company for GE Capital in London. He is a graduate of the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris. | |
Magnus Eriksson CIO and Deputy CEO AP4 (Sweden) 15:00 - 15:10 The UNEP FI Decarbonisation Coalition Magnus Eriksson was appointed Deputy CEO of Fjärde AP-fonden (AP4) in August 2013 and continues to serve as the fourth Swedish buffer fund’s Chief Investment Officer, a position he attained in 2011. Eriksson joined AP4 in 2008 and his responsibilities have included development of the fund’s strategic real estate portfolio. He is Board Member of Rikshem AB and Hemfosa Fastigheter AB. He has previously worked at Catella, AP3 and MGA. | |
Dr Julian Franks Professor of Finance London Business School, Centre for Economic Policy Research, European Corporate Governance Institute 16:45 - 17:30 Is activism compatible with the way institutional investors operate? How institutional investors and activist hedge funds are increasingly joining forces Julian
Franks is a Professor of Finance and Academic Director of the
Centre of Corporate Governance at the London Business School. Franks is widely
published, in which his research focuses on bankruptcy and financial distress,
corporate ownership and control, cost of capital and regulation. His work on
ownership and control (with Colin Mayer and Stefano Rossi) has won two
international prizes. He is Associate Editor of five finance journals.
Franks served as a member of the DTI-Treasury committee for
reviewing the UK’s insolvency code in 2001 and was a member of one of The
Company Law Review’s committees on corporate governance. He advises several UK
regulatory bodies including the ORR and Ofwat and has been an expert witness
for the UK government and advised (with Professor Brealey) The Office of
Constitutional Affairs and provided advice to a Treasury committee chaired by
Paul Myners on a review of the governance of mutuals. Recently, Franks was a
member of a government taskforce (the Breedon Committee) investigating new
avenues of non-bank sources of finance for small- to medium-sized companies. | |
Liam Kennedy Editor IPE
10:15 - 10:20 Welcome & 11:25 - 12:10 Rebooting pension business models Liam Kennedy is Editor of Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE) and Editorial Director of IPE International Publishers. Based in London, he has
over 15 years’ experience as a financial journalist and editor, specialising in
the field of institutional investment and pension funds. In that time he has
met, interviewed and profiled countless senior executives at European and
global pension funds, asset management companies and consultancies, as well as
many other influential figures. He is a frequent speaker/moderator at events in
Europe as well as in the US and Asia. Prior to joining IPE in February 2007,
Liam spent nearly seven years at the Financial Times group in London, where he
worked as a specialist Editor and Writer and launched four specialist European
pension and investment publications. He holds an undergraduate degree of MA
(Hons) from the University of Glasgow, UK. | |
Rick Lacaille CIO State Street Global Advisors 14:10 - 14:50 An interactive discussion on latest trends and drives in investment and asset allocation Rick Lacaille is Executive Vice President and Global Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of State Street Global Advisors and a member of the firm's Executive Management Group. In his role as Chief Investment Officer Rick has responsibility for all investment management activity at SSgA, including research and trading. Prior to his current role, Rick was Head of Global Active Equities, and previously European CIO. Rick serves on the European and International Executive Committees and the SSgA Investment Committee. Before joining SSgA in 2000, he held a wide variety of posts in quantitative fund management and research at Gartmore Investment Management, including periods as Head of Quantitative Research and Head of Structured Equities. Rick has a BSc(Hons) in Operational Research from
Lancaster University and an MSc in Econometrics from London Guildhall
University. Rick
is a member of the FTSE Policy Committee and he sits on the Asset Management
Committee of the Investment Management Association. He is a regular writer and
broadcaster on investment issues and speaks frequently at industry conferences. | |
Endre Pedersen Senior Managing Director, Fixed Income, Asia Manulife Asset Management 14:10 - 14:50 An interactive discussion on latest trends and drivers in investment and asset allocation
Endre
Pedersen is Head of Fixed Income for Manulife Asset Management’s South Asia
offices and lead manager for the company’s pan-Asian fixed income strategies.
He has broad experience in developed Asian markets, having managed
single-currency funds denominated in Singapore dollars, Japanese yen and US
dollars. Pedersen has also managed global funds with active currency overlay
and significant portfolio allocations to Asian sovereign debt and corporate
credits. Prior to joining Manulife Asset Management, he worked as a Senior
Fixed Income Portfolio Manager for DBS Asset Management and earlier to that he
was a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager for Hermes Investment Management and
F&C Management in London. He holds a Bachelor of Finance from the
Strathclyde Business School at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. | |
Torben Möger Pedersen CEO PensionDanmark Torben
Möger Pedersen is CEO of PensionDanmark, a not-for-profit labour market pension
fund established in 1993. Möger Pedersen is a member of Paradigm Change Capital
Partners advisory board and the investment committee of Copenhagen
Infrastructure Partners. He is a co-founder and investment committee member of
the newly established Danish Climate Investment Fund. Möger Pedersen is a
member of the World Economic Forum’s steering committee of the Mainstreaming
Impact Investing Initiative and is newly appointed member of the World Economic
Forum network Global Agenda Council on Climate Change. Furthermore in February
2014 he was appointed as a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the
UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF). Möger Pedersen holds a MSc in Economics from the
University of Copenhagen (1984) and has attended executive education at INSEAD
Fontainebleau, INSEAD Singapore, Babson College and Wharton Business School. | |
Dr Amin Rajan CEO CREATE-Research 11:25 - 12:10 Rebooting pension business models Amin
Rajan is the CEO of CREATE–Research, a UK-based think-tank that
specialises in the future trends in the global fund management industry. He is the author of numerous reports on the
industry’s evolving dynamics and the responses they require. By developing special insights in the emerging business
models and their successful execution, Rajan also offers strategic advisory
services to CEOs and CIOs as they grapple with the new industry dynamics.
In the last 10 years, Amin has undertaken advisory
assignments with numerous prominent fund managers around the world in areas
like strategic change, investment performance, client service, product
innovation and talent management. | |
Alan Rubenstein CEO Pension Protection Fund (UK) 11:55 - 12:55 Buy or build? Creating effective pension investment teams
Alan Rubenstein joined the UK’s Pension Protection Fund as Chief Executive in April 2009. Previously he was a Managing Director of Lehman Brothers, responsible for establishing the firm’s Pensions Advisory Group, which brought together equity, fixed income and investment banking services for pension funds and corporate plan sponsors. Rubenstein qualified as an actuary with Scottish Widows and then moved into senior executive positions in investment banking with BZW Asset Management, Lucas Varity Fund Management and Morgan Stanley. He is a former Vice-Chairman of the UK National Association of Pension Funds and chairman of its investment council. Rubenstein recently stepped down from the management board of the UK Actuarial Profession and as a council member of the Faculty of Actuaries. He is a former member of the UK Takeover Panel. In February 2014, Rubenstein was appointed as a non-executive member to the Supervisory Group of Robeco Groep NV. | |
Günther Schiendl CIO VBV Pensionskasse (Austria) 14:10 - 14:50 An interactive discussion on latest trends and drivers in investment and asset allocation
Günther Schiendl is CIO
and board member of the VBV Pensionskasse in Vienna, which manages assets of
over €5bn and where core focus is pension plan design, asset allocation and
investment strategy. Until 2008 he was head of investments at APK. Schiendl is
also a member of the EDHEC-Risk advisory board and a supervisory board member
of GHS Senior Housing. He currently lectures on pension fund ALM for the
Certified International Investment Analyst programme. Schiendl holds the degree
of Master of Economics and Business Administration from the University of
Innsbruck and holds the Certified European Financial Analyst designation. | |
Joep Schouten Chairman PFPP Pension Fund Board Joep Schouten is
chairman of the pension fund board of the Pension Fund Perception Programme,
the Europe-wide research programme for institutional investors facilitated by
IPE. Schouten was at the Netherlands-based pension fund manager Cordares from
1970 until his retirement in 2007, becoming a member of the management board in
1983 and CEO in 1994. Since his retirement, Schouten has worked on projects
involving pension product export, development aid and micro pensions, private
equity, pension communication and sustainable energy. He is currently a board member
both of the PMT metal workers pension fund and of the KNVG representative body
retirees. Schouten holds an MSc in Social and Management Sciences from the
University of Leiden and an MA from the University of Amsterdam. | |
Anne Simpson Director of Corporate Governance, Senior Portfolio Manager Investments CalPERS 16:45 - 17:30 Is activism compatible with the way institutional investors operate? How institutional investors and activist hedge funds are increasingly joining forces
Anne Simpson is Senior Portfolio Manager, Investments, and Director of Global Governance at CalPERS, the largest public pension system in the United States with approximately $300bn (€240bn) in global assets. The governance programme includes the CalPERS Focus List of shareholder engagement with companies, global proxy voting, and legal and regulatory reform. Simpson leads CalPERS’ sustainability project to integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors across the total fund. She is an advisory board member at the Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership, at Columbia Law School, a Director of the Council of Institutional Investors, a member of the Investor Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and a member of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights Leadership Council. She sits on the editorial advisory board for the journal Corporate Governance: An International Review and the Greening of Global Investing published by the Economist. She is the co-author of Fair Shares: The Future of Shareholder Power and Responsibility. Her former roles include Senior Faculty Fellow, Yale School of Management, Executive Director of the International Corporate Governance Network, head of the World Bank-OECD Global Corporate Governance Forum, and Joint Managing Director of Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC). | |
Craig Stevenson Senior Investment Consultant Towers Watson 16:45 - 17:30 Is activism compatible with the way institutional investors operate? How institutional investors and activist hedge funds are increasingly joining forces Craig
Stevenson works as a senior investment consultant within Towers
Watson's Manager Research team. Stevenson is currently engaged in leading the
research team for equity long/short hedge funds. He is involved in a number of
hedge fund advisory client relationships with regard to the structuring of
clients’ hedge fund exposure and ongoing monitoring.
Prior to joining Towers Watson Stevenson was a senior
associate at bfinance, associate director at Standard & Poor's and a
research analyst at Stamford Associates. He graduated from the University of
Edinburgh with a BComm (Hons) in Business Studies and Law, he is an Associate
of the Securities & Investment Institute and a holder of the Investment
Management Certificate. | |
Martin Steward Investment Editor IPE 14:10 - 14:50 An interactive discussion on latest trends and drivers in investment and asset allocation Martin Steward began his career in finance and investment journalism
in 2003, reporting on the European hedge fund industry for MARHedge magazine.
In December 2005 he became Editor at MandateWire, a small venture that is now
part of the Financial Times Group, dedicated to tracking the investment
activity of European pension funds and endowments for the asset management
industry, where he was responsible for developing the data-gathering process
and building the research team. In March 2007 he joined the Financial Times,
writing news and features for the group’s institutional investment magazine,
FTMandate, its private banking title, PWM, and for FTfm. He moved into the
newly-created role of Investment Editor at Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE)
magazine in February 2009.
He was a winner at the
State Street Institutional Press Awards in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013, and he
was named Pensions Journalist of the Year by the Investment Management
Association in 2013 and 2014. Martin holds a PhD in English Literature from University
College London. | |
Dr Raj Thamotheram CEO Preventable Surprises Raj Thamotheram is CEO of Preventable Surprises and a Visiting Fellow at the Smith School (Oxford University). Previously, he led the Responsible Investment team at the UK's Universities Superannuation Scheme, where he launched several collaborative initiatives including the Institutional Investor Group for Climate Change. Prior to that Thamotheram worked at AXA Investment Managers where he launched the first fund in Europe focused on human capital management and also the strategy to mainstream ESG, RI Inside. He is a
columnist for Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE), a regular contributor to
Responsible Investor and the (co-)author of several academic articles and
chapters. Thamotheram also works at various charities and foundations in different
capacities. He trained as a medical doctor, has worked in NGOs, as founder and Director
of Saferworld, international head of advocacy at ActionAid and the first
manager of the Ethical Trading Initiative. He has also worked as a CSR
consultant with clients including BT, the UK Cabinet Office and Caricom. | |
Jens Tischendorf Partner and Director Cevian Capital AG 16:45 - 17:30 Is activism compatible with the way institutional investors operate? How institutional investors and activist hedge funds are increasingly joining forces Jens Tischendorf is a Partner of Cevian and a Director of Cevian Capital AG. He is currently on the board of Bilfinger SE and was formerly on the board of Demag Cranes AG. Prior to joining Cevian in July 2008, he was a principal at AT Kearney where he worked from 2000-08 with responsibility for managing operational improvement projects for mid-sized and multinational companies in Europe, the US and Japan. Tischendorf holds a masters' degree in business administration and computer science (Dipl. Wirtschaftsinformatiker) from the Technical University of Darmstadt and a Diplôme d’études Approfondies in Industrial Engineering from the Ecole Centrale de Lyon. Cevian is the largest activist manager in Europe and takes significant ownership positions (typically 5-20%) in a limited number of deeply undervalued companies to which it believes it can add value through operational activism. Since 1996, Cevian has joined the boards of around 50% of its portfolio companies and has never had a proxy fight. | |
Erik Valtonen former CIO of AP3 (Sweden) Erik Valtonen is a non-executive director of Blue Diamond Asset Management AG, a Swiss based relative value volatility manager. He joined Blue Diamond in March 2013 as CEO after spending more than a decade at AP3, the €26 billion Swedish public pension fund, of which the last three and a half years Valtonen was CIO. During his time at AP3 he focused on areas like SAA and portfolio construction. He left AP3 in 2010 to establish his own consultancy business where he advised a variety of large institutional asset owners on topics such as investment policy and portfolio design. Valtonen also serves as a non-executive director of SEB Investment Management AB and as a member of the Investment Consultative Committee of the Finnish State Pension Fund. Before being appointed CEO, he was a member of the advisory Board of Blue Diamond Asset Management AG. Valtonen stepped down from the full time role at Blue Diamond in September 2014 but will continue as a board member. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Stockholm. | |
Paul Watters Senior Director and Head of Corporate Research Standard & Poor's Corporate Ratings 14:10 - 14:50 An interactive discussion on latest trends and drivers in investment and asset allocation Paul Watters is Senior Director and Head of Corporate Research for Standard & Poor’s Corporate Ratings in Europe. He represents the corporate group on S&P’s credit conditions committee and is a global co-ordinator in the portfolio analytics team. He is responsible for the European leveraged finance default studies and the joint author of S&P’s quarterly European Corporate Credit Outlook. Watters has also held various senior roles in S&P’s Leveraged Finance Group since joining S&P in January 2002. Peviously, Watters spent almost fifteen years working in debt capital markets in various senior trading and research roles with both Lehman Brothers and Nomura International. He studied economics at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, is a CFA charter holder and a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers in the UK. | |