Innovation and Resilience Forum 2023

September 20 - 22, 2023
The Westin Trillium House, Blue Mountains ON

The geopolitical uncertainty and rising inflation have reshaped the economy in a way that has not been seen in recent decades. How do institutional investors develop long-term strategies in the environment that is filled with uncertainty? Join Innovation and Resilience Forum this September at scenic Blue Mountains for a series of immersive discussions on how to construct portfolios to navigate through the challenging environment.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Keynote Speaker​

Anca Drexler 2

Anca Drexler

CFA

Executive Vice-President, Head of Treasury


OMERS

View Bio

Asset Owner Advisory Board​

Steven Asprey

Steven Asprey

PhD

Managing Director, Quant Strategies Grouop

OMERS Capital Markets

View Bio
Antonio Loureiro 1

Antonio Loureiro

CFA, FRM

Principal, Total Fund Management

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

View Bio
Ju Hui Lee 1

Ju Hui Lee

CFA, CAIA, FSA, FCIA, CERA, FRM

Head of Market Risk

United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF)

View Bio
Kathleen Pabla

Kathleen Pabla

CFA

Portfolio Manager, Public Markets

CAAT Pension Plan

View Bio
Marco Salerno

Marco Salerno


Principal, Total Portfolio

HOOPP

View Bio
Yelena Stepanyan

Yelena Stepanyan

CFA, MBA

Head of Investments

Embark Student Corp

View Bio
Kevin Zhu 1

Kevin Zhu

CFA

Senior Managing Director, Head of Portfolio Construction Group

OPTrust

View Bio

The Event Experience

Participate in peer-to-peer discussions addressing pressing topics facing leading institutional investors

Network with institutional investors and your peers through a series of breaks and roundtable exchange discussions

Have engaging dialogues and extend connections with your peers at the off-site reception and dinner

Participate in polling, interact with speakers and make connections through use of an event app

Enjoy rejuvenating experiences in a most stunning destination

Ways to Participate

Speak

Speak

Propose a speaker for a topic aligned with the conference theme >>

Attend

Complimentary passes available for qualified institutional investors >>

Sponsor

Limited sponsorship opportunities available for provider firms >>

Copyright © 2023 Institutional Connect, pending TM of Prescient Forums Inc.

Privacy

Terms

Scroll to Top

Anca Drexler

CFA

Executive Vice-President, Head of Treasury

OMERS

Anca Drexler is the Executive Vice-President and Head of Treasury at OMERS. She is responsible for leading funding and liquidity management, currency management and economic research for the OMERS investment portfolio.

Anca joined OMERS in 2017 and her previous roles included EVP and Head of Total Portfolio Management and Managing Director, Risk Management for OMERS Capital Markets.

Anca has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry. Before joining OMERS she spent over 15 years with another defined pension plan, OPTrust, in a number of leadership roles, including Chief Risk Officer. She has also spent time in an advisory capacity with the Health Care of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) Board of Trustees and the Global Risk Institute (GRI). Anca started her career as a financial engineer with Algorithmics Inc.

An alumna of the Harvard Business School, Anca also holds a MMath from the University of Waterloo and a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto. She is a CFA charter holder.

Anca is a member of the board of Directors of the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada and sits on their Investment Committee. She is also a member of the Investment Committee for the Sunnybrook Foundation.

Steven Asprey

PhD

Managing Director, Quant Strategies Grouop

OMERS Capital Markets

Steven joined OMERS Capital Markets in October 2019. His expertise lies in systematic investment and portfolio management, as well as alternative data and investment data science. Steven is helping to lead the Global Diversified Program team to improve and optimize their data-driven decision-making processes and portfolio management.

Steven was previously in the Capital Markets division of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, working within the Quantitative Strategies and Research team. Prior to that, he was Head of Portfolio Analytics within OMERS Capital Markets. Steven spent over 15 years in London, UK where he held various investment and portfolio management positions in the fund management and investment banking industries.

Steven holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and has completed two Post-Doctorates at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Imperial College, London, UK.  

Antonio Loureiro

CFA, FRM

Principal, Total Fund Management

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

Antonio Loureiro is a Principal at OTPP’s Total Fund Management, Economics Research Group since 2018, with responsibility for enabling informed investment decisions through a combination of macro, asset allocation, and quantitative methods. Antonio has led a number of initiatives related to the Inflation risk factor and its implications for long-term investors, with particular attention to inflation’s cyclical and secular drivers in both DM and EM. Prior to joining OTPP, Antonio worked for 12+ years in Brazil, where he was Deputy Head of Strategy and Senior Portfolio Manager at the Central Bank of Brazil’s International Reserves department, as well as Deputy Manager of Research at the National Treasury’s Public Debt Management office. Antonio has also been a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy since 2019. Antonio holds a MSc in Economics from the University of São Paulo in Brazil, and he has earned both the CFA and FRM designations. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and German (intermediate).

Ju Hui Lee

CFA, CAIA, FSA, FCIA, CERA, FRM

Head of Investment Risk and Performance

United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF)

Ju Hui Lee is Head of Market Risk of UNJSPF (United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund), responsible for market risk oversight and asset-lability management. The fund manages assets of US$91.5 billion as of 31 December 2021.
Before joining UNJSPF, Ju Hui worked on the asset-liability analysis of the Canada Pension Plan and the factor studies at Canada Pension Investments (CPP Investments). In addition, she led modelling groups in the Global Risk Management at Scotiabank and ALM consulting, pension investment strategy development and risk management activities for financial institutions, model vetting, and actuarial valuation reporting for clients at KPMG and Mercer and developed the LDI methodology and was responsible for the strategic asset allocation at Manulife Financial.
Ju Hui holds a BSc. Mathematics, an MBA from the Yonsei University in Korea, and an MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Chicago. Ju Hui holds the CFA, CAIA, FSA, FCIA, CERA, and FRM designations.

Kathleen Pabla

CFA

Director, Public Markets

CAAT Pension Plan

Bio

Marco Salerno

PhD

Principal, Total Portfolio

HOOPP

Marco Salerno joined the Total Portfolio team at HOOPP in May 2021. His main focus at HOOPP has been on asset-liability management, portfolio construction and investment research (e.g., application of machine learning to asset allocation). Prior to joining HOOPP, Marco completed his PhD in Finance at the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management. His research interests are on empirical and theoretical asset pricing with a focus for portfolio allocation. He has several research papers on the topics of stable equities, portfolio tilting, factor investing, measuring economic policy uncertainty, and portfolio construction theories. He presented his work in major Finance conferences (e.g., American Finance Association and European Financial Association annual conferences). He also presented to the Pacific Center for Asset Management in the CIO advisory panel in 2021 on the topic of portfolio tilting.

Yelena Stepanyan

CFA, MBA

Head of Investments

Embark Student Corp

Yelena is the Head of Investments at Embark where she oversees more than $6 billion of assets under management. Yelena’s main responsibilities include developing and overseeing investment strategy, monitoring external investment managers, new product design and launch, risk management, and regulatory reporting.

Yelena has an MBA from University of Western Ontario. She is a CFA Charterholder and currently serves as the Chair of the Institutional Asset Management Committee at the CFA Society
Toronto. 

Kevin Zhu

CFA

Senior Managing Director, Head of Portfolio Construction

OPTrust

Kevin Zhu is Senior Managing Director, Head of Portfolio Construction at OPTrust, one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension funds with net assets of almost C$25 billion.

Kevin has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, including both central banking and total portfolio investment
framework and strategy design for large Canadian defined benefit pension plans.

Kevin joined OPTrust in 2016 where he has been leading Total Fund portfolio management functions, including portfolio construction research and innovation, capital and risk allocation across asset classes and strategies, total portfolio management framework design, and dynamic total portfolio management.

Prior to joining OPTrust, Kevin held the position of Director, Strategy & Asset Mix at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Prior to this appointment, Kevin was Senior Economist at the Bank of Canada focusing on monetary policy research and model development. He holds a MA in Economics from Carleton University and is a CFA Charterholder. In 2017, Kevin was named to Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute’s Public Investor 100.

Subscribe to industry insights and event updates