Portfolio Resilience at Times of Volatility
The world is undergoing a health and economic disruption which few of us have witnessed in our lifetime. As long-term investors with fiduciary responsibilities, how do pension funds and other institutional investors build a resilient portfolio to meet investment objectives at a time of continued volatility?
Driven from leading pension investors across Canada, Institutional Connect Virtual Forum provides a platform for attendees to gain insights and exchange strategies on post-COVID investing, through a series of presentations and peer discussions.
The Agenda
Key Highlights:
- Portfolio construction panel: Building Portfolio Resilience, rebalancing and liquidity
- View from the Trenches: Perspectives from front line portfolio managers on asset value and conducting due diligence
- Case Studies: Risk mitigation strategies and how to prepare for the next Black Swan event
- Uncorrelated and innovative strategies: weather-proof your portfolio
- Sustainable Investing: Investing in tomorrow while meeting fiduciary responsibilities
- Currency Hedging: Does market volatility strengthen the case?
- And more.
Join peer investors and industry practitioners, at the comfort of your home or office, for a virtual experience that delivers contents, discussions and networking.
The Virtual Forum Experience
Live Contents
Peer Discussions
Virtual Networking
Keynote Speaker
Bert Clark
President & CEO
Investment Management Corporation of Ontario
Bert Clark - President and Chief Executive Officer, Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO)
Bert Clark currently serves as President and CEO of the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO). Managing $70.3 billion of assets, IMCO’s mandate is to provide broader public sector institutions with investment management services, including portfolio construction advice, better access to a diverse range of asset classes and sophisticated risk management capabilities.
Prior to IMCO, Bert was the President and CEO of Infrastructure Ontario, which is responsible for managing the province of Ontario’s real estate portfolio, lending to municipalities and other public-sector organizations and the delivery of large, complex public infrastructure projects. He was also a Managing Director at Scotiabank, responsible for the North American infrastructure advisory business.
Bert has an LLM from Duke University School of Law, an LLB from Queen’s Law School, and a BA (Honours) from McGill University. He is on the Board of Directors at C.D. Howe Institute and a member of the Board of Governors at North York General Hospital.
Advisory Board Members
Doug Chau
Chief Risk Officer, Head of ResearchUTAM
Chief Risk Officer, Head of ResearchUTAM
Doug joined UTAM in 2017. He is responsible for asset allocation modeling, risk management and measurement, research, and performance analysis. Previously, Doug worked for 15 years at OPTrust, where his responsibilities included developing strategic asset allocation models, risk factor research, internal and external investment strategy evaluations, implementing performance and ALM systems and developing a set of quantitative tools to inform investment decisions. Doug holds a PhD in Finance from the EDHEC Business School.
Andy Greene
Director, InvestmentsTTC Pension Fund Society
Andy Greene - Director, Investments at TTC Pension Fund Society
Andy has over 25 years of experience in the investment industry in Canada and US. He serves as Director, Investments, overseeing the investment program for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) Pension Fund Society, a $7.4 bln defined benefit plan. Prior to this Andy was at OPTrust as Director, Public Markets. Previously he was at Northern Trust, the University of Wisconsin Foundation and Willis Towers Watson. He holds an Master’s degree in Applied Economics from Binghamton University and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Ithaca College. Andy is also on the Investment Committees for the United Church of Canada and York University.
Asif Haque
Managing Director, InvestmentsCAAT Pension Plan
Coming soon
Ela Karahasanoglu
Director, Head of Total Fund ManagementBritish Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI)
Ela Karahasanoglu, MBA, CFA, CAIA
Director, Total Fund Management at British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI)
Ela Karahasanoglu is a Director, Total Fund Management (TFM) with BCI where she leads the TFM team. With $153.4bn of managed assets, BCI is a leading provider of investment management services for British Columbia’s public sector.
Prior to joining BCI in September 2019, Ela was a Managing Director, Multi-Asset Strategies at Investment Management Corporation of Ontario and WSIB, where Ela oversaw the $8.5bn Multi-Asset Strategies portfolio and acted as the Deputy CIO leading the investment team that managed WSIB’s $35bn portfolio. Before WSIB, Ela was the Vice President of Currency and Asset Allocation team at CIBC Asset Management. Prior to that, she was a Principal and Senior Manager Research Consultant in the Alternatives team within Mercer, covering a broad set of absolute return and hedge fund strategies.
Ela was previously the Head of Research and Trading for six years at a New York-based quantitative macro hedge fund and also worked in the areas of credit derivatives and asset management at Merrill Lynch, New York. Ela started out her career as a currency and bond trader in Turkey.
Ela has over 20 years experience in the investment industry with over 13 years dedicated to research, trading, portfolio management and construction in the alternatives and absolute return space.
Ela holds a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University. She has been a CFA Charterholder since 2002 and a CAIA Charterholder since 2010.
Ela serves on CAIA’s Gender Diversity Advisory Board and is also the Co-Head of CAIA’s Toronto Chapter.
Kevin Zhu
Managing Director, Head of Portfolio ConstructionOPTrust
Kevin Zhu, CFAManaging Director, Head of Portfolio ConstructionOPTrust
Kevin Zhu is Managing Director, Head of Portfolio Construction at OPTrust, one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension funds with net assets of over C$20 billion.
Kevin has over 15 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 currently leads Total Fund portfolio management functions, including portfolio construction research and innovation, capital and risk allocation across asset classes and strategies, and dynamic overlay 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. 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.
Ways to Participate
Speak
Propose a speaker and/or a topic aligned with the conference theme.
Attend
Complimentary passes available for qualified institutional investors.
Sponsor
Limited sponsorship opportunities available for providers.
Gold Sponsors
ABOUT BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT
BNP Paribas Asset Management is the asset management arm of BNP Paribas, one of the world’s foremost financial institutions, and offers high value-added solutions to individual savers, companies, and institutional investors. It has a broad range of skills in four investment divisions: Equities, Fixed Income, Private Debt & Real Assets, and Multi-Asset, Quantitative and Solutions (MAQS). Sustainability is at the heart of BNP Paribas Asset Management’s strategy and investment decision-making process, making an active contribution to energy transition, environmental protection and the promotion of equality and inclusive growth. Its aim is to achieve long-term sustainable investment returns for its clients. BNP Paribas Asset Management has assets under management of USD 481 billion (as of June 30, 2020), with more than 500 investment professionals and almost 500 client servicing specialists, serving individual, corporate and institutional clients in 71 countries.
LFIS
LFIS was established in 2013 and is headquartered in Paris, France. LFIS combines a quantitative approach with expertise in the range of assets and instruments, to identify, capture and risk manage opportunities across markets. LFIS’ funds include alternative strategies focused on risk premia, credit and managed futures, as well as multi-asset funds and dedicated solutions. Our global client base ranges from institutional to retail investors and extends across Europe, Canada and Australasia. As of June 30, 2020, LFIS has $8 billion in assets under management.
About Mackenzie Investments
Since 1967, Mackenzie Investments has been a leading Canadian investment management firm providing investment advisory and related services to both institutional and retail clients. The firm’s CEO is an institutional leader who has held prominent positions with global investment consulting firms and asset managers. Mackenzie’s Multi-Asset Solutions Team was started by senior investment professionals joining the firm from the Canada Pension Plan. For pensions, endowments and foundations, the firm provides a consultative approach to traditional, alternative and real asset classes. Together with our parent company, Mackenzie distributes China strategies with a long track record and strong Canadian asset base. The firm manages several passive and dynamic currency strategies for institutional investors. Closing out 2020, Mackenzie’s AUM will exceed $170 billion. Mackenzie Investments is a member of the IGM Financial Inc. (TSX: IGM) group of companies. For more information, please contact msack@mackenzieinvestments.com
Pictet Asset Management
Who we are
Pictet Asset Management is a global independent asset management company. Established in 1980, we are part of the Pictet group, a privately held Swiss partnership which started in 1805. The group’s independence and stability allow us to focus on our clients’ long-term goals. We have 17 offices worldwide and over 374 investment professionals across 7 investment centres managing over CAD 285 billion in assets 1 . Our aim is to be the investment partner of choice to our institutional clients. We commit substantial analytical resources to our strategic capabilities: Thematic, Emerging, Absolute Return and Multi Asset.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG)
We believe in responsible economics and take an enlarged view of the economy and its interactions with civil society and the natural environment. Consistent with our fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of our clients, and our adherence to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), we are committed to integrating material Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria in our investment processes and ownership practices with a view to enhancing returns and/or mitigating risks. We also aim to include ESG aspects in our risk management and reporting tools in order to maintain high standards of transparency and accountability.
Environmental global thematic equities
We have long established credentials as an active manager of Environmental Thematic and Sustainability focused strategies. In the late 1990s, we began launching strategies that incorporate sustainability criteria into the management of our equity portfolios. Since 2000, we have pioneered and led the market in the development of innovative, actively-managed thematic strategies that have a focus on secular environmental megatrends. Today, we offer our clients a range of fundamental research-driven products that span the environmental space – from Water to Environmental Global Thematic Equities – or active-quant products that can be tailored to the sustainability criteria, specified by our clients.
About Power Pacific Investment Management
Power Pacific Investment Management is a Shanghai and Montreal based investment boutique owned by Power Corporation, a Canadian company with a pioneering presence in China since the 1970s. We invest in Chinese equities with high conviction and a fundamentals-based, research driven investment process.
About Ninety One
Ninety One is an independent, active global asset manager dedicated to delivering compelling outcomes for its clients, managing more than USD$128 billion in assets (as of March 31, 2020).
In the Americas, Ninety One offers a full range of investment strategies and solutions spanning equity, fixed income, multi-asset, sustainable and alternatives led by specialist teams that invest across global, emerging and frontier markets. For more than a decade, the firm has been committed to clients in the US, Canada and Latin America, developing trusted partnerships by delivering local expertise with a global platform.
Established in South Africa in 1991, as Investec Asset Management, it started with domestic investments in an emerging market. In 2020, almost three decades of organic growth later, the firm demerged from Investec Group and became Ninety One. Today Ninety One offers distinctive active strategies to institutions, advisors and individual investors around the world.
Silver Sponsors
About BMO Global Asset Management
BMO Global Asset Management is a multi-asset management business focused on meeting the needs of investors, both locally and globally. The business is characterized by specialized, regional investment teams providing a range of investment solutions, with the objective of delivering world-class investment management expertise to clients across North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Middle East.
Our heritage in asset management spans back 150 years – a century and a half in which the world and investment landscape have transformed and continue to evolve. During that time, we have strived to constantly reassess and reappraise the needs of our clients and develop innovative and relevant solutions to help them meet their objectives.
The strategies we apply today demonstrate our commitment to offering new ideas and fresh perspectives. These include a host of outcome-focused solutions, pioneering capabilities and long-standing success stories like the world’s first publicly quoted investment vehicle that we still manage today.
About Bonnefield
Bonnefield is one of Canada’s leading farmland investment managers, with four investment partnerships comprising 125k acres of farmland across Canada and over $900mm of Assets Under Management.
Bonnefield’s investment model provides investors with exposure to the unique characteristics of Canadian farmland. Bonnefield Funds target low-correlated, low-volatility returns from stable lease income and capital appreciation which offer an inflation and climate change hedge within a responsible ESG framework.
CIBC Asset Management
CIBC Asset Management (CIBC AM) is a wholly owned subsidiary of CIBC and is the asset management arm of CIBC. CIBC AM is one of the largest asset managers in Canada with over 45 years of investment management experience. CIBC AM is faithful to its fundamental principles of rigorous research, thought leadership and dynamism. Our experienced investment teams are CIBC AM’s key competitive advantage. With our clients at the forefront, we maintain a strong tradition of disciplined investment processes, while prudently managing risk and developing innovative solutions. We believe that investment research, guided by a rigorous and consistent process, will yield better results and serve our clients well over the long term. For CIBC AM, this is a core belief that has sustained us since our founding.
About CIBC Mellon
CIBC Mellon is dedicated to helping Canadian institutional investors and international institutional investors into Canada service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Founded in 1996, CIBC Mellon is 50-50 jointly owned by The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). CIBC Mellon delivers informed investment services for investment funds, pension plans, insurance companies, banks, foundations, endowments, corporations, and global financial institutions whose clients invest in Canada. As at June 30, 2020, CIBC Mellon had more than C$2 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration. CIBC Mellon is part of the BNY Mellon network, which as at June 30, 2020 had US$37.3 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration. CIBC Mellon is a licensed user of the CIBC trade-mark and certain BNY Mellon trade-marks, is the corporate brand of CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company and CIBC Mellon Trust Company, and may be used as a generic term to refer to either or both companies. www.cibcmellon.com
About Ninepoint Partners
Ninepoint Partners manages unique alternative investment solutions that offer investors the benefits of better diversification. We target investment strategies that are uncorrelated from traditional asset classes, such as equities and bonds, with the goal of lowering overall portfolio risk. Ninepoint Institutional Partners, a division of Ninepoint Partners LP, works with Canadian Pension Plans, Foundations, Endowments, Insurance Companies, Family Offices, and other Institutional investors to provide objective, comprehensive investment management solutions from around the globe.
As a team, we have a long track-record of managing alternative income, real asset and alternative core strategies. Innovative thinking, and our ability to apply it to real-world solutions, is what defines us.
Ninepoint is an independent, employee-owned firm serving the investment advisor and institutional investor communities. With over $6 billion in assets and institutional contracts and 75 employees, we are among the largest independent asset management firms in Canada.
About SimCorp
SimCorp provides integrated, best-in-class, multi-asset investment management solutions to the world’s leading asset managers, fund managers, asset servicers, pension and insurance funds, wealth managers, central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and treasury. Deployed on premise or in the cloud, SimCorp’s core solution, SimCorp Dimension®, alongside SimCorp Coric®, SimCorp Gain™, and SimCorp Sofia™ form a powerful and complete solution. Together with a range of managed services, they support the entire investment life cycle, based on a market-leading IBOR. SimCorp invests around 20% of its annual revenue in R&D, helping clients develop their business and stay ahead of ever-changing industry demands. Listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen, SimCorp is a global company, with regional offices across Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific.
For more information, please visit www.simcorp.com.
About Trez Capital
Founded in 1997, Trez Capital is a diversified real estate investment firm and preeminent provider of commercial real estate debt financing solutions in Canada and the United States. We offer private and institutional investors strategies to invest in a variety of opportunistic, fully-secured, high-yield mortgage investment funds and like investment assets, and provide property developers and owners with quick approvals on flexible short- to mid-term financing.
With offices in Canada and the U.S., Trez Capital has over $3.8 billion in assets under management and has funded over 1,500 transactions totaling more than $11.5 billion since inception.
For more information, visit www.trezcapital.com
About BNY Mellon Investment Management
BNY Mellon Investment Management is one of the world’s leading investment management organizations and one of the top U.S. wealth managers. Our business encompasses BNY Mellon’s affiliated investment management firms, wealth management organization, and global distribution companies.
At BNY Mellon Investment Management, our goal is to build and deliver investment and wealth management strategies and solutions to meet your needs. Drawing on deep expertise, we collaborate with you to tailor our best ideas and resources to meet your specific requirements. Through our global network, we have developed a significant understanding of local requirements. We pride ourselves on providing dedicated service through our teams. With extensive experience in anticipating and responding to the investment and financial needs of the world’s governments, pension plan sponsors, corporations, foundations, endowments, planned giving programs, advisors, intermediaries, individuals, families, and family offices, BNY Mellon Investment Management seeks to help you reach your goals.
BNY Mellon has been serving clients in Canada for over 30 years and has had a physical presence in the country since 1983. We currently maintain offices in Toronto, London (Ontario), Calgary, Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver and provide a comprehensive range of services in asset servicing, asset management, corporate trust, investment services, wealth management, treasury services and technology.
BNY Mellon Asset Management Canada oversees the distribution of investment services offered by BNY Mellon’s affiliated Investment management firms and is one of the leading investment management organizations in Canada.
Contact information:
Michael Parsons
Vice-President of Sales and Marketing
BNY Mellon Investment Management
416-840-8019
michael.parsons@bnymellon.com
https://im.bnymellon.com/us/en/institutional/
Bronze Sponsors
About Aberdeen Standard Investments
Aberdeen Standard Investments is dedicated to helping investors around the world reach their investment goals and broaden their financial horizons.
We provide expertise across a breadth of markets, asset classes and investment approaches. With around 1,000 investment professionals, and operations in global financial capitals and important regional centres, this brings us closer to our clients and customers around the world. It also provides invaluable knowledge and insight to share with our people.
As at 30 June 2020, we manage CA$766.7 bn on behalf of governments, pension funds, insurers, companies, charities, foundations and individuals in 80 countries.
About Aviva Investors
Aviva Investors is a global asset manager with integrated expertise across all major asset classes. This, combined with our insurance heritage and investment capabilities, uniquely positions us to deliver the outcomes that matter most to today’s investor.
Support Sponsors
About Ortec Finance
Ortec Finance is the leading provider of technology and solutions for risk and return management.
It is our purpose to enable people to manage the complexity of investment decisions. We do this through delivering leading technologies and solutions for investment decision-making to financial institutions around the world. Our strength lies in an effective combination of advanced models, innovative technology and in-depth market knowledge. This combination of skills and expertise supports investment professionals in achieving a better risk-return ratio and thus better results.
https://www.ortecfinance.com/
About Vontobel
Vontobel Asset Management is an active asset manager with global reach and a multi-boutique approach. Assets from institutional and intermediary clients total C$200bn. Each of our boutiques draws on specialized investment talent, a strong performance culture and robust risk management. Our commitment to active management empowers us to invest on the basis of our convictions. The Vontobel Quality Growth Boutique, dedicated exclusively to managing long-only global equity portfolios, employs a patient, growth-oriented investment approach that relies on bottom-up analyses to help identify high-quality businesses that can sustain superior earnings growth over the long term. TwentyFour Asset Management, a fixed income specialist, seeks to provide investors with superior risk-adjusted returns with a strong focus on capital preservation through the economic cycle.