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The Hot Seat: CIOs and Asset Management +
Winners and finalists of the CIO Industry Innovation Awards face a lightning round of questions (none of which they’ll know beforehand) on the pan-portfolio benefits they demand, and receive, when interacting with today’s best asset management partners.
MODERATORS
Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Chief Investment Officer
Leanna Orr, Managing Editor, Chief Investment Officer
PANELISTS
David Holmgren, CIO, Hartford HealthCare
Greg Williamson, CIO, American Red Cross
Michael Trotsky, CIO, Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management
Kathleen Lutito, CIO, CenturyLink Investment Management
PRESENTER
David Eichhorn, Managing Director, Investment Strategies, NISA Investment Advisors
MODERATOR
Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Chief Investment Officer
PANELISTS
Mike Haessler, Manager of Investments, University of Michigan Investment Office
Maarten Nederlof, CEO & CIO, Risk Premium Investment Management Company
Masahiro “Masi” Yamada, Managing Director, Americas Cross-Asset Structuring, JP Morgan
MODERATORS
Carol McFate, CIO, Xerox
Carrie Thome, Director of Investments, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
PANELISTS
Jeff Knight, Global Head of Investment Solutions and Asset Allocation, Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Tam McVie, Investment Director, Multi-Asset Investment Specialist, Standard Life Investments
Danielle Singer, Senior Client Portfolio Manager, Multi Asset, Invesco US
Gene Neavin, Senior Investment Analyst/Portfolio Manager, Federated Investors
Keynote: Dawn Fitzpatrick, Head of Equities, Multi-Asset and O’Connor, UBS Asset Management
Outperformance Exists. How Do Allocators Access It?
Outperformance seems to be a problem of discovery—but discovering it is no easy feat. How can allocators access it, construct balanced equity portfolios, and get the best of both active and passive strategies?
Moderator
Angelo Calvello, Columnist, Chief Investment Officer
Panelists
Ian Baker, Head of Fundamental and Quantitative Research, Fidelity Institutional Asset Management
KC Connors, Partner, Philanthropic Practice Director, NEPC
Roger Fenningdorf, Founding Partner, Head of Manager Research, Rocaton Investment Advisors
The De-Risking Decision Tree
If your pension plan’s objective is to efficiently de-risk using all available options, this session is essential. Through discussion, expert-led whiteboarding, and debate, we will look through the entire decision tree of de-risking—and the pressure points that arrive as you make your way down it.
HOST: Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Chief Investment Officer
3:45 – 4:00
“All Available Options”
Legal & General’s Jodan Ledford and Kim Lisella introduce the decision tree—and the major decisions that every plan sponsor will need to face in the years ahead.
4:00 – 4:30
De-Risking IRL: The Whiteboard Project
De-risking theory is one thing; de-risking in real life (IRL) is another. Groups of attendees, led by top de-risking consultants and experts, will discuss and tabulate the pressure points and unexpected opportunities that are encountered within the de-risking decision tree.
DISCUSSION LEADERS
Richard Ratcliffe, Executive Director of Corporate Solutions, Natixis
Steve Shepherd, Partner, Pension Risk and Retirement Insurance Solutions, Aon Hewitt
Lynn Esenwine, Partner, Senior Risk Transfer Consultant, Mercer
Adam Levine, Senior Investment Strategy Consultant, Willis Towers Watson
4:30 – 4:50
Show & Tell
Group leaders present their finding—in four minutes or less.
4:50 – 5:30
“So What Are You Going to Do About It?”
Responding to the outcome of the whiteboard exercise, a discussion surrounding the potential solutions for the many pressure points encountered. Is pension-risk transfer the answer? Liability-matching? Or, as is so often obfuscated in this industry—a smart mix of both?
PANELISTS
Ari Jacobs, Senior Partner, Global Retirement Solutions Leader, Aon Hewitt
Joe Cella, Head of Annuity Pricing, Legal & General Retirement America
Jodan Ledford, Head of US Solutions, Legal & General Investment Management America
Kevin McLaughlin, Head of Pension Risk Solutions, Deutsche Bank Securities
Paying for Beta, Earning Alpha—Not the Other Way Around
The decades-old concept of factor investing has gained unprecedented traction as asset owners discover new tools to DIY active strategies, diversify passive allocations, and optimize fee spending for an extended low-return, low-growth environment ahead. Smart beta gets demystified, defined, and debated.
HOST: Leanna Orr, Managing Editor, Chief Investment Officer
3:45 – 4:25 pm
Beyond Equities: Factor Investing for the Whole Portfolio
A point-counter-point primer on the state of smart beta for public assets, led by an expert matchup from the equities and fixed-income sides. They’ll take on the myths of factor investing, theory vs. practice, and the big question of strategy capacity.
PRESENTERS
Jennifer Bender, Director of Research, Global Equity Beta Solutions, State Street Global Advisors
Ritirupa Samanta, Head of Quantitative Research, Senior Portfolio Manager, State Street Global Advisors
4:25 – 4:55 pm
The Case Study: How One Asset Owner Does Smart Beta—And How You Would
Given a pool of assets and a mission, what would the ultimate factor-investing program look like? Hear from the Wyoming Retirement System on its smart beta transformation: Starting point, resources, and goals—everything but the outcome. Attendees will then split into small groups, and whiteboard their smart beta strategies.
PRESENTER
Sam Masoudi, CIO, Wyoming Retirement System
4:55 – 5:30 pm
Case Study, Debriefed
Wyoming’s CIO reveals what the plan actually did in its factor-investing overhaul, and experts assess how the crowdsourced approaches might fare in implemented reality.
PANELISTS
Jennifer Bender, Director of Research, Global Equity Beta Solutions, State Street Global Advisors
Ritirupa Samanta, Head of Quantitative Research, Senior Portfolio Manager, State Street Global Advisors
Sam Masoudi, CIO, Wyoming Retirement System
Fabio Cecutto, Head of Multi-Region Equity Manager Research, Willis Towers Watson
Opening Remarks: Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Chief Investment Officer
PRESENTER
David Chapman, Solutions Strategist, Legal & General Investment Management America
MODERATOR
Angelo Calvello, Columnist, Chief Investment Officer
PANELISTS
Robert Lee III, Director of Investments, Employees Retirement System of Texas
Greg Williamson, CIO, American Red Cross
How Should OCIO Success (or Failure) Be Measured?
In an industry obsessed with benchmarking, the outsourced-CIO sector suffers from performance opacity. How can OCIO clients define and benchmark success—and what do prospective users need to ask before embarking on an OCIO relationship? These questions, of course, can be applied across the asset management spectrum…
Moderator
Leanna Orr, Managing Editor, Chief Investment Officer
Panelists
Kane Brenan, Global Head of the Global Portfolio Solutions Group, Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Tony Johnson, Principal, Head of OCIO Search & Evaluation, RVK
Robert O’Keef, Corporate Vice President of Finance, Motorola Solutions
PRESENTER
David Wilson, Managing Director and Head of Institutional Solutions, Nuveen Asset Management
MODERATOR
Angelo Calvello, Columnist, Chief Investment Officer
PANELISTS
Michael Manning, Managing Partner, NEPC
Eugene Podkaminer, SVP, Capital Market Research Group, Callan Associates
Constructing a Hedge Fund Portfolio… That Actually Hedges
If you invest in 100 hedge funds, you’ve effectively invested in an index—or so the argument goes. How can CIOs and their hedge fund-focused deputies measure and manage exposures across different managers to create a portfolio that actually does its job—and, by extension, ensures asset owners keep theirs?
Moderator
Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Chief Investment Officer
Panelists
Jim Vos, CEO, Aksia
Neil Messing, Head of Hedge Funds, New York City Employees’ Retirement System
Jason Morrow, Deputy CIO, Utah Retirement Systems
Building High-Performing Investment Offices
There is a defined set of qualities most great institutions have in common—and several that failed ones share as well. How do you find great talent, keep it, and make a team more than a sum of its parts when investing beneficial assets?
Moderator
Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Chief Investment Officer
Panelists
Britt Harris, CIO, Teacher Retirement System of Texas
Brian Pellegrino, CIO, UPS Group Trust
Doug Brown, CIO, Exelon
Do You Really Need That Bloomberg Terminal?
It’s expensive, crucial, high-maintenance, and frankly, no one reading this is especially good at it: Technology. Is the argument for outsourcing tech—from risk analytics to quant strategies—stronger than for asset management? Software, after all, is more reliable than investment skill.
Moderator
Leanna Orr, Managing Editor, Chief Investment Officer
Panelists
Jane Western, Senior Director of Operations and Governance, American Red Cross
Chris Ailman, CIO, California State Teachers’ Retirement System
Karyn Williams, CIO, Farmers Insurance
BREAKOUT SESSION (Cambridge room 2nd floor)
Mega-Defined Contribution: What Would You Build If You Weren’t Afraid?
For too long, plan sponsors have followed the philosophy that inaction is safer (for them) than action. And no other of branch of asset owning has as wide of a spread between actual and optimal portfolios. Longevity-risk sharing, non-vanilla assets, individualized glidepaths, tangible saving incentives, tractable spending horizons: Mega-DC has a full box of untouched tools.
HOST: Leanna Orr, Managing Editor, Chief Investment Officer
4:20 – 4:50
Imagine There’s No Career Risk, ERISA, Litigation: Build the Fantasy DC Plan
Groups of five or so attendees, led by a top DC consultant, begin with a blank sheet of paper and no constraints to concoct the ideal DC plan for securing members’ retirements.
DISCUSSION LEADERS
Robin Pellish, Founding Partner, CEO, Rocaton Investment Advisors
Christine Loughlin, Head of Defined Contribution Practice, NEPC
Rod Bare, Senior Vice President, Callan Associates
Kevin Vandolder, National DC Client Practice Leader, Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting
4:50 – 5:05
Show & Tell
Group leaders present the plans of their dreams—in four minutes or less.
5:05 – 5:45
The Real-World Review: Implementing Fiduciary Fantasy
Lawsuits (one in particular) put the industry into CYA mode—with some exceptions. And the exceptions are here: Plan sponsors and providers who believe the real risk is doing nothing, and a fiduciary’s duty is to do better.
PANELISTS
Arthur Guimaraes, Associate CIO & COO, University of California Board of Regents
Robin Diamonte, CIO, United Technologies
Making a Better Yale Model
If you had to start from scratch, how would you build a nonprofit or public pension alternatives portfolio?
HOST: Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Chief Investment Officer
4:20 – 4:50
Imagine There’s No Yale. Now Build a Fantasy Portfolio.
Groups of five or so attendees, led by a top alternatives consultant, begin with a blank sheet of paper and no constraints to concoct ideal nonprofit and public pension plan portfolios.
DISCUSSION LEADERS
Phillip Nelson, Director of Asset Allocation, NEPC
Greg Dowling, Deputy CIO & Head of Research, Fund Evaluation Group
Sam Levenstein, Senior Portfolio Advisor, Aksia
Eugene Podkaminer, SVP, Capital Markets ResearchGroup, Callan Associates
4:50 – 5:05
Show & Tell
Group leaders present the portfolio of their dreams—in four minutes or less.
5:05 – 5:45
The Real World View: Allocators Respond
Fantasy is one thing; reality, another. How do real world allocators—from nonprofit, public, hedge fund, and private equity worlds—respond to Yale Model 2.0?
PANELIST
Jason MacDonald, Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Markets, New Jersey Division of Investment
Erin Abouzaid, CIO, Stony Brook Foundation
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Katie Campbell 203-517-6470 Katie.Campbell@ISSMediaSolutions.com
