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The Chief Investment Officer Summit

| The Harvard Club of New York City

The Chief Investment Officer Summit

Day 1

Day 2

Wednesday April 13, 2016

  1. -
    Registration  (Harvard Hall)
  2. -
    Opening Remarks: Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Chief Investment Officer
  3. -

    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

  4. -
     
    Prix Fixe vs. A la Carte (or, Asset Classes vs. Risk Premia)?
    The vast majority of institutional portfolios offer a menagerie of pre-packaged factors—and with them, potentially unintended and unwanted exposures. But all is not lost: Some allocators are taking advantage of risk premia indices and derivatives to try to right-size these exposures. This session will discuss both the theory, and practice, of how they’re doing it.

    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

  5. -
     
    Is Today’s Asset Allocation Actually Yesterday’s?
    There exists serious concern that today’s asset allocation is less than optimal for tomorrow’s markets. Is this the case—and if so, what can CIOs do to fix it, and what can they demand from their partners to make this fix easier?

    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

  6. -
    Lunch  (North and Biddle 3rd floor)
  7. -

    Keynote: Dawn Fitzpatrick, Head of Equities, Multi-Asset and O’Connor, UBS Asset Management

  8. -

    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

  9. -
    Coffee Break (move to breakout sessions)
  10. -
     
    BREAKOUT SESSION (North/Biddle 3rd floor)

    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

  11. -
     
    BREAKOUT SESSION (Cambridge Room 2nd floor)

    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

  12. -
    Cocktail Reception  (Harvard Hall)

Thursday April 14, 2016

  1. -
    Registration and Breakfast
  2. -

    Opening Remarks: Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief, Chief Investment Officer

  3. -
     
    Fire All Your Hedge Funds
    Directly implemented synthetic risk premia strategies are ascendent—and could, some believe, come to replace many hedge funds in institutional portfolios. As such, are we about to see one of the biggest disruptions in recent asset management history?

    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

  4. -

    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

  5. -
    Coffee Break
  6. -
     
    Why Customized Multi-Asset Beats Risk Parity—Every Time
    While the volatility-control and risk-budgeting aspects of risk parity are appealing, the approach may overweight certain unappealing asset classes and require substantial leverage. This session will examine how a customized, multi-asset portfolio can enable investors to remain invested in their strategic allocations while enjoying the benefits of volatility control in an unlevered fashion.

    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

  7. -
    Lunch (North and Biddle 3rd floor)
  8. -
     

    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

  9. -
    Coffee Break
  10. -

    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

  11. -

    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

  12. -
    Break (move  to breakout sessions)
  13. -

    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

  14. -
     
    BREAKOUT SESSION  (West Room 3rd floor)

    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

  15. -
    Cocktail Reception  (North and Biddle)
  16. -
    CIO Summit Gala (Harvard Hall)