FUTURE
CONFERENCES
Programme
This will be a full day conference with approximate timings of:
09.00
Registration
09.30
Conference start
12.30
Lunch
16.30
End of conference
15.30
Close of sessions followed by drinks reception
Session 1: Charting the Storm - Geopolitical & Macroeconomic Update
Not all volatility is what it appears. As deliberate policy disruption blurs the line between political manoeuvre and market signal, institutional investors must navigate shifting geopolitical dynamics, dangerous equity concentration, and the structural changes reshaping asset class relationships.
Speaker and Topic to date:
Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer of Global Multi-Asset
Nomura Asset Management
Multi-Asset: Efficiently managing risk across market cycles
In this thought leadership session we try to address several important questions for investors in the coming years:
• What does the rising equity index concentration mean for portfolio diversification?
• What implications does the change in the geopolitical landscape have for various asset classes?
• How can investors prepare for a structural change in the macroeconomic environment?
Session 2: Holding the Helm - Governance & Fiduciary Duty in a Changing World
When external forces are reshaping the investment landscape at speed, the quality of governance becomes a competitive advantage — or a liability. A candid examination of what good trusteeship looks like today:
• Trustee competency and the investment skills gap: raising the bar without excluding volunteers
• Fiduciary duty reimagined: does purpose-alignment conflict with financial duty, or complement it?
• The case for and against delegated investment management models
Speakers:
Session 3: What Endures - Impact & Mission— Moving Beyond the Buzzwords
In a world of manufactured narratives, impact investing is not immune to illusion. This session cuts through to what genuinely endures — the frameworks, capital strategies, and regulatory realities that separate authentic mission alignment from impact theatre:
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Measuring what matters: credible impact measurement frameworks for investment portfolios
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Catalytic capital: how foundations can use their balance sheets to unlock systemic change
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Greenwashing, impact-washing and the FCA: staying on the right side of the regulatory line
Speaker to date:
Bal Nahl
Trustee
The Henry Smith Foundation
Chair:
Session 4: The Common Shore - The Endowments Investing Challenge (Panel)
In The Tempest, those shipwrecked by the storm find themselves, unexpectedly, on common ground. This panel explores a collaborative initiative that brings foundations, investment managers and wider stakeholders together in a spirit of shared purpose.
As part of the conference, we are planning a 45–60 minute panel discussion focused on the Endowments Investing Challenge and the broader themes of transparency, collaboration and innovation in endowment investing. The session aims to explore the origins of the Challenge and the motivations behind its creation, including the desire to bring greater openness and participation into investment decision-making. We would also like to examine how the Challenge works in practice, how it encourages collaborative thinking between foundations, investment managers and wider stakeholders, and what differentiates it from more traditional selection processes.
Finally, the discussion would look at outcomes and implementation — including what happens once a winner is selected, how the investment mandate is ultimately used, and the wider lessons and challenges the initiative offers for the future of mission-aligned and impact investing. We are keen for the conversation to be practical, thought-provoking and forward-looking, giving attendees insight into both the process and the broader implications for the investment industry.
Speakers to date:
James Anthony
Social Investment Portfolio Manager,
Friends Provident Foundation
Session 5: Into the Breach - Scenario session
"What's past is prologue." — The Tempest, William Shakespeare
The storm has been charted. Now navigate it. This is an interactive session that tests asset allocations and investment strategies against real-world scenarios and will give you valuable insights to use if these scenarios become a reality.
Scenario 1 — The Strait Closes The US-Iran conflict escalates into open warfare. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Oil surges past $150/barrel, equity markets sell off sharply and unevenly, and inflation expectations reprice overnight. How does your portfolio perform in the first 72 hours — and what does your investment policy statement actually allow you to do about it?
Scenario 2 — The Algorithm Breaks Something A major AI infrastructure company suffers a catastrophic model failure triggering a reassessment of the entire AI investment thesis. What looks like a sector story is in fact systemic — passive portfolios take outsized hits they weren't priced for. Do you know how much AI concentration risk you are carrying, and does your governance framework have a view on single-theme exposure at index level?
Scenario 3 — The Snap A cabinet collapse triggers a UK general election with polls too close to call. Sterling falls, gilt yields spike, and memories of September 2022 resurface. For investors with sterling liabilities and UK equity, the question is immediate: how does your liability profile interact with a disorderly gilt market, and what does fiduciary duty look like when politics is the source of the volatility?
Speakers to date:
Emma Danforth
Partner
A&O Shearman
Chair:
The conference is by invitation only for pension funds and other institutional investors and we welcome new attendees from these investors. Therefore if you are not already receiving an invitation please contact us. A limited number of Complimentary invitations are available to genuine pension fund representatives (executives and trustees) and other approved institutional investors. However, to ensure we have room for as many funds as possible, we have to limit free places to 3 attendees per approved organisation thereafter a reduced rate fee is payable per delegate. Furthermore, SPS always reserves the right of admission (free or paid) and our decision is final.
Venue
Farmers and Fletchers in the City
3 Cloth St,
London
EC1A 7LD
Tel: 020 7600 2064
Farmers and Fletchers is 1 minute from Barbican tube station, 5 minutes from St.Paul’s tube station
and very convenient for the new Farringdon Crossrail link.
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