FUTURE
CONFERENCES
Programme
This will be a full day conference with approximate timings of:
09.00
Registration
09.30
Conference start
12.30
Lunch
15.00
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?
Executive Director
J.P. Morgan Chase Bank
Into the Tempest: Understanding the structure of Private Markets and measuring what matters.
This session demystifies how private markets—especially the middle market—are structured and why measuring performance is inherently more difficult than in public markets.
We will cover core private asset strategies, the key participants, fund mechanics, and how returns are ultimately generated.
Building on that foundation, we’ll translate the structure into allocator-relevant challenges—including opacity, fund-level reporting limitations, and benchmarking gaps driven by limited deal- and asset-level data.
We will then outline the reference tools and frameworks that could help allocators assess private-market performance by measuring what matters with greater clarity and confidence.
Chair:
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:
Chair:
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:
Chair:
Session 4: 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 peace deal collapses and 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 Election A by-election result 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:
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.
Media Partners
