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Global Investment Conference
April 10-12, 2024 | Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta
April 10, 2024
4:00 – 5:00 PM:
Speaker rehearsal (Cascade Ballroom)
6:00 – 9:00 PM:
Opening cocktail reception and dinner (Riverview Lounge and New Brunswick Room)
April 11, 2024
7:30 – 8:30 AM:
Breakfast (Riverview Lounge)
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM:
Opening remarks and icebreaker (Cascade Ballroom)
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM:
Washington and the world: The new geopolitics of great power competition
The global economy, long based upon a rules-based trade system, is undergoing profound and fundamentally transformative shifts. Amid the most complex international security landscape since the end of the Cold War, geopolitical strategist John Sitilides will provide valuable insights and thoughtful understanding of geopolitical trends in the short and long term.
This session will explore the key geopolitical risks across the international trade, security, technology and diplomacy landscapes that will dominate global and regional investment strategies and will help investment leaders better understand, anticipate and mitigate geopolitical risk.
Speaker:
John Sitilides, principal, Trilogy Advisors LLC; senior fellow for national security, Foreign Policy Research Institute
10:00 – 10:30 AM:
Embracing diversity: The strategic role of DEI in business and investment
As the global workplace evolves, the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in business and investment strategies has become clear. Amid changing demographics and a diversifying labor pool, this session will delve into the strategic role of DEI in driving innovation and enhancing financial performance. It will explore the different dimensions of diversity in Canada and globally, the direct link between DEI and business performance and the potential to harness DEI as a source of investment returns.
Speaker:
Gayle Baldwin, portfolio manager, senior research analyst, equities, AllianceBernstein
10:30 – 11:00 AM:
Networking break (Oval Room)
11:00 – 11:30 AM:
Exploring risk mitigation practices for total portfolio hedging
This session will explore key considerations for creating effective risk mitigation in a total portfolio context and illustrate how asset owners can use similar risk mitigation practices to improve total portfolio risk-adjusted returns. It will also discuss the benefits of using a dynamic approach to risk mitigation while considering timing, costs and types of strategies
Speaker:
Rémi Tétreault, director, client solutions, Trans-Canada Capital
11:30 AM – 12:00 PM:
Comparing European vs. North American clean power sectors
The crucial role of regulatory frameworks and policies on the growth and direction of renewable energy and clean power in Europe and North America is well understood. However, there are many other important factors at play, which have influenced their evolution to date and will determine their future trajectory. Scale and market size, energy mix and resource availability, grid infrastructure and integration, as well as technology and innovation are all critical dynamics. This presentation will highlight the key differences and similarities between these two regions and the implications for both current and future investment attractiveness and asset pricing dynamics.
Speaker:
Daniel Sausmikat, partner, origination and execution, InfraRed Capital Partners
This session has been made possible by SLC Management.
12:00 – 1:00 PM:
Lunch (Riverview Lounge)
1:00 – 1:30 PM:
Predictive modelling insights on key demand drivers impacting the Canadian real estate market
The Canadian rental landscape has long been shaped by soaring population growth, low home affordability and an entrenched lack of supply. In partnership with the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University, this session will present new research valuating the long-term impacts of these prevailing trends with regional granularity. Leveraging a variety of research methods, including predictive modelling and machine learning, the findings forecast anticipated shifts in key rental performance indicators including occupancy rates, rent prices and key demographics, revealing where hotbeds of opportunity may arise in the future.
Speaker:
Aaron Pittman, senior vice-president, head of Canadian institutional investments, Equiton
1:30 – 2:00 PM:
The evolution of active management
This session will explore how advancements in research, risk management and active ownership are helping active managers maintain a competitive edge amidst dynamic market conditions. In addition, this session will highlight the importance of understanding non-financial factors, their impact on the durability of a company’s earnings through the cycle and ultimately their effect on overall portfolios.
Speaker:
John Chisholm, investment director, global and international equities, Schroders
2:00 – 2:30 PM:
AI2 – Innovations in artificial intelligence and artificial incretin (GLP-1)
Against the backdrop of an evolving market, sticky inflation and high interest rates, innovations in artificial intelligence and artificial incretins — a class of medications developed to manage diabetes and obesity — are creating compelling investment opportunities, including potentially promising second and third order market effects. This session will share insights into the latest applications of these innovations and why institutional investors have reason to be optimistic about these opportunities.
Speaker:
Jennifer O'Hara Martin, global equity portfolio specialist, T. Rowe Price
2:30 – 3:00 PM:
Networking break (Oval Room)
3:00 – 3:30 PM:
Emerging markets: The world's growth engine
The IMF projected that emerging market economies would generate 65% of global growth over the next five years. Against this backdrop, their youthful and digital-savvy populations are creating massive opportunities for innovation across a number of globally relevant sectors. This session will examine what’s fueling the incredible potential, opportunities and challenges of the modern emerging market space.
Speaker:
Andrew Ness, portfolio manager, emerging markets equity, Franklin Templeton Investments Ltd.
3:30 – 4:00 PM:
Growth is everywhere: opportunities for institutional investors in a fast-changing global landscape
Looking out to the rest of the decade, how will the latest technological breakthroughs and ongoing geopolitical changes likely proliferate through the major economies? This session will provide insights on 2024’s ‘normal’ post-pandemic economic expansion and explore many of the current global economy’s growth opportunities through a ‘glass half full’ perspective.
Speaker:
Olga Bitel, partner, global strategist, William Blair
6:00 – 9:30 PM:
Cocktails and dinner reception (Mt. Stephen Hall)
April 12, 2024
8:00 – 9:00 AM:
Breakfast (Riverview Lounge)
9:00 – 10:00 AM:
From globalization to multipolarity: Geopolitical economy of the unexpected world (Cascade Ballroom)
Amid multiplying crises — climate change, inflation, migration, artificial intelligence, acute social division and war — the world seems to be spinning out of control. What happened to the certainties of globalization and what patterns will shape the short- and medium-term future? This session will explore the causes of the phenomenon in neoliberal financialized capitalism and review the solutions in a decisive turn towards pragmatic policies and production-focused economies.
Speaker:
Radhika Desai, professor, department of political studies, director, geopolitical economy research group, University of Manitoba
10:00 – 10:30 AM:
Asset owner stewardship: Practical approaches for active investors
Institutional investors have a role to play in driving action on material non-financial issues impacting financial markets, including climate change and diversity. When the University Pension Plan was launched in 2021, it had a unique opportunity to create a multi-faceted approach, fully integrated in its investment activities, to address these important topics within and beyond its investment portfolio. This session will provide practical tools to help align the interests of portfolio companies, issuers and financial systems with long-term value creation and concrete examples of how stewardship can lead to better financial, environmental and social outcomes to mitigate systemic risks.
Speaker:
Delaney Greig, director, investor stewardship, University Pension Plan
10:30 – 11:00 AM:
Networking break (Oval Room)
11:00 – 11:30 AM:
Panel: A shifting retirement landscape
As an increasing number of older workers reach retirement age and begin drawing down their pension savings, leaders in the pension space discuss the effect changing demographics in the workplace will have on pension governance.
Panellists:
Leona Fields, director, pension fund, York University
Nora Lamb, director, pensions and savings, Suncor Energy Inc.
Francois Quinty, director, investment management, Via Rail Canada
11:30 AM – 12:00 PM:
Panel: Developed and emerging market trends in a shifting global landscape
Join key thought leaders from some of Canada’s largest DB pension plans as they discuss how to find opportunities and mitigate risks amid a shifting global landscape. Panellists will break down current challenges in global public markets and where opportunities can be found in the fixed income space.
Panellists:
James Ash, chief investment officer and head of pension investment management and treasury, CIBC Pension Plan
Jean-Christophe Lermusiaux, managing director, global emerging markets, British Columbia Investment Management Corp.
Steve Mahoney, chief investment officer, Nova Scotia Pension Services Corp.
12:00 – 1:00 PM:
Lunch (Riverview Lounge)
5:00 – 8:00 PM:
Bowling pub night (Banff Springs Bowling Centre)