11:30am - 12:00pm

Transport to National University of Singapore from Raffles Singapore

12:00pm - 1:00pm

Traditional Singaporean street food market catered by Singapore’s food ambassador and champion of street food culture, KF Seetoh.

1:00pm - 1:10pm

Chair

Colin Tate

Managing director, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair

As Asian economies and governments continue to gain power, the West needs to find ways to adapt to the new global order.

Bilahari Kausikan

Chair, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore; former permanent secretary of Singapore’s foreign ministry (Singapore)
speaker
Chair

Amanda White

Director of international, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
2:00pm - 2:40pm

In 2022, central banks embarked on the largest tightening cycle since the 1970s amid persistently elevated inflation, and asset prices fell to reflect the first-order impact of higher rates. But the second-order impacts of the massive tightening that has occurred are still ahead and are largely not priced in. Markets are discounting that no meaningful contraction will occur, that inflation will quickly normalise, and that central banks will be able to start easing in the second half of 2023, in other words, a soft landing. What can investors expect as the second-order impacts of the tightening begin to ripple through the economy?

Phil Dobrin

Senior portfolio strategist, Bridgewater (USA)
speaker
Chair

Colin Tate

Managing director, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
2:40pm - 3:10pm

Afternoon tea

This session examines an asia-centric view of the world including the US-China decoupling and what that impact might be. It looks at the different stages of globalisation/de-globalisation in Asia and the consequences for these markets.

Patrick Zweifel

Chief economist, Pictet Asset Management (Switzerland)
speaker
Chair

Colin Tate

Managing director, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
3:50pm - 4:30pm

Roundtable discussion

4:30pm - 5:30pm

Investors share the experiences of how they are looking at global macro risks and opportunities and what actions they are considering to future-proof their portfolios.

Scott Chan

Deputy chief investment officer, CalSTRS (United States)
speaker

Bernard Wee

Group head of markets and investment, Monetary Authority of Singapore (Singapore)
speaker

Wai-Seng Wong

Head of strategy and asset allocation, Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Malaysia)
speaker
Chair

Amanda White

Director of international, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
5:30pm - 6:00pm

Transport to Raffles

Leslie Danker

Resident historian, Raffles Singapore (Singapore)
speaker
9:00am - 9:05am

Welcome

The past decade of moderate growth, low inflation, and accommodative central bank policy was great for passive asset returns and many investors shifted their asset allocations to reflect these stable conditions. Now, we’ve entered a new environment that looks much less beneficial for assets. High inflation has created the sharpest tightening in 40 years, which has driven a significant asset sell-off over the past year. How should investors prepare their portfolios and consider the role of diversification and liquidity in light of this shift?

Digital

Greg Jensen

Co-chief investment officer, Bridgewater (USA)
digital
Chair

Colin Tate

Managing director, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair

Long term investors seeking to construct portfolios resilient to macro uncertainties should focus less on backward-looking, short-term risks and more on understanding the long-horizon investment landscape, including the benevolent effects of mean reversion, a broader opportunity set of private assets, and the risks posed by potential regime shifts in the macro environment.

Ding Li

Senior vice president, total portfolio policy and allocation, economics and investment strategy, GIC (Singapore)
speaker
Digital

Peter Shepard

Global head of analytics research, MSCI (USA)
digital
Chair

Amanda White

Director of international, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
10:20am - 10:50am

Morning tea

In an environment of higher inflation and deglobalisation, investors may need to re-think traditional approaches to portfolio construction. So what are the alternatives?

Craig Thorburn

Director, CIO’s office, The Future Fund (Australia)
speaker

Wylie Tollette

Chief investment officer, Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions (USA)
speaker
Chair

Amanda White

Director of international, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair

Anne-Marie Fink

Chief investment officer, private markets and funds alpha, State of Wisconsin Investment Board (USA)
speaker

John Greaves

Head of investment strategy and research, Railpen (United Kingdom)
speaker

Ding Li

Senior vice president, total portfolio policy and allocation, economics and investment strategy, GIC (Singapore)
speaker
Chair

Amanda White

Director of international, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
12:30pm - 1:30pm

Lunch

According to research, the global alternative data market has increased from $60 million in 2015 to $1.7 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $17 billion by 2027. Powerful computation techniques are changing the way alpha is extracted from data resulting in alternative alpha that allows investors to generate uncorrelated returns. But how do you separate noise from relevant signals, what is the power and appeal of alternative alpha, and how does sustainability fit into this picture?

Table discussion

Mike Chen

Head of alternative alpha research, Robeco (USA)
speaker
Digital

Charles Wu

Chief investment officer, State Super (Australia)
digital
Chair

Chris Battaglia

Senior advisor, Conexus Financial (USA)
chair

Fixed income is undergoing a renaissance. Increasingly, investors are being compensated for risk – and in some cases rewarded. This represents an extraordinary sea change: during the past decade and longer, bonds were priced at untenably expensive levels. To be sure, caution is warranted in light of geopolitical and macroeconomic upheaval. Investors should perhaps ease back into fixed income rather than plunging head first. And they need to be selective. This session will explore what this new paradigm means for portfolio asset allocators.

Farouki Majeed

Chief investment officer, Ohio School Employees Retirement System (USA)
speaker

Raymond Sagayam

Chief investment officer, fixed income, Pictet Asset Management (United Kingdom)
speaker
Chair

Colin Tate

Managing director, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
3:00pm - 3:30pm

Afternoon tea

This session examines the market dynamics for real assets in 2023, including the challenges and opportunities across real estate, infrastructure and natural capital.

Patrick Kanters

Global head of private investments, APG Asset Management (Netherlands)
speaker

Mike Sales

Chief executive, Nuveen Real Assets (UK)
speaker
Chair

Chris Battaglia

Senior advisor, Conexus Financial (USA)
chair

Weina Zhang

Associate Professor of Finance, Academic Director of MSc in Sustainable and Green Finance Programme and the Deputy Director of Sustainable and Green Finance Institute, National University of Singapore (Singapore)
speaker
Chair

Amanda White

Director of international, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair

What does it really mean to implement a net zero strategy? As more investors make pledges for net zero they are tasked with setting a strategy to achieve these goals. This session looks at the challenges of implementation including what behaviour changes are needed and how investors really need to allocate.

Anne-Maree O’Connor

Head of sustainable investments, New Zealand Super (New Zealand)
speaker

Yoo-Kyung Park

Head of responsible investment & governance Asia pacific, APG (Netherlands)
speaker

Rachel Teo

Head of total portfolio sustainable investing in the economics and investment strategy department and head of sustainability, GIC (Singapore)
speaker
Chair

Amanda White

Director of international, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
6:30pm - 6:45pm

Transport to conference dinner

6:45pm - 10:00pm

Conference dinner: Art di Daniele Sperindio

9:00am - 9:05am

Welcome

9:05am - 10:00am

More than half the world’s population lives in Asia, four of the largest economies in the world are Asian (China, Japan, India and South Korea) and Asian innovation is at the forefront of green finance and technology. This session examines the future of the global economy and the role of Asia.

Danny Quah

Dean and Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (Singapore)
speaker
Chair

Amanda White

Director of international, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair

This session looks at the potential impact of geopolitics on economies and markets and the challenges investors face in navigating increased geopolitical risk.

Richard Falkenrath

Head of geopolitics and chief security officer, Bridgewater (USA)
speaker

Ben Weiss

Managing director, Asia Pacific, Veracity (Australia)
speaker
Chair

Colin Tate

Managing director, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
10:45am - 11:10am

Morning tea

11:10am - 11:40am

Digital

Lirong Xu

Chief investment officer, Franklin Templeton Sealand Fund Management (China)
digital
Chair

Colin Tate

Managing director, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
11:40am - 12:20pm

In this final investor panel delegates will hear how investors from different parts of the world are tackling the key issues covered in the conference including portfolio construction and asset allocation decisions, the renaissance in fixed income and the allocation to alternatives, ESG, geopolitical risk and opportunities in Asia.

Andrew Fisher

Head of portfolio strategy, Australian Retirement Trust (Australia)
speaker

Marlene Puffer

Chief investment officer, AIMCo (Canada)
speaker

Abbas Ramlee

Chief strategy officer, Permodalan Nasional BHD (Malaysia)
speaker
Chair

Amanda White

Director of international, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair

Over the last decade, Asia has accounted for 52 per cent of global growth in tech-company revenues, 43 per cent of startup funding, 51 per cent of spending on research and development and 87 per cent of patents filed. So what does the future look like and why is Asia at the centre? This closing session will hear from one of the region’s most impressive venture capitalists who has invested in nearly 350 companies in Asia including Aerodyne, Airwallex, Animoca, AutoX, Carsome, GoGoX, Kumu, Prenetics, Sandbox VR, Sastaticket.pk and WeLab.

Thomas Tsao

Co-founder, Gobi (Malaysia)
speaker
Chair

Colin Tate

Managing director, Conexus Financial (Australia)
chair
1:00pm - 1:05pm

Conference close