11:15am - 12:00pm

Registration and light lunch | Rhodes House, Conference Suite

12:00pm - 12:15pm

Welcome

This session with one of Oxford’s leading academics will examine the key drivers of our future, traversing economic, demographic, technological and environmental trends and the risks and opportunities of an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world. As the economy moves from physical to digital, atoms to bits, and manufacturing to services, the session will explore how investors, and society at large, can navigate an increasingly fraught world.

Ian Goldin

Professor of Globalisation and Development, Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, Professorial Fellow at the Balliol College, University of Oxford
speaker

Are we living in a state of heightened geopolitical risk or in a state of geopolitical panic? Leading global affairs scholar Stephen Kotkin will take us on a history lesson to presence us to what geopolitical risk actually is and what it means for investors.

Stephen Kotkin

Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute, Stanford University; and Birkelund Professor Emeritus at Princeton University
speaker
2:15pm - 2:45pm

Afternoon tea

A variety of secular trends are spurring innovation and disruption in the global economy and creating compelling investment opportunities. This session looks at some of these trends, the breadth of the opportunity sets and the related risks. In an environment of accelerating great-power competition and geopolitical instability, it will examine the opportunities emerging from a new focus on strategic security.

Simon Henry

Managing director, portfolio manager, Wellington Management
speaker

Investors need to consider a growing number of risks in their scenario planning, including political intervention in their allocations, divestment or anti-ESG sentiment; and the economic impact of geopolitical tension including changing trade dynamics and growing populism. This session explores how investors are incorporating these risks into their decision making in order to create resilient portfolios.

This session examines how investors are juggling increasingly complex organisational pressures, including managing a successful team; resourcing technology systems and upskilling investment professionals; asset and organisational growth; culture; and finding space to think strategically.

This session takes a deep dive into the operational challenges and evolution of one of the world’s largest asset owners as it moves towards becoming a $1 trillion entity.

In a wide-ranging discussion this session will examine the themes of the conference and challenge the industry on the need for evolution.

5:40pm - 7:00pm

Welcome Reception | Rhodes House, Beit and Reception Room

8:00am - 8:50am

Registration and coffee | Rhodes House, Conference Suite

8:50am - 9:00am

Welcome

The benefits of economic growth over the past two centuries, including freeing billions from poverty and making many lives healthier and longer, has put it front and centre as the key economic indicator for many countries. This session explores the drivers of growth, examines the idea that growth must be redirected to better reflect what we truly value, and offers original ideas for combatting our economic slowdown.

Daniel Susskind

Senior research associate, Institute for Ethics in AI; associate member, Economics Department, University of Oxford
speaker

This session examines the key drivers of the global economy – including AI, geopolitics and the US election – and the implications for portfolio construction.

10:25am - 10:50am

Morning tea

Based on a paper published in the Financial Analysts Journal and real-world implementation, this session looks at the importance of understanding the macro drivers of stock/bond correlations and how risk models should evolve to capture those top-down considerations.

This session looks at how to better link SAA to investors' true objectives and examines how SAA may evolve in the next five years, what technological advancements asset owners may need to consider when constructing portfolios aligned to their true objectives, and what innovative tools asset owners can implement to reshape investment processes and portfolios.

12:10pm - 1:00pm

Lunch

Human activities have accelerated biodiversity loss at an alarming rate. This decline has important implications, affecting not only the environment but also human societies and economies. While it poses a significant risk, it also presents valuable opportunities. This session will delve into the concept of regeneration and how it can become a compelling investment opportunity for investors.

Gabriel Micheli

Senior investment manager, thematic equities, Pictet Asset Management
speaker
Chair

Sarah Rundell

European editor
chair

Private capital plays a crucial role in tackling the twin crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss. The financial materiality of the degradation of ecosystems and biodiversity loss and the risks it poses to the global economy is clear. The cost of inaction is far greater than that of action, so channelling investment into strategies and corporates that help preserve and restore our ecosystem is essential for addressing these issues. Such strategies can provide investors with a unique opportunity to be exposed to scalable and secular growth themes, have exposure to asymmetric risk return in their portfolio whilst generating real-world impact.

The blue economy is valued at around $1.5 trillion per year, making it the seventh largest economy in the world. This vast natural resource desperately needs funding to support and sustain the existential role it plays in all our lives, but to date, SDG 6 —clean water and sanitation, and SDG 14—life below water, have realised just 5 per cent and 1 per cent of total SDG funding, an alarming shortfall given water’s uniquely fundamental role.  In this session explores how the nascent blue bond market can provide an innovative means of supporting the critically underfunded blue economy.

Matt Lawton

Portfolio manager, fixed income, T. Rowe Price
speaker
2:45pm - 3:10pm

Afternoon tea

Research at the Smith School at Oxford University aims to accelerate the transition to net zero and sustainable development. Blending multiple disciplines, including decades of complex systems science, this talk will look at what is working, and what is not, to trigger the changes in technology, mass mobilisation and finance to reach net zero emissions.

This session explores the urgency, significance, and playing fields of the transformative journey in transition investing. Selling heavy emitting companies and buying lower emitters to align with a Paris-aligned decarbonization target does not guarantee a direct decline in real-world emissions. This session looks at transition investing, which sectors and regions will play a pivotal role, and how to generate alpha from it.

This session will specifically examine the role of private credit in the transition and how institutional investors can achieve financial and impact objectives while positioning their portfolios against climate risk. It will look at the processes needed to identify forward-looking corporate borrowers well-positioned to capitalise on global decarbonisation trends and how technology is opening up new investment opportunities.

PGGM is one of the most advanced asset owners in setting its goals for 3D investing. This session will examine the large Dutch investor’s strategy from setting goals and objectives from a total portfolio view, understanding what levers to pull, and the data, technology, stakeholder management and processes for success.

7:00pm - 10:30pm

Conference Dinner | Divinity School, Bodleian Library

8:15am - 8:50am

Registration and coffee

8:50am - 9:00am

Welcome

This session, led by Oxford University’s world-leading physics department, will explore the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on science, including health, energy, space and meteorology, leading to real world progress and improved livelihoods.

Ian Shipsey

Head of department and Henry Moseley Centenary Professor of Experimental Physics, department of physics, University of Oxford
speaker
Chair

Stephen Kotkin

Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute, Stanford University; and Birkelund Professor Emeritus at Princeton University
chair

AI may be the greatest challenge and opportunity facing the current generation of institutional asset owners. This session takes a deep dive into the world of machine learning and how and why asset owners are embracing AI in their assessment of investments and their own internal efficiencies.

10:30am - 11:00am

Morning tea

11:00am - 11:40am

Transparency builds trust and a platform to be more impactful in generating change. This session discusses the importance of transparency for leading funds.

Fee innovation - focusing on the shape of fees, and fee discovery and transparency – is good for everyone in the industry: managers are rewarded with positive flows, and asset owners gain better alignment and value.

12:20pm - 1:00pm

Investors share how they are looking at global macro risks and opportunities and what actions they are considering to future-proof their portfolios. They will explore the need to align decisions with stakeholder perspectives in the face of an increasing number of external challenges.

1:00pm - 1:30pm

Light lunch and conference close