Partnership creates global events network

Conexus Financial, the financial services media and events company and publisher of top1000funds.com, has formed a partnership with the New York-based World Pension Forum (WPF) to create a major international conference business catering to the world’s largest institutional investors.

Conexus will apply its events management expertise and experience to enhance existing WPF events – three offshore and one domestic event for US-based institutional investors.

It will also create an online community to facilitate ongoing communication and engagement for conference audiences.

The World Pension Forum, founded 20 years ago by Philip Schaefer, boasts a strong track record of attracting chief investment officers, board chairs, trustees, fund chief executives and senior investment decision makers to its events. Schaefer will remain as president of the expanded business.

In a statement, Conexus co-founder and chief executive Colin Tate said that both he and Schaefer believe that “challenging long-term institutional investors to think differently and encouraging them to engage globally has the power to make a difference in the world”.

He said that WPF events “help investors connect the dots between their fiduciary responsibility, member returns and risk management for the ultimate betterment of retirees. It will also provide a platform to work with policy makers on addressing the world’s urgent fiscal, environmental and social issues”.

Sponsored Content

WPF’s scholar-in-residence Stephen Kotkin, professor at the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, will continue to be responsible for programming and managing all speakers and content at WPF events.

A statement from Conexus and WPF sets out further details of the partnership.

Leave a Comment

Sort content by

The power of technology: forward looking risk tools

The finance industry is slow in its willingness to innovate around technology, and is behind other industries says Jessica Donohue executive vice president, chief innovation officer and head of advisory and information solutions at State Street. And the cost of that inability, or stubbornness, around technology innovation is not inconsequential. State Street recently released its

AustralianSuper contemplates foreign outposts

Australia’s largest superannuation fund, AustralianSuper, is considering whether it should have its own investment management and currency hedging teams based in Europe and America. Due to the mandatory nature of the system in Australia, the current rate of funds under management growth means assets are doubling every four to five years. Peter Curtis, head of

Stanford dumps coal: why divestment doesn’t work

The decision by the Stanford University endowment to divest from coal stocks might produce some positive PR, but from an investment perspective it’s only making them worse off, says Andrew Ang, professor of finance at Columbia University, who says the move prompts the bigger question of what the purpose of a university endowment actually is.

GPIF continues equities rampage

The giant Japanese pension fund, the Government Pension Investment Fund, continues its quest to move from bonds into equities and shift around 30 per cent of assets, or around $327 billion, out of domestic bonds and short term assets, appointing four new equities managers. The new asset allocation, approved in October last year, sees the

How to use smart beta

While smart beta is a much-talked about concept, implementation is slow. Part of the reluctance of investors is the risk of sustained underperformance, but that can be overcome by matching portfolio liquidity requirements with factor cycle duration. Amanda White speaks to Michael Hunstad, head of quantitative equity research, global equity management, at Northern Trust. Sustained

Liquidity premium escapes UK investors

  UK pension funds have not taking advantage of their comparative advantage as long-term investors and have not earned a positive long-run liquidity premium on their investments, according to a paper from the Cass Business School that examines UK pension funds’ monthly allocations to major asset classes over the period 1987-2012. The authors – David

Previous