PROGRAMME

The IPE Conference & Awards comprises in-depth and highly topical debate sessions, featuring inspiring keynotes and practical panels.  With typically 300 top executives from pension providers in attendance, the event brings together influential decision-makers from across Europe.

Monday 02 December

4:30 PM - 6:00 PM

The IPE Investor Forum creates an informal environment where investors can share investment strategy experiences and best practices with peers. We aim to bring together around 15-20 investors to keep the discussion as productive as possible and the meeting is held under the Chatham House Rule.
This session is by invitation only. Please note that this is not a standalone session and you will be required to attend the IPE Conference & Awards to qualify

Tuesday 03 December

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Registration, Coffee and Networking
9:00 AM - 9:40 AM

Investors will have much to contend with in the near and mid-term, as many shifts are underway, including value creation’s shift to private markets, emerging markets adopting investor-friendly reforms and a general move from risk to uncertainty. At the same time, the manager selection process is undergoing a major makeover. How can pension investors use this information to their advantage?
Featuring the 2024 CREATE-Research Asset Owner Survey Results

9:45 AM - 11:30 AM
PLENARY CONFERENCE SESSIONS
Half the world’s population voted in 2024, making it the year with the most elections in the history of democracy. With new leadership in the EU, US, Taiwan and the UK, a world unsettled by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and many other areas of apparent geographical and ideological volatility, investors will want to pay close attention to risks as they emerge.

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Amundi Asset Management
Geopolitical risk is increasingly on the minds of both policymakers and investors. In more and more fragmented emerging markets, however, geopolitics has become a particularly crucial factor to watch. Amundi’s experts explain how they track geopolitical risk and how it can be incorporated into investment decisions.

AXA Investment Managers
The global high yield market has proven to be far more resilient than many expected in recent years, despite enduring periods of higher interest rates and recession fears. But will the resilience of the US leveraged finance market, for example, continue? And what is the best way to unlock value in US credit markets?

LGIM
Emerging market debt offers a fertile environment for skilled active managers to generate strong returns for their clients. A combination of attractive yields and a diverse opportunity set leaves the asset class well placed for 2025. This workshop discusses the outlook and explores the best alpha-generating opportunities.
John Gray - Senior Portfolio Manager, Emerging Markets, LGIM

Lumera
Efficient administration is more crucial than ever in today’s pension landscape. Lumera explores how combining technology and data can enhance accuracy, reliability and cost savings, while improving the customer experience by focusing on three key strategies.
Peter Roos - Chief Commercial Officer, Lumera

Mercer
Two of Mercer's investment leaders and one of Europe's largest asset owners discuss trends across systemic risk management, Artificial Intelligence and 2025 expectations for opportunities and governance. Mercer delves into some of the key topics for European investors.

Northern Trust Asset Management
As the demand for carbon neutrality by 2050 intensifies, pension funds face increasing pressure to align their portfolios with net-zero goals while safeguarding their long-term financial stability. However, many institutional investors may hold misconceptions regarding the implementation and impact of these strategies.
Valeria Dynershtein - Director of Sustainable Investing Client Engagement, EMEA, Northern Trust Asset Management

Solas Capital
Are you looking to get your portfolio to net zero while seeking to diversify risk, ensure predictable cashflows and long-term liability matching? Join the founders of this energy efficiency financing specialist to learn about the important role of energy efficiency in reaching our climate goals.
Sebastian Carneiro - Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Solas Capital
Paul Kearney - Partner and Co-Founder, Solas Capital

12:25 PM - 1:25 PM
Lunch and Networking
12:25 PM - 1:25 PM

The Trust, which offers financial support to young researchers in the pensions industry, hosts its annual research showcase lunch

1:25 PM - 2:10 PM
PLENARY CONFERENCE SESSION

Leaders of Europe’s largest pension funds join a discussion about where they will be investing their money in 2025
Salwa Boussoukaya-Nasr - Executive Director, FRR
Barry Kenneth - Chief Investment Officer, Pension Protection Fund

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Bloomberg
Over the past few years there has been an increased focus on the role of index strategies in creating levers for institutional investors to use in their mission to achieve impact in their investment strategies and approach. Bloomberg undertakes a deep dive into these different levers.
Zarina Nassib - Senior Product Manager, Sustainable Investment, Bloomberg

Federated Hermes
As the US Federal Reserve continues to ease and the yield curve normalises, fixed income investors globally are re-evaluating their strategic asset allocation in this asset class. Federated Hermes lays out the case for increasing emerging market debt within fixed income portfolios.
Mohammed Elmi - Executive Director and Senior Emerging Market Debt Portfolio Manager, Federated Hermes

Franklin Templeton Investments
The forces identified as Deep Waves - geopolitics, debt, technology, and demographics - are accelerating, exerting greater influence on country risk assessment and strategic decision-making. Franklin Templeton's ongoing Deep Water Waves series delves into how these forces are reshaping the global landscape.

Ninety One
The risks associated with lending to companies in emerging markets are often overestimated, and the opportunities they present are easy to overlook. This session explains – across a variety of metrics – how companies in emerging markets stack up favourably against their developed market peers.
Alan Siow - Co-Head of Global Emerging Markets Corporate Debt, Ninety One

Prudential Financial, Inc (PFI)
Recent years have seen sustained record levels of pension de-risking in both the United Kingdom and United States. In 2023 alone, those two countries transacted nearly $110bn in risk transfer deals, while pension reform in the Netherlands will result in opportunities for pension schemes to de-risk.

Royal London Asset Management
The surge of interest in private markets over recent years has made many investors cynical about the value available. While some areas have now become commoditised and offer low value considering their illiquidity, there are still a wide variety of new markets and assets becoming available.

Theta Capital Management
Blockchain networks are a new type of protocol, adding a verification and settlement layer to the internet which will allow seamless and secure transactions between parties. Blockchain networks unlock a true online, decentralised and frictionless global economy boosted by major cost efficiencies.
Ruud Smets - Chief Investment Officer, Theta Capital Management
John van Marle - Managing Partner, Theta Capital Management
Jeroen Tielman - Head, Institutional Relations, Theta Capital Management

Xtrackers by DWS
After the underperformance of ESG investments in the bear market of 2022, ESG detractors appeared to ignore the latest regulatory and policy overdrive, aiming to improve existing standards and elevate ESG as a compensated risk factor in investment portfolios.

3:05 PM - 3:35 PM
Coffee and Networking Break
3:35 PM - 4:20 PM
AFTERNOON FORUMS

Forum Two

The nascent interest-rate easing cycle, combined with the upcoming developments in banking regulation, will drive the supply of private credit further. Appetite for this asset class keeps growing among institutional investors, but how can they ensure they are making the right investment choices and protect their portfolios from both idiosyncratic and systemic risk?

Forum Three

Whether or not they have set net-zero targets, many asset owners want their responsible investment approaches to make a difference in the real economy. The dominant narrative has been that asset owners must not divest but instead roll up their sleeves and push carbon-intensive companies to change. But CO2 is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than ever before, according to the World Meteorological Organisation. There has been a wave of fossil fuel divestment in the past year, and investor groups are increasingly discussing engagement with sovereigns, and lobbying policymakers as a way of driving the change that is still outstanding. Do we need to talk about and do engagement differently? 

4:20 PM - 5:25 PM
PLENARY CONFERENCE SESSIONS

An interdisciplinary session on current and future challenges for institutional investors, discussing the topics of future of work, changes in demography, immigration and longevity.

6:30 PM - 11:00 PM
IPE EUROPEAN PENSION FUND AWARDS 2024

Join us at the elegant Žofín Palace for a drinks reception followed by the Awards Dinner & Ceremony where we reveal the winners and highly commended pension funds of this year’s IPE European Pension Fund Awards.
Interested in entering? Please contact Alice O'Brien at alice.abrien@ipe.com

Wednesday 04 December

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Young Professionals Roundtable

An opportunity for young industry specialists up to the age of 40 from the investment community across Europe to exchange ideas on a range of topics, including how a younger perspective provides a diversity of thought and encourages long-termism, why our industry suits younger people and how some of today’s most pressing challenges, including the climate and biodiversity emergencies, are calling out for new thinking.
If you are eligible, please select the appropriate response during the registration process or contact the IPE Events Team at events.team@ipe.com
Please note that this is not a standalone session and you will be required to attend the IPE Conference & Awards to qualify.