Are private credit returns a function of manager skill, or just compensation for illiquidity and risk? Shaun Mullin explores where alpha may arise through differentiated origination and underwriting, and how to distinguish it from leverage or favourable markets. Mullin will discuss how investors can identify genuine alpha generators in a crowded field and assess whether their edge can endure through a full credit cycle.

Private credit has grown in size and visibility, but not all strategies are the same.  In this session, Orla Walsh will explore the enduring fundamentals that have defined direct lending across market cycles, including seniority, contractual income, active portfolio monitoring and downside protection, and discuss its role in helping pension funds build resilient long-term portfolios.

Looking Beyond the Usual Suspects: The Next Wave of Equity Return Drivers
While the rise of AI has reshaped equity markets and rewarded investors with broad benchmark exposure, it has also left portfolios more dependent on a narrower set of return drivers.To complement increasingly concentrated exposures, many long-term investors shift their attention to the structural forces likely to shape the next decade of economic and earnings growth. Electrification stands out as a foundational theme linking AI, energy security, digital infrastructure and industrial transformation. Lukas Ahnert explores what this means for portfolio construction and how investors can broaden sources of return while remaining aligned with long-term objectives and risk budgets.

Pension funds are changing as they grow and consolidate – a trend in Iceland as well as across parts of Europe and beyond. How do boards, management and executives build and develop pension organisations fit for members and for the future? Our speakers all have experience of directing, managing and delivering change at pension funds across Europe, and will share the practical lessons they've learned along the way.

In this session, Tarlock Randwaha explores why global emerging markets may be at an attractive point in the cycle, while offering meaningful valuation discounts versus developed markets. Randwaha will also highlight the potential diversification benefits of investing in EM equities, outlining an evidence-based, systematic investment philosophy, centred on four measurable characteristics – profitability and growth, relative value, earnings revisions, and price momentum – and how this process has been applied over many years by an experienced, closely-aligned team. 

The European equity market is undergoing a transformation, with quality characteristics found in unexpected places. David Moss will explore why in an uncertain environment, capital intensity is a growing barrier to entry and targeted stock selection is essential to identify future winners.

Experienced non-executive board member, academic and author Alfred Slager leads an interactive session simulating a live pension fund board decision process under pressure. Which factors separate boards that decide well from those that don't? Work through live scenarios with peers, and explore what happens when judgement is tested, processes begin to break down, and a board must move from discussion to action. 

In this presentation, Stewart Hogg will explore whether markets have become too focused on trading, benchmarks and short-term price movements, and lost sight of the role shareholders can play in long-term wealth creation. He will argue that the relationship between companies and their owners matters: patient, engaged shareholders can give management teams the confidence to invest, innovate and take sensible risks. Hogg will also question whether the traditional active versus passive debate misses the more important issue of what good ownership looks like, and why that matters for the long-term health of public markets.

As market concentration, AI-driven disruption and shifting leadership reshape global equities, investors face a more complex investment landscape. Steve Smith will explore why passive exposure is not always neutral, where the most durable opportunities may emerge, and how active judgement can help identify long-term winners in an increasingly dispersed market.

Trump’s threat to annexe Greenland has put Arctic security concerns top of mind. The region has always been a NATO stronghold but the current geopolitical environment may mean structural changes. With three weeks to go before the US midterm elections, this session will discuss potential scenarios for the region. 

Icelanders have narrowly voted against entering the EU accession process, reaffirming the country's status outside the bloc. At the same time, geopolitical tensions are rising both in the region and globally, with broad implications for how investors must view the world. Our panel of regional and global specialists will set the threats and opportunities in perspective for institutional investors