MSCI Investment Risk Summit – Europe

Navigating Uncertainty and Building Total Portfolio Resilience 

8:30 a.m. ・ Registration and Networking Breakfast
 

9:15 a.m. ・ Welcome Remarks
Baer Pettit, President, MSCI
 

9:30 a.m. ・ Navigating Uncertainty and Opportunity in an Evolving Risk Landscape
Geopolitical realignments and global trade shifts are redefining capital markets. This session explores how leading institutional investors are rethinking asset allocation—leaning into private credit, alternative assets and sustainability—to manage emerging risks and adapt to a rapidly evolving global order. Learn how strategic innovation is enabling leading firms to reallocate capital with greater agility and purpose amid today’s uncertainty and structural change.

Sonja Laud, Chief Investment Officer, Legal & General Investment Management
Ashley Lester, Chief Research Officer, MSCI

10:15 a.m.・ Intelligence in Action: Operational Agility Across the Investment Workflow
Technology is changing how investors manage complexity across public and private markets. This session explores how AI, data, and platforms are enabling faster reporting, better alignment across teams, and more agile execution across multi-asset class portfolios. We will look at how investment and risk management teams can work together amidst this dynamic environment and we will focus on how a connected and risk-first approach helps firms navigate change with greater clarity, speed, and control.

Moderator:
Jay Dermody, Managing Director, Head of MSCI ONE and AI Products, MSCI

Panellists: 
Jorge Mina, Managing Director, Head of Analytics, MSCI 
 

11:00 a.m.・ Networking Break
 

11:45 a.m.・ Strategic Evolution: Innovation in Investment Strategies
Today’s dynamic investment landscape requires resilient and adaptable investment strategies. Long-term success hinges on embracing integrated frameworks leveraging data, models and technology to align risk and performance. Join us as we explore with experts across risk, asset allocation and quantitative strategies how market participants are refining their approach to stay competitive and create value.

Moderator:
Nick Mihic, Managing Director, Co-Head of EMEA Client Coverage, MSCI

Panellists:
Xavier Barathon, Chief Investment Officer, HSBC Asset Management
Fabiana Fedeli, Chief Investment Officer – Equities, Multi Asset and Sustainability, M&G
Deepak Maharaj, Head of Cross-Asset Quantative Investment Strategies, JP Morgan
Sebastjan Smodis, Global Head of Investment Risk, UBS Asset Management
 

12:30 p.m.・ Morning Wrap-Up
Marthe Nordby, Managing Director, Head of UK & Ireland, MSCI
 

12:40 p.m.・ Networking Lunch
 

2:00 p.m.・ Afternoon Breakouts Group 1

BREAKOUT 1・The Geography of Risk
The drivers of financial risk increasingly intersect with location—whether through geopolitical instability, climate events, supply chain chokepoints, or natural capital dependencies. This session will explore how investors and financial institutions are leveraging spatial intelligence to enhance risk identification, portfolio resilience, and forward-looking scenario planning. 

Join the fireside chat led by Lisa Eichler, Head of Physical Risk and Nature Solutions, to hear from practitioners how integrating location-specific insights into risk frameworks can help market participants explore a more granular, transparent, and decision-useful view of the risks shaping global markets.

Lisa Eichler, Executive Director, Global Product Head of Physical Risk and Nature Solutions, MSCI
​​Kyra Gibhardt​, Executive Director, EMEA Lead, Climate and Nature Solutions Specialist, MSCI
 

BREAKOUT 2・How wealth technology is helping to bridge the gap between central investment teams and their firm's advisors
Advances in technology paired with the growing demands of portfolio personalization are creating evolving dynamics of risk & performance in wealth management. These trends are driving wealth investment teams to change how they construct models, adopt new asset classes, manage & rebalance portfolios, and enable advisory teams with the proper tools for sales enablement. Learn how a modern central investment team is balancing these demands, collaborating with their firm’s client relationship teams, and adopting technology to stay ahead in an evolving industry.

Hassan Suffyan, Executive Director, Head of Wealth Segment, EMEA & APAC, MSCI
 

BREAKOUT 3・Asset Allocation Strategies Across Macroeconomic Regimes
In this session, we will explore two critical perspectives on asset allocation within the context of evolving macroeconomic environments. First, we will discuss how to select investment strategies to focus on, based on a specific set of macroeconomic expectations. Then, we will look at how to assess the anticipated behavior of a given strategy across different macroeconomic regimes.

Lev Soynov, Executive Director, Analytics Product Specialist and Asset Owner Analytics Lead, MSCI
 

3:00 p.m.・ Afternoon Breakouts Group 2

BREAKOUT 1・Risks, Readiness, Opportunities: The MSCI Energy Transition Framework
A tonne of CO2 has the same impact on our climate, regardless of where or how it's released. But when assessing a company's transition risk, not all emissions are created equal. Join this session with Dr. Guido Giese, Global Head Sustainability & Climate Solutions Research, to gain clarity on why transition risks are not directly proportional to companies’ emissions and instead arise from how prepared a company’s business model and technology are for a low-carbon economy, as captured by MSCI’s Energy Transition Framework.  

Explore how this framework can help you build transition-aligned strategies, inform portfolio construction, and support engagement and due diligence efforts with more consistent, transparent, and financially relevant insights. 

Rob Barnett, Vice President, Climate Change Specialist Consultant, MSCI
​Guido Giese, Managing Director, Head of Sustainability & Climate Solutions Research, MSCI
  

BREAKOUT 2・From Data to Decisions: Expanding the Role of LiquidityMetrics
LiquidityMetrics offers a powerful lens into market dynamics, enabling firms to make smarter, faster decisions. This session highlights its diverse applications—from optimizing portfolio liquidation and managing liquidity risk to enhancing stress testing and informing trading strategies. Discover how LiquidityMetrics can support more efficient execution and liquidity-aware decision-making across investment workflows.

Mallikarjun Choudary, Executive Director, Client Coverage, MSCI
 

BREAKOUT 3・Private Credit and Navigating Risk in a Rapidly Growing Market
As private credit continues its rapid expansion, investors face mounting challenges around transparency, valuation, and risk oversight. This session explores how enhanced analytics and intelligence are reshaping the private credit landscape—bringing greater clarity to valuation, liquidity, counterparty exposures, and capital cash flows. Join our panelists as they discuss practical strategies for improving performance efficiency and risk management in this evolving, opaque market, and examine the tools and methodologies that can help investors navigate uncertainty and build more resilient portfolios.

Karim Berichi, Executive Director, Private Assets, MSCI
Nicholas Smith, Managing Director, Private Credit, AIMA
Michael Suchanecki, Head of Private Market Risk, USS Investment Management
 

3:50 p.m.・ Afternoon Breakouts Group 3

BREAKOUT 1・From Complexity to Clarity: New Approaches to Multi-Asset Class Performance Attribution
Explore new approaches to multi-asset class and total portfolio (public and private assets) performance attribution, reflecting the evolving demands of institutional portfolios. Designed for performance teams and portfolio managers, this session will examine ways to streamline workflows, enhance reporting efficiency, and highlight how AI can be applied beyond narrative generation to support deeper performance insights.

Simona Staub, Executive Director, Product Specialist, Fixed Income, MSCI


BREAKOUT 2・Managing Risks in Multi-Factor Indexes
Factor Index investing has experienced huge growth over the past two decades, both in terms of investor awareness and assets tracking factor indexes. Due to the cyclicality of single factors, many investors seek to combine exposure to multiple factors to harness diversification. But despite this approach, many multi-factor indexes have struggled to outperform the broad market over recent years against a backdrop of increasing concentration. In this session we examine the key drivers of recent multi-factor active returns and present enhancements in both signal construction and portfolio construction designed to address these challenges and deliver a more efficient risk / return profile.   

Ben Garland, CFA, Executive Director, Head of Factor Index Product, EMEA, MSCI
Saurabh Katiyar, CFA, Executive Director, Head of Equity Investing Research, EMEA, MSCI

BREAKOUT 3・The Evolving Role of Private Markets in UK and European Portfolios: Balancing Risk and Return
With growing allocations to private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and real estate across the UK and Europe, institutional investors are re-evaluating their portfolio construction, liquidity management, and risk frameworks. This session explores how private markets are reshaping traditional asset allocation models, the implications for portfolio-wide risk, and the tools needed to measure and manage exposures effectively. Panelists will discuss regional market dynamics, valuation and liquidity considerations, and strategies to optimize resilience and returns in a changing economic and regulatory environment.  
 

4:30 p.m.・ Networking Drinks Reception