Registration

Welcome Remarks

Laurent Seyer, Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Client Officer, MSCI

June Kim, Director of Global Equity, CalSTRS

The Investment Firm of the Future - Business Models and Strategies for a More Forward-Thinking Industry

Roger Urwin, Advisory Director, MSCI

Based on a survey of over 2,500 investment management professionals, the report builds on foundational research from an earlier study, “Future State of the Investment Profession,” and prescribes the shifts investment firms will need to make to ensure survival and success over the next decade.

PANEL: The Future of Active Management

Presenter: Peter Zangari, PhD, Managing Director & Global Head of Research and Product Development, MSCI
Moderator: Jeremy Baskin, Managing Director & Head of Americas Client Coverage in Americas, MSCI
Panelists:
Nelson Ramos Da Conceicao, CFA, FRM Investment Manager, CalPERS
Andy Hunt, FIA, CFA, Co-head of Global Fixed Income and head of liability-driven investing and Global Credit, Wells Fargo Asset Management
Jeff Shen, PhD, Managing Director, Co-CIO of Active Equity and Co-Head of Systematic Active Equity, BlackRock
James Barber, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Equities, Investment Division, Russell Investments

Active managers are increasingly being affected by evolutions and disruptions in the investment process. Global investing, factor investing, ESG integration, big data and machine learning all have the potential to reshape the investment industry. How active managers take advantage of the new tools available to enhance their processes will be key to their ongoing success.

PANEL: New Dimensions to Measuring & Monitoring Managers Across Asset Classes

Moderator: Raina Oberoi, Executive Director & Head of Equity Solutions Research - Americas, MSCI
Panelists:
Guillermo Cano, Executive Director, Equity Solutions, MSCI
Luis O'Shea, Head of Applied Research, Burgiss
Anthony Breault, Senior Real Estate Investment Officer, Office of the Oregon State Treasurer

Benchmarks have evolved over the decades to better reflect the investment strategies of asset managers. Indexes transformed from a security sampling approach to a comprehensive universe including all investable market caps; style benchmarks expanded from growth or value to today’s factor and ESG variants, fine-tuned to specific manager strategies. More recently, alternative asset classes such as private real estate, infrastructure and currency have also seen more representative benchmarks come to market. This panel discussion will highlight the latest in how better-aligned benchmarks can be used to illustrate the value add of active management and serve as an effective measurement of risk.

PANEL: From Hedge Funds to Market Cap: Redefining the Meaning of Active Investing

Presenter: George Bonne, PhD, PRM, Executive Director, Equity Factor Research, MSCI
Moderator: Mark Carver, Executive Director & Global Head of Factor Index Products, MSCI
Panelists:
Doug MacBean, Managing Director, Public and Alternative Securities, Caltech
Mike Sebastian, Global Chief Investment Officer, Aon Hewitt
Michael Viteri, Senior Public Equity Investment Officer, Oregon State Treasury

Advances in technology, data and analytics models have democratized alpha-producing investments. Strategies once available only through higher cost active managers can be replicated today through relatively lower cost systematic models. This panel explores how leading asset owners and consultants are differentiating between active versus passive and insourced versus outsourced, highlighting the wide-ranging impact on portfolio construction and manager selection.

Executive Interview: Building Value Through Strategic Partnerships

Henry Fernandez, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, MSCI
Russell Read, PhD, Managing Director & Global Head of Client Solutions, MSCI

Closing Remarks

Diana Tidd, Managing Director, Head of Index, MSCI

Registration

Welcome Remarks

Eric Baggessen, CFA, Managing Investment Director, Trust Level Portfolio Management, CalPERS

KEYNOTE - Rethinking Alternative Data in Institutional Investment

Ashby Monk, PhD, Executive and Research Director, Stanford Global Projects Center

As alternative data steadily become mainstream in finance, institutional investors may benefit from rethinking how they engage with alternative datasets. Specifically, they could gain from rethinking alternative data’s value proposition, how they characterize alternative data and how they access alternative data. Rethinking their approaches to alternative data in these ways can help investors select alternative datasets that better align with their organizational resources and contexts. We argue that such rethinking offers the largest advantage when it focuses on building defensive and defensible strategies around alternative data, rather than prioritizing quicker exploitation of short-lived opportunities. Rethinking alternative data will require institutional investors to investigate new partnering possibilities, which should help them weather (and even thrive during) the escalating arms race among financial market participants for alternative data. Building capacity for alternative data in these ways could also help Investors accelerate innovation.

PANEL: Disruptive Technologies in Finance

Presenter: Peter Shepard, PhD, Managing Director & Head of Fixed Income, Multi-Asset Class & Real Estate Research, MSCI
Panelists:
Stephen Backholm, Director of Innovation & Technology, Washington State Investment Board
Ashby Monk, PhD, Executive and Research Director, Stanford Global Projects Center     
Trent Walker, PhD, Managing Director & Head of Application Development, MSCI
Kevin Farrelly, Vice President of Investment Data Science Strategy - Fixed Income, Franklin Templeton  

Are big data and machine learning leading to a revolution in the asset management industry? How are investment firms adapting to newer technologies and increasing use of data and analytics? Are we seeing the convergence of quantitative and fundamental investing? New research from MSCI and insights from leading industry practitioners will tackle several key questions related to disruptive technologies and investment management.

PANEL: Incorporating ESG Data into Scenario Analysis and Stock Selection

Presenter: Laura Nishikawa,CFA, Executive Director & ESG Research Director, MSCI
Panelists:
Remy Briand, Managing Director & Head of ESG, MSCI
Herman Bril, Director, UNJSPF
Tariq Fancy, Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer of Sustainable Investing, BlackRock

Alternative data is defined as any data used to obtain insight into the investment process outside of the traditional financial statements and information sources. Leading investment professionals have embraced ESG, not as just as an exercise in values alignment, but rather as a source of new data sets that provide insight for long term return generation and risk management. We will profile multiple use cases in which ESG data is used to better inform stock selection, manage risk and guide asset allocation decisions through long-term scenario analysis.

PANEL: The Global Financial Crisis: Ten Years On

Moderator: Peter Shepard, PhD, Managing Director & Head of Fixed Income, Multi-Asset Class & Real Estate Research, MSCI
Panelists:
Peter Zangari, PhD, Managing Director & Global Head of Research and Product Development, MSCI
Miles Draycott, Chief Risk Officer, NYC Comptroller’s Bureau of Asset Management
Dianne Sandoval, CFA, Investment Manager & Senior Member of the Trust Level Portfolio Management, CalPERS

The global financial crisis of 2008 fundamentally changed global markets. Its impact on investors cannot be overstated. In this panel we share reflections from leading MSCI researchers and industry experts discussing what we learned about risk and markets and where they see the investment world heading over the next 10 years.

Closing Remarks

Dorsey Barnett Horowitz, Managing Director & Head of Asset Owner and Consultant Coverage, Americas, MSCI