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Join Isio and your peers for an insightful afternoon where industry experts, who dare to think differently, share new perspectives on the ever evolving world of investments.

Whether you are running a defined benefit or defined contribution pension scheme, managing an endowment, or a family office, the Isio Investment Conference should be of interest to you.

We have an exciting agenda lined up for the afternoon covering new innovative investment strategies, societal impacts, and tomorrow’s key asset classes. Beyond the conference agenda you will get the opportunity to network with like-minded professionals, leaving with clear actions and gaining additional CPD points.

Registration and networking lunch

12:00 – 13:00

Welcome and Introductions

13:00 – 13:10

Emily McGuire, Head of Investment Advisory, Isio

Andrew Coles, CEO, Isio

Investment strategy for now

13:10 – 13:40

Some new ways of thinking about the big investment challenges of today

Barry Jones, Chief Investment Officer, Isio
Barry is the Chief Investment Officer at Isio with responsibility to drive the firm’s strategic agenda. He is a qualified actuary with over 20 years’ experience in UK pension scheme risk management.

Thinking differently about thinking

13:40 – 14:00

How a mindful approach can help make better teams and teams make better decisions.

David Butcher, Founder of Mindful Pensions,
Fully accredited trustee for The People’s Pension and Scottish Widows Master Trusts
David Butcher has been in pensions for more than 40 years, holding senior positions in companies like; Invesco, Credit Lyonnais and Flemings. Bringing mindfulness to the pensions industry, David now dedicates himself to helping as many people as possible with this approach.

Breakouts

14:10- 14:35

In the breakout sessions, we highlight the best of our research initiatives across private credit, real assets and private markets in general. These interactive sessions will cover our latest thinking in the above areas and implications for various client types. Beyond investment ideas, we will also be covering the topic of investment governance in one of our break out sessions.

Ajith Nair, Head of Asset Class and Manager Research, Isio

Ajith is responsible for developing and implementing Isio’s asset class and manager research agenda. He is CFA charter holder with more than 21 years of global experience across asset management and investment consulting.

Navigating the Private Debt Market – Strategies for Buying and Selling

We explore the evolution of private debt, an asset class that has flourished in the wake of regulatory financial shifts post Global Financial Crisis. Join us as we scrutinise its continuing evolution, appraise the role it can play in a portfolio and the liquidity choices available for investors seeking an exit.

Sarban Hoonjan, Private Debt Specialist, Isio
Sarban is a member of the research team at Isio with a focus on private markets, particularly private debt and secondaries. His role also involves developing liquidity solutions for investors with illiquid asset holdings and providing investment advice to Defined Benefit Pension Scheme clients. Sarban is a CFA Charterholder.

Tom Wilson, Head of Credit Research, Isio
Tom specialises in the research of new investment ideas and monitoring of credit funds and managers across both public fixed income and private credit. Alongside his research responsibilities, Tom also provides investment advice to Defined Benefit Pension Scheme clients. Tom is a CFA Charterholder.

Natural Capital – Past, Present, Future

The focus of this session is Natural Capital and why we think it is an attractive opportunity today from both an investment and sustainability perspective. We will discuss the history of the asset class, the evolution of the market, and where we believe the opportunities will be in the future.

Andrew Singh, Head of Public Sector Investment Advisory, Isio
Andrew is responsible for supporting Isio’s LGPS clients in all aspects of their investment arrangements and delivering best in class research across infrastructure, real estate and natural capital.  He is a CFA Charterholder with over 15 years’ experience in the industry.

Iseabail Rioch, Deputy Head of Real Assets Research, Isio
Iseabail is an Investment Research Analyst covering Real Assets, Equity and Credit research. She has over 5 years’ of industry experience and is highly committed to driving Isio’s investment research agenda.

Georgia Lewis, Sustainable Investment Consultant, Isio
Georgia is part of Isio’s Sustainable Investments team, working on broad client advice including TCFD reporting for a number of large DB, DC Mastertrust and LGPS schemes, as well as deep-dive client research projects. She also contributes to Isio’s manager and fund research, with a focus across climate, nature and social factors. Georgia is a CFA Charterholder and has 5 years of industry experience.

Private Markets and DC – Square peq in a square hole?

Following TPR’s guidance urging DC scheme trustees to consider adopting illiquid investments, we’ve witnessed a surge in ingenuity concerning new product development and access methods. This session focuses on how trustees can effectively integrate private markets into the DC scheme’s overall strategy.

Neil Otty, Head of Multi-Asset Research, Isio
Neil leads Multi-Asset research at Isio. Recently this has involved looking at a number of illiquid strategies and how they could fit within DC Scheme’s. Neil was also part of the pensions industry working group convened by the Bank of England, the FCA and HM Treasury looking at key considerations and risks around investment in less liquid assets.

Helyne Slade, Head of DC Investment, Isio
Helyne is Head of DC Investment and has 19 years of investment experience. She supports clients with reviewing the suitability of default and self-select arrangements for DC pension schemes. On a day-to-day basis, this includes investment strategy reviews, monitoring of fund performance, advice on making changes and advice for selecting new funds or default strategies. For many clients, alongside her specialist asset transition colleagues, Helyne also provide support and oversight with transitioning assets between funds and providers.

Investment governance – Welcome to the continuum

Making effective investment decisions is intimately linked to making sure the right parties are doing the right things. With more organisations offering more investment services for pension schemes, defined benefit pension trustees have more options than ever – where should you place yourself on this continuum of governance options for optimal results?

Paula Champion, Head of Fiduciary Management Oversight, Isio
Paula Champion is Head of the Fiduciary advice team and a Partner within our investment advisory practice. She has over 24 years of experience working in the pensions industry and has an unrivalled knowledge of different investment governance structures and practically how best to implement them.

Anthony Webb, Associate Director, Isio
Anthony is an Associate Director and Head of Clients in our fiduciary advisory team. He has experience in advising pension schemes and endowments on investment governance and implementation – ranging from a few million to a few billion pounds in size. Anthony is FIA qualified with 20 years industry experience.

Break

14:35 – 15:00

Climapocalypse or Climatopia – Building effective climate-aware strategies

15:00 – 15:30

There are clear uncertainties as to what climate pathways we may follow and what this means to investors. In this session, we will bring to life a ‘realistic’ climate scenario and consider what this means for investor portfolios

Mark Irish, Sustainable Investment Consultant, Isio
Mark is Isio’s Deputy Head of Sustainable Investment where he leads on SI client delivery. Mark is responsible for engaging with clients on all things SI, particularly on climate-related reporting. Mark leads on SI advice for a number of large schemes (DB, DC and LGPS) where he provides regular climate/net zero advice. Mark joined Isio in 2020, holds the CFA and CAIA qualifications and has 7 years of industry experience.


Beatrice Smorto, Sustainable Investment Consultant, Isio
Beatrice focuses on producing thought pieces on sustainable finance, conducting manager and fund research within the industry, and contributing to ESG client advice for institutional investors. Prior to joining Isio, Beatrice advised investee companies and private equity firms on sustainable strategies. She holds a degree in sustainable economic development from LSE.

Keynote address – Notes From Beyond The Horizon

15:30 – 16:30

Monty Halls, Keynote Speaker
Monty Halls explores organisations and cultures that have successfully tackled change, and have learned to adapt, evolve, and overcome uncertainty to ultimately prevail. Based on his experiences as a Royal Marine, expedition leader, and wildlife film-maker, this talk reveals the recurring factors that define success or failure in a changing world.

Closing remarks

16:30 – 16:40

Emily McGuire, Head of Investment Advisory, Isio

Networking reception

16:40 – 18:00