Speakers
Erika Cheung
Erika Cheung is the Executive Director of Ethics in Entrepreneurship, a non-profit organization with the mission to embed ethical questioning, culture, and systems in start-up ecosystems worldwide.
Erika began her career working as a medical researcher in the biotechnology industry and is most famously known for being a key whistle-blower reporting the medical-diagnostic company Theranos to health regulators.
Erika went on to help launch a technology accelerator in Hong Kong supporting early-stage technology investments across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. She continues to advise and support the development of biotechnology and healthcare initiatives across the APAC region.
Matteo Rizzi
Matteo Rizzi is an unconventional entrepreneur with two decades of experience in Financial Services, constantly referred amongst the top executives in the industry.
He spent 13 years at SWIFT - where he co-founded Innotribe, the innovation arm of the cooperative, launching the first global startup challenge. Since 2013, he has a FinTech Investor and/or Venture Partner role with global VCs and CVCs (20+ deals, 5 exits). In 2015, he co-founded FinTechStage (now FTSGroup.eu) - a platform for Investors and Innovators to boost FinTech innovation globally. In 2019, Matteo founded Timepledge.org a global initiative to foster financial inclusion and entrepreneurship.
The same year he launched Breaking Banks Europe (as the Executive Producer). He is the author of "The FinTech Revolution" and "Talents & Rebels" and is fluent in 5 languages.
Workshops
Workshops
Apollo Clean Transition Equity ELTIF
Apollo Clean Transition Equity Partners is the Firm’s dedicated energy transition and decarbonization private equity fund. The fund will provide capital that supports both the mitigation of climate change and its effects as well as climate resilience and adaptation while seeking to generate attractive risk-adjusted rates of return across market cycles. ELTIF is an innovative fund structure which is ELTIF 2.0 compliant, targets 11-15% net return, and is classified by the Manager as SFDR Article 8.
Workshop Objective: Discussing what makes Apollo different from others in their sector. Will provide an overview of ACT Equity and the Apollo platform.
Company Profile: Apollo is a high-growth, global alternative asset manager. In our asset management business, we seek to provide our clients excess return at every point along the risk-reward spectrum from investment grade to private equity with a focus on three investing strategies: yield, hybrid, and equity. For more than three decades, our investing expertise across our fully integrated platform has served the financial return needs of our clients and provided businesses with innovative capital solutions for growth. Through Athene, our retirement services business, we specialize in helping clients achieve financial security by providing a suite of retirement savings products and acting as a solutions provider to institutions. Our patient, creative, and knowledgeable approach to investing aligns our clients, businesses we invest in, our employees, and the communities we impact, to expand opportunity and achieve positive outcomes. As of June 30, 2022, Apollo had approximately $515 billion of assets under management. To learn more, please visit www.apollo.com.
Speakers
Vittorio Lacagnina
Partner
Vittorio Lacagnina is a Partner in the Institutional Client & Product Solutions group at Apollo where he leads capital formation for Sustainability & Infrastructure.
Prior to joining Apollo in 2022, Vittorio was Managing Director & Head of Business Development, Private Infrastructure at Partners Group.
Vittorio has over 25 years of industry experience across a variety of senior investment, advisory and capital formation roles. Vittorio began his career in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs where he acquired relevant transaction and coverage expertise across the Americas and Europe.
Vittorio graduated with a first-class BA (Hons) in international business from the European Business School, London.
Vittorio is a Member of the Board of Governors of Ocean Exchange (https://www.oceanexchange.org/), whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions for healthy oceans and a sustainable blue economy. He is also a supporter of Glasswing International (https://glasswing.org/) involved in Positive Youth Development, Community Empowerment and Emergency & Trauma-Informed Care in Central America.
Representatives
Véronique Fournier
Véronique Fournier joined Apollo in 2022 as the Head of EMEA Wealth Distribution on the Global Wealth Management Solutions team in the Geneva office. Prior to joining Apollo, Véronique spent 8 years at Barings, most recently as Managing Director and Co-Head of European Distribution She has previously held various sales-related roles at Schroder Investment Management, Aviva Investors, and InterSec Research.
Véronique graduated from The London School of Economics and Political Science with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and earned a Master of Arts in International Economics from the University of Essex.
Yolanda Camino
Exploring the opportunities in European Direct Lending
Interest in European Direct Lending has increased substantially in the last 12 months. Retrenchment by traditional lenders has left a significant void that asset managers have filled to provide corporates with a stable source of capital. As one of the leading Direct Lenders in Europe, Ares is ideally placed to provide insight into the key drivers within the asset class and where we see the most attractive risk-adjusted opportunities.
Workshop Objectives: Gain insight into the key drivers within the private credit market and the opportunities that exist for investors in European direct lending.
Company Profile: Ares Wealth Management Solutions’ mission is to provide advisors and their clients access to innovative, solutions-oriented investment opportunities, across the Ares platform of industry-leading credit, private equity, real estate and secondaries strategies. Through our range of institutional and retail structures, coupled with excellent client service and educational resources, we help investors diversify their portfolios with private market solutions that seek to deliver consistent, long-term growth.
Speakers
Daniel Sinclair
Partner, Ares Credit Group
Mr. Sinclair is a Partner in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on European direct lending. Additionally, Mr. Sinclair is a member of the Ares Credit Group's European Direct Lending Investment Committee. Prior to joining Ares in 2007, Mr. Sinclair was an Associate Director in the Financial Sponsors Group at Barclays, where he focused on originating and transacting mid-market leveraged financings. Previously, Mr. Sinclair was part of the Marks & Spencer graduate program, where he focused on finance, undertaking roles in procurement, marketing and corporate finance. Mr. Sinclair holds a diploma from Leicester University in Management and an M.B.A., with merit, from Imperial College London.
Representatives
Nick Votier
EMEA Distribution – Ares Wealth Management Solutions
Mr. Votier is a Senior Associate within Ares Wealth Management Solutions, which oversees Ares' client management activities in the global wealth channel. Prior to joining Ares in 2023, Mr. Votier was an Associate Director at HSBC Asset Management, where he focused on investor relations activities for the business' alternative investment capabilities, including infrastructure debt, private credit, private equity and venture capital. Mr. Votier holds a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Bristol in Economics. Mr. Votier is a CFA Charterholder.
Emmanuel Badiambile
EMEA Distribution – Ares Wealth Management Solutions
Mr. Badiambile is an Associate within Ares Wealth Management Solutions, which oversees Ares' client management activities in the global wealth channel. Prior to joining Ares in 2023, Mr. Badiambile was an Analyst at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, where he focused on delivering tailored cross-asset investment advice to UHNW individuals, family offices, endowments, and foundations clients. Mr. Badiambile holds a MSc. from Neoma Business School.
Climate transition opportunities in real assets
We will cover some of the macroeconomic themes and megatrends we’ve seen in the real assets universe, as well as how we view investment opportunities in the climate transition space through our Climate Transition Real Assets Fund. We will touch on the multi-asset approach the fund takes through investing across infrastructure, real estate, nature-based solutions and private equity. We will also provide an overview of the investment philosophy and how investment decisions are made before discussing some of the assets in the portfolio.
Workshop Objectives: The workshop objective is to provide insight on the diversification and return benefits a multi-asset investment approach can bring to a portfolio focused on climate transition.
Company Profile: Aviva Investors is a global asset manager with over £218 bn of AUM managed in real asset, fixed income, equity, multi-asset and alternative investments in 12 countries. Our clients can benefit not only from our significant local knowledge and experience, but also from the extensive global investment resources at our disposal. Responsibility is incorporated at all levels of our organization: understanding the factors, risks and opportunities in ESG helps us to be better investors and delivering the investment results our clients expect.
The value of an investment is subject to increases and decreases. Investors may not recover the amount originally invested.
* Data as at 30 September 2023
Speakers
Ria Shah
Investment Director, Infrastructure Equity
Ria is an Investment Director with a core remit to commercialise and grow the Infrastructure Equity business. Ria’s primary focus is to scale the co-mingled fund offering and develop strategic partnerships with global investors.
Ria has over 10 years’ experience in infrastructure equity fund management and capital raising in the UK and Europe. Prior to joining Aviva Investors, Ria was a Vice President in the Investor Relations team at DWS Infrastructure. Ria has also worked in Pantheon’s Infrastructure investment team, focusing on secondary and co-investment transactions.
Ria has a BSc in Economics from Queen Mary, University of London.
Representatives
Oskar Geldof
Head of Benelux, Branch manager
Oskar is Head of Institutional Business Development in Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg at Aviva Investors.
Oskar has over 20 years’ experience in the financial industry. He joins after a decade at Fidelity International where he was most recently Head of Institutional Sales (Public and Private Markets) for the Netherlands. Prior to this, Oskar held senior sales roles in asset management and investment banking in London, New York and BeNeLux.
The Role of Evergreen Funds in Private Equity: EQT Nexus
Welcome to the world of EQT Nexus, offering investors access to a well-diversified portfolio of EQT’s global private markets funds and co-investments, via one single investment and with only one layer of fees.
Monthly subscriptions and quarterly redemptions provide semi liquidity.The fund targets net annual returns of 12-15% NAV
Workshop Objectives:
● Introduce EQT
● Role of Evergreen Funds in PE
● Introduce EQT Nexus, EQT’s evergreen Fund
Company Profile: EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organisation focused on active ownership strategies. EQT has a track record of almost three
decades of delivering consistent and attractive returns across multiple geographies, sectors and strategies. Uniquely, EQT is the only large private markets firm with investment strategies covering all phases of a business’ development, from start-up to maturity. EQT has more than EUR 225 billion across 45+ active funds within three business segments – Private Capital, BPEA EQT and Real Assets.
Speakers
Kirsty Acton
Director
Kirsty Acton joined EQT Partners in May 2022 and is a Director in the Client Relations & Capital Raising Team, responsible for EMEA Private Wealth.
Kirsty has over 13 years of experience in fundraising and investor relations. She previously founded her own FCA regulated placement business, KA Advisers Ltd which raised capital across all private market strategies (private equity, real estate, infrastructure and debt) for blue-chip global banks, leading global private equity GPs and entrepreneurs, and allowed Kirsty to grow her extensive network of UK and European single and multi-family offices. Prior to that she worked for Partners Group and a multi-family office.
Kirsty holds the IMC and has a 2:1 BA hons in English Literature from the University of Warwick.
Philip Heeroma
Director
Philip Heeroma joined EQT in May 2023 and is a Director on the EMEA Private Wealth Capital Raising Team, based in Stockholm.
Prior to his current role, Philip led Wealth Partnerships for Moonfare in the Nordic region, responsible for bringing the firm's curated fund selection, structuring and technology capabilities to family offices, private banks and wealth managers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Mr Heeroma joined Moonfare from BlackRock in 2022 where he spent 8 years across a number of roles in the Nordic region, most recently as Head of Wealth leading the team responsible for delivering BlackRock's full suite of investment and technology solutions to banks, private banks, wealth managers, unit-linked and digital distribution platforms based in the region.
Philip started his career with EFG Bank in Switzerland in 2012 and holds a BSc in International Hospitality Management from Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne.
Edwin van den Broek CFP®
Edwin van den Broek is a Senior Equity Trader in the EQT Life Sciences team. Edwin worked for LSP from 2015 until 2022, when LSP joined forces with EQT and was renamed EQT Life Sciences.
Prior to joining LSP, Edwin worked as a Senior Equity Trader at RBS/ABNAMRO Global Banking and Markets in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Prior to RBS/ABNAMRO, Edwin was part of the equity trading/sales trading team at Bankhaus Metzler in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Edwin holds an CFP® Certified Financial Planner Degree and is registered as a DSI certified Securities Trader and DSI certified Investment Advisor.
Accessing European Credit
Akua Gilfillian, Vice President - Alternatives Capital Formation, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, will discuss the opportunity set and outlook for private credit, the advent of semi-liquid funds and Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s European Credit platform.
Workshop Objectives: The workshop objectives are to highlight private credit opportunities and risks in today’s landscape and to provide actionable insights on how investors can gain access to high-quality private credit.
Company Profile: Bringing together traditional and alternative investments, Goldman Sachs Asset Management provides clients around the world with a dedicated partnership and focus on long-term performance.
As the primary investing area within Goldman Sachs, we deliver investment and advisory services for the world’s leading institutions, financial advisors and individuals, drawing from our deeply connected global network and tailored expert insights, across every region and market.
Speakers
Akua Gilfillian
Executive Director, Goldman Sachs Asset & Wealth Management
Akua is an Executive Director in the Client Solutions Group, specialising in Private Credit fundraising within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 2023, Akua worked within the Investor Relations team at Permira Credit for five years. Before that, Akua spent three years at Pantheon Ventures, focused on portfolio strategy across fund of fund portfolios.
Akua earned a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from The University of Edinburgh in 2015.
Representatives
Edwin Rietkerk
Asset & Wealth Management
Edwin is a managing director in the Client Solutions Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, serving as head of the Third Party Wealth channel for the BeNelux region. He also serves as chair of Goldman Sachs Asset Management BE in Belgium. Edwin was named managing director in 2022 as part of Goldman Sachs' acquisition of NN Investment Partners (NN IP).
Prior to joining the firm, Edwin worked at NN IP since 2017 as head of Global Marketing and Distribution for the BeNelux region. Before that, he worked for Robeco and held several roles, including global head of Marketing and Dutch Direct Retail, co-chief executive officer of Canara Robeco and senior commercial roles in the direct retail business. Edwin has worked in the asset management industry since 2002.
Edwin earned a Master of Science in Business Administration from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in 1996.
Didier Devreese
Executive Director
Semi-liquid opportunities in Alternatives
The landscape for alternative investments is changing quickly for Financial Intermediaries and Multi Family Offices with many of the traditional “barriers to entry” removed. In this presentation we will explore the role that semi-liquid offerings can play in a client portfolio focusing on two asset classes – Hedge Funds and Private Debt. We will explore:
• The case for each asset class
• Why use a semi-liquid approach?
• The potential benefits of implementing allocations via diversified, multi-manager solutions offered by Mercer.
Workshop Objective: The workshop will provide an understanding of semi-liquid Private Debt and Hedge Funds, the case for allocations in the current environment and the potential benefits of a multi-manager approach.
Company Profile: Mercer offer a range of innovative tools and solutions that suit the needs of wealth managers, family offices and financial intermediaries no matter where you are in your business cycle.
We designed our investment solutions platform around the needs of wealth managers and other financial intermediaries of all sizes.
It offers institutional-quality tools that support wealth managers as they make key decisions, such as setting investment strategy and asset allocation, conducting manager research, and running day-to-day investment operations.
Using these systems, and with support from our world-class research team, we have grown to be the largest investment solutions provider by assets in the world*, managing more than $379 billion assets under delegated management.**
* As defined in CIO magazine’s 2022 Outsourced CIO Buyer’s Guide Survey, worldwide discretionary AUM as of 31.12.2022 as reported by each firm to ai-CIO.
**Mercer, September 30, 2023. In providing OCIO investment solutions, Mercer typically exercises investment discretion by hiring and overseeing third party asset managers on behalf of client portfolios. Global OCIO assets data is primarily but not exclusively discretionary mandates.
Speakers
Conor Power
Regional Commercial Leader, Financial Institutions Group & NFP
Conor is a principal within Mercer’s Investment business responsible for delivering Investment Solutions for Financial Institutions and Not for Profit investors in Northern and Southern Europe. Through his role, Conor is responsible for leveraging Mercer’s extensive intellectual capital and implementation capabilities to deliver best in class investment solutions to large, sophisticated Institutional clients via Mercer's open architecture platform.
Prior to joining Mercer, Conor was a consultant with Carne Group focused on governance solutions, product development and cross boarder distribution across traditional and alternative asset classes.
Conor is a CAIA Charterholder and holds a Masters in Financial Services Law from Trinity College and Bachelor of Law from University College Dublin.
Representatives
Michel Meert
Senior Investment Consultant
Michel has started his career as equity analyst and portfolio manager and quickly enlarged his investment skills to other asset classes and to asset allocation. He served as CIO at AXA Investment Managers in The Hague and was CIO and Managing director of Kredietrust (KBC group) in Luxembourg. In 2008 he became senior investment consultant at Watson Wyatt/Towers Watson and continued this activity at PwC in London. After three years in a global role at HSBC Global Asset Management in London, he joined Barnett Waddingham as Head of Investment advisory to Family offices, Endowments and Foundations and prior to joining Mercer, he worked also briefly as Program Manager Family Solutions at Van Lanschot kempen in Belgium.
Michel’s role at Mercer is to further develop the client base of Endowments, Foundations and family offices in Europe and deliver to those clients with both advisory as well as delegated solutions. He has extensive experience in advising long term asset owners with their investment arrangements, especially regarding investment governance, asset allocation, portfolio construction and sustainability.
He studied Applied Economics at the universities of Namur(FNDP) and Leuven (KUL) in Belgium and holds a certificate in Financial Analysis.
Edward Richardson
Alternatives Investment Director
Edward Richardson is an Alternatives Investment Director based in London. He leads discussions with Mercer’s clients on their asset allocation, portfolio construction and manager selection decisions across both private markets and hedge funds.
He started his career as an investment consultant, offering institutional investment advice to a range of different clients, particularly DB and DC pension schemes. He moved to specialize in alternatives portfolio management in 2016.
He is a voting member on Mercer's Hedge Fund Rating Review Committee. He has been in the financial services industry since 2013.
Edward has degree in Economics BSc (Honours) degree from the University of Nottingham, is a CFA® charter holder and a CAIA® charter holder.
Investing through the cycle with Australian Private Debt
• Most Australian corporates cannot access the bond market and Private Debt is the main source of finance, predominantly from the 4 major domestic banks.
• The risk adjusted return from a direct lending strategy in Australia is favourable compared to global markets, but it is a difficult market to access.
• Private lenders benefit from a range of protections which has led to historically low credit loss rates in Australia. The corporate insolvency regime is highly favourable to lenders and returns from Private Debt have historically been very stable.
• We will explore the features of the Australian Private Debt market and present the merits of allocating to a dedicated manager in the region.
Workshop Objectives: Discuss the characteristics and differences of the Australian debt market v Global markets and present the merits of allocating to a dedicated Australian Private Debt Manager
Company Profile: Metrics is a leading Australian non-bank corporate lender and alternative asset manager with in excess of $15bn in AUM and a greater than 10-year track record of performance and capital preservation*. Through its managed funds, Metrics offers investments across private debt and private equity. Metrics’ experienced investment team comprises of the four founding partners and is supported by a team of highly qualified investment professionals with skills and experience covering origination, credit and financial analysis, portfolio risk management, legal and fund administration.
*Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
Speakers
Conor O’Daly
Director – Investor Relations
Conor relocated from Sydney to Dublin, joining Metrics Credit Partners in 2023, to establish the European capital raising capability for Metrics investment strategies. In Sydney from 2013, Conor spent most of his time working with Pinnacle Investment Management, a strategic investor in Metrics Credit Partners since inception.
Before Sydney, Conor spent a number of years in London working with Man Investments and BNP Paribas across structuring and sales.
He graduated from the University of Warwick with a MSc in Finance and Economics and University College Dublin with a BA (hons) in Economics
Blake Young
Investment Director
Blake is an Investment Director at Metrics based in London.
Since joining Metrics in 2017, his role in the Investment Team has included coverage of private credit investments across senior, mezzanine and opportunistic direct lending, real estate lending and structured finance.
Prior to Metrics, Blake worked in Private Equity, Venture Capital and Institutional Banking within the direct lending and private credit arm of a major ‘big 4’ Australian bank.
Blake graduated from the University of Sydney with a BEc (Hons I) in Econometrics, Finance and Economics.
Representatives
James Longman
Associate Director, Pinnacle Investment Management
James Longman (CFA) is an Associate Director within Pinnacle’s EMEA Distribution Team with a focus on UK, Germany and South Africa. Pinnacle, a $60 billion multi-affiliate, is the partner and distributor for various affiliates including Metrics. Prior to Pinnacle, James worked within the UK Distribution team at Schroders and started his career at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Real Assets & Private Equity: Semi-liquid Opportunities
Presentation articulating UBS REPM capabilities in the semi-liquid space, building on a rich history of deploying capital across private market asset classes. UBS has developed a suite of offerings with the necessary features and protections for private wealth. In the presentation, we delve into the details of how we manage a unique set of strategies in real estate, infrastructure, and private equity while balancing the liquidity needs of investors and addressing the latest regulatory developments (ELTIF 2.0).
Workshop Objectives: Introduction to UBS Real Estate & Private Markets and its semi-liquid solutions. Engage in discussions regarding current market dynamics and share our perspectives on future market trends.
Company Profile: UBS Asset Management's Real Estate & Private Markets business actively manages investments of around USD 112 billion* globally and regionally within Asia Pacific, Europe and the US, making it one of the largest asset managers in real assets worldwide. Our capabilities reach across the risk / return spectrum, ranging from core to value-add and opportunistic strategies. We offer direct real estate, infrastructure equity and debt, and food & agriculture investments as well as indirect exposure to leading real estate, infrastructure, private equity and private credit managers. Investors can access our diverse product range across open- and closed-ended private funds, investment trusts, listed funds, REITs and bespoke separately managed accounts.
*Asset under management stated on gross asset values basis, reflecting values as at 30 September 2023, where available.
Speakers
Mahi Balachandran
Portfolio Manager, Multi-Managers Real Estate
Mahi is a Portfolio Manager in the Multi-Managers Real Estate team (MMRE), which forms part of Real Estate & Private Markets (REPM) within UBS Asset Management (UBS-AM).
Since November 2023, he has been a Portfolio Manager for a newly-launched commingled global real estate product targeting Core+ exposure across a variety of sectors.
Mahiban is a chartered accountant (ACA, ICAEW), and also holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC).
Valerie Wong
Portfolio Manager, Multi-Managers Secondaries
Valerie is a Portfolio Manager for the Multi-Managers Secondaries Team within UBS Asset Management
(UBS-AM), Real Estate & Private Markets.
Based in London, she is responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing private equity secondary investments and co-investments on a global basis. Her role also includes investment selection and portfolio management of several international private equity mandates.
Prior to joining UBS-AM in 2021, Valerie held multiple positions at PineBridge Investments in the fund-of-funds department for thirteen years. She was part of the secondaries team raising, investing and managing dedicated secondary funds
Representatives
Boudewijn Kostelijk
Head Wholesale Client Coverage Benelux, Client Relationship Manager
Based in Amsterdam, Boudewijn Kostelijk is responsible for relationship management, business development and client servicing of wholesale clients in the Benelux.
Boudewijn joined UBS Asset Management in September 2007 from Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch where he was responsible for business development with wholesale clients in the Benelux-region.
He started his career at ING and he was co-founder of the first independent internet Fund Supermarket in The Netherlands (Fundix). After this company was sold to ING, he became a sales manager at Robeco.
Diogo Gomes
Client Relationship Manager (Iberia)
Based in Madrid, Diogo Gomes is responsible for relationship management, business development and client servicing of wholesale and institutional clients in the Iberian Market. Diogo joined UBS Asset Management in May 2010 from the family office M&B, where he was responsible for business development of alternative investment solutions with institutional clients.
He started his career at BNP Paribas Asset Management in the international marketing team. After this he joined Dexia Asset Management and became a sales manager.