Citywire MPS Forum 2023

Welcome to the inaugural Citywire MPS Forum!

Whether you already outsource client assets to discretionary managers, or are considering doing so, we are thrilled to be launching a half-day event just for you.

As the responsibility that comes with managing client assets in-house becomes increasingly onerous, five discretionary managers will be in attendance to present their outsourced solutions that will allow you to focus on your holistic proposition and client relationships, while they do what they do best.

And with a brand new event comes a sharp new format. Rather than a stage-based presentation, participants will have a workshop-based agenda, with an emphasis on meaningful, interactive conversation.

We will then reconvene in the ballroom where we will hear from our fantastic keynote speaker, Suzie Imber. Specialising in space, Imber is a space plasma physicist who has worked for NASA as a research scientist, responsible for studying ‘space weather’. Not content with simply identifying areas of scientific significance, she has gone on to embark on yearly ascents to the most remote mountain areas in the world. Covering everything from satellites to teamwork, the future of science to dealing with risk, she looks at the lessons from all aspects of her work, and how they can help you achieve your own professional goals.

Learning objectives:

Consider a variety of outsourced investment solutions, and their suitability for client assets.
Develop the necessary skills to assess risk appropriately in pursuit of professional objectives.
Learn the importance of teamwork and resilience when presented with challenging professional circumstances.

This promises to be a morning of invaluable insight into the outsourced investment landscape, and we very much hope you can join us.

Suzie Imber

Suzie Imber is an Associate Professor at the University of Leicester, specialising in studying the environments of the planets in our solar system. Through her work, Suzie continues to reveal the links between space research and innovations that can help foster better climate resilience back here on Earth.
As well as her academic work, she undertakes public education programmes to increase understanding of science, and travels to some of the most inhospitable places on the planet. She also won BBC Two's search for future astronauts.
Heavily involved in the European Space Agency’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury, Suzie's research group built instrumentation that the craft carried. Her other area of expertise is Space Weather; using a combination of ground- and space-based instrumentation to better understand the influence of the Sun on near-Earth space. This work has significant implications due to our increasing dependence upon satellite technology, and also as we look at the chances of colonising first the moon, then Mars.
Away from the lab and the lecture theatre Suzie is also a high altitude mountaineer, having climbed in Alaska, the Himalayas and the Andes. She generated the first objective list of mountains in the Andes using a supercomputer she programmed, and in doing so, discovered dozens of uncharted mountains. She has since launched three expeditions to one of the most remote environments on the planet, gaining first ascents of many of these mountains, and even finding Inca ruins on the summits.
Suzie was also the winner of the BBC’s Astronauts: Do You Have What it Takes, in which contestants underwent an astronaut selection process under the supervision of Chris Hadfield. During the tests she spun in a centrifuge, took her own blood, visited a NASA research facility on the ocean floor in Florida, and experienced a microgravity flight. Importantly she had to demonstrate leadership, communication, calmness under pressure, and the ability to work well in a high performing team. Since the competition she has been the first graduate of the Qinetiq astronaut training programme, and now works with the UK Space Agency, NASA, Qinetiq and Virgin Galactic.
From satellites to how to deal with risk, from the future of science and research to the importance of planning, Suzie tackles a wide range of subjects with energy, insight and humour. She also reveals what various tools and instrumentation used in space say about the prospect of sustainability for our planet – from the monitoring of natural hazards and glacial thinning to identifying sites of modern slavery.