Speakers
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Dr Azar Jammine
Dr Azar Jammine is the Director and Chief Economist of Econometrix (Pty) Ltd, South Africa's leading independent economic research consultancy and forecasting company, established in 1982. He has been in his current position since December 1985 and has established a significant profile in South Africa as an analyst and commentator on domestic and international economic affairs. Dr Jammine has conducted more than 5,000 presentations to leading client corporations and other institutions and at conferences dealing with the local and international economic environment. In this capacity, he was also invited over the years by several corporations to serve as an independent non-executive director, including six that were listed on the JSE. Dr Jammine has been quoted in thousands of newspapers and magazines in South Africa and abroad and has been interviewed hundreds of times on local and international radio and television.
Dr Jammine has been a member of the Executive Committee of ISASA (Independent Schools Association of South Africa) for the past decade and still serves in that capacity. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Wits University Foundation. Dr Jammine recently retired as a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation, a body of experts appointed by the Department of Science and Technology, but still assists NACI on an ad-hoc basis as an expert on various tasks. In 2018, Dr Jammine was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at The South African Professional Services Awards Association (sponsored by Sanlam).
Academically, Dr Jammine obtained a BSc (Hons) in Mathematical Statistics and a BA (Hons) in Economics at Wits, followed by an M.Sc in Economics from the LSE and a PhD at the London Business School.
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Rebecca Davis
Rebecca Davis is an award-winning journalist, political commentator and writer. She has twice been a winner of the prestigious Vodacom Journalist of the Year award, once for her work on the investigative team which exposed the Guptaleaks story. She is the author of two bestselling books and can also be heard weekly on Cape Talk radio.
Pieter du Preez
Pieter (aka supapiet) du Preez is a South African Para Athlete competing in swimming, cycling, athletics and triathlon. He is a multiple African and world record holder, multiple world champion, and Paralympic gold medalist.
A keen runner and cyclist in childhood, Pieter was paralyzed from the chest down after a car collided with his bicycle. Determined to overcome his life-changing circumstances, Pieter not only returned to sport but set about breaking records - he became a seven-time winner of the Berlin marathon as a T51 competitor and the first athlete with C6 quadriplegia to complete an Ironman triathlon, amassing 18 global championship medals along the way. An inspiration to countless others, he went on to be nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability.
Alongside his sporting achievements - and a twenty-year career as an actuarial analyst - Pieter is a sought-after motivational speaker. In speeches, Pieter shares insights into adapting to change, dealing with tough times and living with purpose. He believes we’re always only one mindshift away from finding solutions to any problem: “When a bad thing happens, it's an opportunity to be great. You don’t need to be a superhero to inspire, you can be a normal person with a smile!”
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Workshops
Workshops
A Case for Global SMID Cap Stocks: The Ideal Intersection of Quality and Growth
SMID cap companies often exhibit a combination of characteristics that can make for good investments. However, not all SMID caps are created equally. The application of our investment philosophy and process narrows this broad universe, pinpointing the types of high-quality companies we have seen deliver excess returns over the past 25 years. Adding further degrees of freedom through our Global Discovery Strategy—with an unconstrained market cap mandate and broad global reach—enhances our capabilities.
Workshop Objectives: Present a compelling picture for active investment management in the global SMID cap arena.
Company Profile: Artisan Partners was founded in 1994 with the objective of producing high value added and differentiated investment outcomes for institutional investors, through identifying, attracting and retaining high caliber talent in long term asset classes.
We provide the resources of a full-scale, global firm paired with the independence of a boutique to each of our autonomous investment teams, who have the freedom to execute its own process based on its original research and creative perspectives. While our teams differ across market capitalizations, geographical regions, investment styles and product offerings, they are all highly incentivized to deliver long-term value for our clients.
Speakers
Chip Ridley, CFA
Managing Director, Artisan Growth Team
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Chip Ridley, CFA, is a managing director of Artisan Partners and business leader for the Growth team. Prior to joining Artisan in 2006, Mr. Ridley was a director of business development for GMO and served as product manager for the Emerging Markets strategy. Mr. Ridley also spent 9 years as an aviator in the United States Navy where he flew and instructed various types of fighter aircraft.
Representatives
Pearse Monaghan
Director, EMEA Client Group
Pearse Monaghan is a director on the EMEA Client Group at Artisan Partners. Prior to joining Artisan Partners in April 2017, Mr. Monaghan was a Director at Nomura Asset Management with responsibility for the UK business. He has also held positions at HSBC Asset Management, and Pioneer Investments.
Real Estate in 2025: Investing in tomorrow’s foundations
This evolution offers investors a more diversified portfolio, supported by strong tailwinds from mega forces. As we look ahead to 2025, we believe the sector is well-positioned for growth, especially as many companies are currently trading at substantial discounts compared to broader equity markets.
With improved access to capital and tighter supply across various sub-sectors, listed real estate holds the potential to deliver attractive returns driven by long-term earnings growth and supportive fundamentals well into 2025 and beyond.
Workshop objectives:
1) The fundamental outlook for RE
2) Deep dive on sector opportunities
3) Why go active in this space
Speakers
James Wilkinson
Global Head of BlackRock's Global Real Asset Securities business
James Wilkinson, Managing Director, is the Global Head of BlackRock's Global Real Asset Securities business. James has 25 years of investment experience across real estate and infrastructure and joined BlackRock to help establish the securities platform in 2013. James was previously a fund manager at Thames River Capital where he worked on a range of traditional long only and long/short real estate securities funds. Prior to this, he worked at Henderson Global Investors as a member of the European real estate securities team. James began his career at Healey & Baker as a Chartered Surveyor. James is a member of the Board of Directors of the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA). James graduated from the University of East Anglia with a BA Hons degree in Philosophy and gained his MA in Property Valuation and Law from City University Business School, London (now Cass Business School). James is a member of the UK's Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Representatives
Tamsyn Clark
Africa Sales Team
Tamsyn Clark, CFA, Director, is Head of Africa Wealth. In this role, Tamsyn is responsible for managing client relationships and strategic partnerships, developing and executing on strategic growth initiatives and delivering the broad BlackRock offering to clients and stakeholders across the region. Mrs Clark's service with the firm dates back to 2013. She has experience within the Fundamental Active Equity business where she worked a product strategist focusing on UK Equity and ESG products. Prior to this, Mrs Clark spent 4 years working in the Global Consultant Relations team, responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with investment consultants across all asset classes.
Fund Group Workshop
Speakers
Michelle Butler
Senior Vice President
Michelle Butler, Senior Vice President, is a Real Assets Portfolio Specialist for Cohen & Steers, specializing in Global Listed Infrastructure, Midstream Energy, and Commodities. Her primary responsibility is articulating the investment teams’ process, positioning, and investment outlook. She has 28 years of experience, prior to joining the firm in 2013, Ms. Butler was the Portfolio Specialist for the Active Commodities strategy at GE Asset Management, where she worked for 14 years in various product development and client service roles. Ms. Butler began her investment career in securities lending at the Bank of New York and UBS. Ms. Butler has a BA from Providence College and is based in New York. She is the holder of Series 3, 7, and 63 FINRA certifications.
Contrarian Investing in a rapidly changing world
Contrarius is a bottom-up, valuation-based, contrarian active manager taking advantage of opportunities in global markets. Our presentation outlines the application of the key components of our investment philosophy, and demonstrates how the current disparity in the market creates opportunities across both growth and value and quality-oriented areas. Our very different portfolio offers investors an opportunity to invest in a Fund which is truly different from conventional offerings. Our presentation also demonstrates how the consistent application of our bottom-up, contrarian investment philosophy has taken advantage of valuation disparity over time resulting in a fund that has outperformed the benchmark MSCI World Index, the average manager, the MSCI World Value Index and the MSCI World Growth Index since its inception on 1 January 2009.
Workshop Objectives: To introduce delegates to Contrarius’ contrarian investment philosophy and the areas of the market where we are currently finding value.
Company Profile: Contrarius’ objective is to create long-term wealth for our investors through superior long-term investment performance. Our portfolios are typically very different from our peers demonstrating our contrarian approach.
Our largest fund, Contrarius Global Equity Fund, has outperformed the benchmark MSCI World Index, the average manager, the MSCI World Value Index and the MSCI World Growth Index since its inception on 1 January 2009.
We believe that long-term performance is driven by the consistent application of a sound investment philosophy. The key characteristics of our investment philosophy are that it is contrarian, valuation based, long-term and based on proprietary fundamental research. For more information, visit www.contrarius.com.
Contrarius offers a global equity and global balanced strategy available to South African investors through:
- Contrarius ICAV, an Irish UCITS approved for marketing in South Africa
- BCI Contrarius rand-based feeder funds
- Contrarius BCI South African funds with up to 45% offshore exposure
Speakers
Simon Raubenheimer
Director
Simon joined Contrarius in March 2019. He has over 16 years’ previous investment experience with Allan Gray Ltd. From 2008-2018, Simon co-managed Allan Gray’s equity and balanced composites which included the largest equity and largest mutual fund in South Africa. Simon also co-launched and managed the Allan Gray Global Frontier Equity Fund. He has a BCom (Econometrics) and BCom (Honours) (Financial Analysis and Portfolio Management). Simon is a CFA charterholder.
Representatives
Heaton van der Linde
Director
Heaton joined the Contrarius Group in March 2009. He is a director and employee of Contrarius Investment Services (South Africa) (Pty) Limited, the Representative Office of Contrarius funds approved for marketing in South Africa. He previously had 11 years’ experience at Allan Gray Limited ("AGL"), the largest privately owned investment management firm in South Africa whose clients comprise both institutional investors and individuals. He holds a Bachelor of Business Science (Finance) degree from the University of Cape Town, is a Chartered Accountant (SA) and a CFA charterholder.
Fund Group Workshop
Speakers
Andrew Ye
Investment Strategist
Andrew is an Investment Strategist at Global X ETFs, covering Thematics. Prior to joining Global X, Andrew was most recently at Shaw and Partners, an Australian wealth management firm owned by EFG International, where he was an Investment Analyst for 3.5 years. He performed security selection, asset allocation and manager selection
as part of the SMA Investment team, which managed more than A$2
billion in AUM. Prior to that, Andrew began his career as an analyst at
Goldman Sachs in Sydney. He graduated with Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of New South Wales and is a CFA Charterholder.
Fund Group Workshop
Fund Group Workshop
Speakers
Michael Hughes
Senior Vice President & Client Portfolio Manager
Michael joined GuardCap in 2014 in the role of Senior Vice President and Client Portfolio Manager. Prior to this, he spent four years at Trinity Street Asset Management, a global investment boutique where he helped grow AUM from $300M to $1.8B. Michael’s tenure includes Managing Director at JPMorgan Asset Management where he was responsible for the product management of $72B in European equity fund assets. Prior to this, he was a portfolio manager and product manager for the Emerging Market Group of JPMorgan. Michael holds a joint honours degree in modern languages from the University of Bristol.
Fund Group Workshop
Speakers
Sagar Thanki
Portfolio Manager
Sagar is an investment analyst for the Guinness Global Equity Income Fund.. Prior to joining Guinness in 2017, Sagar worked at Bloomberg as an equity specialist, within Financial Analytics and Sales. Sagar graduated from Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, with a Master’s degree in Economics. He is a CFA Charterholder and has a Diploma in Investment Management, having passed the IMC Certificate and CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.
Fund Group Workshop
The human connection matters in all that we do. Teams across Janus Henderson come together every day to deliver outcomes for our clients – and their clients – that make a difference. We are proud of this responsibility as we fulfil our purpose of ‘Investing in a brighter future together’.
Speakers
Graeme Clark
Portfolio Manager, Technology Equities
Graeme Clark is a Portfolio Manager on the Global Technology Leaders Team at Janus Henderson Investors, a position he has held since joining the firm in 2013. Graeme began his career at Ernst & Young
in 1994 as a senior auditor. He later held the position of senior analyst covering European software and IT services on the sell-side for ING, Piper Jaffray, and Jefferies.
Graeme received a degree in accountancy and business from the University of Edinburgh, graduating with honours. He holds a CFA UK Level 4 Certificate in Investment Management and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland. He has 31 years of financial industry experience.
Representatives
Sam Mettrick
Head of UK Intermediary
Sam Mettrick is Head of Intermediary, UK Client Group at Janus Henderson Investors, a position he has held since 2024. In this role, he is responsible for the UK intermediary business. Sam joined the Henderson in 2013 as head of UK advisory sales. Earlier, he was head of strategic partners at Artemis from 2009 to 2012. He held a similar role at New Star Asset Management from 2003. Sam began his asset management career with Framlington in 1999. Earlier, he held distribution roles with Zurich, Royal, and Sun Alliance.
Sam has 32 years of financial services experience.
Fund Group Workshop
Speakers
Clare Pleydell-Bouverie
Co-lead fund manager
Clare is co-lead fund manager of the Liontrust Global Innovation, Liontrust Global Dividend and Liontrust Global Technology funds. She joined the team in 2022 and is a fund manager with 8 years of industry experience, having previously worked in global equities at Neptune Investment Management, Liontrust and in private equity research across a variety of industries. Clare holds a first-class degree in history from Christ Church College, Oxford University and is a CFA Charterholder. Formerly she also represented England for lacrosse.
Storm Uru
Head of the Global Innovation team & co-lead fund manager
Storm is co-lead fund manager of the Liontrust Global Innovation, Liontrust Global Dividend and Liontrust Global Technology funds. He has 12 years industry experience, including as a fund manager and prior to Liontrust worked at Neptune Investment Management running global funds. He holds an BBS in finance and MBS in international business from Massey University, an MBA from Oxford University and is a CFA Charterholder. He represented New Zealand in rowing at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, winning bronze in London in 2012.
Representatives
Tim Hooton
Sales Manager - London
Tim joined Liontrust in May 2015 and is a Sales Manager covering London and South Africa. Tim joined from JP Morgan where he was a Corporate Financial Analyst. Before that Tim was a Senior Associate at TACTICA Fund Management.
Fund Group Workshop
Fund Group Workshop
Strengthen Your core with Global Quality
The current climate calls for a resilient, core-quality investment strategy. We believe a long-term equity strategy should include balanced exposure to leading global companies, without material style, sector, or geographic bias.
Workshop Objectives: Hauke Ris, Co-Head of Robeco's Global Equities team, will present how Robeco's flagship Global Equity strategy provides a compelling opportunity amid current global uncertainties. He will explain how we identify Global Stars using our 3-pillar process and highlight how this fundamental approach has consistently generated alpha and managed risk effectively through various economic conditions. By emphasizing quality, such a strategy aims to outperform across market cycles, providing a balanced and resilient portfolio.
Company Profile: Robeco is a pure-play international asset manager founded in 1929 with headquarters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and 15 offices worldwide. A global leader in sustainable investing since 1995, its integration of sustainable as well as fundamental and quantitative research enables the company to offer institutional and private investors an extensive selection of active investment strategies, for a broad range of asset classes.
On 30 September 2024, Robeco had EUR 204 billion in assets under management, of which EUR 200 billion is committed to ESG integration. More information is available at
Speakers
Hauke Ris
Fundamental Equity Portfolio Manager
Mr. Hauke Ris is Co-Head of Robeco’s Global Equity team, and he heads the Fundamental Equity Client Portfolio Management team.
He is a member of the management team of Robeco’s Equity division, which includes both Fundamental and Quantitative Equities. Hauke served on the Board of Directors of Robeco’s Luxemburg Fund range for several years.
He started his career at Robeco in 2012 in the role of Client Portfolio Manager for Robeco’s Asia-Pacific Equity team. Prior to joining Robeco in 2012, he was a Portfolio Manager with Kempen & Co in Amsterdam, managing Discretionary Private Client Portfolios. Before that, he worked for Bank Insinger de Beaufort in Amsterdam as an Investment Analyst focusing on institutional investment portfolios.
He started his career in the investment industry in 1999 at Salomon Smith Barney’s subsidiary Robinson Humphrey in Atlanta, GA, and holds an MBA from Western Carolina University.
Representatives
Thabo Tembo
Head of Africa Distribution, Robeco
Thabo Tembo is Head of Africa Distribution. Thabo is responsible for the overall management, sales and strategic decisions for Robeco in Africa.
Thabo brings more than twenty years of experience helping clients achieve their financial goals. Most recently, he was Head of Investor Sales, South Africa, for Citi Global Markets, primarily focusing on providing solutions to financial institutions, across a client base that included banks, pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers and hedge funds.
Thabo was also pivotal in driving the strategy for the broader markets business and was a member of Citigroup South Africa’s executive committee and of the JSE Financial Derivatives Advisory Committee.
Thabo holds an MSc in Finance, Regulation and Risk Management and a law degree from the University of Reading, UK. He also has a postgraduate diploma in Legal Practice from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University.
Irshaad Ahmad
Managing Director of Europe, Africa and North America Institutional, Robeco
Irshaad Ahmad’s responsibilities include overseeing our Institutional Sales efforts and leading strategic planning in these regions. Irshaad brings over 25 years of experience in investments and pension organizations across the UK, Europe, and North America. Previously he held senior positions at Ardevora, Canada Post Corporation, Allianz, AXA, and Mercer. In these roles he was responsible for developing and implementing investment and
commercial strategies. Irshaad has a deep understanding of both public and private markets investing. He holds a degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Toronto.
Fund Group Workshop
Speakers
Jeremy Knox
Senior Investment Director, Private Equity
Jeremy Knox is Senior Investment Director, Private Equity at Schroders Capital (the private markets division of Schroders). He covers Schroders Capital US private equity activities with a focus on co-investments, primary fund commitments and secondaries. Prior to joining Schroders Capital in 2016, Jeremy spent seven years in the investment arm of PartnerRe Ltd., where he was responsible for managing their private equity portfolio. Prior to PartnerRe, Jeremy worked in the Investment Banking group of Fox-Pitt Kelton where he focused on transactions within the financial services industry. Jeremy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Franklin & Marshall College.
Fund Group Workshop
2025 Outlook for Gold
Company Profile: We are innovators and problem solvers, stewards and educators. With experts across the globe, we are the quiet power in a tumultuous investing world.
For over four decades, State Street Global Advisors has served the world’s governments, institutions, and financial advisors. With a rigorous, risk-aware approach built on research, analysis, and market-tested experience, and as pioneers in index and ETF investing, we are always inventing new ways to invest. As a result, we have become the world’s fourth-largest asset manager* with US $4.72 trillion† under our care.
*Pensions & Investments Research Center, as of 12/31/23.
†This figure is presented as of December 31, 2024 and includes ETF AUM of $1,577.74 billion USD of which approximately $82.19 billion USD in gold assets with respect to SPDR products for which State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC (SSGA FD) acts solely as the marketing agent. SSGA FD and State Street Global Advisors are affiliated. Please note all AUM is unaudited.
Speakers
David Furey
Global Head of Portfolio Strategists, Fixed Income, Cash and Currency
David is the Global head of the Fixed Income Portfolio Strategy group. In this role he leads a team of experienced investment professionals who are responsible for representing our investment capabilities across the complete fixed income arena spanning indexed, active and systematic strategies, LDI, cash and currency. The strategist team also act as subject matter experts to assist institutional investors and their advisors to evaluate economic and market developments, assess the impact to their portfolios, and identify specific products and solutions to help them manage risk and take advantage of market opportunities.
Prior to joining the strategist team in 2011, David was a Senior Portfolio Manager at SSGA Ireland (formerly Bank of Ireland Asset Management) with responsibility for the management of a broad array of active fixed income strategies primarily in the European bond markets. Previously, David spent five years in a similar role in Bermuda with a focus on US credit markets with Butterfield Asset Management. David began his investment career with AIG in Dublin before moving to London in 1993 to take up a position as a fixed income portfolio manager, managing active and liability driven bond strategies for AIG and other institutional investors.
David is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, and of the Smurfit Graduate School of Business at University College Dublin