Day Three (Main Conference) - World Business Strategies

Thursday 7th October

Registration and Morning Welcome Coffee

09.00 - 10.30

AI Ethics and Governance

Emre Kazim:

Research Fellow at UCL and Co-Founder of Holistic AI

Emre Kazim: Research Fellow at UCL and Co-Founder of Holistic AI

Research Fellow in the Computer Science department of University College London, working in the field of AI ethics. His research interests include – public awareness of AI and the moral and legal issues that arise within this context.

10.30 - 11.00

Morning Break and Networking Opportunities

11.00 - 11.45

TCFD and the climate-related corporate reporting landscape

What is TCFD?
- Overview of recommendations
- Scenario analysis
TCFD and other reporting: voluntary v mandatory, principles v standards
The concept of materiality and its link to reporting
Trends in corporate reporting

Monica Filkova:

Climate and Sustainable Finance Advisor

Monica Filkova: Climate and Sustainable Finance Advisor

Monica Filkova is a debt finance professional with a focus on climate and sustainable finance strategy, research and criteria definition. Between 2017-2020 was Head of Market Intelligence at climate finance NGO Climate Bonds Initiative, and then Director, Sustainable Finance at Fitch Ratings. She chairs the Certificate in Climate and Investing Panel, convened in 2020 to advise CFA UK on the development of a climate and investing qualification, and is a member of the ESG Panel, which is responsible for the Certificate in ESG Investing, launched by CFA UK in 2019.

Prior to pivoting to sustainable finance, Monica’s focus was in property finance and debt capital markets, including roles as Head of Structuring, Debt Capital Markets at Eurohypo AG, senior credit research analyst at Chalkhill Partners, and real estate investment banking with Deutsche Bank. Monica is a CFA charterholder. She holds a Master of Management degree from Cornell University, USA, and a BBA from the American University in Bulgaria.

11.45 - 12.30

Perspectives on the corporate integration of ESG and sustainability, and its implications for the data they disclose.

Marie-Josée Privyk:

Head of ESG Innovation, Novisto

Marie-Josée Privyk: Head of ESG Innovation, Novisto

12.30 - 13.30

Lunch

13.30 - 14.15

Sustainable Investment - Exploring the Linkage between Alpha, ESG, and SDG's

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing has been one of the most important topics in asset management this past decade. Yet, for all the attention, only a fraction of asset managers truly consider ESG issues when making investment decisions. This is partly due to the perceived conflict of ESG investing with an asset manager’s fiduciary duty and partly due to low-quality ESG data despite the near ubiquity of sustainability reports. We analyze the relationship between alpha generation and ESG metrics, and measure the impact companies have on the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG´s). First, we construct a sector-neutral portfolio using MSCI ESG momentum scores from 2013 to 2018, and determine that it is feasible to generate positive alpha vis a vis the MSCI US index. Second, we utilize structured and unstructured data to determine a company’s net influence on the SDGs, what we call its SDG ‘footprint.’ We show that an ESG momentum portfolio both outperforms the MSCI US index and has a relatively better SDG footprint than that of the index. Third, we establish a positive contemporaneous connection between the portfolio’s ESG ratings momentum and its SDG footprint. Thus, a positive linkage exists between ESG, alpha, and the SDG’s.

Miquel Noguer Alonso:

Co – Founder and Chief Science Officer, Artificial Intelligence Finance Institute – AIFI

Miquel Noguer Alonso: Co – Founder and Chief Science Officer, Artificial Intelligence Finance Institute – AIFI

Miquel Noguer is a financial markets practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in asset management, he is currently Head of Development at Global AI ( Big Data Artificial Intelligence in Finance company ) and Head on Innovation and Technology at IEF.

He worked for UBS AG (Switzerland) as Executive Director.for the last 10 years. He worked as a Chief Investment Office and CIO for Andbank from 2000 to 2006.

He is professor of Big Data in Finace at ESADE and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University teaching Asset Allocation, Big Data in Finance and Fintech. He received an MBA and a Degree in business administration and economics in ESADE in 1993. In 2010 he earned a PhD in quantitative finance with a Summa Cum Laude distinction (UNED – Madrid Spain).

14.15 - 15.00

ESG versus Efficiency and Free Markets

Geophysical basis of weather and climate
Adverse weather events: what do reinsurers think?
Renewable, nuclear and fossil power: countries choosing their energy mix
Other resource intensive industries: transportation, heating and cooling, construction, packaging and waste recycling and disposal
ESG mapping and planning versus free market

Erik Vynckier:

Interim Chief Executive, Foresters Friendly Society

Erik Vynckier: Interim Chief Executive, Foresters Friendly Society

Erik Vynckier is Board member of Foresters Friendly Society since 2016, for whom he also chairs the Investment and Unit-Linked Committees following a career in banking, insurance, asset management and petrochemical industry. Erik restructured Foresters as Interim CEO in 2019. Erik was Chief Investment Officer (Europe) for private equity group Eli Global LLC, partner, Chief Investment Officer at InsurTech Venture Partners and Chief Investment Officer for European insurance clients at Alliance Bernstein. Before, Erik managed with-profits and annuity funds at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Aberdeen Standard Life) after managing the Group Risk Hub of Standard Life. Erik started in finance at Credit Suisse First Boston and HSBC, in equity program trading, quantitative development and asset-liability management for client balance sheets.

Erik was Chair of Research and Thought Leadership Board at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries from 2018 until 2021. Erik has founded and served as board member of www.hpcfinance.eu and www.bigdatafinance.eu, the European initiatives from 2011 until 2019 on high performance computing and big data analytics in financial services.

Erik graduated as Chemical Engineer at Universiteit Gent (Belgium) and completed his MBA at London Business School in 2000. Prior to his MBA, Erik held R&D, production and strategy positions in the petrochemical industry in France, Belgium, Germany, the US and the UK. He is adviser to the Chemical Engineering Department of University College London on research and education.

15.00 - 15.30

Afternoon Break and Networking Opportunities

15.30 - 16.30

Regulatory Obligations for Climate Change

The Paris Agreement
Regulatory standards & guidance from central authorities including the BoE, ECB, US CFTC.
Common themes and expectations from national regulators
Role of NGFS and the EU Taxonomy
Cross dependencies from TCFD
How to implement governance required for Climate Risk Management?
Challenges and opportunities for Financial Institutions

Navin Rauniar:

Advisory Partner focusing on LIBOR, ESG, Climate Risk & TCFD, HSBC

Navin Rauniar: Advisory Partner focusing on LIBOR, ESG, Climate Risk & TCFD, HSBC

Navin is a Risk Director with 17 years’ experience in advising the sell side on the delivery of prudential regulation such as IBOR Transition, FRTB, IRRBB, Basel III, CRR 2 and CRD V. Navin is currently leading the IBOR workstream for a Tier One bank.

Prior to this, he worked as a Senior Manager at a leading global advisory firm, where he led the analysis of the impact of the IBOR Transition on financial institutions. Additionally, Navin has spent 15 years in the industry working in global run-the-bank and change-the-bank roles for Credit Suisse, RBS, Commerzbank and JP Morgan across Front Office, Risk and Operations.

Navin is a steering committee member of the Professional Risk Managers Association where he represents the Risk Management industry on regulatory initiatives, mentoring of capital markets professionals, and a frequent speaker at banking & thought leadership events.