Canadian Investment Review

The 17th Annual Global Investment Conference

The Delta Grand Okanagan Resort
Kelowna, B.C.

April 10-12, 2012

Investors in 2012 are witnessing a profound change in the global investment landscape. With emerging markets pushing further into the economic mainstream and Europe at risk of disintegration, global markets are under tremendous pressure. How will today’s challenges transform the future of world financial markets? And what opportunities does this hold for plan sponsors? Hence, the theme for this year's 2012 Global Investment Conference is Redrawing Global Borders.

Who Should Attend this Event?
The conference is an exclusive, educational forum that brings together senior representatives of Canadian pension plan sponsors, as well as representatives from the academic, custodial and money management communities.

How Do I Attend?
Participation at the Global Investment Conference is by invitation only. For more information on the Global Investment Conference, please email Garth Thomas, Executive Publisher of Canadian Investment Review, for consideration.

Canadian Investment Review is Canada's leading forum for academics, institutional investors and industry practitioners to exchange ideas on the capital markets, investment and economic theory and the related sociology and demographics. To that end, it publishes articles that offer original ideas based on existing literature and brings new insight to relevant themes and practices within the institutional investment community.

Academic Partner

Sauder School of Business

The Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia is Canada's leading academic business school, maintaining an international reputation for excellence in research and learning, and unmatched global partnerships. The faculty has more than 2,700 students in Bachelors, Masters and PhD programs, and boasts over 30,000 alumni in 70 countries. Located in Vancouver, rated by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the world's top city in its 2009 global livability rankings, the school draws from the internationalism of the city and its Pacific Rim setting to provide an unrivalled global business perspective.

Investors in 2012 are witnessing a profound change in the global investment landscape. With emerging markets pushing further into theeconomic mainstream and Europe at risk of disintegration, global markets are under tremendous pressure. How will today’s challenges transform the future of world financial markets? And what opportunities does this hold for plan sponsors?

Theme: Redrawing Global Borders

CONFERENCE AGENDA

TUESDAY APRIL 10

5:00 – 6:00 pm                 Mandatory Speaker Rehearsal

6:00 – 7:00 pm                 Registration and Opening Cocktails
                                  (Laurel Packing House)


7:00 – 10:00 pm                Welcome Dinner Reception (Laurel Packing House)

WEDNESDAY APRIL 11

7:00 – 8:15 am                 Breakfast

8:30 – 8:45 am                 Opening Remarks

8:45 – 9:45 am                  KEYNOTE SESSION

There’s Really No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
2012 is going to be just as tough for the global economy as 2011 was. Front-burner challenges remain unresolved -- and some are getting worse as poor crisis management in the Euro Zone continues to create collateral damage in the rest of the world. What does this mean for investors? And how will politics and macro financial events continue to foster top-down trading conditions, where risk-on/risk-off behaviour and high correlations and volatility are the norm? This session will provide an overview of the current state of the global economy as well as the potential opportunities for institutional investors to grow and protect their global portfolios.
Keynote Speaker:
Christian Menegatti, Head of Global Economic Research and Managing Director, Roubini Global Economics

9:45 – 10:15 am               SESSION TWO

An Integrated Approach to Emerging Markets Investing
Over the next decade, success in emerging markets investing will require an integrated approach that can move actively across asset classes, capital structures, and currencies, as opportunities evolve. Benefiting from superior economic growth and meaningful improvements in fundamentals, emerging markets equity and debt have delivered impressive returns over the last decades. Past history suggests that bolting EM equity and debt together would provide a broader exposure to these countries at a lower level of volatility than an equity-only strategy. Research also supports the view that combining investments in emerging equity, debt and currencies within a single portfolio, can improve risk-adjusted returns.
Speaker:
Morgan Harting, Senior Portfolio Manager, AllianceBernstein

10:15 – 10:45 am             SESSION THREE

Opportunities in the Credit Market
The current environment favours corporate bonds over equities as senior parts of the corporate capital structure offer yields commensurate with the long run expected return of equities. Investors have traditionally relied upon equities as the return engine and fixed income as the diversifying anchor in a portfolio, but this may not be the best strategy at all times during a business cycle. Successful investing across these instruments requires a thorough understanding of the factors which drive returns across the capital structure.
Speaker:
Rudy Pimentel, Executive Vice-president and Product Manager, PIMCO

10:45 – 11:05 am            Networking Coffee Break

11:05 – 11:35 am              SESSION FOUR

Why You Should Diversify Your Passive Equity
Equity return components that were considered added value (alpha) in the past are increasingly being recognised as risk premia (beta). The asset allocation process continues to focus predominantly on active manager selection, however it is increasingly clear that we need to examine the risk premia contribution further. Through the period 1972 to 2011 we review the characteristics of various alternative passive strategies such as risk parity, minimum variance, value weighted, risk weighted and equal weighted. During this period all strategies generally showed higher sharpe ratios than the market as defined by MCAP Index. What does this mean for investors?
Speaker:
Daniel Leveau, Partner and Head of Quantitative Strategies Equities, Wegelin Asset Management

11:35 am – 12:05 pm       SESSION FIVE

Profiting in Equity Markets by Avoiding Conventional Wisdom
Many market participants allocate capital based on judgments and widely-held market views that appear eminently reasonable. But better returns are often obtained from flying in the face of conventional wisdom, either because it is already discounted or, in some instances, just plain wrong. This presentation will examine several common market misperceptions and address resultant implications for fund sponsors.
Speaker:
Ray Mills, Portfolio Manager, International Core Equity Strategy, T. Rowe Price

12:05 – 1:05 pm                Lunch Reception

1:05 – 1:35 pm                 SESSION SIX

Description to come.
Speaker:
Robert Feldman, Vice-president and Portfolio Manager, Pyramis Global Advisors

1:35 – 2:05 pm                 SESSION SEVEN

Financial Deleveraging: The Global Implications
Financial deleveraging remains by far the biggest threat to the global economic expansion. Since the global liquidity crisis hit the world in 2008, banks in the developed world have been busy restoring their balance sheets by reducing lending activity while increasing positions in safer assets. This intense financial deleveraging has profoundly changed the global economic landscape, leaving the world economy in a fragile state. This presentation aims to answer a number of key questions; how significant has the economic impact been? What asset classes will benefit, and which will lose, from this major structural change? How much financial deleveraging is still to come? Which countries are most at risk, and which countries have completed the deleveraging process? How is the emerging world impacted?
Speaker:
Vincent Lépine, Vice-president, Global Economic Strategy- Global Asset Allocation and Currency Management, CIBC Global Asset Management Inc.

2:05 – 2:35 pm              Networking Break

2:35 – 3:05 pm                 SESSION EIGHT

Taking a Long View in Bond and Currency Markets
Bond and currency markets have fallen prey to the same short-termism that bedevils equity markets. Most market participants are basing their investment decisions on unpredictable short-term economic and political factors. There is an alternative approach based on identifying sustainable economic trends which can help navigate today’s risky and volatile markets and also generate superior returns over time. This presentation examines past and current examples to illustrate the theory and then builds on this to examine the practical considerations for managing rates and currencies in this way.
Speaker:
Kenneth Barker, Partner, Director- Institutional Clients Department, Baillie Gifford

3:05 – 3:35 pm                 SESSION NINE

Behavioral Finance: Understanding and Overcoming Biases in Financial Decision-Making
Behavioral Finance is the study of the ways in which human psychology affects investment practices and financing decisions. Traditionally, academic theories and models of investment practices have focused on ideal or perfectly rational strategies that maximize returns in the face of risk. However, human decisions are not always ideal or rational-and one of the roles of professional investment services is to "protect" investment clients from their own decision biases. This two-part session will (a) give professional investment advisors and portfolio managers an understanding of the psychological processes that give rise to decision-making biases in investment settings and (b) provide an overview of the effects of such biases on various market phenomena. The goal of this session is to provide managers with a better understanding of their investment clients' thinking patterns and provide a set of tools and frameworks to enable them to communicate more effectively and persuasively with their clients. This session will also touch upon ways in which specific investment funds use behavioral finance principles in their asset selection decisions.
Speakers:
Dale Griffin, Advisory Council Chair in Consumer Behaviour and Professor, Marketing Division, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
Murray Carlson, Advisory Council Chair in Finance and Associate Professor, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia

3:35 – 3:45 pm                 Closing Remarks

6:00 – 7:00 pm                 Cocktail/Wine Tasting and Tour Reception
                                   (Mission Hill Winery)


7:05 – 7:35 pm                 Special Dinner Guest Speaker, Amber MacArthur,
                                   New Media Author, Strategist, and TV Host

7:35 – 10:00 pm                 Gala Dinner Reception

THURSDAY APRIL 12

7:00 – 8:15 am                 Breakfast

8:30 – 8:40 am                 Opening Remarks

8:40 – 9:10 am                  SESSION TEN

Redrawing Asset Allocation: Think Function, Not Form
Investors today are striving for more balance and stability as they contemplate their asset allocation framework. We suggest the starting point for a better framework is a view that considers the investment environment and the relevant opportunity sets in each of these environments. We will argue that considering the function of these assets can lead to a structure that is inherently better diversified and more aligned with an institution's risk/return priorities. We will highlight some potential investment approaches that may offer investors the chance to improve returns or diversification of their portfolios.
Speaker:
Wendy Cromwell, Director of Strategic Asset Allocation, Wellington Management

9:10 – 9:40 am               SESSION ELEVEN

What Changes are Pension Sponsors Considering to Offset the Risks Associated with Low Yielding Fixed Income?
A recent Franklin Templeton poll looked at changes Canadian plan sponsors are planning on implementing to their fixed income allocations, in the search of higher returns while maintaining stability.
Speaker:
TBA, Franklin Templeton Institutional

9:40 – 9:55 am                Networking Break

9:55 – 10:25 am              SESSION TWELVE

10:25 – 11:25 am            SESSION THIRTEEN

Panel: Plan Sponsors in the Spotlight
This casual session gets up-close and personal with senior plan sponsor executives and discusses their perspectives on the current economic and political trends that influence their plans, priorities and challenges within their global portfolios.
Panelists:
James Davis, Vice-president, Investment Planning and Economics, Asset Mix and Risk, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
Dave Lawson, Chief Investment Officer, Workers' Compensation Board - Alberta
Moderator:
Zev Frishman, Senior Vice-president, Investment Management, Open Access Limited

11:25 – 11:35 am            Closing Remarks

11:35 am                            Closing Buffet Lunch

*Please note, this is the preliminary agenda and is subject to change at any time.

For more information, contact Laurie Asuncion Editor, Conferences

Related Publications
Benefits Canada
Canadian Institutional Investment Network