Absolute Return Strategies Investment Forum
Preliminary Program as of February 22, 2011
Advisory Board
Raj Thamotheram
Senior Adviser, Responsible Investment
AXA Investment Managers Ltd.
United Kingdom
Heli Huhtala
Head of Investments
Bank of Finland
Finland
Leif Brask-Rasmussen
Chief Executive Officer
Borne og Ungdomspedagoger (PBU)
Denmark
Heidi Finskas
Advisor, Responsible Investments
KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS
Norway
Erik Feldt
Managing Director
Nordea Investment Funds
Sweden
Femke van ‘t Groenewout
Senior Advisor, Responsible Investment
PGGM Investments
The Netherlands
Keith Johnson
Chairman, Institutional Investor Services Department
Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren
United States
Erik Breen
Head of Responsible Investing
Robeco
The Netherlands
Gerry Degaute
Chief Executive Officer
Royal Mail Pension Trustees Limited
United Kingdom
Protecting Assets Through Responsible Fiduciary Practices
Much that we thought we knew has been brought into question by events over the past few years. In light of seemingly more immediate concerns, what is the appropriate fiduciary role for shareholders and investors anymore? Shareholders still have both the right and the responsibility to monitor corporate activities to ensure that value is being created and maintained by decision-makers and that those executives are held accountable. At the same time, these same shareholders are operating in a macro environment – economic, legal, and regulatory – that is more difficult for fiduciaries.
Now in its sixth year, The Rights & Responsibilities of Institutional Investors will provide an insightful examination of the vital issues confronting investors. This year’s program will offer objective analysis of the issues facing shareholders and provide the information fiduciaries need to meet those challenges, including how they can maximize recovery when losses do occur. Compliance and legal officers and other decision-makers from European public pension and insurance funds and mutual fund companies will share information on how to best protect assets through responsible fiduciary practices.
Thursday, March 10
50. Registration and Continental Breakfast
Koepelzaal Foyer
08.30 Chairpersons’ Welcome and Introductions
Koepelzaal
Darren J. Check
Partner
Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, LLP
United States
Harvey Shapiro
Senior Advisor
Institutional Investor
United States
08.35 The Shareholders Speak: What Are the Governance Issues Investors Are
Focusing on Today?
Panel Discussion
Koepelzaal
Moderator:
Darren J. Check
Partner
Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, LLP
United States
Jonas Synnergren
Partner
Cevian Capital
Sweden
Carl Rosén
Executive Director
International Corporate Governance Network
United Kingdom
Anatoli van der Krans
Officer, Responsible Investment & Active Ownership
Mn Services
The Netherlands
Dr. Daniel Summerfield
Co-Head of Responsible Investment
Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)
United Kingdom
This panel will set the tone and lay out the major themes that will be addressed in additional detail over the course of the day’s program. After all, all that really matters at the end of the day is what issues investors are focusing on, including:
• Their increasing responsibilities as active shareholders and attempts to crystallize those responsibilities through various codes such as the UK’s Stewardship Code
• Voting disclosure requirements
• Governance of hedge funds and other non-traditional managers
• Recommendations for gender diversity on boards of directors
09.10 Lehman Brothers in Context: A Case Study with Lessons for Everyone
Presentation
Koepelzaal
Presented by:
John Kehoe
Partner
Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, LLP
United States
The collapse of Lehman Brothers was both a real calamity and a symbolic event. For many, this seminal crisis encapsulated the excesses that led to the global financial and economic breakdown that ensued. Much of what we have learned since suggests a systemic regulatory failure as well as a comprehensive lack of honest disclosures and concealment of enormous proportions. In this session, we will review what we know about the failure of Lehman Brothers from shareholder actions that have been taken thus far and apply that knowledge in order to discuss the implications for investors.
09.55 Refreshment Break
Koepelzaal Foyer
10.20 Defining Investors’ Rights and Responsibilities in the Emerging Markets:
Questions of Transparency and Accountability
Panel Discussion
Koepelzaal
Panelists:
Julien Duprat
Senior Investment Specialist, Emerging Markets
BNP Paribas Investment Partners
France
Mike Lubrano
Managing Director, Corporate Governance
Cartica Capital
United States
Yvonne Bakkum
Director, Private Equity
FMO (Netherlands Development Finance Corporation)
The Netherlands
Carola van Lamoen
Senior Engagement Specialist
Robeco
The Netherlands
Unprecedented levels of capital are flowing into the emerging markets as investors seek additional diversification and the kind of returns they cannot get in either Europe or North America. But this surge in inflows to emerging markets securities presents its own set of challenges. What are the appropriate risk controls and processes for these investments from institutions that are accustomed to developed market levels of transparency and accountability? Can you litigate when things go wrong?
11.05 Access to U.S. Courts After the N.A.B. (National Australia Bank Ltd.) Decision
Presentation and Panel Discussion
Koepelzaal
11.05 Presentation
Presented by:
Femke van ‘t Groenewout
Senior Advisor, Responsible Investment
PGGM Investments
The Netherlands
11.15 Panel Discussion
Panelists:
Stuart L. Berman
Partner
Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, LLP
United States
Daan Lunsingh Scheurleer
Partner
NautaDutilh N.V.
The Netherlands
Luke Bierman
Former General Counsel
New York Office of the State Comptroller
United States
Femke van ‘t Groenewout
Senior Advisor, Responsible Investment
PGGM Investments
The Netherlands
In June 2010, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion that effectively limited securities claims in US courts by investors who purchase securities on non-US exchanges. While the fallout from this decision remains unsettled, at a minimum securities listed outside the U.S. seemingly are not covered by US securities laws – effectively disallowing fraud claims in US courts by any investor who purchased securities on foreign exchanges. This panel will examine and discuss the impact of this restriction and how it will impact investors’ ability to enforce their rights. We will hear how this decision affects the litigation of other cases and how it may affect investors’ decisions on how they invest as well as their strategies on engagement.
11.50 Redefining Fiduciary Responsibility: Re-Examining the Relationship Between
Pension Funds and Their Managers
Panel Discussion
Koepelzaal
Panelists:
Pieter Regnery
Senior Investment Manager, Private Equity
APG Asset Management
The Netherlands
Hilmar Nierop
Compliance & Quality Management Consultant
Avida International
The Netherlands
Chris Greaves
Deputy Chairman
West Yorkshire Pension Fund
United Kingdom
What are pension funds asking of their managers when it comes to active engagement and related issues? Has the balance of power changed? What direction are plan sponsors providing their managers in this regard? How involved should they be in defining their managers’ investment policies? In what ways are investors evaluating their managers differently? This session will provide a peer review of how pension funds and their managers are redefining fiduciary responsibility in order to put objectives into practice.
12.35 Lunch
Balcony
14.00 Acting Responsibly As Well As Legally: What Companies are Offering Their
Shareholders
Panel Discussion
Koepelzaal
Panelists:
Jaklien Wotte
Senior Manager, Internal Audit, Risk and Compliance Services
KPMG Advisory N.V.
The Netherlands
Keith Johnson
Chairman, Institutional Investor Services Department
Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren
United States
Daniela Carosio
Senior Partner
Sustainable Equity Value
Italy
Name
Title
Firm
Country
Over time, active investors’ expectations have evolved regarding what shareholders are asking of the firms they invest in. The dialogue between investors and companies has broadened beyond a strict legal definition of right and wrong. This session will canvass investors according to their expectations of corporate behavior, including such topics as:
• Is the question to ask one of whether companies have acted rationally or not within the parameters they’ve been given, not whether they’ve acted morally?
• How concerned in 2011 are investors with counter-parties?
• What kind of accountability should shareholders take for their own investment decisions? How can firms be held accountable for providing the right information so that investors can make the right decisions?
• What role have institutional investors played in promulgating “short-termism”?
14.45 European Institutions and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)
Panel Discussion
Koepelzaal
Panelists:
Roelof Goudswaard
Interim European Head of Legal & Tax
AEGON Asset Management
Partner
Goudswaard Tax, Legal & Compliance
The Netherlands
Ton Daniels
Partner, Financial Services
Ernst & Young Belastingadviseurs LLP
The Netherlands
Jussi P. Snellman
Partner
Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C.
Finland
FATCA has the potential to have significant consequences for every part of the financial industry and its stakeholders. Yet many aspects of this new, far-reaching regulation remain unclear and under challenge. How will FATCA help the cause of shareholder activism and in what ways will the Act hinder active engagement? How will this Act affect European investors’ decisions about investing in US securities? What has been the reaction to date among non-US institutions?
15.30 Refreshment Break
Koepelzaal Foyer
16.00 What Can We Learn from the BP Disaster?
Panel Discussion
Koepelzaal
Moderator:
Raj Thamotheram
Senior Adviser, Responsible Investment
AXA Investment Managers Ltd.
United Kingdom
Panelists:
Claudia Kruse
Head of Corporate Governance
APG
The Netherlands
Robert Klijn
ESG Specialist
Fair Impact
The Netherlands
Louise Rouse
Director of Investor Engagement
FairPensions (FairShare Educational Foundation)
United Kingdom
Frank Curtiss
Head of Corporate Governance
Railpen Investments
United Kingdom
Much has been written about BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Most commentaries approach the crisis from a particular viewpoint: technical failure, weakness of regulatory oversight, cost-cutting at BP, failure of corporate responsibility, etc. Valuable as these focused perspectives are, they do not shed light on the systemic nature of the problem and how the factors interact. Nor do they extrapolate what this disaster has meant in the broader sense -- the lessons that can learned and applied to other companies and their shareholders. This session will examine the BP case and what we can learn from it that can be applied to company and shareholder responsibility in the broader sense.
16.45 The Current and Future State of Socially Responsible Investing
Panel Discussion
Koepelzaal
Panelists:
Abigail Herron
Corporate Governance Manager
Co-operative Asset Management
United Kingdom
Thomas H. Kjaergaard
Head of SRI & Corporate Governance
Danske Capital
Denmark
Erik Feldt
Managing Director
Nordea Investment Funds
Sweden
Andy White
Sustainable Investment Consultant
United Kingdom
This final panel discussion of the program will consolidate and expand upon many of the main points of discussion from previous sessions, but will also look ahead to predict some of the major issues active/responsible investors will be focusing on the near to medium-term future, including:
• Do ESG-focused shareholders contribute in any way to the continuing financial crisis? Are they helping in any constructive manner?
• Identifying and resolving the double standards (eg, not investing in a firm’s equity but continuing to hold its debt)
• Should activist investors screen countries as they do companies?
• How should ESG/SRI-compliant investing be implemented? Exclusion versus effecting positive change.
• Can passive investors become active owners?
17.30 Constructive Entrepreneurism
Keynote Session
Koepelzaal
Presented by:
Sir Richard Branson
Founder and President
Virgin Group
Few individuals have influenced our world in such a pioneering way as Sir Richard Branson. But what principles guide him, and what continues to motivate him as he pushes toward each new frontier?
18.20 Cocktail Reception
Balcony
19.20 Program Concludes
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