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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