2023 AGENDA

Mr. Courey has over 22 years of experience within High Yield credit markets. Prior to AlbaCore, he led Credit Suisse’s High Yield bond trading team. Prior to that, Mr. Courey was at Morgan Stanley where he worked in the High Yield media research team with Mr. Allen, before becoming an Executive Director in the fixed-income credit business, trading all parts of the capital structure.

Mr. Courey graduated summa cum laude from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a minor in French. For over a decade, he served as a member of the board of trustees of Seeds of Peace, an international non-profit that focuses on leadership development in conflict regions.

Crispian is a Partner at PwC in the AWM practice specialising in the definition and delivery of new operating models as a result of business and regulatory change. He has over 20 years of experience in Financial Services managing programme delivery of senior level and complex engagements. He advises a range of private markets clients on how they can scale their operating model to cope with the growth they are experiencing. Crispian has also worked on the design and delivery of new funds including sovereign wealth funds and the build of the largest PE fund for which he won the Best Change Project at the Management Consultants Association's awards.

Sahem joined M&G Investments in May 2021 and leads the Private Assets Strategy & Consulting team. He has over nine years’ industry experience and is passionate about driving positive change within businesses with extensive experience across Private Equity, Private Debt, Infrastructure and Real Assets. 

Sahem is responsible for working alongside Senior Leaders within the Private Assets organization to shape the strategy & vision, lead target operating model reviews & design as well as managing key initiatives focused on strategic & scalable growth. He is also a Diversity & Inclusiveness ambassador at M&G Investments.

Tim joined ICG in 2011 and has 15 years+ in alternative investments technology, with experience across private equity, real estate, secondaries, direct lending, and credit strategies.

Tim runs a multidisciplinary team of change experts, covering the full-investment lifecycle including origination, client onboarding, portfolio management, credit monitoring, reporting, and ESG.

Andrew is the Alternatives CFO for EMEA (ex-Germany).

Andrew joined DWS in 2017 as CFO for the Europe II fund, becoming Real Estate CFO/Deputy CFO in February 2020 and then Alternatives CFO in March 2022.

Previously he worked for UK Real Estate portfolio manager Mayfair Capital, part of the Swiss Life Asset Managers group.

At Mayfair Capital he was responsible for the finance and operations of all of the firm’s funds and also acted as financial controller for the regulated management company.

Prior to this he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Shipleys LLP, where he specialised in funds and regulated clients.

Andrew holds a BA in Politics from the University of York and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Harpreet Lakhan is a globally recognised Private Capital technology, reporting & data expert. Over his 20+ years of industry experience, he has designed and implemented technology solutions for over 150 Alternative Investment Managers, including both GPs and LPs, across the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. A Private Capital data model expert, he also led the development of a product that was later acquired by eFront. 

At Holland Mountain, Harpreet led the development & launch of the consulting firm’s ATLAS Data Platform, now leveraged by many of the leading Private Capital firms & Asset Managers globally, to connect siloed data sources, achieve a single source of truth and enable advanced reporting. Harpreet leads the ATLAS team, continually evolving the suite of ATLAS solutions to solve the Private Capital industry’s challenges, and successfully implementing them for the firm’s clients.

Dawn Marie La Monica is an Interim Executive covering Regulations, Compliance and Operational Risk. She specialises in governance, conduct and organisational infrastructure and was the Interim Group Head of Compliance for MV Credit, with offices in London, Luxembourg and Paris. Dawn is an active member of AIMA, an expert public speaker and an Executive Coach. Dawn specialises in working closely with Management Committees during times of transition or rapid growth and is known for her candid, straightforward, practical advice on difficult topics. She is never afraid of talking about the issues that are trickier to approach. Prior to MV Credit, Dawn held senior regulatory consulting roles at Eisler Capital and Resolution Life. She was the Head of Operational Risk and Compliance for Orchard Street and held the CF10 and CF11 for 3 years with Cairn Capital, a credit asset manager. She has also worked directly at the FCA on an interim basis, managing a team of 5 consultants implementing AIFMD and spent one year at Cordium (the compliance consultancy later bought out by ACA). With a diverse background, she started her career in Wall Street in NYC before moving onto law school. Dawn is passionate about ESG, governance, and equality. She is a New York qualified lawyer and attended Georgetown Law and Boston College in the USA.

Manish joined Impax in 2015 where he is responsible for overseeing the fund reporting and tax structuring of Impax’s New Energy Funds. During this time, he has led the setup and structuring of two new Private Infrastructure Funds, one in the UK and another in Luxembourg. He leads on all Finance and operation fund raising activities with investors from pitching, DDQs, side letters and onboarding.

Prior to joining Impax, between 2009 and 2015, he worked at KPMG. He went through the graduate scheme and left as an audit manager working on large, listed investment management clients his portfolio of clients included a range of mutual fund clients, hedge funds and private equity/infrastructure clients, most recently working on those in the renewables sector.

He holds a BSc in Mathematics the University of Bristol and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales.

Sachin Anandikar joined Pemberton in 2021 as a Managing Director for Working Capital Finance and has taken on an extended role as a Chief Technology Officer for Pemberton. He is responsible for setting a vision and strategy for technology including platforms, innovation and change, resourcing, and prioritization of technology initiatives across the firm. He brings over 20 years of experience in financial services at Greensill Capital, HSBC, Citi, and Morgan Stanley.

Sachin has led large teams in various verticals including risk, technology, and product functions, and has extensive experience in a wide range of products including receivables finance, securitisations, credit cards, and consumer loans. Sachin was responsible for creating the distribution desk for HSBC’s Global Trade and Receivables Finance business in Singapore, Hong Kong, London, and New York.

Sachin holds an MS in Computer Science from Illinois State University, US, and an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, US.

Alasdair is an independent consultant who specialises in improving investment managers’ client experience, particularly through digital transformation and operational effectiveness.  Alasdair started his career in operations and IT, before running corporate strategy, sales and business change teams in the UK and Hong Kong.  He spent 7 years as a consultant delivering change programmes for global asset managers, transforming investment platforms, product ranges, CRM systems and operational processes before joining Standard Life Investments in 2012.  As abrdn’s Global Head of Client Experience, Alasdair was responsible for the post-sale service proposition including abrdn’s digital client engagement strategy, as well as their RFP & presentation capability.

Experienced alternative assets operations manager with a specialty in credit assets. Focus and expertise are on optimising data governance, data structure and architecture and data flow for private market usage.

Rob Knight is a consulting Managing Director who specialises in Operations and Regulations. She is also a NED on the Board of East London Business Alliance. Rob’s unique professional background spans successful leadership roles within large international businesses, with teams in Asia, Europe, India, UK and USA. Until recently she was Head of Global Business Services at Barings (USD 347B+ AUM), sitting on Barings’ Operations Leadership Team, Pricing Committee and Client Asset Oversight Working Group. She has a keen interest in automation and data science to create more efficient and scalable workflows.

Rob served as Chairperson for the UK Investment Association’s Trade & Transaction reporting Committee until 2022, where she contributed to engagement with European and UK regulators. Prior to joining Barings, Rob was led the fiduciary management team for Citigroup – Asset Management Unit (London).

In 2007 Rob co-founded the award-winning Barings’ See The Possibilities student programme for university and college students. This program introduces students to the financial services industry, while opening doors to entry level Analyst roles. 

She holds a MBA, the CFA UK: Investment Management Certificate, and is a member of the Chartered Governance Institute.

Maya Sibul is a Reporter and Content Producer at Clear Path Analysis. She works across Insurance-Investor.com and FundOperator.com, conducting interviews and writing news analysis pieces. She previously worked in financial services and editorial.

Claire is the Chief Technology and Operating Officer at Savills IM. In this role, she is responsible for the Global  Operating Platform and procedures as well as the digital capabilities used to better serve Savills IM’s clients. Claire is also a member of external European Industry Technology committees. Claire joined Savills IM in 2022 having held similar roles at Aberdeen Standard Investments and the Cromwell Group

James is a founding member of Eos Venture Partners, a strategic Venture Capital fund that invests in early-stage InsurTech businesses and partners with (re)insurers to accelerate their innovation strategy and execution. Eos investors include leading global (re)insurers from the US, Canada, UK, Europe, and Asia across all major product lines. At Eos, James is responsible for the sourcing, evaluation, and execution of investments, and sits on a number of Eos portfolio company Boards. James is a mentor on the Accenture FinTech Lab and Diversity.VC programmes. 

Prior to joining Eos, James was an Associate Director at KPMG within the Insurance Deal Advisory practice where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. James has extensive transaction and investment-related experience in the insurance sector across the general, life, Lloyd’s, and distribution markets.

Alex Bray has more than 25 years of working in Private Markets technology, strategy, and organisational transformation. He started his career as a quantitative programmer and progressed to leading enterprise-wide change and technology projects across the Hedge Fund, Private Equity, Investment Banking, and Real Estate industries. He is currently the Head of Change and co-head of the “TechLab – Innovation and Change” teams at Patrizia SE. 

Xavier Debrun heads the Economics and Research Department of the National Bank of Belgium and is a member of the European Fiscal Board. After obtaining a Ph.D. in international economics from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Xavier spent most of his 20-year professional career in the Fiscal Affairs and Research Departments of the International Monetary Fund. He has regularly taught in academic institutions, including the University of Geneva and the Catholic University of Louvain. His research interests focus on international policy coordination, the economics of currency unions, and macro-fiscal issues, including debt sustainability assessments and the stabilizing role of fiscal policy. He led many technical cooperation missions for the IMF in relation to the design and operation of fiscal policy rules, budgetary forecasting, and the introduction of independent fiscal institutions.

Martin Collins works for 20-20 Trustees as a Trustee Director, and has worked in pensions for 30 years as a scheme actuary, a derivative structurer, a chief investment officer and as the employer for a £40bn pension scheme. 

Arif Saad, CFA, is Co-Head of Investment Strategy, responsible for designing and developing strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies for our UK clients, including the use of liability hedging, alternatives, and research of innovative asset classes. 

Prior to joining Kempen in 2020, Arif was a Fiduciary Manager at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), and one of the architects of their fiduciary management offering. Prior to this, Arif was head of the
Strategic Client Relationship Executive team at LGIM, working with their largest and most sophisticated UK pension funds clients, focusing on risk management and derivative strategies. Arif began his career within
Mercer’s UK investment consulting business, where he advised a portfolio of defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds on the full spectrum of investment issues, including investment strategy, manager and mandate structure, manager selection, transitions, and performance analysis.

Arif graduated from the University of Warwick with a BSc (Hons) in Industrial Economics. He is a CFA Charterholder and in 2021, Financial News named him a Rising Star in Asset Management.

Roger is a Director of Ross Trustees and an APPT Accredited professional trustee. He chairs the trustee boards of many schemes of various shapes and sizes. He is a Past President of the Society of Pension Professionals, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, and a member of various industry bodies. 

Kedi is currently a UK Chief Investment Officer at Aspen, responsible for UK investment strategy and group investment initiatives. 

Prior to this, he was a Vice President in Insurance Solutions at Nomura, covering origination, structuring, and execution of Cross-Asset Investment Solutions, Derivatives, Financing, and reinsurance transactions for the insurance sector. Previously, He was a Portfolio Solutions Manager at LGIM responsible for structuring bespoke outcome-oriented investment solutions and strategies across asset classes for insurers and pension funds. During his early career, he also worked as an Investment Specialist at Aon and Executive in Corporate Deal Advisory at KPMG.

Kedi graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Master’s degree. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, Chair of the Cash flow Driven Investment Working Party at IFoA, and a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Irshaad Ahmad is Head of Global Distribution Ardevora Asset Management, a global equities asset management specialist.

Irshaad joined Ardevora in September 2022 from Canada Post Corporation where he was Chief Investment Officer of the Corporation’s Pension Fund.  In this role, he was responsible for the development and implementation of the investment strategy for Canada Post’s CA$32 billion defined benefit pension fund across asset classes, including fixed income, equities, real estate and private equity.

Prior to joining Canada Post in February 2021, Irshaad spent over four years with Allianz Global Investors where he was a Managing Director and Head of Institutional Europe.  From July 2011 – December 2015, Irshaad was Chief Executive Officer, Head of AXA Investment Management, UK & Nordics and prior to this, Irshaad spent seven years with Russell Investments, initially in Toronto as President & Managing Director of Russell Investments Canada before relocating to London in January 2010 as Managing Director of Russell Investments UK Ltd.

Irshaad began his career with Mercer HR Consulting in Toronto as a Principle and National Partner.  Irshaad holds a BSc in Mathematics & Statistics from the University of Toronto.

Cléo Fitzsimons is Head of Responsible Investing at Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC). Cléo leads PIC’s Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) efforts and is a member of the Investment Team. She is responsible for integrating ESG into the investment process, assessing ESG opportunities, embedding ESG into the overall investment strategy, and ensuring PIC is an active member of the sustainable financial industry. 

Prior to joining PIC Cléo spent 10 years in the Asset & Wealth Management industry at Schroders. She holds a dual Masters degree from the London School of Economics and ESADE business school in Barcelona and a First Class Honours business undergraduate degree from Concordia University in Montreal. Cléo is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments (CISI) and holds the Investment Management Certificated awarded by the CFA institute. 

Philip is Head of Distribution UK & Ireland at BNP Paribas AM having joined in November 2017. Since joining Philip has worked closely with the Solutions team to design and develop innovative ESG, liquid and illiquid oriented institutional strategies such as the Diversified Private Credit Fund developed for NEST in 2018. Prior to joining BNP Paribas Asset Management from Allianz Global Investors where he spent 16 years working with institutional clients. During his time with the Allianz Group, Philip was involved in the creation and ongoing governance of a number of products across multi-asset, listed and private markets, including the launch of the first UK fund to facilitate primary greenfield transactions in infrastructure debt for institutional investors. Philip has an M.Sc. in Geography from Kings College, University of London having studied climate change and environmental issues in the mid-1990s.

With a wide-ranging background in economics, Suren oversees ICAEW’s economic thought leadership work and is a regular commentator on the UK economy featuring regularly on television and radio and in the national press.  Suren also directs ICAEW’s policy work on trade, technology, and financial services. Prior to joining ICAEW, he spent nine years heading the economics team at the British Chambers of Commerce.

James has joined Fidelity International as Workplace Investment Director in February 2023 with 13 years of DC investment industry expertise and joins Fidelity from Aon where he was Head of DC Investments for 8 years advising Trust and Contract schemes on their investment strategy and driving forward UK DC Investment house views, governing Aon’s DC Product and evaluating the quality of Providers’ propositions. James was also a member of the Bank of England sponsored Productive Working Finance Group, working toward enabling access for DC schemes into less liquid assets. 

Paul is responsible for the overall strategic design and management of the Smart Pension Master Trust’s investment proposition, and its relationships with its fund managers. He is a member of the Trustee Investment Sub-committee, and chairs the Scheme Strategist.

Before joining Smart Pension in February 2019, Paul was a Managing Director at BlackRock (and subsequently Aegon), leading their UK defined contribution workplace pension business. During his time at BlackRock, Paul drove the development and introduction of master trust and income drawdown products, as well as enhancements to the firm’s UK target date fund range.  He has also held senior positions at Fidelity, AXA and PwC.

Andrew is a board level financial services sector leader with experience in both the private and public sectors. He is experienced in strategy development, change management, board effectiveness, operational governance, regulatory compliance, and sustainable investment strategies, including in alternative asset classes.

Prior to becoming a professional trustee and non-executive director in 2020, he was the CEO of LGPS Central Limited, an asset pool for eight Midlands Local Authority pension schemes with combined assets of c£45bn, the Executive Director for Regulatory Policy at The Pensions Regulator, where he was responsible for formulating the regulator’s DB, DC, AE and international policy, and a Partner at Aon Hewitt where he held a variety of management consulting roles within the firm’s pensions, insurance and investment practices.

Currently, he Chairs the Scottish Widows Master Trust, is a Co-Trustee of the Cushon Master Trust, and is the Independent Chair of the Guiide DB Governance Committee and the MyCSP Limited board. Previously he was Chair of the Mencap Pension Plan.

He is a member of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the Pensions Management Institute, and an Accredited Professional Pension Trustee.

Fred is a Senior Adviser at the Pensions Regulator.  He provides specialist input on pension scheme investments to TPR colleagues and speaks regularly at industry conferences. He joined TPR in 2014 to establish the investment consulting team. Prior to joining TPR, Fred worked for a number of leading consultancies providing investment advice to pension schemes.    

Maya Sibul is a Reporter and Content Producer at Clear Path Analysis. She works across Insurance-Investor.com and FundOperator.com, conducting interviews and writing news analysis pieces. She previously worked in financial services and editorial.

Nenna is Head of Investment Strategy for Just Group, a specialist provider of retirement income products and services in the UK. Nenna is responsible for the investment strategy of £15bn of balance sheet assets, including the strategic asset allocation and investment evaluation of private credit assets. Previously, Nenna worked for Investment Consultancy, Mercer, with roles in fixed income manager research and fiduciary management. Nenna has a PhD in Mathematics from University College London, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Daniel Blamont is head of investment strategy at Phoenix Group within the Corporate Development team. Amongst other, he is responsible for Strategic Asset Allocation for shareholder businesses and derivative strategy for the Group. Daniel has been at Phoenix since 2012. Prior to that, he worked for over nine years in investment banking, starting in fixed income research at Deutsche Bank in 2002. From 2006 to 2012 Daniel was in Insurance & Pension structuring at Deutsche Bank and subsequently Credit Suisse.

Daniel holds a MSc. in Financial Mathematics from Warwick University and a BSc. in Mathematics and Management from King’s College London.

Chris is Head of Illiquid Assets Origination at Phoenix Group plc, with prime responsibility for the deployment and economic returns of Phoenix Group's private credit portfolios. He was previously an Investment Director at ReAssure, leading up to the acquisition of ReAssure by Phoenix.

The Phoenix Illiquid Assets team originates, executes, and has portfolio management responsibility for the Group’s investments in commercial real estate debt, infrastructure debt, local authority funding, social housing, private placements, and structured finance, including swap repacks. Assets are held in support of the heritage annuity and the open pensions businesses, including BPA.

Chris has over 25 years' of experience in structuring, pricing, and investing in fixed-income securities and in private debt; he began his career in corporate lending and M&A with Lloyds Bank. Chris ran the credit trading desk at AIB in London, and was a Portfolio Manager of Old Mutual's Strategic Bond Fund and also of Legal & General's High Income Trust. He holds a Masters Degree from the University of Cambridge, is a Fellow of the London Institute of Banking & Finance and until recently was the CIO of the Swiss Re GB Pension Scheme.