2026 Nordic Institutional Investor Forum

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Armi Taipale

Head of Department for Capital Markets Supervision , Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority

Armi Taipale is Head of Department for Capital Markets Supervision at the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA). She joined the FIN-FSA in 2019.

She has previously worked at the Ministry of Finance, Financial Markets Department as Head of the Unit for Capital Markets and Market Infrastructure and in various positions as economist and legislative counsellor. Prior to this she was also deputy board membership in the State Pension Fund of Finland and board membership in the Auditor Oversight Board of the Finnish Chambers of Commerce.

She has a master’s degree in Law from the University of Helsinki and a master’s degree in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics (now part of Aalto University).

Kari Vatanen

Head of Asset Allocation, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company

Kari Vatanen is the head of asset allocation and alternatives at Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company in Finland. Previously, he worked as a Chief Investment Officer at Veritas Pension Insurance, as a head of cross-asset derivatives and as a Chief Risk Officer at Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company. Mr. Vatanen is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Portfolio Management, and he has written articles on asset allocation, risk management, and alternative risk premia investing.

He holds a M.Sc. in Engineering Mathematics from Aalto University and a M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Helsinki. He is a CFA Charterholder with the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification.

Mark Aarons

Head of Asset Classes, Victoria's Funds Management Corporation (VFMC)

Mark’s Absolute Returns role involves leading the team which covers Hedge Funds and Private Credit (circa 20% of VFMC’s AUM). His risk role encompasses total portfolio risk analysis, SAA and ALM modelling and defensive overlays. Mark is a member of the Investment Leadership Team and Investment Committee. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Centre for Quantitative Finance and Investment Strategies at Monash University.

Prior to working at VFMC, Mark was global Head of FICC Structuring at the National Australia Bank from 2010 to 2017, where he built a leading institutional derivatives structuring and sales business in Australia and the UK. Mark also spent four years in London with NAB working in both market risk and in front office on a rates trading desk.

Mark holds Bachelor degrees in Law and Science (both with Honours) from Monash University and a PhD in Mathematics jointly from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Mark is also the co-author of a book on securitisation swaps which was published by Wiley Finance in 2019 and has published several finance papers.

Greg Conlon

Chief Executive Officer, High Ridge Aviation

An experienced business leader with deep and positive relationships across the industry, Greg is High Ridge Aviation’s Chief Executive Officer. Established in 2022 by PIMCO, High Ridge Aviation (HRA) is an asset manager principally focused on arranging and structuring financing and liquidity solutions to commercial airline operators. Greg’s extensive aviation finance experience spans Leadership, Capital Markets, Asset Trading, OEM Management, Sales, and Debt Financing.

Prior to HRA, Greg served as President & CEO of GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), President & CEO of Milestone Aviation, EVP of GECAS’ Aircraft Trading, SVP & Regional Manager for GECAS’ US Sales and Marketing Operations, and as SVP of Originations for PK AirFinance.

Previously, Greg held various finance and sales positions with Boeing Capital Corporation and McDonnell Douglas Finance Corporation.

Martin Jost

Head Product Specialist, Capital Fund Management

Based in Paris, Martin is CFM's Head Product Specialist within the Business Development team, working with institutional investors globally. He works closely with the Research team and is responsible for a team running technical analyses for clients and communicating CFM’s investment approach for its various investment programs.

Martin has over 15 years of experience in the financial industry and has previously worked in London in the Investment Banking division of Rabobank and Société Générale, where he structured equity derivatives and hybrid trading strategies.

He graduated from Centrale-Supélec engineering school, earned a BS. in Economics from Université Paris Sud, and an MSc in Finance with Distinction from Imperial College London where he studied financial engineering.

Razvan Remsing

Chief Product Strategist, Aspect Capital Limited

Razvan Remsing is Aspect Capital’s Chief Product Strategist and a member of the Investment Committee. The Investment Committee is responsible for reviewing and approving all research leading to new or improved trading strategies, as well as for the ongoing monitoring of existing strategies and client portfolios. Razvan’s role spans the product development and research functions at Aspect. He chairs Aspect’s Product Committee and heads the Investment Solutions team, who provide quantitative expertise to clients on the investment process and the development of new product ideas. His primary responsibility is client engagement on matters relating to strategies, products, performance, and research.

Prior to joining Aspect in 2010, Razvan worked at Skybound Capital, Clear Horizon Capital, and PeregrineQuant in various quantitative research roles.

He graduated with distinctions in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, and Physics from Rhodes University (2001). He holds a BSc (Hons) in Theoretical Physics from Wits University (2002) and an MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Cape Town (2004), and he is a CFA Charterholder.

Ilkka Harju

Director, Tax Department, Finnish Ministry of Finance

Ilkka Harju, graduated with a Master of Laws degree from the University of Helsinki in 1987 and joined the Ministry of Finance in 1992. He served almost 20 years (1998-2017) as an advisor to the director general and a member of the management group of the financial markets department and a deputy member of the board of the Financial Supervision Authority (1993-2008) and the board of Insurance Supervision Authority (1999-2008).

From March 2009 to September 2017 he was a Finnish member in the European Securities Committee (ESC) within the EC (DG FISMA). He was a member of an expert group on removing tax obstacles to cross-border venture capital investments (2008-2010). During the 1999 Finnish EU Presidency he was Council working group chairman in charge of the UCITS III Directive negotiations and was also the Finnish delegate in Council negotiations on various financial services directives and regulations. Since October 2017 he has mainly focused on tax issues with regard to financial services.

Antti Ilmanen

Principal & Global Co-Head of Portfolio Solutions Group, AQR Capital Management

Antti Ilmanen is a Principal and Global Co-head of the Portfolio Solutions Group at AQR Capital Management. In this role, he manages the team responsible for advising institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds and develops the firm's broad investment ideas.

Prior to joining AQR, Antti spent seven years as a senior portfolio manager at Brevan Howard and a decade in a variety of roles at Salomon Brothers/Citigroup. He began his career as a central bank portfolio manager in Finland. Over the years, he has advised many institutional investors, including Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation.

Antti has published extensively in finance and investment journals and has received a Graham and Dodd award, the Harry M. Markowitz special distinction award, and multiple Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy awards for his articles. He has written two books, Expected Returns (2011) and Investing Amid Low Expected Returns (2022).

He has received the CFA Institute's Leadership in Global Investment Award (2017) and was appointed as an Honorary Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School (2026). Antti earned M.Sc. degrees in economics and law from the University of Helsinki and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Chicago.

Brian Digney

Research and Content Director, SBAI

Brian Digney joined the SBAI in March 2023 in the role of Research and Content Director. He is responsible for content development and co-ordination of the ongoing and future working groups on a wide variety of topics, including valuation of private assets, ESG & carbon footprinting, governance, insurance linked strategies, digital assets, asset management regulation and compliance as well as new topics to be determined in the future.

Prior to joining the SBAI, Brian was the Head of Due Diligence & Governance Oversight at Innocap Global Investment Management (Ireland) Ltd (2018-2023) in Dublin, a subsidiary of Innocap Investment Management Inc., a US$50bn hedge fund platform. He acted as Designated Person for Operational Risk Management, a regulated role by the Central Bank of Ireland. He also sat on Innocap’s Irish Risk Oversight and Valuation Committees. In 2017, Brian joined Albourne Partners in London as a Senior Operational Due Diligence Analyst. From 2015 to 2017 he was employed as an Operational Due Diligence Analyst at Mercer Sentinel in London. From 2010 to 2015 he held various Associate level roles at Decura LLP, Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Brian holds an LLB Hons in Law with Criminology and an M.Sc. in Management and Corporate Governance from University of Ulster. Brian is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Muzo Kayacan

Director & Head of EMEA Product Strategy, BlackRock

Muzo Kayacan, CFA, Director, is a Portfolio Manager and Head of EMEA Product Strategy in the Systematic Active Equity division of BlackRock's Portfolio Management Group. He is responsible for managing Global and European funds as well as overseeing the EMEA Product Strategy team, who provide a link between investment teams and clients.

Prior to joining Blackrock in 2010, Mr. Kayacan was a Senior Associate Portfolio Manager at AllianceBernstein, where he was responsible for implementing investment decisions in Global Developed and Emerging Markets institutional equity portfolios, as well implementing active and passive currency hedging strategies. From 2005-2007 he completed a graduate training scheme with M&G, followed by a role in the product development team. Before joining M&G he was a futures trader.

Mr Kayacan earned a bachelors degree in Psychology from Warwick University in 2003. He is a CFA charterholder.

Louis Bourrousse

Chief Executive Officer, Scor Investment Partners

Louis joined SCOR in 2013 as Head of Strategy & Development at SCOR Global Investments, before being appointed as Head of Strategic Planning & Investments in 2017 and Head of Investment Business Performance in 2019. In November 2021, he was promoted to Head of Business Development and member of the Executive Board of SCOR Investment Partners to oversee sales and marketing functions. Since November 2023, he is Chief Executive Officer of SCOR Investment Partners.

He started his career in 2006 as an investment banker specializing in mergers and acquisitions at Oddo BHF and Nomura.

Louis is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and holds a Master’s degree in Finance from ENSAE ParisTech.

Trevor Mottl

Portfolio Manager, AI Quant Equity, Magnetar

Trevor Mottl is Magnetar's Head of AI Quant Equity and a Portfolio Manager. He recently joined the firm to lead the development of its AI Quant strategy, bringing over 20 years of experience at the intersection of finance, technology, and AI with deep expertise in AI-driven quantitative strategies.

Prior to joining Magnetar, Mr. Mottl pioneered LLM-based quantitative strategies as a Portfolio Manager at Walleye Capital from 2023 to 2024. From 2019 to 2023, he served as a Managing Director at Lazard Asset Management, where he built and led the firm's AI-driven investment platform. Earlier in his career, Mr. Mottl held senior leadership positions at Balyasny, Man GLG, and Susquehanna. He also served as a partner at Fusion Fund, a Palo Alto venture firm focused on early-stage companies in enterprise AI, healthcare, and industrial technology.

Mr. Mottl graduated from Brown University and currently lectures at the University of California, Berkeley.

Kevin Bong

MD, Head of Portfolio Design & Construction, CPP Investments

As Head of Portfolio Design & Construction, Kevin leads the team responsible for portfolio construction, investment targets, and top-down sustainable investing integration across the organization. His group focuses on systematic risk factors that underpin performance and diversification, portfolio construction and optimization, and the overall design of total fund decisions.

Kevin joined CPP Investments in 2025. He was most recently Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist at AIMCo, where he led the development and execution of the Total Fund and Total Portfolio strategies, as well as the creation of dynamic capital projection models for long-term portfolio value creation. Prior to AIMCo, Kevin spent over a decade in various investment roles across Investment Policy and Strategy, Economics, and External Fund Management at GIC in Singapore and NYC. He currently holds several committee and board roles at the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute, the National University of Singapore, the Toteboard, and the Singapore Labour Foundation.

He holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science as well as a BSc in Management Science (Finance) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.