Annual General Assembly

Paul Ashby

Senior Analyst, Albourne Partners

Paul has been a Senior Analyst at Albourne Partners since 2019.

He has held prior roles at Insight Investment, Cheyne Capital, Marathon-London, and Aviva Investors.

Bindu Besser

Managing Director, Sustainable Investing, CPP Investments

Bindu has been with CPP Investments since 2017. She joined the firm’s Credit Investments team in Europe, with a focus on investing in European sub-investment credit opportunities. During her time in Credit Investments, Bindu built out the Fund’s leveraged loan platform in Europe. Recently, Bindu has joined the Sustainable Investing team, which helps investment teams consider and integrate material environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters in their engagements and investment lifecycles. Within the Sustainable Investing group, Bindu focuses on climate change-related efforts across the Fund.

Prior to joining CPP Investments, Bindu was at Davidson Kempner investing in event-driven, opportunistic and distressed investments across Europe. Previously, she was at FTI Consulting and Ernst & Young Corporate Finance, both in New York, advising creditors in restructurings, primarily in Chapter 11.

Bindu holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in Finance and Management, and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Lucy Bond

Head of HR UK and EEA, Man Group

Lucy Bond is the Head of HR for the UK and EEA at Man Group, based in London. Prior to this, she was the Deputy Chief of Staff for Infrastructure and has also held the roles of Head of Sales, Distribution and Marketing Compliance, Head of Compliance for Man Solutions and Head of Compliance Due Diligence in the Financial Crime team at Man Group.

Before joining Man Group in January 2015, Lucy held various roles in compliance and regulation at Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange.

Lucy has a LLB (Laws) from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Patrick Bronger

Portfolio Manager, APG Asset Management

Drs. Patrick Bronger has been an Expert Portfolio Manager for Hedge Funds and Alternative Alpha at APG Asset Management based in Amsterdam since 2017. He also has been a Senior Lecturer in Investment Management at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam since 2002.

Between 2014 and 2017, Patrick was Chief Investment Officer & Member Executive Board at Conservatrix Group in Baarn. Prior to that, he was Head of Investment Strategy at ASR Nederland in Utrecht in 2010-2014. He also worked as Senior Portfolio Manager responsible for Hedge Funds & Tactical Asset Allocation between 2002 and 2010. In 1999-2002 he was an option trader at the German Derivatives Exchange Eurex. Between 1994 and 1999, Patrick was a researcher and a lecturer at Rotterdam School of Management.

Patrick followed the PhD programme at Rotterdam School of Management. He has a Master’s Degree in Financial Modelling from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as well as a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a non-executive board member of several organizations in the healthcare sector and the cultural sector.

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.

Pontus von Essen

Head of Strategy, AP7

Pontus von Essen is responsible for developing the business strategy for The Seventh Swedish National Pension Fund (AP7). He acts as an advisor to the CEO and deputy CEO in both business, strategy and macro analysis. Previously he was Head of Fixed Income, FX and Alpha at AP7, managing a team of four PMs.

Mr von Essen has over fifteen years of asset management and capital markets experience. Previously, he was Deputy CIO at Ericsson Pension Management with assets of 8bn USD. Earlier in his career he held positions within proprietary trading and institutional sales at the Swedish bank, SEB.

Mr von Essen holds a Master of Science in Finance with a major in Investments from the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE).

Stuart Fiertz

Co-Founder, President and Director of Research, Cheyne Capital Management

Stuart Fiertz is the Co-Founder, President and Director of Research of Cheyne Capital. From 1991 to June 2000, and prior to establishing Cheyne Capital, Stuart worked for Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for the development and implementation of customised portfolio strategies and for credit research in the convertible bond management practice.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Stuart was an equity research analyst for the Value Line Investment Survey, and a high yield credit analyst in Boston at Merrill Lynch and in New York at Lehman Brothers. Stuart is a CFA® charterholder and a CAIA designee. He is chairman of the Alternative Credit Council (ACC) and a Founder & Trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI). From 2014 until 2020, Stuart was also a council director of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) board.

Stuart has been awarded the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing. Stuart was educated at the International School of Geneva and at Dartmouth College where he was awarded a BA degree in Political Science and Economics.

Julien Gottrant

Head of Operational Due Diligence, Pictet Alternative Advisors

Julien joined Pictet Alternative Advisors in 2011 and is Head of Operational Due Diligence covering hedge funds, private equity and real estate funds.

Prior to joining Pictet, Julien conducted hedge fund operational due diligences for Unigestion, a Swiss asset management firm. Prior to that, Julien worked as a financial auditor in EY’s Financial Services practice in Luxembourg and New York.

Julien holds a degree in Audit and Finance from SKEMA Business School and is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) charterholder.

Flora Hudson-Evans

Director of Human Resources, Aspect Capital Limited

Flora is Director of Human Resources and responsible for Aspect’s overall people strategy.

Her wide range of responsibilities include recruitment (including apprentices, graduates, mid- and senior level executives and researchers), training, reward, culture, wellbeing and more. Aspect aims to attract and retain the best people in the industry, regardless of their background, by giving them the support and opportunity to thrive at work. Flora joined the firm in 2003 after trialling a Maths and Statistics degree at the University of Sussex for a year, before she realised that studies weren’t for her and that working would be a better fit. She has two young daughters and enjoys getting out of London when she can.

Tom Joy

Chief Investment Officer, Church Commissioners for England

Tom is the Commissioners' Chief Investment Officer, responsible for oversight of the investment function and management of the multi-asset portfolio. He previously worked as Chief Investment Officer of RMB Asset Management after a number of years at Schroder Investment Management. He started his career at Royal Sun Alliance Investment Management and is an associate member of the CFA Society of the UK.

Pierre Lenders

Managing Director, Head of Sustainability, Capital Fund Management

Pierre Lenders heads ESG at CFM since Oct 2019, including the research and integration of sustainability factors into equity programs.

Pierre started his career in 1986 as a market-maker in fixed income, FX and equity derivatives, before heading trading floors as senior member of the JP Morgan global macro team. After 6 years in NY as CEO of Murex NA, he got into Fund of HFs around 2007, becoming CEO and Co-CIO of HDF Finance, gradually embracing responsible investing as financially savvier. From 2013 onwards, alpha generation from sustainability became his sole focus, through a dedicated FinTech, Prius Partners, a data project ran for CDP, then the launch of TerreNeuve Capital, a sustainability focused equity long short.

Pierre graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1984 and ENSAE in 1986.

Maria Long

Research and Content Director , SBAI

Maria Long joined the SBAI as Research & Content Director in August 2020. She is responsible for content development and co-ordination of the ongoing and future working groups on a wide variety of topics, including governance, insurance linked strategies, standardisation of disclosure, valuation, alternative credit, responsible investment, asset management regulation and compliance as well as new topics to be determined in the future.

Prior to the SBAI, Maria spent 12 years at Man FRM, most recently in Operational Due Diligence (2015-2020) and before that as Head of FRM Middle Office (2008-2015). Maria also has worked in Fund Administration in Dublin and in Operations at Investment Managers in London.

Maria received an BSc Natural Sciences (Astronomy & Planetary Science) with First Class Honours in 2017 from The Open University.

Elena Manola-Bonthond

Chief Investment Officer, CERN Pension Fund

Elena Manola-Bonthond, PhD, MBA, is Chief Investment Officer of the Pension Fund of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The Fund manages approximately 4 billion Swiss francs in assets, both internally and externally. Elena has played an instrumental role in defining and implementing an investment governance framework optimised for dynamic risk management.

Before joining the CERN Pension Fund, Elena worked in CERN's science sector where she was responsible for the safety and risk management system of CERN's flagship installation, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Before that, she worked as a research physicist at CERN. Elena holds a PhD in particle physics from the University of Savoie, France, and CERN, and an MBA in international management from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Furthermore, she is a CAIA charterholder.

Rebecca Manuel

Managing Director, Global Partnerships, CDPQ

Rebecca Manuel leads the focus on developing and enhancing CDPQ’s partner relationships with leading institutional investors and investment managers, industrial partners, family offices and financial institutions. Based in London, she and the broader Mondial team work closely with CDPQ’s investment teams and partners to strengthen partnerships and identify quality opportunities for the broader CDPQ organization.

Ms. Manuel joined CDPQ in June 2019 as Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships for Europe, then led the Strategic Partnerships and Major Financial Institutions team prior to assuming her current role. She has over 25 years of financial services experience. She has held the positions of Partner, Strategy and Investor Relations at Pollen Street Capital and Managing Director, Global Sovereign Wealth Fund Coverage, Investment Banking, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She was also Global Head of Sovereign Wealth Coverage and Global Head of Loan Syndicate at Royal Bank of Scotland.

She holds a BA in International Economic Relations from the University of Michigan and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. She was named one of Financial News’s “100 Most Influential Women in EMEA Finance” in 2008 and 2010. Rebecca also serves on the Board of Trustees for The American School in London.

Jason Mitchell

Co-Head of Responsible Investment, Man Group

Jason Mitchell is Co-Head of Responsible Investment at Man Group and co-chairs Man Group’s Stewardship and Active Ownership Committee. He has held this position since July 2018.

Jason worked at Man GLG from 2004 to 2008 as a portfolio manager. Between 2008 to 2010, he advised the UK government on infrastructure development across Sub-Saharan Africa. He returned to Man GLG in 2010 as a portfolio manager, before becoming a sustainability strategist across Man Group in 2017.

Prior to Man GLG, he was a Vice President at Andor Capital Management and an investment research analyst with Pequot Capital Management.

Jason serves on the Esmée Fairbairn Investment Committee, SASB (Sustainable Accounting Standards Board) Investor Advisory Group, the CFA Institute’s ESG Technical Committee, the World Bank Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) Advisory Group and the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Academic Advisory Committee. He previously served on the EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group) Lab Steering Group and chaired the PRI Hedge Funds Advisory Committee.

Jason holds a MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree in English literature and classics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and the British-American Project. He was named one of Institutional Investor’s 2011 Hedge Fund Rising Stars.

Dan Neale

Social Themes Lead, Church Commissioners for England

Dan is the Social Themes lead at the Church Commissioners for England, an ethical endowment fund committed to leading responsible investment practices and grounded in a principle of ‘respect for people’.

He previously led the World Benchmarking Alliance’s ‘social transformation’, integrating social considerations into benchmarks of the world’s most influential 2,000 companies to ensure the SDG transformations are just and leave no one behind.

From 2017 to 2019, Dan was the Director of the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB). Prior to CHRB he was a social performance consultant, working in extractives and renewables projects in Africa, the Middle East and Europe and spent the best part of a decade with the British military with several years working in civil-military coordination and conflict stabilisation roles.

Dan has a bachelor’s degree in physics and a masters in Security, Conflict and International Development. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability.

Scott Palmer

Head of Operational Due Diligence , USS Investment Management

Scott Palmer is the Head of Operational Due Diligence at USS Investment Management (“USSIM”) and has been with the firm since 2011. He is responsible for the initial and on-going ODD monitoring of external investments which include hedge funds, private equity, long-only funds, direct lending and infrastructure.

Prior to joining USS, Scott worked in various roles at JP Morgan, including hedge fund derivative structuring. He has also previously worked at Amber Partners, RBC and PwC.

Scott graduated with Honours from McGill University in Montreal and is a Chartered Accountant and CFA charterholder.

Donald Pepper

Co-CEO, Trium Capital LLP

Donald joined Trium Capital in September 2017 as Co-CEO and is a member of Trium’s Investment Committee. Trium is a Multi-PM Liquid Alternatives firm set up in 2015.

Donald began his career in finance in Fixed Income Sales at Goldman Sachs in 1987, moving to Prime Brokerage Sales in 2000, where he was responsible for Relative Value, Multi-Strategy, Credit and Global Macro hedge funds. From 2003-2008 Donald was Managing Director of Prime Brokerage for EMEA at Merrill Lynch. In 2008 Donald moved to the buy-side, as Head of Hedge Funds at New Star Asset Management/Henderson Global Investors where his responsibilities included being Co-Portfolio Manager of two Fund of Hedge Funds. Donald was an Investment Director at TT International (2010-2012) before joining Old Mutual Global Investors (2012-2017) as Head of Alternatives. Donald’s responsibilities included being a member of the Style Premia Investment Committee.

Donald read Philosophy, Politics & Economics at The Queen’s College, Oxford where he received an MA. He is a CFA Charterholder and holds the CFA Certificate of ESG Investing.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Chair, Head of Investment Funds and External Management, CDPQ

Mario Therrien leads CDPQ’s investment funds activities. The teams he oversees invest in private investment funds and credit in private markets, as well as in venture capital in Québec and internationally. They are also responsible for external management in equity markets, as well as developing and managing strategic and institutional relationships. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Investment-Risk Committee.

Prior to this role, Mr. Therrien was Senior Vice-President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets. He joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities in liquid-asset classes.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.

Ben Wilkinson

Partner, Baker McKenzie LLP

Ben Wilkinson is a partner in Baker McKenzie's Banking and Finance Practice in London. Ben's experience includes advising investment banks and private credit funds in relation to cross-border acquisition finance transactions, in particular those with complex capital structures.

Ben regularly advises lenders, borrowers and financial advisors in connection with the debt financing of acquisitions of public companies. Ben also acts for a variety of lender syndicates, steering committees, sponsors and companies in relation to various restructuring matters.

Ben is recognised as a key individual for acquisition finance and bank lending in Legal 500 UK, 2021.