2023 Annual Nordic Institutional Investor Forum

Markus Aho

Chief Investment Officer, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company

Markus Aho serves as the Chief Investment Officer of Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company. Varma provides pension insurance for Finnish work and invests pension assets of over 59 billion euros (12/2023) responsibly and profitably for future pensions.

He is currently a member of the Board and Audit Committee at Mandatum plc and member of number of Shareholders’ Nomination Boards of Finnish publicly listed companies. Markus has worked at Varma since 2014 in various positions; previously Head of Private Investments 1‒4/2022, Head of Private Equity and Infrastructure 2016‒2021, and Portfolio Manager, Private Equity in 2014–2016.

Prior to joining Varma in 2014, Markus led direct private equity investing at a Helsinki based family office Pontos Group in years 2008‒2013. His prior professional experience includes global strategy consulting at Accenture in years 2005‒2008.

Markus holds a Master of Science in Technology from Helsinki University of Technology, current Aalto University.

Dominic Bokor-Ingram

Senior Portfolio Manager, Emerging and Frontier Markets, Fiera Capital (UK) Ltd

Dominic joined Fiera Capital (Europe) in 2013 and co-manages the Frontier Markets, MENA and OAKS strategies. He previously held a series of senior positions at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and, from 2006, Renaissance Capital, the EMEA investment bank operating in high opportunity emerging and frontier markets.

With over 30 years of industry experience, Dominic began his career in financial services in 1989, initially specialising in closed-end funds and then, from 1992, in emerging markets. Between 1995 and 2002 Dominic worked for Regent Pacific, from which Fiera Capital was demerged, where he was responsible for managing 23 Eastern European funds. 

Dominic is an economics and statistics graduate from the University of Exeter.

Manuela Cedarmas

Head of ESG and Impact Strategies , Investcorp Tages

Prior to joining Tages in 2013, Manuela was the former Head of Hedge Fund Investments at Duemme SGR. She previously worked for Unifortune SGR, with responsibility over the creation and management of Fund of Funds. She worked for the Italian Stock Exchange in Milan and at the Derivative Desk of Citibank Milan.

Manuela holds an MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and is a CFA Charter holder.

Edward Cole

Head of Multi-Strategy Equities , Man Group

Edward (‘Ed’) Cole is Head of Multi-Strategy Equities within Solutions at Man Group, where he is responsible for equity content in multi-strategy funds and institutional solutions. He is a member of the Solutions’ Investment Committee in this capacity. He was formerly Managing Director of Discretionary Investments, where he oversaw the multi-manager equity hedge fund platform.

He was also a member of the Discretionary Management Committee. Ed previously focused on emerging markets, as an equity strategist at JPMorgan, and latterly as a portfolio manager overseeing long only, long-short and multi-asset strategies.

Ed has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Bristol, and a master’s in Development Economics from the London School of Economics.

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.

Thomas Dobler

Senior Vice President, Portfolio Manager, Multi-Asset Class Strategies, Acadian Asset Management

Thomas joined Acadian in 2017 and is a portfolio manager on the Multi-Asset Class Strategies Investment Team. Prior to Acadian, he was a managing director of Multi-Asset Strategies at BlackRock. Previously, Thomas was a portfolio manager and head of tactical trading within the Hedge Fund Strategies Group at Goldman Sachs in New York.

Thomas started his career in quantitative research at Salomon Brothers Asset Management.

He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Columbia University, an M.S. in mathematics from the University of Illinois, and a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Vienna, Austria.

Stuart Fiertz

SBAI Trustee; 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.

Dr Ajay Gambhir

Senior Research Fellow, Imperial College London Grantham Institute

Dr Ajay Gambhir is a Senior Research Fellow at the Imperial College London Grantham Institute, where he has worked for 12 years. He focuses on low-carbon transitions, including pathways to a net-zero future at global, regional and national levels.

His work encompasses studying how fast we can switch from fossil fuel to low-carbon technologies, processes of technology innovation and cost reduction, just transitions to ensure decent employment for all energy sector workers, and the impacts of climate change on energy, land and agricultural systems.

He was previously the Team Leader for EU and International Climate Change Economics at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Aaron Garcia

Head of Investments, Bermuda, Hiscox Re Insurance Linked Strategies Ltd

Aaron is a seasoned portfolio manager with over 12 years of experience in the reinsurance and insurance-linked securities industry. He is responsible for leading a team that manages a portfolio of circa $2bn in capital, developing and implementing investment strategies, overseeing the construction of portfolios, and collaborating with the sourcing and underwriting team to identify new opportunities. Aaron works closely with other senior executives to develop and implement the firm's strategy.

Aaron's career includes previous roles as a catastrophe underwriter at Lloyd's Syndicate Novae and as a broker at Jardine Lloyd Thompson, where he specialized in Power, Terrorism, and Property.

He is a CFA and CPCU charter holder and has a BA (Hons) in Business Administration from IESIDE Business School and the University of Cardiff. In addition, he completed the Harvard Business School’s Executive MBA alternative.

Michael Hamer

Partner and Senior Analyst , Albourne Partners

Michael Hamer is a Partner and Senior Analyst at Albourne Partners, a leading alternatives consulting company. He has been a full-time employee since Jun 2005, initially covering esoteric strategies including insurance and more recently specializing in Insurance funds.

Prior to joining Albourne, he was with Centre Re, a finite risk reinsurer in London. Dublin and Bermuda in management, underwriting and risk management. Before joining Centre Re, Michael had spent 15 years with JP Morgan in Financial Analysis (London), Strategic Planning (NYC), Capital markets (NYC), Corporate Finance (Australia) and Mergers and Acquisition Advisory (London).

Michael has a B.Sc (Hons) from Melbourne University in Pure and Applied Mathematics and a M.Phil and a D.Phil in Mathematical Economics from Oxford University.

Hampus Hårdeman

Sustainability Director, Brummer & Partners

Hampus Hårdeman joined the Brummer & Partners Sustainability team in 2018 and has 10+ years of experience from the Responsible Investment industry. Hampus advises all Investment Managers in the Brummer & Partners group on sustainability related matters such as responsible investment policy development, sustainable finance regulation, and communication. He provides expertise in ESG integration practices including management of proxy voting and engagement, as well as ESG-data procurement and management.

He has a background from leading roles at Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) ESG division (Previously Ethix SRI Advisors), which he joined in 2010. At Ethix SRI Advisors, he established the ESG division´s Clients Services & Operations team and following the integration into ISS in 2015 he took on a fully commercial role managing all Nordic client relations. During his career, he has had the opportunity to support and advise leading Nordic institutions on ESG integration in an equal mix of large asset owners and a wide variety of asset managers.

Hampus holds a Master of Science, Business Administration and Economics from the Stockholm University School of Business.

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.

Mika Jaatinen

SBAI EMEA Committee Member; Portfolio Manager Hedge Fund Investments, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company

Mika Jaatinen is a Portfolio Manager of Elo’s Hedge Fund investments. Mika joined Pension Fennia (Pension Fennia and Pension Tapiola merged in 2014) in 2004 as a risk analyst covering Fennia’s capital market investments. Mika became portfolio manager of hedge fund investments in 2007. Mika has also been responsible for equity mutual fund selection in Fennia from 2010 until the merger with Pension Tapiola.

Mika holds an MSc in economics degree from the Jyväskylä University.

Anthony Kettle

Partner, Senior Portfolio Manager, Emerging Markets, Bluebay Asset Management

Anthony is a Senior Portfolio Manager within the Emerging Markets Team. Anthony joined RBC BlueBay in March 2006 and his primary portfolio management responsibilities include the EM long-short credit strategy, the EM Unconstrained Bond Fund and the suite of EM Corporate long only funds.

Prior to joining RBC BlueBay, he held a management position at National Australia Bank.

Anthony holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Melbourne, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and is a CFA charterholder.

Hitesh Kumar

Senior Portfolio Manager, Orchard Global Asset Management

Hitesh is a Senior Portfolio Manager joining Orchard from UBS in October 2016. From 2009 to 2016 he was part of the Special Situations Group at UBS where he most recently was head of North America and Latin America. His team was responsible for sourcing, executing and managing a portfolio of bespoke/solutions-oriented private lending, distressed and structured credit investments across all industry sectors.

Prior to UBS, Hitesh was part of the principal finance and investment teams at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. He began his career at Wachovia Securities as part of its aircraft securitization team.

He gained a BSBA with a focus on finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; MBA from The Wharton School.

Marc van Loo

Investor Relations, Transtrend

Marc van Loo graduated in 1998 with a master's degree in economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands and has worked within the asset management industry since. He started at ABN AMRO Asset Management in 1998 as a trainee, became an equity analyst in 2000 and obtained portfolio management responsibilities in 2005.

In 2007 he moved to ING Investment Management (rebranded to NN Investment Partners in 2015), initially working as an equity analyst and portfolio manager and since 2015 as the head of the equity research team. During that period, he also fulfilled an active role at both the ING and NN pension funds as a member of the accountability body. He joined the Investor Relations team at Transtrend in September 2019 and is a member of the ESG committee.

Marc has been a CFA charterholder since 2002.

Joe Mares

Portfolio Manager , Trium Capital LLP

Joe joined Trium in 2017 and developed his pioneering approach to seeking to harvest alpha, with an equity market neutral, factor-constrained approach. Joe utilises engagement with companies in the high-emitting sectors to seek effective and timely emissions reductions pathways. Joe launched the Trium ESG Emissions Improvers Fund, with seed capital from a Nordic institution and from Trium Capital, in 2019.

Prior to joining Trium, Joe worked at some of the largest banks and hedge funds in the world. He began his career at Morgan Stanley in 1997 in investment banking and equity research in energy & shipping. In 2007, Joe moved to the buy side as lead Equity & Commodities Analyst for Greg Coffey, first at GLG and then Moore Capital from 2009.

Joe was a Portfolio Manager at Société Générale from 2011-2016, responsible for a fundamental global equity market neutral book, focused on energy, resources, shipping, and utilities.

Joe holds a Bachelor’s degree from the School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.

Ann-Sofie Vallee Odenberg

Head of Sustainability, Brummer & Partners

Ann-Sofie Odenberg is Head of Sustainability at Brummer & Partners and advises all Investment Managers in the Brummer & Partners group on sustainability related matters such as responsible investment policy development, ESG integration practises, sustainable finance regulation, active ownership activities, and reporting and communication. Ann-Sofie is also a member of Brummer & Partners’ Responsible Investment Committee which sets the strategic direction and priorities for the group’s sustainability activities. Ann-Sofie joined Brummer & Partners in 2008 as Executive Advisor and has held various positions in the group, for example as Head of Investor Communication and Sustainability, before starting to focus full time on sustainability and responsible investment in 2016.

Prior to joining Brummer & Partners Ann-Sofie was a regulatory consultant at Kinetic Partners in London focusing on governance related projects in the finance industry, particularly for hedge funds. Previously she was an analyst for a private equity fund focusing on financial institutions in Eastern Europe.

Ann-Sofie holds a Master of Science in Business and Economics from Stockholm School of Economics and her master thesis focused on corporate social responsibility.

Iivo Paukkeri

Head of Investments , Aalto University Endowment

Iivo Paukkeri is the Head of Investments at Aalto University Endowment. Iivo joined the endowment in 2009 as a portfolio manager, focusing on investment strategy, asset allocation and manager selection.

Prior to moving to his current role, he was responsible for the endowment’s alternative risk investments, including hedge funds.

He holds MSc (Econ) from Aalto University School of Economics. Aalto University is a foundation-based university in Finland. 

Razvan Remsing

Director of Investment Solutions, Aspect Capital Limited

Razvan joined Aspect Capital, the $10bn systematic investment manager, in July 2010 and is Director of Investment Solutions. Razvan is a member of Aspect’s Product Design Group and attends Investment Committee meetings. Razvan and his team are an integral part of the product development and research functions at Aspect and they provide quantitative expertise to Aspect’s clients on investment process and the development of new product ideas. Razvan’s primary responsibility is client engagement on matters relating to strategies, products, performance and research.

Prior to Aspect, Razvan worked at Skybound Capital, Clear Horizon Capital, and PeregrineQuant (now Vunani Fund Managers) in various quantitative research roles.

He graduated with distinctions in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Physics from Rhodes University. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Theoretical Physics from Wits University and was awarded an MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Cape Town and is a CFA Charter holder.

François Rivard

Chief Executive Officer, Innocap Investment Management Inc.

As Chief Executive Officer, François is responsible for establishing and delivering the overall vision, mission and growth strategy of Innocap. Francois drives Innocap’s vision of enhancing the way value is created for the communities represented by our clients while maintaining Innocap’s position as the industry-leading technology-enabled Dedicated Managed Account platform.

During his 25 years in the investment industry, François has held various senior functions in capital markets, wealth and asset management in Toronto, Montreal and London. Notably, in his role as Head of the Financial Products Group at National Bank of Canada, he was responsible for engineering and distribution of structured derivative-based investments globally. François is the recipient of Bishop’s University Top 10 Under 10 award, a standing YPO member (and past chapter board member), and has contributed or been featured in Bloomberg, the Globe and Mail, Derivatives Week, Structured Products Magazine as well as a featured speaker at various conferences in North America, London, Paris, Zurich, Abu Dhabi and Singapore. Since 2014 François has been a board member and active contributor to the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation, one of the largest sick kids hospitals and research centers in North America.

François received a BBA from Bishop’s University and an MBA from HULT Business School in London.

Nicolas Rousselet

Head of Business Development , Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management

Nicolas Rousselet is in charge of the development of the Front Office at Boussard & Gavaudan, a multi-strategy hedge fund based in London, Paris and New York. He is responsible for hiring talents, improving systems and processes and leads the efforts of the investment team regarding ESG investing.

Prior to joining Boussard & Gavaudan in 2018, Nicolas was Head of Hedge Funds at Unigestion in Geneva. He started his career at Fortis Investment Management where he was structuring products before joining Atlas Capital in London where he became Head of Research.

Nicolas holds a Master of Mathematics from Paris University.

Alan Shaffran

Senior Portfolio Manager, Magnetar Capital (UK) LLP

Mr. Shaffran runs Magnetar Capital’s European Fixed Income business and the firm’s London office. He serves on Magnetar's Management Committee and Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Magnetar in 2008, Mr. Shaffran was Global Head of Structuring at Rabobank in London, where he was responsible for Rabobank’s structured products businesses across asset classes ranging from credit and rates to equity and fund derivatives and was on the Management Team of Rabobank’s Global Financial Markets business. Previously he spent more than 19 years at Citigroup, and its precedent firm, Salomon Brothers, where from 2001 to 2006 he was Managing Director and Head of European Credit Derivatives in London. Prior to that, he was a founding member of Salomon Brothers’ Credit Derivatives and Emerging Markets Credit Derivatives trading desks in New York, and had roles in the firm’s Debt Capital Markets and Bond Portfolio Analysis groups.

Mr. Shaffran earned a BS in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and a BS in Systems Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Jarkko Soikkeli

Head of Strategy and Allocation , Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company

Jarkko Soikkeli, is the Head of Strategy and Allocation at Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company. Mr. Soikkeli joined Varma in 2017 from OP Group where he worked as a Head of Strategy in Asset Management and, prior to that, an Equity Strategist in Pohjola Markets Department.

Before joining Pohjola, Mr. Soikkeli held senior research positions at Swedbank, eQ Bank and FIM Group. Mr. Soikkeli also worked as a Chief Economist at the Federation of Finnish Enterprises (2004-2006), an economist at the International Monetary Fund (2000-2004) and at Sampo Bank (1997-2000).

He holds a graduate degree in economics from the Helsinki School of Economics, a CEFA from the Swedish School of Economics (Helsinki) and is an ASP graduate from the Kiel Institute of World Economy.

Harsh Srivastav

Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager , PIMCO

Mr. Srivastav is a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager in the London office, focusing on distressed and special situations investments for PIMCO’s distressed credit strategies.

Prior to joining PIMCO in 2018, he was a Vice President in the high yield and leveraged loans capital markets desk at Morgan Stanley. Previously, he worked on the leveraged finance desks at HSBC and Barclays, focusing on originating, structuring and executing deals in non-investment-grade credit.

He has 14 years of investment experience and holds an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Sheffield.

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).

Stephane Vial

Head of Investor Relations, EMEA, Capital Fund Management

Stéphane is the Head of Investor Relations, EMEA for CFM, having joined the firm in 2007. Stéphane is based in London and is in charge of CFM's EMEA client base. Stephane spent his first two years at CFM in Paris where he was responsible for European client coverage.

In 2009, Stéphane moved to Tokyo where he was the director of CFM Asia KK, before moving to London in 2013. Stéphane has 20 years’ experience in trading capital markets: he traded interest rate derivatives for Chase Manhattan Bank in London in the early 90s; Futures for Renaissance Technologies in Long Island, NY in the late 90s; Eastern Europe emerging market derivatives for Commerzbank between 2000 and 2004; and then traded liquid and electronic markets using statistical techniques for his own account.

Lorenzo Volpi

Deputy CIO, Managing Partner , Leadenhall Capital Partners

Lorenzo joined Leadenhall in 2010. He has over 25 years of capital markets and reinsurance broking experience (both traditional and non-traditional) having worked at Leadenhall Capital Partners since 2010 and previously at Aon Benfield Securities, BPM London, and Aon Re. At Leadenhall, Lorenzo is a Member of the Management Board, in charge of Global Business Development responsible for looking at new business opportunities and fundraising across non-life insurance investments and life & alternative credit investments.

During his career, Lorenzo looked at the complete spectrum of alternative methodologies of risk transfer, risk financing, and the convergence of the reinsurance and capital markets. He led the sourcing, structuring, marketing, and distribution of various projects and transactions on the securitization of insurance assets (including the setup of a couple of insurance linked asset managers).

He holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of London.

Laura Wickström

Deputy CIO and Portfolio Manager , Veritas Pension Insurance Company

Laura Wickström is deputy CIO and Portfolio Manager responsible for Private Equity and other illiquid fund investments at Veritas Pension Insurance Company. She has a long experience from alternative investments and fixed income from financial institutions globally.

Prior to joining Veritas in 2018, Laura was CEO at AIM Capital, an alternative asset manager in Helsinki. Laura started her career at ABN Amro Helsinki office in fixed income.

She has a Master’s degree from Helsinki School of Economics and is a CAIA charterholder.