Mark Steed is Chief Investment Officer at Arizona PSPRS Trust, a US public defined benefit fund with over $13 bn AUM, where he has spent over 14 years. He previously worked as a banker and prior to that as a financial analyst, and has a Masters in Predictive Analytics. He describes himself as an “investment ideas” guy and an out of the box thinker at that.

An out of the box thinker and public fund CIO takes us out of the box to discuss his current investment ideas and what it takes to motivate a retain a team.

Jim McNamee, is President of the National Public Pension Fund Association.  He is director of Stonegate Insurance, Unique Insurance Company and Resolute Global Partners as well as the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association which he founded in 1985. He was formerly a police officer.

Charlotte O’Leary is Chief Executive Officer and Director of Pensions for Purpose, which exists as a bridge between asset managers, pension funds and their professional advisers, to encourage the flow of capital towards impact investment. She has had a long career in investment management, with a particular focus on pensions as well as ESG and impact investing. She is also a passionate participant in fitness competitions – particularly those organized under the Hyrox Brand. 

Charlotte O’Leary is Chief Executive Officer and Director of Pensions for Purpose, which exists as a bridge between asset managers, pension funds and their professional advisers, to encourage the flow of capital towards impact investment. She has had a long career in investment management, with a particular focus on pensions as well as ESG and impact investing. She is also a passionate participant in fitness competitions – particularly those organized under the Hyrox Brand. 

Doug Heron is Chief Executive Officer at CERN pension fund based in Geneva, a role he assumed in August 2021. He was formerly Chief Executive Officer of Lothian Pension Fund, and prior to that held a number of finance industry roles throughout banking and asset management. He’s a trustee director of the NatWest group pension funds and was a Member of the Business Council of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland for five years.

David Vickers is Chief Investment Officer at Brunel Pensions Partnership Limited, which manages assets on behalf of 10 partner funds within the local government pension scheme, representing about £30 billion He has extensive experience and investing in the multi asset arena, where he has spent time managing assets for a range of institutional investors.

Johara Farhadieh is Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of The Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI), in which she oversees a $20 bn defined benefit fund and a $5 bn dollar defined contribution plan with over 150,000 beneficiaries. She has been at ISBI for over 13 years, and prior to that was a financial analyst. She was named an All-Star Chief Investment Officer by Trusted Insight and ISBI was ranked number one in private equity returns among public pension funds in 2020 by the American Investment Council.

A story about resilience and a refusal to accept “no” for an answer when it comes to building diversity in an institutional portfolio.

Karen Shackleton is the founder and head of Pensions for Purpose, a collaborative initiative to promote understanding of impact investment for institutional investors. This is in addition to a portfolio career which includes roles as investment adviser to four local authority pension funds, as well as Chair and Non-Executive Director roles. She has spent most of her career in investment, including time as a fund manager, client relationship manager and chief executive of an Investment Advisory Firm. She is a frequent speaker on the institutional investor circuit and a passionate advocate for knowledge and action in impact investment.

A fast-paced discussion of a career driven by ambition and dedication, which is now evident in the Pensions for Purpose created by Karen which is creating tremendous impact among the pension fund community.

Stavros Siokos is managing partner and co-founder at Astarte Capital Partners. He started his career with Salomon Brothers in NYC in the mid-nineties, was sent to London and later was managing director of Citigroup responsible for the global trading strategies across the firm and for the product solution for all pension funds and insurance companies across the world. He was formerly Head of Investment Management at Piraeus Bank.