To learn more about the summit speakers and book your place at the ESG Investment Leader, North America conference, click here.
Adam Frankel, City Commissioner And Board Member, City Of Delray General Employees Retirement Fund: I am a Certified Public Pension Plan Trustee in the State of Florida and in my panel discussion, I will be sharing what is deemed as a contrarian view.
In spite of a rocky start for the investment market, I will be discussing why I feel investors should stay the course with their allocation and why I feel optimistic on the outlook for returns.
I will share why looking at returns on one to two-year horizon is counterintuitive and why I believe seven to nine years is a more realistic timeline that investors should consider. After a length shut down and with different variants impacting, our economy is making its way back to normal, which will take some time and patience.
I will also be sharing about how my role as a pension trustee has evolved, especially when it comes to due diligence, particularly in this world where we are inundated with a plethora of information.
Susan Oh, Director Of ESG Research, PA Public School Employees’ Retirement System: I will be covering my sustainable investing research thus far.
In developing strategic sustainability initiatives, it is important for organisations to craft their own definition as each organisation has different needs and objectives.
We identified three long-term structural trends shaping the global economy: the largest technological transformation in history, the impact of millennials, and the importance of intangible assets.
What are the key financially material factors to capture this digitisation trend? We believe they are CTI, culture and transformative innovation, factors.
The key to future success is utilising a holistic investment framework to direct capital to those investments which are continually unlocking the transforming power of people in their ecosystem.
It will capture the alpha opportunities arising from rapidly evolving, transformative disruptors while tactically managing transition risks associated with investment exposures vulnerable to disruptions.
Gina Sanchez, Board Member and ESG Specialist, Los Angeles County Employees’ Retirement Association: I will be speaking about the importance that the Los Angeles County Employees’ Retirement Association (LACERA) has placed on ESG and sustainability, and the efforts we have made in incorporating it into our investment practice.
This spans from due diligence to risk assessment to the allocation of investment capital. Attendees will hear about the four-year journey that LACERA has been on in the ESG space. We hope the entire industry will be inspired to pivot and make similar changes to their investment approach.
I will also be discussing the evolution of sustainability and of the ESG world as it relates to regulation, legal recourse and the path towards standardisation of disclosures. I believe that we are getting closer to seeing this come to fruition, which will result in fairer pricing of investment risks.
In addition, I will be sharing my thoughts on the impact that the pandemic has had on how we view the importance of standardisation and normalisation, in light of the phenomena of the Great Resignation and the Great Reflection. I will be taking a thought-provoking, deep-dive into the areas of racial and gender justice and fairness in the workplace and the positive impact that this can have on societies and communities.
(The statements in this interview are my own and are not made on behalf of LACERA or its Board of Investments.)
To learn more about the summit speakers and book your place at the ESG Investment Leader, North America conference, click here.
