13 November 2019 – Bart Heenk spoke at this year's annual CIPFA Pensions Conference on the topic of “Growing your business starts with good governance”. To see his presentation please click here.
20-21 June 2019 – Sally Bridgeland was a co-speaker at this event, on the topic of “Is more governance good governance?”
11-12 June 2019 – Sally Bridgeland was one of the speakers in Plenary 5 on 12 June – “Larry Fink, CEO, Blackrock, said: “We are going to see evidence over the long term that sustainable investing is going to be at least equivalent to core investments. I believe personally it will be higher.” So, is responsible investment now core to running pensions and institutional capital? If so, how? And why aren’t more pension funds and investment managers doing it?”
7 June 2019 – Dorothee Franzen attended this event by the Eberbacher Kreis, in Berlin.
7-8 May 2019 – Dorothee Franzen attended the annual meeting of the German pension fund association aba Jahrestagung in Bonn.
26 March 2019 – Everyone understands the importance of good risk management, including the regulator. Developing risk assessments, having a solid risk policy and a governance framework around risk management are crucial for good member outcomes. But how does a pension fund attract top risk managers? Avida has frequently been asked these questions by our pension fund clients. Until now we never had an adequate answer. We now think that pooling risk management resources with other pension funds may be the way forward for those funds not able to employ a full-time chief risk officer. At this breakfast roundtable our specialists explored the pros and cons of sharing risk management resources with fellow pension funds and led a roundtable discussion. If you are a senior pension fund representative interested in attending our roundtables in future please contact stephaniewindsor@avida-int.com.
On 18-19 March 2019, Bart Heenk attended this event on ‘Catalysing collaboration to solve complex problems in private markets’.
7 March 2019 – Dorothee Franzen attended this invitation-only event in Berlin-Mitte organised by the Eberbacher-Kreis.
6-8 March 2019 – Sarah Smart participated in the DC stream on ‘Passive v active investing for DC investors’ on 7 March.
30 January 2019 – Bart Heenk attended this event hosted by the Alternative Investments Institute.
27 November 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this event.
21 November 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this dinner.
9 November 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this roundtable.
8 November 2018 – Sally Bridgeland was a panellist in the ‘Practical thoughts on driving an ESG agenda’ session at this SPS conference.
1 November 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this seminar in London.
31 October 2018 – Bart Heenk and Simone Lavelle attended this reception in London.
11 October 2018 – Bart Heenk and Simone Lavelle attended this forum in London. Simone also attended the International Women’s Forum dinner.
9 October 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this conference.
25 September 2018 – this roundtable was organised together with Strategia Worldwide. Sir Richard Shirreff introduced the subject and discussed the importance of proper planning for crises. This was followed by a roundtable discussion. If you are a senior pension fund director/trustee interested in attending our roundtables, please contact stephaniewindsor@avida-int.com.
10 July 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this State Street event.
3 July 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended the Rabobank event.
20 June 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this annual lunch focused on FTSE 350 research.
19 June 2018 – Peter Kolthof, Partner and Country Head for Avida International in the Netherlands, introduced the subject and discussed his extensive experience of best practice in decision-support reporting. He laid down some challenges about how trustees make use of an executive team and advisers. This was followed by a roundtable discussion and a summary can be found here.
18 June 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this meeting on Chinese EQ.
14-15 June 2018 – Sally Bridgeland led a discussion on the use of factor investing on the first day of this summit.
3 – 4 May 2018 – Dorothee Franzen and Tim Juling attended the annual conference of the German pension fund association.
7 March 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this event.
27 February 2018 – Avida International organised a breakfast roundtable on running DB pensions from a CFO’s perspective. Annemarie Straathof talked about the governance changes she, as CFO Europe for Rabobank, helped effect during the last couple of years at their UK pension fund. This was followed by a roundtable discussion and a summary can be found here.
21-22 February 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended this event.
20 February 2018 – Bart Heenk attended this Summit.
24 January 2018 – Simone Lavelle attended “Finding Opportunities in a Volatile World” in London.
28-29 November 2017 – Paul Boerboom and Bart Heenk attended this event in Prague.
21 November 2017 – Simone Lavelle attended this conference in London.
3 November 2017 – Bart Heenk attended this event in New York
Dorothee Franzen comments on governance under the new social partner model in I&PE.
12 October 2017 – Dorothee Franzen spoke on Governance in the ‘Delivering Optimum Retirement Outcomes’ stream at this conference focused on ‘Saving the Next Billion from Old Age Poverty: Global Lessons for Local Action’
14 September 2017 – Dorothee Franzen attended the 11. Villa Mumm Konferenz: Investmentperspektiven und aktuelle Trends in der betrieblichen Zukunftsvorsorge
11-12 September 2017 – Dorothee Franzen and Paul Boerboom both attended the AllianzGI Oxford 2017 conferenceon coping with disruptive change.
30 June 2017 – Sally Bridgeland participated in a Panel on Culture at this conference.
26-28 June 2017 – Simone Lavelle attended this event at Castle Coombe.
8 June 2017 – On some occasions the trustee board of a pension fund is bigger than the executive team, leading to more ‘managers’ than ‘doers’. At our most recent breakfast roundtable we considered what the right mix might be and how the governance model should work.
If you are a senior pension fund director/trustee interested in attending our roundtables in future please contact stephaniewindsor@avida-int.com.
23-24 May 2017 – Dorothee Franzen chaired the Financial Literacy session at this conference in Paris.
10-11 May 2017 – Dorothee Franzen participated in this annual conference in Berlin.
15 March 2017 – Sally Bridgeland spoke at The Summit for Asset Management.
Peter Kolthof chaired two Financial Investigator roundtables – one for providers and one for pension fund clients.
During the roundtables, the importance of soft factors (match in culture) next to hard results was stressed, as well as the continuous and independent evaluation of a fiduciary manager.
3 March 2017 – Sally Bridgeland spoke as part of a plenary on ”What a pool will actually look like in the next 3/4 years according to experts outside the LGPS’.
1-3 February 2017 – Sally Bridgeland was a panellist at the Institutional Investor European Pensions Symposium focused on ‘Meeting long-term liabilities in an age of unpredictability‘.
13-15 November 2016 – Dorothee Franzen was a panellist on the ‘Collaboration in theory and practice session’ at the OpTrust Global Pension Leadership Summit.
13 October 2016 – Avida International celebrated it’s 10th anniversary with a London-based seminar on crisis management for pension funds. The keynote speaker was General Sir Richard Shirreff, Deputy Supreme Commander of NATO Europe 2010-2014 who talked about how the military deal with crisis management. He was joined by Martin Reeves, Senior Partner and Managing Director at the Boston Consulting Group’s New York office, and Director of the BCG Henderson Institute, who looked at adapting strategy to a changing landscape; Paul Boerboom and Sally Bridgeland of Avida International who gave practical examples of risk management and the lessons that can be learnt by the pensions industry; and Bart Heenk also of Avida International who talked about the importance of repeated practice and thorough preparation. The day was chaired by Professor Gordon Clark, Avida International Advisory Board member and Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford.
A brief summary of the day can be found here.
29-30 September 2016 – Paul Boerboom acted as commentator on the ‘New models of pension fund governance’ session at the 2016 Allianz-Oxford Pensions conference.
PANEL
10 June 2016 – Bart Heenk (MD, Avida International) chaired a panel discussion at the IPE 360 Conference at the London Stock Exchange. Joining him on the Panel were David Adkins (Chief Investment Officer at The Pensions Trust) and Anthony Webb (Head of Fiduciary Management Research at KPMG). The topic was:
Making Outsourcing Work: Fiduciary Management and other forms of Investment Strategy Delegation
PAN-EUROPEAN AUDIENCE
The audience consisted of the leading pension fund representatives from the UK, Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and other key European pension markets.
TOPICS
The discussion centred around the importance of being able to judge the value of outsourced activity. Financial data – such as performance, costs and risk – are only one factor in this; softer human factors – such as communication, trust and innovation – are just as important, though not always easy to quantify. Another topic was the importance of pension funds not being talked into a provider’s outsourcing model, but to work out precisely what their own needs are before deciding on who the provider should be. Too often investment consultants are leading the debate and transferring their pension fund clients from an advisory to a delegated model, whereas the best solution for the pension fund might be an altogether different method of outsourced decision-making. It was agreed that a proper and independent analysis has to precede the decision to change the mandate.
Het 10-jarig jubileum van Avida stond in het teken van het seminar ‘vertrouwen in onzekere tijden’ dat op 1 juni plaatsvond in Wassenaar. Hierbij een korte impressie van deze geanimeerde bijeenkomst.
Fees and costs are controversial issues in the investment industry. Steven Charlton, Aisha Dudhia and Bart Heenk break down the key challenges in the discourse in the Autumn issues of Professional Investor. Bart Heenk: “The average pension fund trustee has limited insight into management fees and no idea of the true costs. This is largely because there is not attempt by the industry to provide clear and complete reporting. In fact most costs are, and remain, hidden unless you specifically ask for them.”
Read the full article here.
1-2 October 2015 – Sally Bridgeland was one of the speakers at the Allianz-Oxford Pensions Conference 2015.
Beyond the mid-life crisis: Challenges for plan sponsors and trustees in the UK as DB pension funds mature.
Bart Heenk spoke about the trend of outsourced models such as investment consulting and fiduciary management at the Sanlam Investment Institutional Insights conference in Sandton, Cape Town.
8-10 June 2015 – Sally Bridgeland was a panellist on an asset allocation discussion panel at Marcus Evans’ EPI Summit.
10 March 2015 – Sally Bridgeland participated as a panelist in Marketforce’s The Future of Fund Management on the ‘Ask-the-experts panel discussion: improving dialogue with investors’.
2 October 2014 – Sally Bridgeland was the keynote speaker at the Annual pensions conference 2014: Living with Risk.