Global and local industry leaders to debate investment issues
Thought leaders from the local and global investment industry will once again descend upon Cape Town on 6 and 7 September for the third annual African Cup of Investment Management, hosted by IMN and lead sponsor Sanlam Investment Management (SIM). This un
Helena Conradie, head of sim.smartcore – SIM’s smart beta and indexation investment business – says she is thrilled with the calibre of speakers and panelists involved. “The objective this year is to generate robust discussion on issues within the African investment space and identify key challenges facing institutional and retail investors. Highlights will include expert speakers and panels that will offer unique insights and spark debate around a number of pressing themes – topics include ‘Creating an investment strategy for today’s volatile market’, ‘Redefining benchmarks’ , ‘Understanding your client psyche’, and ‘Investing out of Africa’, to name a few. The separate financial advisor track being introduced this year is also expected to be a highlight.”
Exceptional panelists and keynote speakers:
Conradie says the two international keynote speakers, Charles D. Ellis and Meir Statman, will offer fresh insights and provide unquestionable quality to the event.
Ellis, the founder of Greenwich Associates, will present ‘50 years of learning in 50 minutes and 5 major questions’. one of these major questions being ‘Do we mislead our clients – and ourselves?’. Ellis serves as an investment consultant to large institutional investors, government organisations, and wealthy families through various business ventures and partnerships. He has authored a total of 16 books, including the best-seller ‘Winning the Loser’s Game’. He has also written over 100 articles for business and professional journals.
The second international keynote speaker, Meir Statman, is the Glenn Klimek professor of finance at Santa Clara University, and visiting professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Statman will deliver a presentation entitled ‘What Investors Really Want: Lessons from Behavioural Finance’. He has conducted widely acclaimed research focussing on behavioural finance, where he attempts to understand how investors and managers make financial decisions and how these decisions are reflected in financial markets. Statman authored the award-winning book, "What Investors Really Want".
The local keynote speaker will be David McCarthy, a retirement policy specialist at National Treasury, considered an international pension economics expert. McCarthy has published widely on this topic and has lectured in finance at various business schools. He holds a PhD in insurance and risk management from the University of Pennsylvania.
Conradie will join Mike Brown, managing director of ETF SA, Vladimir Nedeljkovic, head of ETFs and index products at ABSA Capital in a roundtable discussion focusing on ‘Using exchange traded products and unit trusts as building blocks’. Concluding day one will be a robust debate between leading investment firm CEOs on the importance of transparency to clients led by Marc Ashton, Editor of Finweek. This panel includes Johan van der Merwe (Sanlam Investments) and Hugo Nelson (Coronation).
