Scenario analysis shows that the ability of pension funds to pay their pensions will be severely impacted by climate. Under different scenarios interest rates, GDP and bonds will all be negatively impacted with inflationary pressure rising. How can investors innovate and adjust their portfolio construction to protect their funded position from this inevitable threat?
Innes McKeand is head of strategic equities at USS Investment Management, the investment management arm of the Universities Superannuation Scheme. He is responsible for all of USS’s listed equities portfolios across developed and emerging markets and is a member of the asset allocation committee. McKeand was previously head of equities at AustralianSuper, the largest superannuation scheme in Australia. His roles during his more than 30-year career have included head of equities at Kames Capital, chief investment officer at AIB Investment Managers in Dublin, and CIO at Scottish Life Assurance.
Barbara Zvan is the president and chief executive at University Pension Plan Ontario.
Formerly, she was chief risk and strategy officer for the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP). Under her leadership, the strategy and risk team supported the plan’s sponsors in weighing plan design decisions, its board in setting appropriate benchmarks and risk tolerances, and its Investment division in designing a long-horizon total fund strategy. She crafted OTPP’s responsible investing and climate risk management strategy and directed its enterprise and operational risk management approach. After nearly 25 years, Zvan left OTPP in 2020 to pursue new opportunities.
Zvan is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and holds an Institute of Corporate Directors designation and a Master of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo. She is on the board of the Global Risk Institute and the advisory board of the Queen’s University Smith School of Business Institute of Sustainable Finance. She has chaired the International Centre of Pension Management and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s Investor Advisory Group, and sat on the boards of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, Cadillac Fairview, and the Chilean water utilities Esval (Essbio) S.A.
She was one of four appointees to the Government of Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance, which delivered its final recommendations in June 2019. She also played a significant role in creating the G7 Investor Leadership Network, which represents over $6 trillion in AUM. Zvan is an honouree of Canada’s 2020 Clean50 and one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2008.
Tate has been an investment industry media publisher and conference producer since 1996. In his media career, Tate has launched and overseen dozens of print and electronic publications. He is the chief executive and major shareholder of Conexus Financial, which was established in 2005, and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
The company hosts more than 20 conferences and events globally each year and publishes three digital publications, including the global website and strategy newsletter for global institutional investors Top1000Funds.com, Professional Planner for financial planners, accountants and private bankers in Australia and Investment Magazine for Australian superfunds and institutional investors. One of the company’s signature events is the bi-annual Fiduciary Investors Symposium attended by global asset owners and hosted in the Americas and Europe.
Conexus Financial’s events aim to place the responsibilities of investors in wider societal and political contexts, as well as promote the long-term stability of markets and sustainable retirement incomes.
Tate served for seven years on the board of Australia’s most high profile homeless charity, The Wayside Chapel; and he has underwritten the welfare of 60,000 people in 28 villages throughout Uganda via The Hunger Project. In 2021 was appointed as a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (General Division) for significant service to the community through charitable initiatives.
