Will the relentless pursuit of efficiency undermine our ability to build a resilient and sustainable future? Andrea Caloisi, a researcher at the Thinking Ahead Institute at WTW, explores how complex systems, driven by short-term optimisation, may be fuelling long-term fragility.
Professor Dirk Schoenmaker, investment committee chair of the €250 billion ($291 billion) Dutch healthcare pension fund Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW), whose expertise has helped inform its “3D” investment strategy, explains why less is more in an equity allocation with fewer stocks.
After hiring former CalPERS’ investment chief Ben Meng six months ago, Canadian pension giant CPP Investments has added another seasoned pension executive, Kevin Bong, to its investment team, in a sign that the C$732 billion ($530 billion) behemoth is staffing up to focus on alpha and enhance total portfolio management.
The $13.2 billion Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association fund is planning a major overhaul of its equity portfolio, shifting from a passive US-focused approach to a more global, actively-managed strategy in an effort to boost returns. The shift will result in manager terminations and searches.
Singapore’s Temasek has unveiled its biggest organisational overhaul in more than a decade, splitting its investment portfolio into three entities to “sharpen” investment focus, boost accountability and align performance metrics. It came as the fund targets a 60/40 split between the “resilient” and “dynamic” assets to weatherproof its portfolio.
Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund has divested from US machinery manufacturer Caterpillar and five Israeli banks in its equity portfolio as it ratchets up pressure on firms contributing to rights violations in Palestinian territories.
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