Join us for Next Generation Forum 2024

We're thrilled to announce the upcoming Next Generation Forum on Thursday 18th January 2024 at the exquisite Hotel Café Royal in the heart of London. For the past 15 years, we've remained committed to showcasing original ideas, including managers, strategies and funds to a handpicked group of fund selectors. This year's event promises an exciting lineup of emerging talent, intriguing product launches and unconventional asset classes.

Registration begins at 08:30, with a thought-provoking keynote at 09:00, followed by intimate boardroom discussions involving only 6-7 of your peers. The day concludes at 17:30 with a relaxed drinks reception and canapés. Complimentary accommodation is available for out-of-town attendees. With only 28 spots open to invitees, don't miss out on this oversubscribed event. We look forward to seeing you in January.

Register now

Programme

Upon arrival, you'll receive a personal programme outlining your agenda. Following the opening keynote, delegates will be divided into four small groups, each attending sessions in separate breakout rooms. The groups will be mixed throughout the conference, however delegates will see all eight presentations by the end of the day.

The following programme is for illustrative purposes only and does not indicate the order in which you will see the speakers at the event.

Time Session Topic
08:30 - 09:00 Registration
09:00 - 09:45 Welcome Address & Keynote
09:50 - 10:30 abrdn → Global Infrastructure – an essential growth & income component for investors →
10:35 - 11:15 Artemis Fund Managers → Leading consumer brands: investing in a changing world →
11:15 - 11:45 Coffee
11:45 - 12:25 BlackRock → Brown to green materials: overlooked until now →
12:25 - 13:05 Columbia Threadneedle Investments → Winds of change sweeping across Japan →
13:05 - 14:20 Lunch
14:20 - 15:00 HSBC Asset Management → Uncovering long-term opportunities in a marketplace enchanted by short-term outcomes →
15:00 - 15:40 Martin Currie → Maximising returns through social impact →
15:40 - 16:10 Tea
16:10 - 16:50 Ninety One → A purist quality approach to US equities →
16:50 - 17:30 Schroders → Re-thinking the Emerging Markets rule book →
17:30 Drinks Reception

Speakers

abrdn

Global Infrastructure – an essential growth & income component for investors

$550bn. The amount of money that is ear-marked by the US Inflation Reduction Act to build and rebuild US infrastructure. Everything from roads and bridges to water infrastructure, security resilience, energy infrastructure, the internet and communications networks.

October 2023. The date when abrdn introduced Infrastructure as an asset class into their long-term, strategic asset allocation.

January 2024. The first time ever in the UK that clients will have the chance to hear from Josh Duitz who manages the recently launched abrdn Global Infrastructure Equity Fund, abrdn’s first infrastructure pooled fund outside the US.

Josh Duitz

Head of Global Income and Infrastructure

Josh Duitz is Head of Global Income and Infrastructure at abrdn, where he actively manages the global dynamic dividend and global infrastructure funds. Before joining abrdn in 2018, he held a Portfolio Manager position at Alpine Woods Capital Management. Earlier in his career, Josh was a Managing Director and Principal at Bear Stearns, where he traded international equities. He also gained valuable experience as a senior auditor at Arthur Andersen. Josh holds an MBA with Honours from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA from Emory University.

Artemis Fund Managers

Leading consumer brands: investing in a changing world

Investing in consumer brands companies has historically generated above-market returns at sub-market volatility, making this theme attractive to investors looking for growth, inflation protection from the companies’ superior pricing power; and optionality from high cash generation, which is reinvested to drive growth or returned to shareholders. The secular rise of the emerging middle class consumer overlaid with demographic changes offers long-term tailwinds for an investment strategy focused on leading consumer brands. Consumer preferences are evolving in terms of sustainability as well as towards experiences – active management is key to separating the winners from the losers.

Swetha Ramachandran

Fund Manager

Swetha Ramachandran is a fund manager in the global equity team. She joined Artemis from GAM in September 2023 where she was manager of the GAM Luxury Brands Fund from 2019 to August 2023. Prior to joining GAM in 2012 as an analyst on the firm’s European strategies, she was a consumer analyst in the growth equities asset management arm of Alliance Bernstein, and before that an analyst at Credit Suisse and ESG ratings agency Vigeo in Paris. She began her career as an Asian equity analyst at Goldman Sachs in Singapore. Swetha holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Magistère in French from the Sorbonne and has completed the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing.

BlackRock

Brown to green materials: overlooked until now

Hannah's presentation will centre around her team's unique perspective on investing in the transition towards a low-carbon future. During her session, Hannah will focus on why her team sees an opportunity in companies that specialise in producing materials required for advancing low-carbon technologies. Additionally, she will delve into why her team believes investing in relatively high-emitting companies becoming greener is vital for the world and has the potential to deliver returns in excess of broader equity markets. Hannah will also expand on the team’s stock selection process, which involves on-site visits to mines, in-depth engagements with management teams, and modelling companies.

Hannah Johnson

Portfolio Manager

Hannah Johnson, CFA, Director and Portfolio Manager, is a member of the Thematics & Sectors team within BlackRock’s Fundamental Equities division. She is responsible for coverage of the materials sector and co-manages the team’s future of transport, brown to green materials and commodity strategy portfolios. Hannah’s service with the firm dates back to 2009. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2009, Hannah was a tax analyst at KPMG, where she was responsible for preparing corporation tax returns. Hannah earned a BSc degree in mathematics, from Imperial College, London, in 2009.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Winds of change sweeping across Japan

With growth set to accelerate, driven by stronger domestic demand and economic re-opening, the attractiveness of Japan’s investment landscape has recently drawn significant investor attention, while the favourable shift in corporate governance alongside supportive economic conditions continue to catalyse positive momentum. Columbia Threadneedle Investments believes their quality, core investment style; repeatable process; and experienced research expertise are well suited to generate consistent alpha in Japan through different market cycles over the long term.

Daisuke Nomoto

Head of Japanese Equities

Daisuke Nomoto is head of Japanese equities at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. Prior to his current role, he was a director and senior portfolio manager on the International Equity Team. Daisuke joined one of the Columbia Threadneedle Investments legacy firms in 2005.

Previously, Daisuke worked as an equity analyst at Putnam Investments. Prior to that, he held a variety of positions for Nippon Life Insurance, including four years as a senior portfolio manager and equity analyst at Nissay Asset Management, Tokyo, and five years as an equity analyst with NLI International.

Daisuke received a BA from Shiga University, Japan. He is also a chartered member of the Security Analysts Association of Japan.

HSBC Asset Management

Uncovering long-term opportunities in a marketplace enchanted by short-term outcomes – HSBC Global Sustainable Long-Term Equity

Sustainability of positive corporate outcomes is an obvious pre-requisite for the long-term investor. Yet both the buy-side and sell side are extremely short-termist, showing little regard for long-term corporate outcomes and shunning this most fundamental tenet of investing. By applying a credit driven framework to equity investing, characterised by deep proprietary financial analysis and rigorous stress-testing, HSBC AM seek to identify only those companies with the most stable and predictable long-term profitability. The result is an unconstrained high conviction portfolio of resilient growing businesses that can withstand multiple macroeconomic scenarios over the long term to deliver more durable positive returns.

Darryl Lucas

Global Head of Long-Term Equities

Darryl Lucas is Global Head of Long-Term Equities within HSBC Asset Management in London. Darryl is responsible for the global build-out of HSBC’s Global Long-Term Active Equity products. Darryl has been working in the financial industry since 2005.

Before joining HSBC in 2020, he was most recently a managing director and the Head of Equity Income at Barings. Prior to that, he was Head of Equity Income at Sarasin & Partners and before then a credit analyst at ABN Amro. Darryl has a BSc in Economics from Bath University (UK).

Martin Currie

Maximising returns through social impact

Impact Investing is what ESG wanted to be when it grew up: the intentional commitment of capital to drive measurable real-world outcomes is both a societal imperative and an attractive financial opportunity. The impact sector is at a significant inflection point in terms of attracting capital and has now broadened to include public markets while moving away from an explicit environmental focus. Martin Currie is delighted to present to you one of the first socially focused impact products, the Martin Currie Improving Society Fund, which aims to deliver compelling returns along with broad based, measurable social impact from the products and services portfolio companies provide.

Lauran Halpin

Head of Impact Equities

Lauran Halpin has long been passionate, both in her role as an investor and in private life, in sustainability, social issues, and making an impact in her community.

With nearly 20 years’ investment experience, she joined Martin Currie in 2022 as Head of Impact Equities, leading a newly established investment capability. Prior to this, Lauran was a member of the Franklin Templeton Global Equity Group responsible for portfolio construction of ESG-related products. She began her career in 2007 at Baillie Gifford as a Global Healthcare Analyst and joined Edinburgh Partners as an Investment Manager in 2013 where she co-managed EAFE accounts.

Ninety One

A purist quality approach to US equities

The US stock market outperformance in recent years has been deserved based on its underlying fundamentals. In essence, it is the highest quality market in the world. However, much of this outperformance has been driven by a small number of companies, masking several long-term secular growth opportunities throughout the US that remain relatively underappreciated. Ninety One’s William Nott explains why a differentiated quality approach - selecting niche leaders with dominant market positions and more resilient revenue streams - has helped American Franchise deliver significantly greater profits growth than the S&P 500, in addition to offering protection in more challenging times.

William Nott

Alternate Portfolio Manager, Analyst

William is Alternate Portfolio Manager on the Ninety One American Franchise Fund. In addition, he is an analyst in the broader Quality investment team, focusing on idea generation for the team’s global strategies. Prior to joining the firm he worked at Allianz Global Investors as a pan-European equity analyst. He started his career as an investment intern with M&G Investments. William graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Economics. He holds the Certificate in ESG Investing and is a CFA® Charterholder.

Schroders

Re-thinking the Emerging Markets rule book

What works in Emerging Markets? Most people will instantly think of growth stocks, and equity market returns with strong positive correlations with GDP growth. So most people would also be surprised to hear that Value has outperformed Growth in Emerging Markets over the long-term. This makes perfect sense: a value investing style was born in the 1930s in the US when the market had many of the characteristics that are present in Emerging Markets today. While we have seen a style rotation in favour of value over the past 3 years, we believe the stars are now aligning for value over the next decade. The opportunity set is looking extremely compelling – with relatively low valuations across a lot of countries and sectors – making it the ideal great hunting ground in which to construct an attractive and well-diversified portfolio. The atmosphere today may be of fear and uncertainty, but we are ready to steer the ship through these stormy waters. And as the saying goes, a ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

Vera German

Fund Manager

Vera German is a fund manager in Schroders Global Value team who manage income, recovery and sustainable strategies across four geographies: UK, European, global and emerging markets. Vera co-manages the Emerging Market Value strategy. She joined the Global Value team in December 2018 as an analyst and has managed portfolios at Schroders since 2020. Her investment career commenced in 2012 at Baillie Gifford on their graduate training scheme. Subsequently she became an analyst for UK and International equity and was then promoted to fund manager on the Global Income Growth product in September 2017. Qualifications: CFA Charterholder, Degree in European Social and Political Studies, University College London.

Juan Torres

Fund Manager

Juan Torres is also a fund manager in Schroders Global Value team. Juan co-manages the Emerging Market Value strategy. He joined Schroders in 2017 and has managed portfolios at Schroder’s since 2018. His investment career commenced in 2005, previously working at Pictet Asset Management from 2013, as an Investment Manager focussing on emerging markets. Prior to this he was responsible for building customised valuation models at Credit Suisse Group from 2011. His career began in 2005, as a syndicate loan Analyst at Bancolombia and then as an investment banking analyst at Corficolombiana. Qualifications: MBA, Manchester Business School and Degree in Finance & Foreign Affairs, Universidad Externado de Colombia.

Venue

Hotel Café Royal
10 Air Street, London, W1B 5AB

We’re delighted to host the Next Generation Forum at the prestigious Hotel Café Royal, an iconic London venue.

Conveniently situated at the heart of London, Hotel Café Royal is easily accessible. Just steps away from Piccadilly Circus station, served by the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines, it offers seamless connections to the London Underground. Additionally, Paddington, Victoria, Euston, King’s Cross, and Waterloo are all within a 20-minute commute by car or underground, ensuring hassle-free travel to this exquisite venue.

All of our meeting rooms are located within the dedicated meeting centre on the first floor of the hotel and the drinks reception is taking place opposite this space, in Domino.

Contact

For further information on NGF Events or Infusion Event Management, please contact:

Sally Doyle, Director
07881 957350

sally.doyle@infusionevents.com