Naïm is the Chief Executive Officer of Candriam (€150bn AUM), a European multi-specialist asset manager and a recognized leader in Sustainable Investing.

Naïm was named the CEO of Dexia Asset Management, Candriam’s predecessor company, in 2007. During his tenure as CEO, he has strengthened the company’s position as a leader and pioneer in sustainable investing and as a key player on the European asset management scene. In 2014, he steered the company’s acquisition by New York Life and its rebranding to Candriam which stands for Conviction AND Responsibility In Asset Management. Since then, Candriam has become one of the fastest-growing asset managers in Europe, doubling its assets under management through product diversification, geographic expansion across Europe, Asia, the U.S. and external growth.

Under the leadership of Naïm, Candriam diversified its positioning in the alternative space through two acquisitions: a minority stake in London-based private equity real estate manager Tristan Capital Partners and in Kartesia, a European private debt specialist.

Naim’s career spans over 30 years of experience in the asset management industry, during which he has held various investment leadership roles.

In June 2021, Naim was elected President of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA).

Naïm is a graduate of the Institute of Political Studies in Paris (IEP-Sciences Po) and earned a master’s degree in Economics and Finance from Université Paris II – Panthéon Assas.

Mairead McGuinness is the European Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and Capital Markets Union.

The Commissioner’s vision for the portfolio is focused on ensuring the financial sector’s strength and stability, so that it can deliver for people, society and the environment.

Before joining the Commission in October 2020, Ms McGuinness was First Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2017. She served as an MEP from Ireland for 16 years, and was a Vice-President of the Parliament since 2014.

As Vice-President, she oversaw relations with national Parliaments, led the Parliament’s dialogue with religious and philosophical organisations, and had responsibility for the Parliament’s communication policy.

During her time in the Parliament, Ms McGuinness sat on a range of committees, covering agriculture, environment, public health, budgets, petitions and constitutional affairs. Her legislative work included leading for the EPP Group on the European Climate Law, the revision of medical devices legislation, and CAP reform post-2013. As an Irish MEP representing the border region, she was outspoken on Brexit and the consequences for the EU and Ireland.

In 2006-2007, Ms McGuinness chaired the Parliament’s investigation into the collapse of the Equitable Life assurance company which identified issues around weak financial regulation.

Prior to becoming an MEP, she was an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and commentator.

Nick Fitzpatrick is the group editor and co-publisher of Funds Europe – a leading publication for the European cross-border funds industry. Funds Europe’s publications also span the Middle East and Asia. Nick has carried out many CEO interviews in his time at Funds Europe and, pre-Covid, regularly travelled to speak with senior managers across the globe. His particular interests are ESG, regulation and the digital transformation taking place in the funds industry.

Maxime Carmignac is the Managing Director of Carmignac UK office since 2013, responsible for the firm’s long-term strategy in the UK. She is a Member of Carmignac’s Strategic Development Committee, where she is instrumental in setting up the strategy of the firm with a particular focus on responsible investment and investment solutions. She also chairs the Strategic Product Committee. She started her career in Investment Banking in London and Paris and then joined McKinsey for 2 years before moving to Carmignac in 2006 as an analyst, covering the Energy & Consumer Sector. In 2008, Maxime expanded her international career by joining Visium Asset Management, an alternative investment firm in New York. Maxime returned to Carmignac in Paris in 2010 as a Portfolio Manager. Maxime graduated from ESSEC Business School.

Patrick Thomson is Chief Executive Officer for EMEA, J.P. Morgan Asset Management based in London. He is Chair of the Board of the Investment Association, representing UK’s investment management industry, and a Member of the UK Government’s Treasury Task Force. Patrick joined J.P. Morgan Asset Management in 1995 and worked in Singapore 2000-2005 as global head of sovereigns, with extensive experience in reserves management in Asia and the Middle East, and has worked with many of the largest asset owners in the world.
After graduating from Edinburgh University with an MA (Hons), Patrick served as an officer in the British Army for five years, and is co-chair of the EMEA VETS group at JP Morgan. He qualified as a member of the UK Society of Investment Professionals in 2000.

Hans Stoter started his career at Nomura Bank and Philips Electronics, before joining ING Investment Management in 1998 as portfolio manager Investment Grade Credits. He then held various portfolio manager, team manager and team oversight positions in a broad range of fixed income asset classes. In 2011 he was appointed Deputy Chief Investment Officer, and in 2013 Chief Investment Officer and Board member of ING Investment Management (later re-branded to NN Investment Partners).

Hans joined AXA IM in June 2018 as member of the Management Board, responsible for Fixed Income and Multi Asset Client Solutions. In January 2019 Equity strategies were added to his remit. In April 2020 Hans has been appointed Global Head of AXA IM Core, the strategic business unit that combines AXA IM’s Fixed Income, Equity and Multi-Asset investment activities, Trading & Securities Finance and Client Group for Core.

Hans holds master’s degrees in Business Economics and Financial Analysis, both from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

31 Years of Experience

2022 – DPAM: CEO Fund Manager; Chairman
of the Management Board

2016 – DPAM: CIO Fixed Income Fund Manager Manager

2012 – DPAM (Previously Petercam IAM): Head of Corporate Bonds

2009 – DPAM (Previously Petercam IAM): Portfolio Manager Fixed Income

2005 – Capital at Work: Fund Manager Fixed Income

2000 – IBM Capco: Consultant Financial Markets Strategy

1996 – Goldman Sachs AM (previously Commodities Corporation): Hedge Fund Manager

1993 – ABN Amro – CDC Paris : European Government Bond Trader

1991 – ING Belgium (previously BBL): Market Maker Belgian Government Bonds

Education
ULB – Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) : Master in European Economics
KU Leuven (University of Leuven) ( Belgium): Master in Applied Economics

Susan has a background in EU financial services regulation.  Her experience, both in-house and in Brussels-based trade associations, spans financial market infrastructures (Euroclear), and banking prudential and securitisation regulation when she was Head of Economic Affairs at the European Mortgage Federation.  Susan started out her career in London representing the British insurance industry.  She led efforts by the sector to obtain improved market access in India and China through WTO negotiations and bilateral regulatory dialogues.

Susan holds degrees from the University of Ottawa (BA with Honours in Politics), and an MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics.

Fabrizio Planta is Head of Markets and Data Reporting Department at ESMA, with responsibility over Secondary Markets, Post-Trading, Market Integrity, Market Data and supervision over Trade Repository.
He was previously Head of the Post-Trading Unit where he has been in charge of the development of technical standards under EMIR and CSDR and on a number of CCP related manners, such as CCP colleges, stress tests, peer reviews, validation of risk models and recognition of third country CCPs.
Before joining ESMA, Fabrizio worked at the EU Commission on the EMIR proposal and before at CONSOB and at IW Bank S.p.A.
He holds an MSc in Economics from Warwick University and a degree in Economics.

Stephen has worked as a financial services regulator in the UK since 2006 on issues relating to trading and conduct in wholesale markets. He is currently involved in the implementation of the UK government’s post-Brexit Wholesale Markets Review.
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Hubert De Jesus, Managing Director, is Global Head of Market Structure and Electronic Trading within BlackRock’s Global Trading organization. He is responsible for overseeing the firm’s electronic trading initiatives, adapting trading solutions for market structure changes, and conducting execution research across all asset classes. Mr. De Jesus is a member of the Advisory Committee for the CTA/CQ, UTP, and Limit-Up/Limit-Down National Market System Plans.

Mr. De Jesus’s service with the firm dates back to 2003, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. Prior to assuming his current role, Mr. De Jesus managed a team of traders responsible for equity and FX execution for the Index and Scientific Active Equity businesses. Prior to joining BlackRock, Mr. De Jesus worked at Long Term Capital Management (later JWM Partners) as a strategist focused on fixed income relative value trading and developing risk management and trading tools and at Goldman Sachs as a programmer analyst.

Mr. De Jesus earned a BS degree in economics and a BS degree in engineering, both from the University of Pennsylvania, in 1993.

Paul O’Brien is the Founder & CEO of Glimpse Markets (www.glimpsemarkets.com), a financial data sharing platform for institutional bond traders, focused initially on the European investment grade and high yield credit markets as well as emerging markets. Launched in June 2022 and underpinned by a “Give to Get” model, participating clients send agreed subsets of their trading data to Glimpse who then aggregate, anonymise, and re-distribute the data to all members of the network at zero cost.

Nicolas Rivard is Head of Advanced Data Services at Euronext, a business line created in 2019 which regroups Market Data, Indices and Quant products with the ambition to derive more value from Euronext proprietary data and fulfill clients’ demand for new data services.
Nicolas was previously Chief Innovation Officer at Euronext, he led Euronext ‘s efforts to anticipate changes affecting the market infrastructure sector and drove most relevant projects to position Euronext. He joined Euronext in April 2016 from the Boston Consulting Group. During his six years at the consulting firm he worked mainly in the financial services sector, helping clients to develop innovative digital offers. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and an engineering degree from Ecole Centrale de Paris.

In addition to his role as COO of Trading & Market Access at Saxo Bank,  Sǿren is Chairman of the Market Data Committee at the Danish Brokers Association. Representing all key financial institutions in Denmark, the Market Data Committee is mandated  to address the main data challenges of the financial sector:

1. Cost of data
2. Regulatory data, and
3. Design of data solutions (automations)

2019: Founded FAC (FundAdminChain – a blockchain based network for on-boarding, distributing, trading and servicing Traditional and Tokenised Funds)
2016-19: Managing Director, global head of services at R3 (an enterprise blockchain firm with the largest blockchain ecosystem in the world.)
2016: Founded appii.io: employee background and CV verification underpinned by blockchain
2015 co-founder of PTDL (post trade distributed ledger group)
2011- sold company in 2016: Co-owner TraderMade International,: providing Trading and Technical Analysis software solutions to over 300 blue-chip banking customers
2001- sold company in 2014: Founded DBFS Consultants specialising in buy-side/fund admin fintech, over 100 employees and 50 buy-side / fund servicing customers
1990’s: Senior Derivatives Trader in London, UK and Sydney, Australia
Glasgow University: Honours Mathematics, Masters in Electrical Engineering, Certified Technical Analyst , Member of CISI

Emmanuel Faber was appointed as the inaugural Chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board in December 2021, effective 1 January 2022. He is well-known for his passion for sustainability and his leadership positions at multi-national food products company Danone for the past 20 years. He joined the company in 1997 as Chief Financial Officer, Strategy, and served as its Chief Executive Officer from 2014, as well as Chair of the Board from 2017 until 2021. He became a partner at Astanor Ventures in October 2021.

Faber has lived and held senior leadership positions in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. He has founded and chaired several international organisations and initiatives, including the One Planet Business for Biodiversity coalition and the G7 Business for Inclusive Growth coalition―co-chaired with the OECD Secretary General. He initiated Danone Communities, a social business initiative providing funding to bring nutrition and water access for vulnerable communities, as well as the Livelihoods Venture, which provides funding for ecosystem restoration and the development of sustainable farming in emerging economies.

Prior to joining Danone, he held roles as Chief Financial Officer and later Managing Director at Legris Industries. He also has experience from investment banking at Baring Brothers and as a consultant at Bain & Company.

He holds a Master’s degree in business administration from HEC Paris, France.

Stuart is a Managing Director in BlackRock’s Global Product Group, heading up the EMEA Product Structuring and Product Governance & Policy functions. He is also the CEO of BlackRock Fund Managers Limited, the UK fund management company.

With over 20 years’ industry experience, Stuart is a leading funds product and regulatory expert and has advised clients, regulators and governments internationally on various asset management matters. Stuart was selected by ESMA in 2017 for two terms as an adviser to its Investment Management Standing Committee, and by EFAMA in 2020 as co-Chair of its Fund Regulation Standing Committee.

Stuart is a qualified lawyer and spent a decade in private practice before joining BlackRock in 2011 from international law firm Eversheds.

Alain Deckers has over 20 years of experience in public service at the European Commission. He has been responsible for policy reviews and policy development in areas including trade in goods, environmental policy, public procurement and financial services regulation.

He currently heads a team of responsible for the regulation of asset management and investment funds.

Alain graduated in physics and holds a masters in the economics of technical change, both from the University of Manchester (UK).

Jessica started her career in London in 2004 as an analyst at State Street Bank & Trust, then at Schroders Investment Managers where she worked on fund valuation. In 2008, she joined the wealth management teams at UBS Wealth Management as an Associate Director, and then at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in Sydney. Returning to London in 2014, Jessica joined the Financial Conduct Authority as a Senior Inspector of large asset managers.

She joined the AMF in 2020 as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Asset Management Regulation Division within the Regulatory Policy and International Affairs Directorate. In 2022 Jessica was promoted to Head of the Division.

In particular, she represents the AMF on ESMA’s Investment Management Standing Committee and contributes to the work on the review of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and the European Long Term Investment Funds Regulation (ELTIF). At the international level, Jessica co-chaired the work of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) on liquidity management by open-ended funds during the March 2020 crisis. Currently, she is a member of the FSB’s technical expert group on open-ended funds.

Edouard Chatenoud began his career at Tikehau Capital in 2005 and currently serves as Head of Benelux. Over a period of 9 years, he executed investments on behalf of Tikehau Capital’s balance sheet in both private equity and real estate. In 2015, he established and now manages Tikehau Capital’s activities in Benelux (fundraising and investment) from its Brussels office. He acts as the Chairman of the Board of the Belgian Recovery Fund.

Markus Pimpl is part of the Private Wealth Europe and Asia team, based in Zug. He has been with Partners Group since 2007 and has 24 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Partners Group, he worked at Reuters, Saunders & Zellweger and Sal. Oppenheim Jr. & Cie. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Applied Sciences, Lahr, Germany.

Natasha Cazenave has been the Executive Director of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) since June 2021. She was previously Managing Director in charge of the Policy and International Affairs Directorate at the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers and, between 2012 and 2016, Chair of IOSCO’s Policy Committee on Investment Management. Prior to that, she worked for a European consultancy specialized in corporate governance and the promotion of investor rights. She started her career in the Valuation and Business Modelling team of Ernst & Young Corporate Finance. Natasha Cazenave holds a master’s degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Paris Dauphine

Hanzel Renee Fadrilan is a Manager in the Regulatory Developments and Advisory team within the Compliance Department of Baillie Gifford. He is also the Vice-Chair of EFAMA’s Stewardship, Market Integrity and ESG Standing Committee. Prior to joining Baillie Gifford, he worked with Deloitte as an external auditor for almost nine years in three different countries (Philippines, Gibraltar and United Kingdom) and has specialised in the audits of investment funds both offshore and UK funds.

Catherine Howarth joined ShareAction as Chief Executive in 2008. ShareAction coordinates civil society to promote responsible investment across Europe, with a focus on mobilising mainstream institutional investors to drive accelerated action by companies on climate change, loss of biodiversity, gender issues, public health and food system risks. Catherine was recognised by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2014 and in 2022 was awarded an OBE for services to sustainability. She is a member of the UK Treasury’s asset management taskforce, where she has co-chaired a programme of work on investor stewardship of companies. She is a board member of the Scott Trust, owner of The Guardian Media Group, serving on the Scott Trust’s investment committee. She is a member of the Business Commission to Tackle Inequality.

Kimberley Lewis is responsible for our Active Ownership Strategy, including engagement, proxy voting and engagement impact measurement.

Prior to joining Schroders, Kimberley was Director of North America Engagement for Federated Hermes EOS, International– a global provider of proxy voting and engagement, public policy, and advisory services for asset managers and large institutional investors. There, she led board and executive level engagements with a portfolio of companies on ESG and long-term business strategy issues across equity and fixed income holdings, including leading collaborative investor and NGO engagement initiatives and public policy work. She was the global sector lead for Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals and the global Human Capital Management thematic lead.

Prior to joining EOS, Kimberley was Senior Director of Global Corporate Responsibility at Pfizer Inc, where she was responsible for driving Pfizer’s strategy for global public health and patient impact in underserved communities. This included expanding access to quality healthcare through health-related investments, disaster and humanitarian response, and driving colleague pro-bono and community engagement initiatives. She was also responsible for relationships with nongovernmental and multilateral organizations. Prior to this, she was the Director of Public Policy and Issues Management at AstraZeneca, where led the company’s work on access to medicines in underserved markets.

Before this, she was a senior advisor to Cherie Blair, where she was instrumental in establishing her charity, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women which supported female entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Kimberley has held roles in philanthropy, law and politics in the United States, including serving as counsel to a United States Senator. Kimberley is a US-qualified attorney, with a BA and JD from the University of Virginia; she also has an MA from London Business School, where she was a Sloan Fellow and Recipient of the Sloan Woman’s Scholarship.

She is a member of the Board of Trustees for World Vision UK.

Michael is the Global Head of Stewardship within the Sustainability Centre. He is working within BNPP AM since 2008. He is in charge of the elaboration and implementation of the stewardship policy, which includes voting and engagement. He also plays a critical role in the design, development and implementation of BNPP AM’s Global Sustainability Strategy and is a key driver for the firm’s ESG research and integration, as well as SRI analysis. He is also member of the Board of Governors of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) and is on the “Fi y Most Influential in Sustainable Finance” list published by Financial News in 2022.

His wider industry activity includes being a Chair of the “Corporate Governance” committee at the French Association of Asset Managers (AFG) and Chair of the International Corporate Governance Committee at the Council of Institutional Investors (Cii). He is also member of the “Oversight committee” of the Best Practice Principles (BPP) and member of the “Human capital” committee and the “Global Network of Investor Associations ‘GNIA’ committee” at the ICGN.

He holds others membership such as the French regulator AMF commission on Sustainable Finance, the Responsible Investment committee at the French Association of Asset Managers (AFG), and the “Grand prix jury of the general meetings” in France.

Michael previously worked as a jurist between 2006 and 2008 and was in charge of proxy voting for the Fonds de Reserve des Retraites (French back-up pension fund) in Paris.

He graduated from the University of Paris XI (France) and has a master degree of Corporate and business law (2008).

Maximilian Horster is Head of ISS ESG, leading a global team assisting clients in developing and integrating responsible investing policies and practices through the provision of industry-leading solutions and data. Based in Frankfurt, Germany, Max oversees the unit’s core Data & Analytics, Product, and Index offering as well as ISS’ dedicated climate team that helps financial market participants understand, measure, and act on climate-related risks across all asset classes. In addition, he manages ISS’ financial intelligence unit, EVA, which enables investors to uniquely measure, analyze, and value corporate performance and inform investing decisions.

Max joined ISS in 2017 following its acquisition of the financial industry business of South Pole Group, which he co-founded. There, Max and team developed the world’s largest database of company-level climate change data and pioneered the development of leading, standardized investment climate screening tools. Prior to this, Max worked at Capital Group Companies in North America, Asia and Europe and has, over the past decade, led several European Union-funded greenhouse gas accounting projects while also advising member states on the matter. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, teaches about ESG at several universities, and publishes regularly on the opportunities and challenges of ESG investing.

Max holds a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge.