SYMPOSIUM 2019 - PROGRAM & PREP

Established in 2007, the annual Investment Management Research Symposium is THE investment management research conference of the year. Presented in November each year, the two-day program features an exceptional Faculty - academics from leading university business schools, independent consultants, central bankers, regulators and professional investors - presenting contemporary research related to this year's theme, "We are living in exceptional times". It is presented in collaboration with Macquarie University, and supported by CIMA Society of Australia.

Symposium 2019 provides you with the rare opportunity to join with the full spectrum of investment analysts to consider contemporary investment research.

We'd welcome you joining us!

Graham Rich                                                    Professor Ron Bird
Managing Partner & Dean                             Director - Investment Management Research Program
Portfolio Construction Forum                          Professor Emeritus, Australian National University

QUICKLINKS

Overview & Registration  When, where, aim, who it's suited to, CE/CPD accreditation, registration options

Program & Prep - Theme, Program at a glance, Keynote Faculty (detailed program, and prep materials to come)

PROGRAM & PREP

INTRODUCTION

Symposium is THE investment management research conference of the year. The blended face-to-face and online program is designed and curated by our specialist, experienced and independent team. It features a Faculty of 25 leading thinkers - academics from leading university business schools, professional investors, consultants, central bankers, regulators and experienced practitioners and advocates - from around the world, presenting research related to this year's theme, "We are living in exceptional times".

Theme: We are living in exceptional times

Program

Faculty

THEME

We are living in exceptional times

We are always in a state of flux but frequently, we convince ourselves that the current period we are experiencing is exceptional. Driven by the antics Donald Trump and his trade wars, Boris Johnson and Brexit and our own Royal Commission highlighting frailties in the financial services industry, many would argue that this is one of those times when drastic changes are required for the community to be better served by our financial and economic system.

It is with this in mind that we have curated a program that contains several papers that address motivations for change.

To set the scene, our opening key keynote, IMF Deputy Division Chief, Dr Malhar Nabar, presents a paper which analyses the impact of unconventional monetary policy over the decade since the GFC.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has been a pioneer in both inflation targeting and open central bank communications. Assistant Governor of RBNZ, Christian Hawkesby, discusses the art of monetary policy communications, and the costs, benefits and limitations of transparency when setting monetary policy.

The first day draws to a close with a light-hearted debate on the faults of one of the foundations of economic thought - the need to maximise shareholder value.

Our opening keynote on day two, Thomas Philippon of NYU Stern School of Business, shows the way ahead for capitalist societies, arguing that many of America’s economic problems stem from a lack of competition and that the answer is more, rather than less, capitalism.

The above are joined by a variety of academics, independent consultants, central bankers, regulators and professional investors, each presenting research related to this year's theme, "We are living in exceptional times".

PROGRAM

WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2019

7.45am-8.20am
Arrive, check in, grab a coffee/tea and take your seat.

8.30am
Welcome & introduction
- Graham Rich, Dean, Portfolio Construction Forum (Sydney)
- Tom Smith, PhD, Professor & Head of Department of Applied Finance, Macquarie University (Sydney)
- Marsha Beck, CIMA, Deputy Chair, CIMA Society of Australia (Sydney)

8.45am
The global economic recovery 10 years after the 2008 financial crisis
- Dr Malhar Nabar, PhD, Division Chief - World Economic Studies Division, International Monetary Fund (Washington DC)

9.40am
The art of monetary policy communications
- Christian Hawkesby, Assistant Governor & General Manager Economics, Financial Markets & Banking, Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Wellington)

10.30am
Morning break

11.00am
Are we living in exceptional times? How transgressing planetary boundaries affects firms, assets and profits
- Martina Linnenluecke, PhD, Professor & Director of the Center for Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Finance, Macquarie University (Sydney)

11.50am
Climate disasters and insider trading
- Nick Nguyen, PhD, Professor of Finance, Auckland University of Technology (Auckland)

12.40pm
Lunch break

1.20pm
Debate: Maximising shareholder value is flawed in its assumptions, confused as a matter of law, and damaging in practice.
- Rob Prugue, Principal Consultant, Callidum Investment Research (Sydney)
- Jack Gray, PhD, Associate of the Faculty - Management Discipline Group, University of Technology Sydney (Sydney)
- Vihari Ross, Head of Research, Magellan Asset Management (Sydney)
- Claire Wivell Plater, Chair, The Fold Legal (Sydney)

2.10pm
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand - the unreserved bank
- Oliver Hartwich, PhD, Executive Director, The New Zealand Initiative (Wellington)

2.55pm
Afternoon break

3.30pm
On the importance of experimentation
- Maroš Servátka, PhD, Professor of Economics, Macquarie Graduate School of Management & Founding Director, MGSM Experimental Economics Laboratory, Macquarie University (Sydney)

4.15pm
Panel:  Restructuring institutions for the strange new economic world
- Malhar Nabar, PhD, Division Chief - World Economic Studies Division, International Monetary Fund (Washington DC)
- Maroš Servátka, PhD, Professor of Economics, Macquarie Graduate School of Management & Founding Director, MGSM Experimental Economics Laboratory, Macquarie University (Sydney)
- Anne Anderson, MD & Head of Fixed Income and Investment Solutions, UBS Asset Management (Sydney)
- Ron Bird, Professor Emeritus, Australian National University & Director - Investment Management Research Program
 

5.15pm
Networking Reception

6.15pm
Symposium 2019 day 1 ends

THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2019

8.45am
The Great Reversal: How America gave up on free markets
- Thomas Philippon, PhD, Professor of Finance - Stern School of Business, New York University (New York)

9.55am
Optimal investment management for prospect theory investors
- Jordan Moore, PhD, Assistant Professor of Finance, Rowan University (New Jersey)
- Discussant: Dan Daugaard, CFA, Deputy Head – Department of Applied Finance, Macquarie University (Sydney)

10.45am
Morning break

11.15am
Going agnostic: the case of a new risk-based equity portfolio
- Laurent Laloux, PhD, Chief Product Officer, Capital Fund Management (Paris)
- Discussant: Yin Liao, PhD, Associate Professor – Department of Applied Finance, Macquarie University (Sydney)

12.00pm
Security analysts and capital markets anomalies
- Weikai Li, PhD, Assistant Professor of Finance - Singapore Management University (Singapore)
- Discussant: Anna Lopatnikova,PhD, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Sydney Business School (Sydney)

12.50pm
Lunch break

1.30pm
Asian emerging markets require presence
- Rahul Chadha, Chief Investment Officer, Mirae Asset Global Investments (Hong Kong)
- Discussant: Ron Bird, Professor Emeritus, Australian National University & Director - Investment Management Research Program, Portfolio Construction Forum (Sydney)

2.15pm
Investor sentiment and the pricing of macro risks for hedge funds
- Andrea Lu, PhD, Senior Lecturer - Finance, University of Melbourne (Melbourne, Australia)
- Discussant: Abnay Singh, PhD, Senior Lecturer - Department of Applied Finance, Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia)

3.00pm
We are living in exceptional times
- Jonathan Pain, Investment Strategist, The Pain Report (Sydney, Australia)

4.00pm
Symposium 2019 ends

FACULTY (in order of appearance)

Graham Rich, Managing Partner & Dean, Portfolio Construction Forum (Sydney)
Graham is a pioneer of retail managed funds research in Australasia, and of financial planning in NZ. In 2002, Graham established Portfolio Construction Forum, the specialist, independent continuing education, accreditation and certification service for investment portfolio construction practitioners in Australia and NZ.

Tom Smith, PhD, Professor & Head of Department - Department of Applied Finance, Macquarie University (Sydney)
Tom is one of the leading finance academics in Australia and has been ranked as the number one finance academic in Australia and NZ by both the Journal of Financial Literature and the Pacific Basin Finance Journal. He has supervised over 50 PhD students to completion and his PhD students have over 50 tier 1 papers in their own names.

Marsha Beck, CIMA, Deputy Chair, CIMA Society of Australia (Sydney)
Marsha is responsible for AMP Capital's retail and institutional client teams for the Australian region. She joined AMP Capital in 2015 and led the firm's global consultant and account management strategy for the Asia Pacific client division. Previously, she worked at Fidante Partners (Challenger Group) and Perennial Investment Partners.

Malhar Nabar, PhD, Division Chief - World Economic Studies Division, International Monetary Fund (Washington DC)
Malhar has been with the IMF since 2009. Prior to his current role, he worked in the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, where he covered China and Japan, and was mission chief for Hong Kong, SAR. Malhar's research interests are in financial development, investment, and productivity growth.

Christian Hawkesby, Assistant Governor & General Manager Economics, Financial Markets & Banking, Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Wellington)
Christian is responsible for the full cycle of monetary policy formulation, implementation and maintenance of liquidity in financial markets, provision and circulation of currency, and the operation of interbank payment and settlement systems.

Martina Linnenluecke, PhD,  Professor & Director of the Center for Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Finance, Macquarie University (Sydney)
Martina leads the Center, which is at the forefront of developing financial and market applications to help tackle some of the world's most pressing environmental and social problems. Her research interests focus on the strategic and financial implications of corporate adaptation and resilience to climate change impacts.

Nick Nguyen, PhD, Professor of Finance, Auckland University of Technology (Auckland)
Nick joined AUT in his current role in February 2019. Prior to this, he was an Associate Professor of Finance at Massey University and a Senior Lecturer and Director of BCom (Hons), PGDipCom & MCom programmes at the University of Auckland. His research interests cover corporate governance, market microstructure, market liquidity, and behavioural finance.

Maroš Servátka, PhD, Professor of Economics & Founding Director, MGSM Experimental Economics Laboratory, Macquarie Graduate School of Management (Sdyney)
Prior to his current role, Maroš held a postdoctoral position at the University of Mannheim and was an Associate Professor position at University of Canterbury where he was also the Director of the New Zealand Experimental Economics Laboratory.

Oliver Hartwich, PhD, Executive Director, The New Zealand Initiative (Wellington)
The New Zealand Initiative is a public policy think tank in Wellington, New Zealand. Before joining the Initiative, Oliver was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the UK House of Lords.

Rob Prugue, Principal Consultant, Callidum Investment Research (Sydney)
Rob has over 30 years' experience in financial services. Currently, he consults to funds to help them address today’s challenges by using tomorrow’s tools. In 2018, he retired as Senior Managing Director and CEO of Lazard Asset Management (Asia Pacific).

Jack Gray, PhD, Associate of the Faculty - Management Discipline Group, University of Technology Sydney (Sydney)
Jack has many years experience in academia and funds management. He joined Brookvine as a Director and Special Advisor in 2008. Previously, he was Co-Head of Asset Allocation at investment firm, GMO Boston, between 2005 and 2008 and 1998 and 2003, CIO at SunSuper, and an Executive Director at AMP Asset Management. Jack has published widely in both academic and practitioner journals.

Vihari Ross, Head of Research, Magellan Asset Management (Sydney)
Vihari joined Magellan in 2007 and is a member of Investment Committee. She was most recently Head of Franchises and retains responsibility for research coverage of franchises stocks. Prior to Magellan, Vihari spent four years as an equity analyst at Ausbil Dexia and worked as a quantitative analyst at Commonwealth Investment Management (now Colonial First State).

Claire Wivell Plater, Chair, The Fold Legal (Sydney)
Claire is a financial services law specialist. She founded The Fold Legal in 2002. Claire is a long standing member of the Business Advisory Committee to ASIC's Licensing Division and was recently appointed to the Treasurer's FinTech Advisory Group.

Thomas Philippon, PhD, Professor of Finance, Stern School of Business, New York University (New York)
Thomas is Professor of Finance at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. He has held visiting positions at Columbia University, Chicago University, Yale University, and Princeton University. He joined the Monetary Policy Advisory Panel at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2015 and he also serves as the Scientific Committee Director at the French Prudential Supervisory Authority. He was an associate editor of the American Economic Journal from 2007 to 2015. He has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 2011.

Jordan Moore, PhD, Assistant Professor of Finance, Rowan University (New Jersey)
Jordan began his career as an equity options market maker on the American Stock Exchange in New York City. His primary research objective is to use insights from behavioral economics to improve financial outcomes for individual investors.

Dan Daugaard, CFA, Deputy Head - Department of Applied Finance, Macquarie University(Sydney)
Dan is both Deputy Head of the Applied Finance Department, and Deputy Director of ESG Research at the Centre for Corporate Sustainability & Environmental Finance where he leads the ESG research stream. He also leads a team of industry professionals teaching and writing curriculum for funds and wealth management subjects.

Laurent Laloux, PhD, Chief Product Officer, Capital Fund Management (Paris)
Laurent manages product development at CFM with a particular focus on evolving CFM’s research and IT capabilities. He joined CFM in 1997 as a researcher to work the managed futures/FX program, and in 1998, started to focus on equities to develop the Equity Statistical Arbitrage program.

Yin Liao, PhD, Associate Professor - Department of Applied Finance, Macquarie University(Sydney)
Yin joined the Department of Applied Finance in July 2019. Previously, she held positions at the Australian National University and Queensland University of Technology. Her main research interests are in the areas of financial econometrics, household finance and credit risk.

Weikai Li, PhD, Assistant Professor of Finance, Singapore Management University (Singapore)
Weikai is Assistant Professor of Finance at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore University.

Anna Lopatnikova, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Sydney Business School (Sydney)
Anna is a leader in investment management, working at the cross-over between qualitative and quantitative finance. Previously, she held senior roles in investment management, most recently at Allan Gray. Prior to taking up investment management roles, Anna was a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

Rahul Chadha, Chief Investment Officer, Mirae Asset Global Investments (Hong Kong)
Rahul oversees the entire investment unit of Mirae Asset Global Investments( HK). He is a member of the Investment Committee and plays a key role in the development of internal investment policies, processes and key investment decisions for the firm. He manages a number of the firm’s Asia Pacific equity portfolios.

Anne Anderson, MD & Head of Fixed Income and Investment SolutionsUBS Asset Management (Sydney, Australia)
Anne leads the Australian Fixed Income strategy team with focus on developing Australian and global interest rate strategies. She also co-manages the Australian Investment Solutions portfolios. She is a member of the Global Fixed Income Investment Forum and chairs the macro forum that formulates key macro and strategic themes implemented across portfolios.

Ron Bird, Professor Emeritus, Australian National University & Director - Investment Management Research Program, Portfolio Construction Forum
Ron's career commenced as a lecturer at Macquarie University, before heading up the Commerce Department at Australian National University. His then held a number of non-academic roles, including head of asset consulting and global research at Towers Perrin, and investment positions with Westpac Investment management and GMO. He returned to academia in 1999 in the Finance department of UTS, teaching honours and masters subjects and coordinating the School’s honours program. Ron took up the position of Director of the Investment Management Research Program at Portfolio Construction Forum in 2018.

Andrea Lu, PhD, Senior Lecturer - Finance, University of Melbourne (Melbourne)
Andrea joined the University of Melbourne in 2014 as a Senior Lecturer. Her main research interests include empirical asset pricing, financial market frictions, and international finance. Her research has won several awards.

Abhay Singh, PhD, Senior Lecturer - Department of Applied Finance, Macquarie University (Sydney)
Abhay is a quantitative researcher and lecturer, R trainer and data analyst. His primary area of research is in financial risk modelling, including econometrics and multivariate analysis, investment analysis and asset pricing. He is also involved in interdisciplinary research in social media and fata analytics with an ongoing project on the use of social media in Business to Business communication.

Jonathan Pain, Investment Strategist, The Pain Report (Sydney)
Jonathan has 32 years of international investment experience, having led investment teams in London, Bahrain and Australia. He is the author and publisher of investment newsletter, The Pain Report, an independent and global perspective of financial markets and the world economy.