— Ch. 1 · Founding And Origins —
World Pensions & Investments Forum.
~2 min read · Ch. 1 of 5
M. Nicolas Firzli and Mark Cobley established the World Pensions Forum to address global pension challenges through research and policy dialogue. The first edition took place in Paris at the OECD headquarters on that occasion, leading experts from the OECD presented the latest advances in quantitative asset allocation. Financial risk management and socially responsible investing strategies formed the core of these initial discussions. Various US, UK and Mainland European institutions joined the conversation alongside the University of Cambridge and the IMF. This partnership with regional and supranational organisations laid the groundwork for future summits.
Global Edition History
The second edition moved to Paris at the headquarters of the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry (SEIN). Discussions focused on long term investments and infrastructure assets within the European Union and key emerging markets notably Russia, Mexico, Chile, Brazil and China. The third edition was held in Hong Kong with the support of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Both the 4th edition in October 2014 and the 5th Annual World Pensions Forum in December 2015 were held in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris. The latter event occurred in association with the United Nations COP21 Summit.Key Investment Themes
Quantitative asset allocation remained a central theme throughout the early years of the forum. Infrastructure assets gained prominence as a critical area for discussion among institutional investors. Private equity and real assets rose to become major topics of interest during the second edition. Stochastic investment models and different approaches to life expectancy assumptions appeared in later plenary presentations. ESG and responsible investment strategies became focal points by the time the fifth annual meeting convened in 2015.