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Mike Simutin

Research Committee Co-Chair
ICPM, Associate Director of Research

Mike Simutin is ICPM’s Associate Director – Research and is the content lead for research activities.

Mike is also an Associate Professor of finance at the Rotman School of Management. His research focuses on studying institutional money management and understanding risks that affect asset prices. Mike’s research has been published in leading finance journals, including the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial Economics. He has received multiple research awards, including the Best Paper Award by the Review of Asset Pricing Studies and the Governor’s Award from the Bank of Canada. Mike has also received multiple teaching accolades, including being named one of the 40-Under-40 Most Outstanding Business School Professors and being voted instructor of the year by the MBA students. His research has been presented at numerous academic conferences and practitioner events.

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Jaap van Dam

Research Committee Co-Chair
PGGM

Netherlands

Jaap is Principal Director of Investment Strategy at PGGM. He is chairman of the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO), of the Advisory Board of the Erasmus Platform for Sustainable Value Creation. He is co-chair of the research committee van ICPM.

Jaap has performed many roles within the field, ranging from fundamental and quantitative analysis to external manager selection and portfolio construction. He joined PGGM in 2005 as Head of Internal Equity Management. In 2006 he was appointed Chief Strategist. Jaap is a member of the NEST (UK) Investment Committee.

Together with prof. Kees Koedijk and prof Alfred Slager, he authored the book Achieving Investment Excellence, a practical guide for Trustees of Pension Funds, Endowments and foundations (2019). He received  his Master’s degree in Finance at the Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam.

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Susan Banta

Pew

United States

Susan M. Banta is a fiscal economist with over 20 years of experience in advising governments on public finance, tax policy, budget formulation and execution, tax administration, and revenue estimation. As Director of Research with the States’ Public Sector Retirement Systems at the Pew Charitable Trusts, Ms. Banta leads a team of researchers studying state retirement system funding policies, investment practices, governance and benefits. Ms. Banta most recently served as Senior Budget Officer in the Executive Office of District of Columbia Mayor Vincent C. Gray, where she advised the mayor on tax policy and managed the economic development portfolio of the District’s $10 billion annual budget. She was also the Director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the Council of the District of Columbia, and a Director with KPMG Barents Group LLC, where she advised state and international governments on fiscal reform.

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James Davis

OPTrust

Canada

Mr. Davis joined OPTrust in 2015. He leads the organization’s investment strategy and oversees its diversified portfolio spanning the globe with public market, private market, infrastructure, and real estate assets in North America, Europe, Developed Asia and emerging markets.

Mr. Davis has over 25 years of strategic investment planning and leadership experience, including proven results in liability driven investing and portfolio design. Most recently, he held the role of Vice President, Strategy & Asset Mix and Chief Economist at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Teachers’).

Before joining Teachers’, Mr. Davis was President of FuturesTrend Capital Corporation in Prince Edward Island and Vice President & Head, Global Fixed Income & Currencies at RBC Global Investment Management in Toronto.

Mr. Davis is widely recognized as an engaging speaker in a broad range of forums within the pension industry, and is known for his insights on global economics, portfolio construction and investment strategy.

In addition to degrees in Mathematics and Meteorology, Mr. Davis holds an MBA in Finance from Dalhousie University and is a CFA charterholder.

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Bing Han

Rotman School of Management

Canada

Bing Han is a Professor of Finance at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Finance from UCLA. His research focuses on Behavioral Finance, Investments, and Risk Management. He has published in top finance, economics and management journals including Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Economic Theory, Management Science, Review of Finance, as well as practitioner oriented journals such as Journal of Investment Management, Journal of Portfolio Management.

His research has been presented at many international and national conferences, and featured in mainstream media such as New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He has previously taught both undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of Chicago, Ohio State University and University of Texas at Austin. He has also worked for J.P. Morgan and served on the advisory board of a multi-billion hedge fund.

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David Richardson

TIAA-CREF Investment Management

United States

David P. Richardson is a Senior Economist at the TIAA-CREF Institute. Prior to joining the Institute, David P. Richardson served as Senior Economist for Public Finance at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and held the New York Life Chair in Risk Management and Insurance at Georgia State University. Previously, Richardson worked as a Financial Economist in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury, and was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Davidson College. Richardson’s research interests focus on public pensions, employer retirement plans, and household financial security, including retirement preparedness, retiree healthcare, and the allocation of retiree risk burdens.

He has served as a research fellow for the China Center for Insurance and Social Security Research at Peking University, a research fellow for the Center for Risk Management Research and as a research associate at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Richardson is a member of the American Economic Association, the American Risk and Insurance Association, and the National Tax Association. He earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Boston College, and a B.B.A. from the University of Georgia.

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Onno Steenbeek

Algemene Pensioen Groep (APG)

Netherlands

Onno Steenbeek (1967) is managing director of ALM and Solutions at APG Asset Management. This department is responsible for APG’s ALM and risk advisory, as well as investment and pensions research. The quantitative models employed by the department are used to optimize the financial strategy of associated pension funds (with AUM totaling over Euro 400 billion), for overall risk budgeting and for reporting purposes. In addition, the department leads research projects into e.g. the sustainability of current pension contracts, longevity risk and a broad range of investment topics. Steenbeek also holds a Chair in Pension Fund Risk Management at the Erasmus School of Economics in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Apart from lecturing on various finance subjects, he conducts academic research and publishes books and articles. Every other year, he organizes policy-oriented pension conferences at the Erasmus School of Economics. In addition to his primary affiliations to APG and Erasmus University, Steenbeek is a member of the Supervisory Board of Optimix Investment Funds N.V. and a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of ABN-Amro Pension Fund. He recently served in 2 committees advising the State Secretary of Social Affairs & Employment on specific aspects of the new pension law.

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Michael Preisel

Independent

Worldwide

Michael Preisel is currently Independent. He was previously an Investment Officer at the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund and also Chief Quantitative Officer at ATP.

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Scott McIntosh

OMERS

Canada

Scott McIntosh is Executive Vice President & Head of Global Multi-Asset Strategies at OMERS Capital Markets and has overall accountability for the Global Multi-Asset business, including the Quant Strategies Group, Event-Driven and Macro, Rates and FX teams. He also leads Balance Sheet Management. Scott joined OMERS in October 2013.

Prior to this, Scott was the Head of Canadian Asset Allocation at Manulife Asset Management, and a Portfolio Manager on both Canadian and U.S. diversified portfolios totaling $90 billion. Before coming to Canada, Scott worked in asset allocation and portfolio strategy roles in Australia.

In addition to his role at OMERS, Scott is a member of the research committee for the International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM), a global research-based network of pension organizations.

Scott holds a Bachelor of Business from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and a Master of Commerce (Applied Finance) from the University of Queensland, Australia.

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Gabriel Petre

The World Bank

United States

Gabriel Petre leads the team responsible for developing the asset allocation and ESG integration strategy for the World Bank’s post-retirement benefit funds. As part of his work he is also involved in advising public pension funds of developing countries on governance, investment policy and asset allocation issues and official institutions of commodity-rich countries in setting up sovereign wealth funds.  

He joined the World Bank Treasury in July 2006. Before joining the World Bank, he worked for the National Bank of Romania, as part of the team in charge of the Foreign Reserves portfolio.  He has an MBA from Georgetown McDonough School of Business and is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.

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Julie Mallory

Ontario Power Generation (OPG)

Canada

Julie Mallory is Managing Director, Portfolio Strategy & Investment Risk at OPG, working in their fund management team.  She is responsible for the management and oversight of the risk exposures of the Pension Fund, co-management and oversight of the Ontario Nuclear Funds, and recommending the funds’ optimal asset allocation.  She is also leading the implementation of the funds’ responsible investing policies.

Prior to this, Julie was a portfolio manager in Total Fund Management at CPP Investments, where she was Chair of the Research Committee for the department.  Within CPP Investments Julie also worked in Quantitative Equities, where she developed and maintained a Japanese equity absolute return strategy ($1.5 Billion invested long and short).  She has also worked in investment strategy at TD Securities.

Julie has a PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto and is a CFA charterholder.

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Sally Shen

OMERS

Canada

Sally Shen is the Research Manager at OMERS, where she leads the creation of innovative and impactful research, enriching and extending the ongoing efforts concerning pension plans and social value.

Before joining OMERS, Sally served as a Research Associate at Global Risk Institute, collaborating with top academics and the pension industry for research, and played a crucial role in establishing the National Pension Hub. Sally’s journey in academia included being an Assistant Professor at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, China, before she moved to Canada in 2017. She earned her Ph.D. in Finance in 2015 from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and has also worked as a researcher with APG. Sally has served as an international research fellow at Netspar since the year 2009.

Sally’s research interests focus on social value of pension, longevity risk, pension communication,  sustainable finance and climate risk, pension risk management, asset and liability management, pension technology, strategic asset allocation, liability valuation, and pension system design.