Fostering sustainable & inclusive investing while ensuring financial returns

The Impact Seminar Series – Canada is tailored to institutional investors and asset owners based in Canada and the United States. Impact Seminar Series focuses on the opportunities to move beyond ESG to invest with impact while ensuring market-competitive financial returns.

A half-day programme aims to empower investors to move from the theory to the practice of impact investing through in-depth keynote speeches from experienced impact investors and impact practitioners. During the InvestorConnect sessions, investors can explore a select group of impact strategies in public equity, public debt, private equity, private debt and real assets.

 

WHY ATTEND

 

Why going beyond ESG is a critical step for Institutional Investors

 

Fostering sustainable & inclusive investing while ensuring financial returns has the force to shift financial markets. The current pandemic and climate crisis have shown the power of sustainable investments to outperform its traditional peers. Join us on a deep-dive discussion about moving from ESG to investing with impact to yield attractive returns and the relevance of impact measurement harmonisation. Also, what LPs should ask GPs and the extent to which regulations hinder or advocate for impact investing.

 

ADVISORY BOARD:

  • This agenda was created with input from:
    • Gouro Sall-Diagne, Directrice de la Surveillance (Monitoring Director), Authorité des Marchés Financiers
    • Graham Singh, CEO, Trinity Centres Foundation
    • Pierre-Laurent Macridis, Investissements Privés Alternatifs & d’Impact (Private alternative & Impact Investments), Fondaction
    • Simon Veilleux, Analyste Investissement durable (Sustainable Investing Analyst), CDPQ
    • Wren Laing, Investment Director Impact Investing, McConnell Foundation
    •  
    •  

 

SUPPORTING ORGANISATIONS:

CAIA

OBJECTIVES

 

  • INFORM

    • The Seminar aims to allow institutional investors to share knowledge through discussions about the opportunities and challenges of impact investments in public and private markets.

 

  • CONNECT

    • Investors and fund managers will be able to reconnect with the industry peers, exchange best practices, learn from each other’s experiences, and share ideas on creating innovative and scalable solutions to generate impact in private and public markets.

  • DISCOVER

        • InvestorConnect sessions offer institutional asset owners an efficient way to discover a pre-screened group of scalable impact strategies of institutional quality, across multiple asset classes, impact themes and the SDGs. The dynamic system of 15-minute meetings set a comfortable space to ask relevant questions & create connections along the way.

         

1-DAY OF ENGAGEMENT & INSPIRATION

PRELIMINARY AGENDA

09:00 - 09:30 Registration

09:30 - 10:30

Breakfast Workshop | Creating a Biodiversity Mandate

In this session, Phenix Capital Group’s impact specialist, Gemma Roex, will present how investors can treat biodiversity as a primary theme at the heart of your mandate. She will share the most current data on capital committed to biodiversity and the number of funds available in the market. Looking at the different asset classes, and both the public and private market, a group discussion will be facilitated to tackle the following question: How do you treat biodiversity as a primary and investible theme?

  • Speaker:
  • Gemma Roex, Impact Measurement and Management Specialist, Phenix Capital Group

10:30 - 10:40

Keynote Speech                                                                                                                            

10:40 -11:05

Interview | The Path to Impact Investing, from a European Perspective

The Netherlands benefits from a robust pension system which enables national retirement providers to be considerable allocators with a high degree of solidarity and collective risk-sharing. Henk Groot, the head of investments at Pensioenfonds Detailhandel, a Dutch pension fund for the retail sector, will share his perspective as a European institutional asset owner and their journey towards impact investing.

This interview will tackle the following questions:

• How do European asset owners approach impact investing?
• What are the barriers to engaging pension funds to invest with impact as opposed to traditional investments? And how to overcome them?
• How to build robust Impact Measurement and Management systems?
• Beyond the local implementation of SFDR, what does it means internationally?

  • Speaker:
  • Henk Groot, Head of Investments, Pensioenfonds Detailhandel

11:05 -12:25

InvestorConnect session

Fast-paced speed meetings are taking place in rounds of 15 minutes. A select group of Fund Managers present their impact strategies and answer any questions from the participating investors.

12:25 - 13:25 Lunch                                                                                                                         

13:25 -14:25

Investor Panel | Impact Opportunities in Canada

(This session will be conducted under Chatham House Rules)

What is the state of the impact investing market in Canada? Who are the leading investors driving impact? What are their challenges and focus? And how can we strengthen and grow the ecosystem? The speakers will speak on their experiences as Canadian investors from British Columbia to Québec investing all around the world, touching upon best practices and the nationwide standards and lack thereof. This session will tackle impact themes like social impact, reconciliation, and nature-based solutions.

  • Speaker:
  • Graham Singh, CEO, Trinity Centres Foundation
  • Wren Laing, Investment Director Impact Investing, McConnell Foundation 

14:25 - 14:45

Fireside Chat | Managing a Social Portfolio

While much attention has been given to environmental issues, the solutions for a cleaner planet have to align with the benefits of its inhabitants. Should social issues be targeted separately or fully integrated into every portfolio?

  • Moderator:
  • Jason Sukhram, Engagement Manager, Quinn+Partners

14:45 - 15:00

Case Study | Impact Measurement

Many investors have a more prudent approach towards impact due to heavy media scrutiny and fears of greenwashing. This case study will present the know-how of impact measurement, including the challenges and opportunities faced along the way.

15:00 - 16:00 Closing & Networking                                                                                              

More speakers will be announced soon

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Henk Groot

Head of Investments,
Pensioenfonds Detailhandel

Gemma Roex

Impact Measurement and Management Specialist,
Phenix Capital Group

Graham Singh

CEO,
Trinity Centres Foundation

Jason Sukhram

Engagement Manager,
Quinn+Partners

Wren Laing

Investment Director Impact Investing,
McConnell Foundation

WHO WILL ATTEND

This event is catered for C-Suite, Board Members, Portfolio Managers and ESG/Impact Investing officers of:

● Public and Corporate Pension Funds and their Fiduciary Managers,
● Insurance Companies,
● Sovereign Wealth Funds,
● Family Offices,
● Foundations and Endowments,
● Wealth Managers/Private Banks,
● Development Finance Institutions,
● Faith-based Organisations.

BOOK YOUR SEAT AMONGST YOUR LOCAL IMPACT INVESTING PEERS!

A LIMITED NUMBER OF COMPLIMENTARY INVITES ARE AVAILABLE FOR INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS AND ASSET OWNERS

SPEAKERS 2022

Alison Nankivell

Senior Vice President, Fund Investments and Global Scaling,
Business Development Bank of Canada

Anne-Marie Lévesque

Director, Gender and Impact Management,
FinDev Canada

Alexandre El-Aiba

Associate,
Phenix Capital Group

Annie Thériault

Managing Partner,
CrossBorder Impact Ventures

Florian Roulle

Head of Sustainable Investments
Finance Montreal
Moderator

Jesse Chrumka

Senior Investment Consultant,
Normandin Beaudry

Kelly Krauter

Senior Policy Advisor
UN PRI

Louise Moretto

Senior Product Specialist Sustainable Investments,
DWS

Mazyar Mortazavi

CEO and President,
TAS

Piet Klop

Head of Responsible Investments
PGGM

Rosalie Vendette

Associate,
Quinn&Partners
Moderator

JOIN LEADING ORGANISATIONS AS A SPONSOR!

IMPACT FUND MANAGERS ARE WELCOME TO ENQUIRE ABOUT SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES 

GET IN THE MOOD TO MEET YOUR INDUSTRY PEERS!

WHAT IS IMPACT INVESTING


 

Whereas ESG investing looks to integrate environmental, social and governance factors when subject to an investment’s performance, impact investing goes a step further by seeking investments that contribute to measurable social and/or environmental impact.

 

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF IMPACT INVESTMENTS

  • Intentionality: intent to achieve a social or environmental goal is clearly expressed and the investor identifies outcomes that will be pursued

  • Additionality: thesis or narrative describes how the investor’s actions will help achieve the goal and how the outcome would not have occurred without the investment

  • Measurement: impact measurement framework in place to assess the level of expected impact and monitor progress against the goal

 

SPECTRUM OF CAPITAL

Impact Seminar Series programme is focusing on the financial-first impact investments opportunities, offering experienced impact investors the stage to share best practices with their industry peers. 

Defininf impact investing - Spectrum of capital, Phenix Capital Group

 

 

First published by Bridges Fund Management (2015), the Spectrum of Capital maps out different investment approaches, depending on investors’ desired risk, return and impact profile, and categorizing them in a range from traditional investment to philanthropy.

 

  •  Financial-First Impact Investments: select funds in specific sectors, impact themes, or in alignment to the SDGs. In this approach, there is no trade-off between return and impact, and thus all investments should achieve fully commercial risk-adjusted returns.


  •  Impact-First Impact Investments: funds are selected to maximize impact over returns. These investments may target lower risk-adjusted returns to deliver greater impact.