Institutional Investor’s Alpha Hedge 15th Annual Global Hedge Fund Summit
Preparing for the Next Evolution of the Global Hedge Fund Industry
The Fairmont Southampton, Bermuda
Tennis Tournament
Golf Tournament - The Belmont Hills Golf Club - Sponsored by FlexJet
Transportation to The Belmont Hill Golf Club will depart at 11:45am.
Registration Opens - Sponsored by Pershing Prime Services
Sailing Excursion
Featured Speaker - Making it on the Field and in the Boardroom
Speaker: Ronnie Lott, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, HRJ Capital
Ronnie Lott’s football career spanned 14 seasons (1981-1995) in the NFL. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
In 1999, Mr. Lott, along with former teammate Harris Barton, co-founded HRJ Capital, an alternatives, fund of funds investment manager. Mr. Lott is a managing member of the firm. HRJ Capital began investing exclusively in the venture capital sector, but has evolved into a diversified global alternatives investment platform with a series of funds focused on top performing venture capital, leveraged buy-out, distressed asset, real estate and hedge fund managers. HRJ Capital currently has 57 employees with offices in Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York, Zurich and Shanghai and manages approximately $2.5 billion in assets.
In 1989, Mr. Lott founded All Stars Helping Kids, a non-profit organization which helps disadvantaged youth in the Bay Area. Mr. Lott plays an active role in the organization in which one of the achievements was the dedication of the All Stars Technology Room and children’s garden at UCSF Children’s Hospital.
Mr. Lott is a graduate of the University of Southern California where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration.
Welcome Poolside Cocktail Reception - Sponsored by FlexJet
After Party - Sponsored by Fidelity Prime Services
Breakfast in the Main Exhibit Hall - Sponsored by CACEIS
Conference Opening & Welcoming Remarks
Welcoming Remarks: Diane E. Alfano, Managing Director, Institutional Investor
Keynote Discussion Group - Sailing Through the Global Storm
Recent economic events—most notably the credit crisis and the threat of recession in many major markets—have shaken the global financial industry and further have shaken the confidence of many investors in their managers. How are some of the industry’s most influential managers and investors reacting to the crisis? How will hedge fund investing be impacted as events continue to unfold and investors reconsider their allocations? This high-level keynote discussion group will explore the far-reaching consequences of today’s ever-changing markets.
Keynote Address - Topic to be determined
What Investors Want Now: The View from Consultants
Have investor's opinions and their assessment of hedge fund managers changed as a result of heightened concerns about the credit markets and the resulting failures among a number of large, well-known funds? Are strategies which employ greater leverage and trade in more illiquid securities likely to be shunned ? Given current conditions, what types of strategies are likely to attract the least and greatest asset allocations in the near- to medium-term? What will investors expect the best managers and their firms to look like?
Understanding & Responding to the Investment Needs of Affluent Families
Over the last decade, the growth in the number of affluent families has been extraordinary, and those families’ investments in hedge funds have continued to swell. But affluent families are frequently more difficult to classify and to serve than are institutions, due to the highly personal nature of their investment decisions, varying family dynamics, the need for tax efficiency, and a range of other issues. The speakers in this session share their own experiences and offer hedge fund managers insights into how they can successfully attract and retain affluent families as clients.
Coffee Break in the Main Exhibit Hall - Sponsored by HSBC
Investment Strategies Track
Profiting from Futures Trading
The growth in futures trading has exploded as hedging and speculative activities have expanded. Speakers in this session will discuss how traders are accessing the futures markets and ensuring that they obtain the quickest possible executions in the pursuit of success.
Panelists to be confirmed
Business & Operations Track
Valuation Best Practices: Necessary Policies and Procedures to Attract and Retain Clients
This session will provide policies and procedures managers must put in place in order to continue to attract and retain clients in a changed and volatile environment.
Additional panelists to be confirmed
Investors' Track
Meet the Keynotes
Investors will benefit from this opportunity to meet privately with some of the hedge fund industry’s leading managers.
Lunch - Sponsored by Nova Scotia
Keynote Discussion and Debate: U.S. Economic Policy Choices and Their Potential Implications
The economic policies being proposed by the U.S. presidential candidates stand in sharp contrast to one another. This session will feature two preeminent economists whose views have helped shape policies for past presidents with equally different views and who have both been identified as possible candidates as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, should the next president decide to replace the current Chairman at the end of his term in 2010.
Dr. Martin Feldstein was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ronald Reagan and also served as his Chief Economic Adviser.
Dr. Alan S. Blinder served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1994-1996 and served as a Member of President Clinton’s original Council of Economic Advisers from January 1993 to June 1994. .
Coffee Break in the Main Exhibit Hall
Track A
Climate Change: The Next Hot Strategy?
This panel will address the challenges and opportunities created by the international drive toward climate change solutions.
Additional panelists to be confirmed
Track B
The Evolving Market for Energy: Products, Liquidity, Trading and Price Trends
Energy is the headline story of the opening decade of this century, driven by both basic supply and demand issues as well as environmental and geopolitical concerns. Not long ago, predictions of $100 barrel oil seemed premature, if not overstated.With oil now trading well above that price level, the impact has been widespread, affecting the price of corn, for example, because of the increasing use of ethanol as a fuel additive; spawning the development of emissions tradingmarkets; and kicking off a search for alternative energy sources and technologies to produce and utilize them. Speakers in this session will review whether these trends are likely to continue, what theymaymean for the energymarkets and discuss how hedge fundmanagers are pursuing returns andmanaging risk in the sector.
Track C
Managers Showcase
In this first annual showcase, a diverse groupof emerging and outperforming managers will present their strategies and discuss the value added by their methodologies to and invited audience of qualified investors. Attendees will also have the ability to make contact with these managers and arrange for follow up meetings.
Sovereign Funds: A Global Investing Phenomenon
As some of the most influential and demanding global investors, sovereign funds exert an enormous attraction for the hedge fund industry. As these investors simultaneously compound foreign reserves and seek to diversify their domestic resources, how are their needs different from other investors? What are their expectations in terms of performance, firm structure, communication, transparency, and fees. This panel will explore the appeal of sovereign funds for hedge fund managers.
Additional panelists to be confirmed
Time at Leisure
Beach Party
Breakfast in the Main Exhibit Hall - Sponsored by RSM
Opening Remarks
Keynote Discussion Group - Emerging Markets: BRICS and Beyond
Emerging markets have recently seduced investors with higher returns and reduced volatility. Aided by a weakening US dollar and strong sector growth, many emerging market funds have outpaced their developed markets counterparts. So what is next for this diverse sector as many of these markets mature and modernize, thereby creating new opportunities for astute investors? This panel of top emerging decision-makers and investors will explore what corners of the world hold the most potential – and which appear to be fraught with the most risk.
Additional discussants to be confirmed
Still the Right Time for Commodities?
Will the bull-run for commodities last for years, perhaps decades, as has been often and confidently predicted recently? What is the prognosis for volatility, which can also be expected in this notoriously volatile sector? What is the forecast for the underlying factors propelling the markets? Isn’t it true that the rush of capital into every niche and sector of the commodities markets may be creating a bubble that could lead to steep downturns few can predict? Both leading managers and investors will offer their insights in this session.
Additional panelists to be confirmed
Coffee Break in the Main Exhibit Hall
Investment Strategies Track
Distressed Securities: Has the Next Cycle for Big Returns Arrived at Last?
Since the end of 2003-2004, distressed securities managers have had to be creative and search broadly for opportunities beyond the classic strategy of identifying good value in bankruptcies. Now, opportunities abound, but the winners will stand out as being able to not only spot potential but also to realize it. What skill-set must a manager possess to navigate the regulatory and legal environments that surround distressed deals. Experts will discuss where they foresee the opportunities and the liabilities.
Additional panelists to be confirmed
Business & Operations Track
Bridging the Gap: Creating a More Effective Relationship Between Hedge Funds and Their Service Provides
What role should service providers play in assisting hedge funds to serve their clients more effectively? With the related but separate responsibilities of prime brokers, attorneys, accountants and administrators, who can take on the task of being an advocate that serves the interests of both hedge funds and their investors? What should the objectives be for such efforts and how can these goals be achieved in such a way that provides real value to all interested parties? This session will bring together representatives of service providers to discuss how better communication and coordination can benefit their mutual hedge fund clients.
Additional panelists to be confirmed
Investors' Track
Beyond Past Performance: Evaluating Managers on Overall Portfolio Construction
Past performance can be extremely compelling when evaluating hedge funds. Yet when do allocators rely too much on past performance to the exclusion of other critical factors? This panel will examine the process needed to assess other factors, including business models and management, risk evaluation and controls, quantitative analysis, idea generation resources, portfolio construction, liquidity, depth and consistency of staff, investment style and philosophy, and the trading capacities necessary to implement strategy.
Additional Panelists to be confirmed
Investment Strategies Track
Global Macro: Finding the Opportunities in the Aftermath of the Credit Squeeze
The environment created by the collapse of the credit markets will almost certainly create many exceptional investment opportunities for global macro hedge fund managers. Where are global macro players likely to concentrate their efforts? What risks and uncertainties must they be most aware of?
Additional Panelists to be confirmed
Business & Operations Track
The Regulatory Environment for Hedge Funds: What’s on the Horizon?
Concerns raised by market conditions, the impact hedge funds have on the market, and the growing amount of capital they control is leading for calls for registration and monitoring. At the same time, the global nature of hedge funds demands that they must contend with various regulatory regimes with often different and conflicting priorities.
Panelists to be confirmed
Investors' Track
Pervasiveness of Leverage in Our Investments Today
This session will discuss how such strategies as duration immunization, asset separation, unconstraining certain managers, and the search for alpha are causing investors to hold more leverage in their portfolios.
Additional panelists to be confirmed
The Holy Grail for Investors: Uncorrelated Returns
This panel of allocators will examine the best ways to achieve uncorrelated returns and how to discern the best opportunities.
Additional panelists to be confirmed
The Next Evolution in Operational Risk Management
Speakers in this session will discuss the most recent developments in operational risk management, provide examples of ways in which firms have implemented more effective enterprise-wide programs, and outline how the results and benefits of such efforts can be measured.
Panelists to be confirmed
Lunch
Capitalizing on the Unique Needs of the Institutional Investor Marketplace
Since its inception, the hedge fund industry has been driven by the demands of its investors. And as the industry has matured, so too have the pools of money which support it—and those investors’ expectations and requirements. How is this collective mind of investors shaping the industry today? This investor-only panel will explore the current investment needs of institutions representing tens of thousands of participants and beneficiaries.
Additional panelists to be confirmed
Closing Cocktail Roundtables in Which Participants Meet and Discuss the Issues
During these sessions and in 15-minute intervals, participants will meet and discuss specific issues of interest, including such topics as Leverage, Best Practices, Market Indicators, or Investor Concerns. Delegates will spend 15 minutes in each group discussing a common topic before moving on to the next session with a different focus and a different group of participants. Questions will be suggested in order to get the discussions jumpstarted at each table, if necessary, but all participants are encouraged to exchange opinions, experiences, and expertise, and make new acquaintances.
Discussion leaders to be confirmed
•Best Practices in Benchmarking Hedge Fund Investments
•The Future of Risk Management
•Ongoing Due Diligence: What Questions Should You Ask?
•How Plan Sponsors, Consultants and Hedge Funds Can Best Communicate to and Educate Board Members and Participants
•Can You Recover? Investors and Managers on What it Takes to Survive a Crisis
•Asset Allocation: Where Do Hedge Funds Fit in a Global Portfolio?
•Building a Protective HF Portfolio Amid Greater Volatility and Uncertainty
•Stressed and Distressed Investing: When and How to Invest?
•Beating Inflation to Meet Liabilities
•Valuation Practices
•Currency Management
•Credit Market Crisis: What is Next?
•Managing Counterparty Risk