CFA Society New York Asset Owner Series™ Goes Global in Hong Kong

Six months after the proposed framework was laid, the global expansion of CFANY’s Asset Owner Series™ became a reality.


NEW YORK, FEB. 09, 2018 — 
CFA Society New York (“CFANY”) and The Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts Ltd. (“HKFSA”) announced a unique collaborative plan to bring CFANY’s burgeoning Asset Owner Series™ to Hong Kong on July 11, 2017.

“HKSFA and CFA Society New York are dedicated to raising both professional and ethical standards in the global investment management industry,” CFANY CEO Daniel Dagen, CFA, said. “Providing asset-owners the opportunity to improve efficacy as it relates to the way in which their assets are managed contributes to stability and integrity of markets worldwide.”

Roughly six months later—on January 17, 2018—the auspicious scheme was realized with the HKSFA Inaugural Asset Owner Series Event. At once, the former strictly local, financial investment event series, and rapidly blossoming New York-based phenomenon, became a global success.

“The HKSFA Asset Owner Series aims to share best practices amongst asset management professionals, and to exchange ideas that will help guide the future development of the industry,” HKSFA President Ashley Khoo, CFA, CPA, said. “Enhancing Hong Kong’s competitiveness as an asset management center will help to strengthen its leading position as an international finance hub.”

Crucially, Hong Kong’s very first Asset Owner Series™ (“AOS”) event garnered levels of support, interest, enthusiasm and speaker quality wholly in line with the reputation that has come to precede conferences bearing the AOS name.

It provided a rare opportunity for the top decision-makers, representing some of Asia’s largest asset owners, to share their investment views in a collegial setting.  The peer-to-peer dialogue among speakers and local Society members offered rare insights into the thinking of leaders at Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Investment Portfolio, Hong Kong Mandatory Provident Fund, MetLife, Ping An Insurance, APG, and Standard Life Aberdeen. Collectively, these organizations oversee in excess of USD 2.5 trillion in assets. The event was moderated by a representative of Mercer, the world’s largest investment consulting firm by assets under advisory.

“Both CFA Society of New York and the Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts have independently demonstrated the success of their member-driven programming efforts,” CFANY Vice Chairman Christopher Cutler, CFA, said. “We stand ready to share our experiences and practices with other Societies globally, so that they can become nexuses of dialogue among investors in their local communities.

The Asset Owner Series was created by CFANY in 2015 and spearheaded by Thomas Brigandi—CFA Institute’s Inaugural Global Outstanding Young Leader—in collaboration with a team of over 400 industry leaders who source speakers from their respective networks. The groundbreaking series is a collection of exclusive events for investment industry executives looking to improve their asset-management strategies and advance their market knowledge, with the guidance of some of the most experienced minds CFANY has to offer.

“These events provide critical opportunities for key decision-makers, whom oversee some of the world’s largest institutional pools of capital, to gather, identify and share global challenges as well as solutions,” Dagen said. “All while being hosted by a thought leadership community that is crucially both independent and objective.”

AOS has featured chief investment officers, deputy chief investment officers and other C-level investment executives from sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, single family offices, multi-family offices, endowments, foundations, private banks, national pensions, corporate pensions, institutional investment consultants, public pensions and union pensions that collectively have over $38 trillion in assets under management or advisory.

“Our local Societies simply offer a neutral venue for such speakers to gather,” Cutler said. “And we encourage our fellow Societies, globally, to offer similar programming within their communities.”

##

Global Asset Owner Series Overview

Societies will work in tandem to engage and connect key decision-makers dispersed across the global asset-ownership sphere for peer-to-peer events.

Chief investment officers, deputy chief investment officers and other C-Level investment executives from sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, single-family offices, multi-family offices, endowments, foundations, private banks, national pensions, corporate pensions, institutional investment consultants and public pension schemes across Asia will gather amongst themselves and alongside local CFA society-members to speak at the newly established HKSFA Asset Owner Series.

The objective is to host C-Level asset owner investment executives—who represent firms that collectively manage in excess of US$10 trillion in assets (roughly HK$78 trillion)—and a cumulative audience that will be comprised of more than 1,000 investment professionals over the next two to three years.

CFA Society New York

Since 1937, CFANY has sought to raise the standards of the investment industry through global insight, a dynamic community of local investment management professionals, and thought leadership. CFANY’s mission is to raise the bar in investment management wherever possible and help establish the course for where the investment industry is headed.

CFANY is a leading voice within a network of CFA Societies in 150 countries, representing over 145,000 CFA Institute members world-wide. CFANY works in conjunction with CFA Institute to develop the industry’s future professionals and to raise the standards of professionalism in the investment management industry.

With close to 11,000 members, CFA Society New York is the largest CFA Institute member society in the world.

Visit www.cfany.org for more upcoming events and additional information.

The Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts (HKSFA)

The Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts Limited (HKSFA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 by a group of CFA charterholders in Hong Kong.  The Society currently has over 6,486 members and is one of the largest member societies of CFA Institute. In addition to promoting the CFA designation in Hong Kong, the Society aims to provide a forum for our members, CFA Institute, other investment practitioners and regulators. The HKSFA has won the Most Outstanding Society Award (societies with over 1,000 members) in the 2014 Society Excellence Awards Programme, administered by the CFA Institute. The Award affirms the Society’s relentless efforts to serve its members and the greater benefits of the local community. For more information, visit http://www.hksfa.org.