Speakers ⇽ European Alternative Investments Conference | Finansforeningen / CFA Society Denmark on Glue Up

Dr Jón Danielsson

Reader in Finance; Co-Director of London School of Economics

Keynote speech | The illusion of control in financial markets and what this means for alternative investments

Jón Danielsson is one of the two Directors of the Centre and Reader in Finance at the London School of Economics. Since receiving his Ph.D. in economics of financial markets from Duke University in 1991, Jón’s work has focused on how economic policy can lead to prosperity or disaster. He is an authority on both the technical aspects of risk forecasting and the optimal policies that governments and regulators should pursue in this area. Jón has written three highly regarded books: The Illusion of Control (Yale University Press, 2022), which was included on the Financial Times “Best books of 2022” list; Financial Risk Forecasting (Wiley, 2011); and Global Financial Systems: Stability and Risk (Pearson, 2013). He has also contributed numerous academic papers on systemic risk, artificial intelligence, financial risk forecasting, financial regulation and related topics to leading academic journals, including Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Econometrics. At the LSE he teaches courses in technical risk forecasting and on how the global financial system operates. He has also worked for the Bank of Japan and the International Monetary Fund. His practical and authoritative perspective on financial risk and the financial system means he is regularly interviewed by media organisations including the BBC, Financial Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Francois-Serge Lhabitant

Chief Executive Officer/Chief Investment Officer at Kedge Capital

Keynote speech | Ten Common Mistakes Investors Make When Allocating to hedge funds (or how to make sure your hedge fund portfolio will disappoint)

Francois-Serge LHABITANT is the CEO and CIO of Kedge Capital where he runs a multi-billion portfolio allocated primarily to hedge funds (private and public markets) and risk-controlled strategies on behalf of a small group of investors. His funds have won several awards for their performance and risk-adjusted performance. On the academic side, Francois-Serge is currently a Visiting Professor of Finance at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (China). He was formerly a Professor of Finance at HEC Lausanne and the co-director of its Master in Banking and Finance, and an Associate Professor of Finance at the EDHEC Business School (France).

Francois-Serge holds an engineering degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, a B.Sc. in Economics, a M.Sc. in Banking and Finance, and a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Lausanne, and a LL.M. in Tax Law from the University of Geneva. He is the author of several books and articles in the areas of risk management, asset management, alternative investments (hedge funds, commodities), tax law and emerging markets.

Oliver Gottschalg, Ph.D.

Professor at HEC School of Management

Keynote speech | How Artificial Intelligence will transform the private equity world

Professor Oliver Gottschalg is part of the Strategy Department at HEC School of Management, Paris. He holds a Wirtschaftsingenieur Diploma from the University of Karlsruhe, an MBA from Georgia State University and a M.Sc. and PhD degree from INSEAD. His current research focuses on the strategic logic and the performance determinants of private equity investments. His work has been published in leading academic journals and in various publications for practitioners and was featured over 100 times in the business media (press, radio, TV and online) in the past 2 years. His book on ‘Private Equity Mathematics’ is one of the bestselling books with PEI Media. He regularly presents his research at academic conferences and private equity symposia and serves as an advisor to leading investors in the private equity industry. He repeatedly served as an advisor to policy makers at the national and European level in the context of the ongoing debate about a possible need for regulation of the Private Equity industry. His company Gottschalg Analytics is the leading provider of standardized independent PE Track record analytics and validation services, currently advising approx. 20% of the market of fundraising PE Fund Manager worldwide.

Nils Rode

Chief Investment Officer at Schroders

Keynote speech | Private Markets in a high interest rate environment

Nils Rode is the Chief Investment Officer of Schroders Capital. He is a member of Schroders Capital’s Management Committee and a member of the Investment Committee. Before joining Schroders in 2005, Nils was a Vice President with private equity backed SkyOnline, a US-based IT and telecommunications company, where he worked in the areas of finance and strategy from 2003 to 2005. From 1995 to 2002, Nils was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Germany, where he was the lead manager for several strategic, organizational and operational improvement programs for private and publicly listed companies in the technology and financial services sector. Nils is also the author of a book on strategic management of knowledge based businesses. Nils holds a Master’s degree from ESCP Europe in Paris, Oxford and Berlin where he was a Siemens Scholar. He also holds a PhD in Economics from the Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Germany and a Specialization Certificate in Data Science from Johns Hopkins University and Coursera.

Antti Suhonen

Professor at Aalto University School of Business

Keynote speech | Private Credit, Direct Lending Returns

Antti Suhonen is a Senior Fellow at the Department of Finance at Aalto University School of Business, having previously served as Professor of Practice in Finance in 2014-2023. He also works as a consultant and adviser in the financial services sector, with a focus on alternative investments, quantitative investment strategies, and derivatives. His teaching and research interests include credit and fixed income markets, alternative investments, and risk premia strategies. He has published several peer-reviewed academic articles on alternative risk premia and private credit investments and is a frequent commentator in the media and in financial industry conferences.
He previously held various derivatives structuring, product development, sales, and trading roles in investment banking over two decades, most recently as Managing Director at Barclays Capital in London.
He holds an M.Sc. (Economics) and a Ph.D. (Finance) from Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration.

Jonas Madsen

Managing Director, Head of Private Credit at Nordea Asset Management

Jonas Madsen is the Managing Director and Head of Private Credit at Nordea Asset Management (NAM). He joined Nordea in 2012 from a boutique M&A house, where he worked with mergers and acquisitions. At Nordea, Jonas expanded his expertise to include advisory, origination, and execution of various types of complex and event-driven transactions in the Investment Banking division. He was responsible for and involved in numerous transactions, such as M&A, restructurings, and general financings with all types of debt and hybrid instruments across diverse sectors, while also building and leading the Corporate Rating Advisory service across the Nordic region.
In early 2020, Jonas transitioned to NAM to spearhead the development of the private credit offering, with a focus on the establishment of its loans and direct lending platform. Today the platform includes two direct lending funds and a fund of funds. He brings deep capabilities in credit analysis, financial modeling, and structuring, combined with strong negotiation and execution skills, making him a key figure alongside the team in expanding NAM’s credit solutions.
Jonas holds an M.Sc. in Applied Economics and Finance from Copenhagen Business School.

Thomas Walther Jørgensen

Senior Portfolio Manager at Velliv

Thomas Walther Jørgensen is Senior Portfolio Manager at Velliv Pension og Livsforsikring A/S. He joined Velliv (fka Nordea Life and Pension) in 2018 from another danish pension company where he worked as Credit Portfolio Manager as well. Prior to that Thomas worked at Ørsted and FIH Erhvervsbank A/S always with focus on credit and bank analysis . At Velliv, Thomas has focus on credit markets and day to day responsibility for corporate credit Investments (private and public markets) ex US and European High Yield and Investment Grade, Private Debt, Opportunistic Credit, Structured Credit, Commercial Real Estate etc.
Thomas holds an MS in Economics (cand. polit.) from University of Copenhagen

Deborah Shire

Deputy Head of AXA IM Alts at AXA

Deborah Shire is Deputy Head of AXA IM Alts.
Deborah was appointed Deputy Head of AXA IM Alts in 2020. AXA IM Alts is a global leader in alternative investments, with €184bn in assets under management across Real Estate, Infrastructure, Alternative Credit, Private Debt and Private Equity.
AXA IM Alts has an established position in real estate (#1 real estate investment manager in Europe, #9 worldwide), infrastructure (#4 global infrastructure debt capital raiser) and private debt (#1 CRE debt capital raiser globally, #4 global private debt capital raiser).
Deborah oversees the Alternative Credit business, which employs more than 70 professionals in Europe and the US. In 2000, Deborah co-founded the Alternative Credit platform, growing it from a €3.5bn business to one of the largest managers of alternative credit assets in Europe today, managing €49bn for 150+ clients. In her role, Deborah leads the development and launch of a performing and diversified product range including leveraged loans, ABS, CLOs, ILS, Mortgages, Regulatory Capital and Impact investment. The Structured Finance business recently received the following awards: US CLO Manager of the year (from Credit Flux), Senior CLO Investor of the year (European Securitization Awards) and 3 Environmental Finance Awards in the Health, Education and social inclusion categories.
Between 2011 to 2014, Deborah served as a Global Head of Business Development within the Real Assets team at AXA IM, in this role she was responsible for Corporate Finance, Investor Relations, Marketing & Communication and Business Development. Deborah was also a member of the Management Board of AXA IM – Real Assets and was instrumental in the creation of the CRE debt platform, now firmly established as a global leader in its field today.
Deborah has extensive experience working for AXA group and held various positions both in the Finance and Quantitative Management departments before moving to AXA IM Structured Finance in 2000.
Deborah joined AXA in 1996 and has had over 28 years of experience.
Deborah holds a Diploma of Financial Analyst from the French Society of Financial Analysts (SFAF) and is a graduate of Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace in Engineering.

Torben Skødeberg, CFA

Capital Four

Torben Skødeberg, CFA, co-founded Capital Four in 2007. He is a PM and member of the Investment Committee for Private Debt, Leveraged Loans and High Yield. Prior to Capital Four, he was at Nordea Investment Management, where he had day to day portfolio management responsibilities for some of Nordea’s High Yield / Hedge Fund portfolios and covered several industry sectors as a research analyst.
Torben joined Nordea from SEB Asset Management Copenhagen, where he was responsible for risk management.
Prior to SEB Torben worked at Nordea Group Treasury, where he developed credit risk models. He holds a MS in Mathematics and Economics from Copenhagen University and is a CFA Charterholder.

Henrik Olejasz Larsen

Chief Investment Officer at Sampension

Henrik Olejasz Larsen is the Chief Investment Officer at Sampension
Prior to joining Sampension in 2007, Henrik was the Chief Risk Officer at ATP until 2005. Before that he was the Head of Structured Finance at Carnegie Bank, Denmark until 2001. He has also held roles at Danske Bank as the Head of Treasury, JØP as CEO and BRFkredit as Head of Treasury and Funding.
Henrik Olejasz Larsen holds a MA (Economics) from the University of Copenhagen and has been an external lecturer in Finance since 1987.

Tatiana Lazareva, CFA

Senior Alternatives Specialist at Franklin Templeton

Tatiana Lazareva, CFA, is responsible for Benefit Street Partners and Alcentra fundraising in Nordics. She joined from Schroders Capital in London and has seventeen years of experience in client-facing and solutions roles across investment banking and asset management. During her career, she worked with institutional and intermediary clients (family offices, wealth managers, private banks, pension schemes, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds), raising assets for public and private investment strategies.

Thomas Kjærgaard

Chief Investment Officer at Kjaergaard Capital

Thomas H. Kjærgaard is a pioneer in ESG and sustainable investments in the Nordic region.
He led Danske Bank's responsible investment efforts from 2008 to 2017. Afterwards, he joined Nordea Liv & Pension Denmark as Head of Investment Governance & ESG, contributing to the transformation into Velliv Pension and particularly in the development of the investment department.
In addition to co-founding Dansif, where he also served twice as chairman of the board, he has participated in several international working groups, including those in ICGN, UN PRI, and IIGCC, to advance industry practices.
Today, Thomas works as an independent advisor, board member and external lecturer at CBS.

Sandra Metoyer, CFA

Strategic Head of Sustainable Investments at Velliv

Kenneth Winther

Chief Investment Officer at Realdania

Work experience
CIO at Realdania, 2020, Head of Investments at Tryg Invest, 2017 - 2020, Senior Vice President at Tryg Forsikring, 2010 - 2017, Investment strategist at Tryg Forsikring, 2010 - 2010, External Associated Professor at Copenhagen Business School, 2010 - 2021, Lead Portfolio Manager at Capinordic Bank, 2009 - 2010, Head of Equity research and Senior Equity Analyst, Capinordic Bank, 2006 - 2009, Financial Analyst at GP Børsmæglerselskab, 2006 - 2006

Present positions of trust
Board member at Nissen Family Group, 2024 - , Board member at Nissen Family Group Investment, 2024 - , Deputy chairman of The Pension Fund Architects & Designers (PAD), in 2024 and Board member, 2023 - , Commitee member of Fund & Family Offices Network at CFA Society Denmark, 2023 - , Advisory board member of FAURBY capital, 2021 - , Board member/Director at WISTOV, 2013 - , Advisory Board member at Institutional Investor Conferences, 2012 - , Board member of Videncentret Bolius, 2022 - , Board member of Realdania By & Byg, 2020 - , Director of Realdania Invest, 2020 -

Education
Board work in financial institutions – Pension Funds and Insurance companies (CBS Executive), 2024, Board certificate, KPMG, Horten, Amrop & Board Assure, 2019, Transformational Leadership, University of Cambridge – Judge School of Business, 2019, High Impact Leadership, University of Berkeley, – Haas School of Business, 2016, High Performance Teams, CBS Executive, 2015, Master of Science in Finance and Accounting, SDU-Odense Universitet, 2006.

Thomas Kyriakoudis

Partner, Co-head Private Credit Solutions at LGT Capital Partners

Cyrus joined B-FLEXION (or Waypoint, as then was) as a Partner in March 2020, with a remit to expand the company’s existing businesses and to partner with others to grow or create new asset managers. Prior to joining B-FLEXION, Cyrus was, most recently, a President and Officer at FIL (Fidelity International Limited), the parent of the global asset management business, where he had primary responsibility for FIL’s proprietary investments. Earlier in his career Cyrus was Managing Partner at Bain & Company, London. He has been a Board Director of numerous companies, including COFRA A.G., Colt Telecom, and Element Six Group. Cyrus began his career at Schroders plc having studied medicine at the University of London.

Steen Blindum

Chief Analyst for Strategic Asset Allocation and Portfolio Construction at LD Fonde

Pia Bastrup

Chief Portfolio Manager at AP Pension

Pia Bastrup is Chief Portfolio Manager at AP Pension (USD 28 Billion AUM). Previously she was the Chief Portfolio Strategist of Alternatives Investment at PenSam where she oversaw the development of the Fund's various alternative asset classes. Before this Pia was the head of US real estate at PFA and also held roles at the International Woodland Company and EKF. Pia holds a Diploma from the Technical University of Denmark and a Master's Degree from the University of Southern Denmark.

Christian Folke, CAIA

Partner at Secure Spectrum

Christian Folke is a Partner and Head of Alternatives at Secure Spectrum, a Danish asset manager overseeing EUR 6 billion across public and private markets for a diverse group of investors, including high-net-worth individuals, pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, and family offices.

In this role, he focuses on fund investments and co-investments across a variety of asset classes, including Private Equity, Private Credit, Infrastructure, and Real Estate. Since 2019, Christian and his team have underwritten more than EUR 700 million in Private Credit fund commitments and co-investments, and he serves on the LPAC of several funds.

He originally joined the team in 2014 at Kirstein, where the team spun out in 2017 to form Spektrum, which was later acquired by Secure in 2021 to create Secure Spectrum. Prior to his time at Kirstein, he was an analyst at Alm Brand.

Christian holds a Master's degree in Finance and Accounting from Copenhagen Business School, obtained in 2013, and has been a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) since 2018.

John Hydeskov

Head of Investment Risk and Strategy at AkademikerPension

Linda Lötscher

CRO, Partner at SIGLO Capital Advisors AG

Andrew Beer

Managing member at Dynamic Beta investments LLC

Andrew D. Beer is the co-founder of Dynamic Beta investments, a specialist in hedge fund replication.
Andrew Beer has almost 30 years of experience in the hedge fund industry. Over the last decade and a half his singular focus has been to identify strategies to match or outperform leading hedge funds with low fees, daily liquidity and less downside risk. DBi has been a Partner of iM Global Partner since 2018 and is a pioneering hedge fund replication firm.

Andrew began his hedge fund career in 1994 when he joined the Baupost Group as a generalist portfolio manager. During the 2000s, he co-founded Pinnacle Asset Management, a fund of hedge funds focused on fundamental commodity investing, and Apex Capital Management, a single manager hedge fund that specialized in relative value arbitrage. In 2006, Andrew set out of solve a vexing issue for allocators: is it possible to deliver hedge fund alpha with low fees and daily liquidity? Over the past decade and a half, this question has led to research on multi-manager mutual funds, alternative risk premia, 13F copycats, global absolute return strategies and the broader liquid alternatives space. Today, DBi manages approximately $2 billion in three factor-based hedge fund replication strategies, which are offered through four UCITS vehicles (including the SEI Liquid Alternative fund, the recipient of numerous industry awards), two US ETFs and several other vehicles.

Ingrid Frissen

Senior Portfolio Manager at LGT Capital Partners

Ingrid Frissen is Senior Portfolio Manager on the Liquid Markets Multi-Manager team at LGT Capital Partners in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland. Prior to joining the firm in 2007, she worked at Unigestion in Geneva where she was a vice president covering event driven and equity long/short strategies. Ms. Frissen started her career in 1999 at Scotia Capital Markets in Toronto, Canada where she was an analyst in the investment banking division. In 2001, Ms. Frissen joined the proprietary trading desk at TD Newcrest, Toronto Dominion where she was an investment analyst. She subsequently joined Talisman Capital Partners in 2002 as an analyst/portfolio manager. Ms. Frissen received her degree in Economics from the University of Antwerp in 1997 and an MSc in Finance from HEC in Montreal, Canada in 1999. She is fluent in English, German, French and Dutch.

Teis Knuthsen

Chief Investment Officer at Kirk Kapital

Teis Knuthsen has been the Chief Investment Officer at Kirk Kapital A/S since the spring of 2018. In addition to being an active financial commentator, he has been affiliated with Copenhagen Business School (CBS) as a lecturer in portfolio management, ESG, and risk factors since 2014. Prior to joining Kirk Kapital, he held several senior positions at institutions such as Saxo Privatbank, Nykredit Asset Management, Danske Bank, SEB Merchant Banking, and First Chicago Capital Markets. All his roles have been within the areas of Asset Allocation, FX, Fixed Income, strategy, and analysis. Teis Knuthsen holds a Master’s degree in Economics (Cand. Polit.) from the University of Copenhagen, obtained in 1991.

Anders Blomgreen

Vice President, Portfolio Manager at Jyske Bank

Anders Blomgreen is Vice President and Portfolio Manager in the Strategic Investment team at Jyske Capital, the asset management arm of Jyske Bank.
He and his team have dual responsibility for strategic asset allocation of Jyske Banks multi asset portfolios and, alternatives within these portfolios and for direct distribution to clients.
Before joining Jyske Capital in 2013, he worked 5 years in PKA’s investment department, with a focus on listed equities and liquid alternatives.
Anders holds a MSc in Finance and International Business from University of Aarhus.

Magdalena Högberg, CFA

Head of Asset allocation, Liquid markets and Analysis at AP4

Christoph Junge

Head of Alternatives at Velliv, Pension & Livsforsikring

Conference host