In this episode of IPE’s Leaders in Investment, Harold Clijsen, CEO and Anne Kock, Investment Committee Chair and Trustee of Pensioenfonds PGB talk about how they make investment decisions for the fund, a conglomerate of 16 pension fund sector clients serving more than 4,000 companies for upward of 450,000 employees.

They discuss their fund’s shift toward more illiquid  assets, incorporating an impact framework; methods used to gather members’ perspectives and incorporate them into investment decisions; their operational and technical plans for moving into the new Dutch pension system and how PGB’s board and executive management have evolved their working relationship, and how they divide responsibilities.

“The times are changing and we need fresh ideas to accommodate this and to stay flexible.”

In this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In conversation with Liam Kennedy, Editorial Director, IPE.

In this episode of IPE’s Leaders in Investment, Simon Pilcher, CEO of USS Investment Management, asset manager for the UK’s £77bn Universities Superannuation Scheme discusses their role as a universal owner, the advantages of running an open defined benefit scheme and successfully moving the scheme from a deficit position to a £10bn+ surplus. The discussion covers the fund’s high allocation to private markets and significant in-house investment capability which supports that; their decision to right-size investment risk by increasing exposure to rates and to inflation and their goal for its portfolio to be net carbon zero by 2050 or earlier.

This episode of Leaders in Investment is sponsored by PGIM.

“We need to get governments and regulators to make it not only financially viable for people to change, but also easy for people to change. Let's make it easy for people to decarbonise.”

In this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Leaders in Investment, IPE Editorial Director Liam Kennedy speaks with Manfred Brenner and Poul Thybo, CIO and Head of Investments respectively for Austrian pension fund APK.

Manfred Brenner and Poul Thybo, CIO and Head of Investments respectively for Austrian pension fund APK discuss their portfolio allocation, strategic thinking across many asset classes, as well as their views on forthcoming technological breakthroughs.

Topics include their belief that investment in innovation and technology is essential for future returns; the fund’s ‘full spectrum’ approach to private equity investing; their growing allocation and approach to venture capital funds; taking risks on investment themes versus in single companies and being an early investor in Chinese markets.

This episode of Leaders in Investment is sponsored by UBS.

“We started investing in venture to get exposure than to the new and at some time unproven technologies, but also to things that could be really disruptive.”

n this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Leaders in Investment, Tom Mergaerts, CEO of Belgium’s not-for-profit Amonis pension discusses his investment philosophy, the dangers of inflation and his goal of making Amonis the provider of choice for all of Belgium’s self-employed liberal professionals.

Themes include the special duty to the self-employed, who have no employer or sponsor to fall back on; choosing allocation models that can provide forward-looking information; the ‘illusion’ of passive investing and his contrarian perspective on investing in private markets.

This episode of Leaders in Investment is sponsored by PGIM.

"Index investing is not passive. You can call it passive, but it's just someone else who decides what to buy."

In this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Stephen O’Neill, Head of Infrastructure & Natural Capital at NEST Invest – the £55bn, 13 million member DC master trust which holds the savings of one in three UK workers – offers his perspective on themes including the energy transition as a tailwind for the renewables sector; the rationale behind Nest’s investment in IFM Investors; the fund’s increasing allocation to timberland and views on nature capital, more broadly and the risks that keep him up at night.

This episode of Leaders in Investment is sponsored by UBS.

"In order to continue to meet savers’ retirement goals, private markets are not going to be just a nice-to-have, but will be essential."

In this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode of Leaders in Investment was recorded live on stage at the IPE Real Assets Infrastructure & Natural Capital Global Conference & Awards in Rotterdam. In the interview Jan-Willem is interviewed by IPE Real Assets Editor in Chief Richard Lowe. They discuss why pension funds should look to take back their power and invest for the long term, seeking strong societal value; how APG plans to grow its infra allocation from 6% to 10% of its portfolio by 2030; his conviction that geopolitical volatility should not cause investors to panic or change course and the parallels between what the energy transition looked like 10 or 15 years ago, to where biodiversity is now.

This episode of Leaders in Investment is sponsored by UBS.

‘The truth is that the threat to biodiversity is a bigger threat to us as humankind than the energy transition.’

In this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Leaders in Investment, IPE Editorial Director Liam Kennedy speaks with Dan Mikulskis, CIO of the People’s Partnership, non-profit provider of The People’s Pension, the £36bn DC master trust about a variety of topics including delivering value for scheme members; the fund’s insistence on stewardship alignment with its external managers; future retirement products and the challenges and opportunities of building an in-house investment team.

This episode of Leaders in Investment is sponsored by PGIM.

"UK asset owners are going to really exert force on global markets in the same way that the Scandinavian, Dutch, Canadian and Australian funds do."

In this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Arjan van Wieren of €150bn Dutch fiduciary manager MN explains the four distinct risk factors that are incorporated into each mandate, the potential investment impact of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, and megatrends likely to affect real assets investments.

"I think that Europe as a continent is trying to be less dependent on global economies and the supply chain and therefore is trying to make sure that they are less dependent on other regions. That creates a lot of interesting opportunities."

In this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode #18 Adam Matthews discusses the impetus behind the Commission’s formation, its collaboration with pension funds from around the world and how its work in the extractives sector provides a roadmap for investors looking to implement transparency and reporting standards in other sectors.

“When [mining] goes wrong, often it can have huge implications. It can have huge environmental impacts, it can have huge social impacts, and it kills people.”

This episode of Leaders in Investment is sponsored by PGIM.

In this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode #17 of IPE’s Leaders in Investment podcast series, Paul Clark, who recently retired from his position as Head of Real Assets Europe at AustralianSuper, discusses the changes he has seen in the industry over nearly 40 years, his certainty that the world’s great cities will survive and endure, and why global investors are likely to bring forward allocations to European real estate.

"It is an inevitable part of the human experience to gather together and exchange ideas."

In this podcast series from IPE and IPE Real Assets, members of our editorial team speak to leading figures in the institutional investor community to curate a library of in-depth, focused content. 

Conversations with chief investment officers and other asset-owner leaders will range across beliefs, objectives, investment philosophy, strategy and outlook. Engaging with asset owners both in Europe and beyond, this series will provide unique access to the thinking that guides their decisions.

If you like what you hear, do tell friends and colleagues, and please let us know us what you think by contacting us on [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.