2025 Annual Nordic Institutional Investor Forum

Hanna Kaskela

Senior VP, Sustainability & Communications , Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company

Hanna Kaskela serves as the Senior Vice-President of Sustainability and Communications at Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company. In 2023, Kaskela joined the Executive Group of Varma. Kaskela has worked at Varma since 2003 in various positions; previously Director of Responsible Investment (2017‒2022), Sustainable Development Portfolio Manager (2016‒2017), Equity Portfolio Manager (2006‒2016), and Equity Analyst (2003‒2006). In addition to her role at Varma, Kaskela is a board member of Tornator.

Kaskela holds a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Economics & Accounting, Accounting & Finance from the University of Tampere and a CEFA (Certified EFFAS Financial Analyst) from Hanken School of Economics. 

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Armi Taipale

Head of Department for Capital Markets Supervision , Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority

Armi Taipale is Head of Department for Capital Markets Supervision at the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA). She joined the FIN-FSA in 2019.

She has previously worked at the Ministry of Finance, Financial Markets Department as Head of the Unit for Capital Markets and Market Infrastructure and in various positions as economist and legislative counsellor. Prior to this she was also deputy board membership in the State Pension Fund of Finland and board membership in the Auditor Oversight Board of the Finnish Chambers of Commerce.

She has a master’s degree in Law from the University of Helsinki and a master’s degree in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics (now part of Aalto University).

Richard Barclay

Head of Product & Multi-Strategy Solutions, Man Group

Richard Barclay is Head of Product and Multi-Strategy Solutions and responsible for Man Group’s Risk Premia and TargetRisk Equities portfolios.

Prior to his current role, Richard was working on portfolio construction within the investment solutions team. Before that, he was responsible for due diligence on external quantitative hedge funds at Man FRM.

Richard joined Man Group as a graduate in 2012. Richard holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Southampton.

Derek Drummond

Portfolio Manager, Funds Alpha, State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB)

Derek Drummond, CAIA, is the Portfolio Manager for the Funds Alpha team at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), overseeing approximately $30B in assets.

Derek and his team are responsible for the sourcing, evaluation and implementation of external investment managers across both traditional and alternative investment strategies.

Derek has over 20 years of experience developing and implementing investment structures for both asset owners and managers, including developing portfolio construction, analytics and risk management frameworks, and establishing manager due diligence and evaluation processes.

Lauri Ehanti

Head of Investments, Aalto University Endowment

Lauri Ehanti is the Head of Investments at Aalto University Endowment. He is responsible for the management of the EUR 1,5Bn endowment portfolio, including planning and executing the investment strategy, external manager selection, and managing the internal investment team.

He joined the endowment in 2011 and his previous responsibilities as a portfolio manager there have included external manager selection across asset classes, asset allocation and investment strategy. Before joining Aalto he worked in various risk management and capital markets roles in the banking sector, most recently at OP Financial Group.

He holds a M.Sc. in Accounting and Finance from Turku School of Economics.

Kari Vatanen

Head of Asset Allocation, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company

Kari Vatanen is the head of asset allocation and alternatives at Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company in Finland. Previously, he worked as a Chief Investment Officer at Veritas Pension Insurance, as a head of cross-asset derivatives and as a Chief Risk Officer at Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company. Mr. Vatanen is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Portfolio Management, and he has written articles on asset allocation, risk management, and alternative risk premia investing.

He holds a M.Sc. in Engineering Mathematics from Aalto University and a M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Helsinki. He is a CFA Charterholder with the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification.

Mohit Kumar

MD & Chief Ecomomist, Jefferies International Ltd

Mohit Kumar is a Managing Director, Global Macro Strategist and Chief Economist for Jefferies in Europe. In his current role, he is responsible for Macro Strategy and Investment Recommendations across asset classes, with a particular focus on central bank policies in US, Europe and the UK and outlook for interest rates, equities and credit.

Prior to joining Jefferies, he was the Global Head of Rates Research at Credit Agricole CIB. He has worked in both Research and Trading including as a Portfolio Manager at MAN GLG and Prop Trader at Goldman Sachs.

Mohit holds a B. Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi and a Post Graduate from IIM Ahmedabad.

Caesar Yuan

Partner & Macro Portfolio Manager, Balyasny Europe Asset Management

Caesar Yuan is a Partner and Macro Portfolio Manager specializing in interest rate markets and central bank policy. Caesar joined BAM in 2018 and is based in our London office.

Prior to BAM, Caesar spent nine years with Goldman Sachs where he was an Executive Director in Short Macro Trading.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics.

Brian Digney

Research and Content Director, SBAI

Brian Digney joined the SBAI in March 2023 in the role of Research and Content Director. He is responsible for content development and co-ordination of the ongoing and future working groups on a wide variety of topics, including valuation of private assets, ESG & carbon footprinting, governance, insurance linked strategies, digital assets, asset management regulation and compliance as well as new topics to be determined in the future.

Prior to joining the SBAI, Brian was the Head of Due Diligence & Governance Oversight at Innocap Global Investment Management (Ireland) Ltd (2018-2023) in Dublin, a subsidiary of Innocap Investment Management Inc., a US$50bn hedge fund platform. He acted as Designated Person for Operational Risk Management, a regulated role by the Central Bank of Ireland. He also sat on Innocap’s Irish Risk Oversight and Valuation Committees. In 2017, Brian joined Albourne Partners in London as a Senior Operational Due Diligence Analyst. From 2015 to 2017 he was employed as an Operational Due Diligence Analyst at Mercer Sentinel in London. From 2010 to 2015 he held various Associate level roles at Decura LLP, Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Brian holds an LLB Hons in Law with Criminology and an M.Sc. in Management and Corporate Governance from University of Ulster. Brian is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Brian Digney

Research and Content Director, SBAI

Brian Digney joined the SBAI in March 2023 in the role of Research and Content Director. He is responsible for content development and co-ordination of the ongoing and future working groups on a wide variety of topics, including valuation of private assets, ESG & carbon footprinting, governance, insurance linked strategies, digital assets, asset management regulation and compliance as well as new topics to be determined in the future.

Prior to joining the SBAI, Brian was the Head of Due Diligence & Governance Oversight at Innocap Global Investment Management (Ireland) Ltd (2018-2023) in Dublin, a subsidiary of Innocap Investment Management Inc., a US$50bn hedge fund platform. He acted as Designated Person for Operational Risk Management, a regulated role by the Central Bank of Ireland. He also sat on Innocap’s Irish Risk Oversight and Valuation Committees. In 2017, Brian joined Albourne Partners in London as a Senior Operational Due Diligence Analyst. From 2015 to 2017 he was employed as an Operational Due Diligence Analyst at Mercer Sentinel in London. From 2010 to 2015 he held various Associate level roles at Decura LLP, Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Brian holds an LLB Hons in Law with Criminology and an M.Sc. in Management and Corporate Governance from University of Ulster. Brian is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Michael Azlan

Founder & CEO, Carbon Cap Management

Michael Azlen is a senior investment professional with 25+ years of industry experience including the founding, growth and sale of a regulated investment management business to a public company. After a 15 year career spanning two Canadian banks and several alternative asset management companies, Mr. Azlen founded his first investment management business in 2005 and grew it to $700 million in assets before achieving an exit to a public company.

Michael then focused on research into climate change and impact investment strategies with a deep focus on regulated carbon markets resulting in the authorship and publication of a full academic paper on Carbon as a liquid and investable asset class. Based on this research, Michael formed Carbon Cap Management LLP as an environmental asset manager focused on carbon markets and climate impact.

Mr. Azlen holds a Sloan Masters Degree in Leadership and Strategy from London Business School and is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and has completed the LSE’s “Economics and Governance of Climate Change” course. Michael is a regular speaker at investment conferences and is has been a guest lecturer on the graduate degree programs at London Business School for the past 19 years.

Francois Boutin-Dufresne

Co Founder & Managing Partner, Nordis Capital

François is an entrepreneur which operates at the nexus of financial markets, public policy and sustainable investing. François has more than 20 years of experience as an economist in public policy and financial markets.

He is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Sustainable Market Strategies and Nordis Capital, respectively a research firm and alternative asset manager both built on the premise that investing in sustainability-themed megatrends can improve longer term risk-adjusted returns. François is also a part-time lecturer in economics and finance at HEC Montréal’s MBA program.

His past roles include being a macroeconomic and financial strategist and as an economist at the International Monetary Fund, where he worked on financial sector development developing economies and development finance. Prior to his appointment to the IMF, he worked as a macro economist in the Government of Canada where he notably developed impact-focused private equity funds in Africa.

Ilkka Harju

Director, Tax Department, Finnish Ministry of Finance

Ilkka Harju, graduated with a Master of Laws degree from the University of Helsinki in 1987 and joined the Ministry of Finance in 1992. He served almost 20 years (1998-2017) as an advisor to the director general and a member of the management group of the financial markets department and a deputy member of the board of the Financial Supervision Authority (1993-2008) and the board of Insurance Supervision Authority (1999-2008).

From March 2009 to September 2017 he was a Finnish member in the European Securities Committee (ESC) within the EC (DG FISMA). He was a member of an expert group on removing tax obstacles to cross-border venture capital investments (2008-2010). During the 1999 Finnish EU Presidency he was Council working group chairman in charge of the UCITS III Directive negotiations and was also the Finnish delegate in Council negotiations on various financial services directives and regulations. Since October 2017 he has mainly focused on tax issues with regard to financial services.

Roger Hilty

Partner, LGT Capital Partners Ltd

Roger Hilty (Swiss) is a Partner on the Liquid Markets Multi-Manager team at LGT Capital Partners in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland. He is co-responsible for the Liquid Markets Multi-Manager team. Further, he is a member of the Liquid Markets Management Team and the Liquid Markets Multi-Manager Investment Committee.

Mr. Hilty joined the firm in September 2004 from LGT Bank, where he started his career in January 2000 in the Trading/Treasury division. From 2000 to 2004, his responsibilities involved activities in equity, fixed-income, currency and commodity exchange traded and OTC products as well as processing of transactions for Asian, European and US markets. Prior to working in Finance, Mr. Hilty was a professional road racing cyclist in the international cycling team GS Ericsson Villiger (ERI).

Mr. Hilty has an MBA in Finance and a BA in Business Administration from University of Liechtenstein. He is fluent in German and English.

Gavin Smith

MD, Head of Quantitative Equity Research & Sustainable Investing , PGIM Quantitative Solutions

Gavin Smith, PhD, is a Managing Director, Head of Quantitative Equity Research and Sustainable Investing for PGIM Quantitative Solutions. He is responsible for the research, oversight and incorporation of ESG in our investment platform. In addition, he oversees research and analysis for Quantitative Equity portfolios. Prior to his current role, Gavin was most recently a portfolio manager and before that was a key member of PGIM Quantitative Solutions’ Research team where he focused on alpha and implementation research that could be applied across markets and strategies.

Prior to joining PGIM Quantitative Solutions, Gavin led the North American Quantitative Research team at Macquarie Capital. Previously, Gavin served in quantitative research positions at Barclays Capital and Plato Investment Management in Sydney, Australia.

He earned a BComm (Honors) in finance from the University of Wollongong and a PhD in finance from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Simon Weinberger

MD, EMEA Head of Portfolio Management for Systematic Active Equity , BlackRock

Simon Weinberger, PhD, Managing Director, is EMEA Head of Portfolio Management for Systematic Active Equity (SAE) at BlackRock. He is a member of the BlackRock European Investment Committee, the SAE Equity Research Approval Board (ERAB) and acts as co-deputy of the BlackRock Systematic (BSYS) Investment Committee. Dr. Weinberger's service with the firm dates back to 2003, including his years with Barclay's Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. At BGI, he was lead portfolio manager within the European Scientific Equity team. Prior to joining BGI, he began his career at the Boston Consulting Group and Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Weinberger earned an MA in economics from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in 1998, and a PhD in finance from the University of Vienna in 2002.

Brian Digney

Research and Content Director, SBAI

Brian Digney joined the SBAI in March 2023 in the role of Research and Content Director. He is responsible for content development and co-ordination of the ongoing and future working groups on a wide variety of topics, including valuation of private assets, ESG & carbon footprinting, governance, insurance linked strategies, digital assets, asset management regulation and compliance as well as new topics to be determined in the future.

Prior to joining the SBAI, Brian was the Head of Due Diligence & Governance Oversight at Innocap Global Investment Management (Ireland) Ltd (2018-2023) in Dublin, a subsidiary of Innocap Investment Management Inc., a US$50bn hedge fund platform. He acted as Designated Person for Operational Risk Management, a regulated role by the Central Bank of Ireland. He also sat on Innocap’s Irish Risk Oversight and Valuation Committees. In 2017, Brian joined Albourne Partners in London as a Senior Operational Due Diligence Analyst. From 2015 to 2017 he was employed as an Operational Due Diligence Analyst at Mercer Sentinel in London. From 2010 to 2015 he held various Associate level roles at Decura LLP, Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Brian holds an LLB Hons in Law with Criminology and an M.Sc. in Management and Corporate Governance from University of Ulster. Brian is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Brian Digney

Research and Content Director, SBAI

Brian Digney joined the SBAI in March 2023 in the role of Research and Content Director. He is responsible for content development and co-ordination of the ongoing and future working groups on a wide variety of topics, including valuation of private assets, ESG & carbon footprinting, governance, insurance linked strategies, digital assets, asset management regulation and compliance as well as new topics to be determined in the future.

Prior to joining the SBAI, Brian was the Head of Due Diligence & Governance Oversight at Innocap Global Investment Management (Ireland) Ltd (2018-2023) in Dublin, a subsidiary of Innocap Investment Management Inc., a US$50bn hedge fund platform. He acted as Designated Person for Operational Risk Management, a regulated role by the Central Bank of Ireland. He also sat on Innocap’s Irish Risk Oversight and Valuation Committees. In 2017, Brian joined Albourne Partners in London as a Senior Operational Due Diligence Analyst. From 2015 to 2017 he was employed as an Operational Due Diligence Analyst at Mercer Sentinel in London. From 2010 to 2015 he held various Associate level roles at Decura LLP, Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Brian holds an LLB Hons in Law with Criminology and an M.Sc. in Management and Corporate Governance from University of Ulster. Brian is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Alan Shaffran

Senior Portfolio Manager, Magnetar Capital (UK) LLP

Mr. Shaffran runs Magnetar Capital’s European Fixed Income business and the firm’s London office. He serves on Magnetar's Management Committee and Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Magnetar in 2008, Mr. Shaffran was Global Head of Structuring at Rabobank in London, where he was responsible for Rabobank’s structured products businesses across asset classes ranging from credit and rates to equity and fund derivatives and was on the Management Team of Rabobank’s Global Financial Markets business. Previously he spent more than 19 years at Citigroup, and its precedent firm, Salomon Brothers, where from 2001 to 2006 he was Managing Director and Head of European Credit Derivatives in London. Prior to that, he was a founding member of Salomon Brothers’ Credit Derivatives and Emerging Markets Credit Derivatives trading desks in New York, and had roles in the firm’s Debt Capital Markets and Bond Portfolio Analysis groups.

Mr. Shaffran earned a BS in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and a BS in Systems Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Mikael Brantberg

Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Lodbrok Capital

Mikael Brantberg is CIO and Managing Partner of Lodbrok Capital LLP which is an alternative investment manager with c. $1.3bn of assets under management. Lodbrok was nominated as best credit focused hedge fund in 2022 by Institutional Investor.

Prior to founding Lodbrok Capital LLP, Mr. Brantberg worked at Farallon Capital Europe from 2007 to 2015 where he focused on European credit opportunities. Between 2005 and 2007, Mr. Brantberg worked at Och Ziff Capital Management where he was an analyst focusing mainly on event driven equity and equity long/short strategies. Between 2003 and 2005, Mr. Brantberg worked as an analyst within the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs International.

He attended the Stockholm School of Economics between 1999 and 2003, graduating with an MSc in Business and Economics.

Antti Paronen

Strategist, Allocation and Strategy, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company

Mr Paronen joined Varma in June 2024 as a Strategist in the Allocation and Strategy team, with the main focus being in total portfolio allocation. Before joining Varma he spent 9 years at Danske Bank as a Chief Analyst in Institutional Advisory unit covering the Finnish institutional clients. Before that he worked at Pension Fennia and at Elo in various investment risk management roles another 9 years. 

Mr Paronen holds a master’s degree in econometrics from the University of Helsinki from year 2007.

Hanna Edström

Principle, Liquid Markets ESG, LGT Capital Partners

Hanna Edström (Swedish) is a Principal and responsible for Liquid Markets ESG at LGT Capital Partners in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland. In this capacity, she drives the ESG agenda for the liquid markets including investments, communication and education. Ms. Edström is a member of the ESG committee for LGT Capital Partners.

She originally joined the firm in 2008 and spent her first years on the investment side focusing on multi-asset portfolios. In 2017, she moved to Shanghai to work on a range of start-up projects, and then rejoined the firm in 2019. Ms. Edström then moved to the client relationship side, mainly covering Nordic clients before taking on the ESG role. Ms. Edström started her career as an investment officer at IKB Credit Asset Management.

She holds an MSc in Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics and an MSc in International Management from the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS). Ms. Edström is a CFA Charterholder, and is fluent in Swedish, English and German.

Vesa Syrjalainen

Responsible Investment Analyst, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company

Vesa works as a responsible investment analyst at Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, where he develops responsible investments across all asset classes.

Vesa holds a MSc in Finance from the University of Vaasa, and he is a CFA Charterholder.