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Systemic Risk Centre Event
Co-hosted with NUS Risk Management Institute

Date: Monday 27th November 2023   Time: 11.00am-12.30pm GMT
Speakers: Henry Gonzalez (Green Climate Fund), Prakash Kannan (GIC), Mary O'Connor (Howden CAP & formerly KPMG UK), Manfred Schepers (ILX Management), Jean-Pierre Zigrand (FMG & SRC, LSE)
Chair: Lutfey Siddiqi (LSE & NUS RMI)

Video

The event takes stock of the risk management challenges that transpired in 2023 and lessons learnt for the upcoming year and beyond. In this interactive panel discussion, leading risk practitioners from the global financial system join LSE academics to share their perspectives on risk themes of the outgoing year and those that should be on the radar for the new year:

  • Did we frame and approach risk in the right manner?
  • What has worked and what has not in 2023?
  • What is it that truly surprised us?
  • What are some of the open questions that we are still grappling with, and academia can help with?  

This is the fourth edition of what has now become an annual tradition of risk review and preview at LSE SRC in conjunction with NUS RMI. Links to previous editions of this event are available at the bottom of this page.

#LSEriskSRC

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

Speaker biographies

Henry Gonzalez

Henry Gonzalez is the Deputy Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of the Green Climate Fund overseeing over USD 13 billion commitments of GCF resources and close to USD 48 billion in co-financing across 228 projects in more than 140 countries. In his earlier tenure at the Fund, he was the Director of its Private Sector Facility. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council on the Future of Philanthropy for Climate and Nature.

Prakash Kannan

Prakash Kannan is Chief Economist and Director of the Economics and Investment Strategy Department at GIC. He is responsible for formulating the outlook for the global investment environment and asset allocation strategy for the firm. He serves as a member of GIC’s Investment Management Committee, Group Risk Committee and Currency Risk Management Group. His previous roles in the firm included Deputy Head of Total Portfolio Strategy as well as Head of Economics & Capital Markets.

Mary O'Connor

Mary O'Connor is a dual-qualified US and UK lawyer, an outgoing CEO for Howden CAP and the former Acting Chief Executive of KPMG UK. Her 30-year career comprises high-level and influential roles in government, regulation, international business, law and entrepreneurship. Mary is an expert at developing strategy and leading businesses to deliver growth in highly-complex and regulated environments, negotiating and executing agreements with international partners, developing and implementing policy and regulation and communicating and influencing stakeholders in business, government and the wider economy. Mary has spent the last 15 months setting up a small investment bank for PE-backed Howden Group. As planned, she is leaving this role at year end to pursue her passion of demonstrating that diversity, inclusion and doing good supports strong commercial outcomes. She is a Board member of the PE-backed Carne Group, member of the C200 (global invitation-only membership organisation of leading women corporate executives) and a former Director of the Charity Bank. 

Manfred Schepers

Manfred Schepers is the Founder and CEO of ILX Management, the Amsterdam-based development finance asset manager and has 30+ years’ senior-level experience in both development finance and international capital markets. From 2006-2016 he was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and led the Bank’s Institutional Investment Partnership program. From 2017-21 he was a member of the Investment Committee of the EU’s European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) and currently serves on the Supervisory Boards of Van Lanschot Kempen and the Nederlandse Waterschapsbank. From 1986-2004 he had an extensive career at SBC Warburg and UBS where he was Global Head of Debt Capital Markets from 1990-2004.

Lutfey Siddiqi

Lutfey Siddiqi (@Lutfeys) is Visiting Professor in Practice at LSE IDEAS and Advisory Board member at the Systemic Risk Centre. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the National University of Singapore and advisory board member of the Centre for Governance (CGIO) at NUS business school. He was previously Global Head of Emerging Markets for Foreign Exchange, Rates & Credit at UBS Investment Bank.

Jean-Pierre Zigrand

Jean-Pierre Zigrand (@JPZigrand) is Associate Professor of Finance, Co-Director of the Financial Markets Group and Co-Director of the Systemic Risk Centre at the London School of Economics. His research interests are in the areas of systemic risk and asset pricing in which he has an extensive publication record. His teaching is principally in quantitative finance at MSc, PhD and executive levels. Dr Zigrand is the director of the LSE MSc Finance executive programme. He is a member of the Bank of England Bank’s Macroprudential Panel - Market Subgroup and has acted as a consultant to private sector financial institutions, to the Luxembourgish Central Bank as well as to regulatory bodies. He has been a Lead Expert to the UK Foresight Team on the Future of Computer Trading.