Forum on Pension Fund Investing and Climate Change
The Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics is pleased to co-host a panel discussion on Pension Fund Investing and Climate Change on October 31st, 2019, 8-10am.
Pension fund trustees and their investment managers and service providers have a fiduciary obligation to pension beneficiaries to act prudently in their best interests in making investment decisions regarding fund portfolios. Pension funds will potentially lose significant value of their investments if they do not act as prudent investors by recognizing climate change financial risk as well as climate driven investment opportunities. The panel will discuss strategies to meet prudential obligations to undertake careful evaluation of climate change and share examples of investment strategy decisions that are based on a time frame commensurate with the pension plan’s liabilities.
The event is co-hosted by the Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at UBC Sauder School of Business, the Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability at SFU Beedie School of Business, the Canada Climate Law Initiative and the Centre for Business Law at UBC Allard School of Law, and the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE).
Panelists:
- Murray Gold, Senior Pensions and Benefits Partner, Koskie Minsky LLP
- Janis Sarra, UBC Presidential Distinguished Professor and Professor of Law at the Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia
- Jacky Shen, Director of Treasury, Simon Fraser University
- Stephanie Bertels (moderator), Director of the Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability at SFU Beedie School of Business, and Trustee and Co-Chair of the SFU Academic Pension Plan
Registration is free at www.eventbrite.ca/e/forum-on-pension-fund-investing-and-climate-change-tickets-71124195383
Murray Gold advises governing boards of public sector and jointly trusteed pension and benefits plans across Canada in regard to compliance and best-practice issues. He counsels the fiduciary boards of public and private sector pension and benefits plans. He has led governance and financial restructurings of major public sector pension and benefits arrangements in Ontario, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Alberta, and represents a range of plan sponsors, retiree groups and active members in the education, public, healthcare and multi-employer sectors, including in regard to major insolvencies. He is a Fellow of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, an honor in recognition of his work in regard to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Janis Sarra is a is professor at the UBC Allard School of Law. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of corporate finance, banking law, corporate governance, securities law, contracts commercial insolvency law, and law and economics. Prior to being appointed as UBC Presidential Distinguished Professor, Dr. Sarra served as Director of the Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC, Associate Dean, Peter A. Allard School of Law and founding Director of the National Centre for Business Law. She is currently a director of Assuris and the International Insolvency Institute, and member of the Canadian Delegation to the UN Commission on International Trade Law WG V. She is author of numerous reports on climate change governance, including: Fiduciary Obligations in Business and Investment: Implications of Climate Change, 2018 (CCLI, Oxford); Time to Act, Response to questions posed by the Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance on Fiduciary Obligation and Effective Climate-related Financial Disclosures, co-authored with C. Williams, 2019; and The Anthropocene in the Time of Trump, Financial Markets, Climate Change Risk and Vulnerability, 2018.
Jacky Shen is the Director of Treasury at Simon Fraser University, where he manages the university’s endowment fund and non-endowed portfolios. Jacky is also a trustee of both SFU Academic Staff Pension Plan and SFU Administrative/Union Staff Pension Plan. He worked in the financial industry since 1989. He has accumulated more than 20 years of experience of investment management, corporate finance, credit analysis, marketing management and product development for various organizations including managerial roles in leading global firms such as HSBC and AIG. He earned a MBA degree from University of Pittsburgh, a Master of Global Assets and Wealth Management from Simon Fraser University, and he is a CFA Charter holder.
Stephanie Bertels (moderator) conducts leading research at the intersection of governance and sustainability. She is the Director of the Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability at SFU's Beedie School of Business and leads the Embedding Project, a research collaborative between business sustainability researchers and leading global companies that develops practical tools to help companies embed social and environmental factors across their operations and decision-making. Stephanie is also a trustee and co-chair of the SFU Academic Pension Plan.