Future of Investments Forum

January 28 – 29
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Our inaugural Future of Investments Forum will bring together the region’s most
influential sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other asset owners with leading global investors for two days of forward-looking discussion and strategic exchange.
Conversations will dive deep into public and private markets, energy transition and infrastructure, emerging economies, and the evolving nature of risk. With the global investment landscape shifting fast, this is where resilience meets innovation.Expect sharp insights, candid debates, and meaningful connections. Whether navigating volatility or chasing long-term opportunity, this forum is designed to challenge thinking and spark collaboration. All taking place in Abu Dhabi, a powerhouse emerging at the crossroads of global finance

Keynote Speaker

Edward Bell

Acting Chief Economist and Group Head of Research

Emirates NBD

View Bio

Distinguished Speakers Include

Arup Datta

MBA, CFA

Senior Vice President, Head of Team, Mackenzie Global Quantitative Equity Team

Mackenzie Investments


View Bio

Biswajit Dasgupta


CIO


Asas Capital


View Bio

William Hess


Founder, Co-Head of Research

PRC Macro


View Bio

Ju Hui Lee

CFA, CAIA, FSA, FCIA, CERA, FRM

Head of Investment Risk and Performance

United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF)

View Bio

Matthew Leatherman


Fellow, Behavioural Insights Team

Georgetown Law Denny Center for Democratic Capitalism

View Bio

Mitchel MacCartney


Director of Strategy - Investments and Structuring

Wide Plains Holdings


View Bio

Winston Ma

CFA & Esq.

GPIFF Executive Director and Adjunct Professor

NYC School of Law;
Former MD, China Investment Corp (CIC)

View Bio

Peter Strikwerda


Strategic leader in Digital & AI Transformation in FSI | Non-Exec Board Member




View Bio
View More

The Event Experience

Participate in peer-to-peer discussions addressing forward-looking topics facing global investors

Connect with global investors and engage with your peers through unique networking opportunities.

Gain insights from leading industry professionals in structured, interactive sessions.

Foster connections during the off-site reception and dinner

Leverage the event app to access program details, participate in live Q&A and polling, and connect with speakers and peers.

Ways to Participate

Speak

Propose a speaker for a topic aligned with the conference theme

Attend

Complimentary passes available for qualified institutional investors

Sponsor

Limited sponsorship opportunities available for provider firms

Edward Bell

Acting Chief Economist and Group Head of Research

Emirates NBD

Edward Bell is the Acting Chief Economist and Group Head of Research at Emirates NBD, leading a team of economists and analysts delivering market intelligence and macroeconomic insights for the MENAT region. His expertise spans economic analysis, policy research, and financial markets, providing strategic guidance on key trends and risks shaping global and regional economies. Emirates NBD’s Research team is a vital resource for wholesale banking clients, offering data-driven insights tailored to their industries and future plans. By equipping businesses with macroeconomic research and market intelligence, the team helps clients navigate uncertainty, identify opportunities, and make informed financial decisions. Their insights also support Emirates NBD’s coverage teams, strengthening advisory capabilities with in-depth analysis across sectors. Previously, Edward served as Head of Market Economics at Emirates NBD, specializing in commodities, currencies, and interest rates. He has a background as a commodities analyst and Middle East-focused economist, with degrees from the University of London and the University of Toronto. Based in Dubai, he is a regular commentator on economic trends in global media and industry events.

Arup Datta

MBA, CFA

Senior Vice President, Head of Team, Mackenzie Global Quantitative Equity Team

Mackenzie Investments

Arup has been a professional quantitative investor for more than three decades, managing portfolios across virtually every capitalization and region of the world.

Between 1992 and 2012 he was a Quantitative Analyst, Portfolio Manager, Director of US and Director of Portfolio Management with Man Numeric. In 2012, he founded Agriya Investors, which later became the global/international arm of AJO. He joined Mackenzie in September 2017 to head the Global Quantitative Equity Team.

Arup has a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, and earned an MBA with distinction from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. He is a CFA charterholder.

Biswajit Dasgupta

CIO

Asas Capital

Biswajit has 25+ years of regional and international experience in financial markets in areas of foreign exchange, money markets, fixed income, and equities. Before joining Asas, he was the CIO at Emirates Investment Bank overseeing the bank’s proprietary investments. He also acted as ED – Treasury at Invest AD where he led its treasury and capital markets activities.

He also held a number of senior positions in Treasury departments at various financial institutions in the region, including Al Khalij Commercial Bank in Doha, Qatar, where he set up its Treasury and Debt Capital Markets business and laid the foundations for the Islamic banking business. Biswajit is a Chartered Accountant from ICAI and an alumni of Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University.

William Hess

Founder, Co-Head of Research

PRC Macro

Previously he served as President of China Monitor Inc (CMI), a platform for macroeconomic and industry forecasting and analysis in partnership with CEInet, a thinktank under the NDRC in Beijing. Earlier in his career he served as a Director of Sovereign and International Public Finance ratings with Standard & Poor’s in Hong Kong, and as the General Manager of Global Insight’s Beijing office prior to its acquisition by IHS in 2008.

Ju Hui Lee

CFA, CAIA, FSA, FCIA, CERA, FRM

Head of Investment Risk and Performance

United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF)

Ju Hui Lee is Head of Market Risk of UNJSPF (United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund), responsible for market risk oversight and asset-lability management. The fund manages assets of US$91.5 billion as of 31 December 2021.

Before joining UNJSPF, Ju Hui worked on the asset-liability analysis of the Canada Pension Plan and the factor studies at Canada Pension Investments (CPP Investments). In addition, she led modelling groups in the Global Risk Management at Scotiabank and ALM consulting, pension investment strategy development and risk management activities for financial institutions, model vetting, and actuarial valuation reporting for clients at KPMG and Mercer and developed the LDI methodology and was responsible for the strategic asset allocation at Manulife Financial.

Ju Hui holds a BSc. Mathematics, an MBA from the Yonsei University in Korea, and an MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Chicago. Ju Hui holds the CFA, CAIA, FSA, FCIA, CERA, and FRM designations.

Matthew Leatherman

Fellow, Behavioural Insights Team

Georgetown Law Denny Center for Democratic Capitalism

Matt is a Fellow of Georgetown Law’s Denny Center for Democratic Capitalism, a Senior Research Fellow of the Behavioral Insights Team, and founder of Leatherman Strategic Advisory. Matt helps in each capacity to manage money for the good of people and the public, including at the high level of geopolitics and political economy through the Denny Center, at the intermediate level of investment governance and strategy through his advisory practice, and at the ground level of real-world implementation through services he is developing specifically for institutional investors with the Behavioral Insights Team. Matt recently helped to establish a financial research organization called Focusing Capital on the Long Term, including joining as its first full-time researcher and originating the entire suite of tools for institutional investors as well as many for corporations. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Washington State Investment Board, and others have publicly documented the impact of Matt’s leadership on their capital allocation practices. Prior to joining FCLT, Matt served as policy director to North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell. Matt advised Treasurer Cowell on her policy initiatives and on engagements with state and federal legislatures, regulators, and stakeholders; served as staff director of the corporate governance committee; directed implementation across a 400-person organization; and personally managed especially significant initiatives across the Department’s remit of investing, pension and health benefit administration, and state banking. Matt is chair emeritus of the John Rex Endowment and a director of the Foundation for Health Leadership and Innovation and the Raleigh Area Land Trust. Matt also advises the Catawba Center for the Environment, one of the largest-endowed university programs focused on the environment, and Reward Value, a Netherlands-based research center experimenting with ways that pay affects CEO behavior. Matt is active in public policy having campaigned to be North Carolina’s Treasurer in 2020.

Mitchel MacCartney

Director of Strategy - Investments and Structuring

Wide Plains Holdings

Mitch is the Director of Strategy for a boutique SFO – Wide Plains Holding (WPH). In addition to overseeing growth and structural implementation according to the family’s needs, he also is responsible for managing the Private Markets Team. As of now, WPH is currently investing mostly in Real Estate and Private Credit across several key jurisdictions (UAE, Russia, CIS, Western Europe, and Latin America).

Prior to leading WPH, Mitch managed Credit and Real Estate for a Dutch Family Office, Construction and Real Estate for several other groups, and began his career solving complex Procurement and Vendor Management problems for a Family-owned multinational food products distributor. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Supply Chain, an M.A. in International Relations and Economics, and was a former 2-sport professional athlete.

His passion within Finance is structuring of credit products and optimizing credit portfolios while also managing relationships within Family Owned Entities. He excels at mapping uncertainty, measurable and subjective, into coherent models allowing for the proper understanding of exposure for accurate and defensible pricing.

Winston Ma

CFA & Esq.

GPIFF Executive Director and Adjunct Professor

NYC School of Law;
Former MD, China Investment Corp (CIC)

Winston Ma, CFA & Esq., is an investor, attorney, author, and adjunct professor in the global AI-digital economy. He is a partner of Dragon Global, an AI-focused family office (CIO – Chief Investment Officer of the StorageBlue Capital Management), and he is also the Executive Director of Global Public Investment Funds Forum and an Adjunct Professor (on Sovereign Investors) at New York University (NYU) School of Law.

Most recently for 10 years, he was Managing Director and Head of North America Office for China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s sovereign wealth fund. Prior to that, Mr. Ma served as the deputy head of equity capital markets at Barclays Capital, a vice president at J.P. Morgan investment banking, and a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. He is one of a small number of native Chinese who have worked as investment professionals and practicing capital markets attorneys in both the United States and China.

Formerly a nationally certified Software Programmer, Mr. Ma is the author of more than 10 books on SWF funds, digital economy, and global geopolitics, including The Hunt for Unicorns: How Sovereign Funds are Reshaping Investment in the Digital Economy  and most recently “Blockchain and Web3” (among 2024 “six must-read blockchain books” by TechTarget). He has been frequently interviewed by CNBC and Bloomberg TV and quoted by major financial media including WSJ, Reuters, and Financial Times. He was selected a 2013 Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum (WEF), and in 2014 he received the NYU Distinguished Alumni Award.

Peter Strikwerda

Strategic leader in Digital & AI Transformation in FSI | Non-Exec Board Member

Peter has a longstanding, international track record in strategy, digital & AI transformation and new business, with a focus on Financial Services. In recent years he has defined and led a full-scale, multi-disciplinary digital transformation at APG Asset Management as well as over 70 innovation initiatives, including scaling (Gen)AI.

As side activities, he is a member of the Supervisory Board of Univé South NL, a member of the Board of Holland Fintech Association, a Supervisory Board Member of The European Digital Financial Association and a (guest) lecturer at a.o. Nyenrode Business University and TIAS.

He holds a university degree in Business Administration.