The EDHEC Institutional Days took place in Paris on 21-22 November 2006, an international conference presenting the latest findings of the main research centre of EDHEC Business School, which proved to be a huge success. This research conducted within the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre focuses on on the most recently developed financial techniques for allocating assets within investment portfolios.

Over 800 institutional investors and fund managers from across the world participated in the event, discussing research findings and their applications with members of Europe's leading academic financial research centre. The speakers included EDHEC's research specialists, asset managers, and distinguished figures from the institutional investor community such as Dr Mark Anson, CEO of Hermes Pensions Management and Mrs Henny Kapteijn, Head of Finance, Control & Risk Management at global leader ABP Investments.

Mr Fons Lute, Chief Investment Officer of Blue Sky Group, The Netherlands commented:

"Chairing a panel session at the EDHEC Institutional Days conference was really an interesting experience for me. The quality of the research on offer was high, the industry panellists did a great job in reacting to the findings that were presented and the audience proved to be very involved. What more can one want as a chairman?  EDHEC should be credited for delivering yet another remarkable event for institutional investors and asset management professionals!"

PROGRAMME CONTENT

The programme was split into two conferences and a master class. The ETF Summit focused on risk management and asset allocation supported by Exchange Traded Funds while the New Challenges for European Institutional Investors looked at Liability Driven Investment for pension funds and the impact of IFRS & the Solvency II Directive on insurance companies. The State of the Art Institutional Asset Management Master Class, demonstrated to institutional investors how to use the most recent tools developed by applied academic research to improve their investment processes. 

A STUDENT'S VIEW

Students from EDHEC's Finance programmes benefited from privileged access to this conference normally reserved for industry professionals.  Edoardo Ravano, an Italian student in the EDHEC MSc in Risk & Asset Management, was impressed by the whole event:

"I was stunned by the number of people attending the conference and its international environment, with representatives of financial institutions from around the world. It made me realise how EDHEC's research is renowned on an international scale. 

Debates began with a presentation by a member of EDHEC's Research Centre and then opened out to representatives of the different institutions (both leading pension fund managers and major employers such as Barclays Global Investors, Société Générale, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, etc.). These interactive debates were extremely enriching and were really complementary to our classes.

During the breaks, I had several occasions to speak with professionals from different financial institutions and although this was not a recruitment fair, all were very helpful and gave us their business cards - a welcome contact to the professional world and a very good chance to enlarge our network."   

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The next international conference organised by the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre, the EDHEC Asset Management Days 2007, will take place in Geneva on 12-13 March and is yet another example of EDHEC's lead in the field of financial research. Apply