Real Deals ESG Conference 2024

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Registration, coffee & networking
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Chair’s welcome and opening remarks
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Opening keynote
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Private equity’s role in leading climate action - how private capital can accelerate and guide behavioural change in society
  • Examine how the sector has gone from ESG laggards to leaders in less than a decade
  • The drivers, both financial and social, behind the rapid shift in outlook towards ESG
  • Fiduciary versus finality - why the planet cannot wait for a profit-driven response to climate change
  • Exploring the need for a more harmonised regulatory framework to support the global efforts of private capital and ESG

Moderator:
Maria Nazarova-Doyle, Head of Sustainable Investment, IFM Investors

Speakers:

Clare Murray, Co-Founding Partner, Blume Equity
Rebecca Svensøy, General Counsel and Head of ESG, FSN Capital
Dr. Serge Younes, Head of Sustainability, Investindustrial
Graeme Ardus, Head of ESG, Triton Partners

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Case Study: Clearwater International - How integrating ESG into the mid-market M&A process drives value.
  • The importance of education for mid-market management teams and early ESG maturity assessment.
  • The emergence of ESG DD and how it is driven by the investor landscape.
  • How ESG can impact the buyer universe, drive competitive processes, and impact valuations?
  • Beginning and end – how is ESG smoothing the onboarding process and providing value enhancement at Exit?

Speaker:

Joanna Daley, Director- Head of Impact, Clearwater International

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Coffee & Networking
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The expanding nature of ESG risks and its influence on deal due diligence
  • Identifying the core risks facing ESG managers in private markets
  • What are viable ESG risk mitigation strategies available to private capital
  • How to communicate ESG due diligence objectives to investment teams
  • Beyond risk mitigation and positive intent, how to select investments that provide viable environmental and social solutions

Moderator:

Speakers:

  • Denise Odaro, Chief Sustainability Officer, PAI Partners
  • Christine Chang, Head of Impact, Apposite Capital
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Taking the lead on social action: The CEOs engendering diversity across their firm and investments
  • Reflecting on differing board approaches to organisational ‘social’ action - should change be enforced or developed organically
  • Delving into the statistics underpinning the value of diversity within organisations
  • Discussing the gender pay gap, and how firms have approached reducing the long-standing barrier
  • How developing diversity throughout a firm will create value throughout the portfolio

Moderator:

Speakers:

Robert Sroka, Partner & Head of Value Creation, Abris Capital
Anne Sheedy, ESG Advisor, Bowmark Capital
Lucie Mills, Partner, Value Creation & ESG, NorthEdge

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Lunch & Networking
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Tech Showcase

Build out your ESG ecosystem with five presentations from technology platforms & services

  1. Position Green - Sustainable Investment
  2. Novata
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The ESG ecosystem: creating positive change throughout the value chain
  • The benefits of embedding standardised ESG policy and processes throughout a portfolio
  • Can supply chains be protected from human rights abuses, corruption or misdeeds
  • How to validate improvements along value chains, the third-party accreditations mitigating against malfeasance
  • Tools firms can use to embed ESG within their portcos and why knowledge-sharing is so crucial to the swift implementation of solutions

Moderator:

  • Bran Pathmanāban, Head of ESG, IP Group

Speakers:
Dr. Sofie Østergaard, Head of ESG, Argentum
Andrea Vallini
, Operating Partner, NB Renaissance
Allegra Day, ESG Director, Cinven
Tony Christensen, Senior Manager, Position Green

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Coffee & Networking
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WORKSHOP STREAM A: The rising costs of ESG - reconsidering the balance of budget between LP/GP/Portco
  • As ESG demands grow, budgets and teams struggle with resourcing - can the financial obligations be more equally distributed between parties?
  • What is the necessary resourcing for a modern ESG team - size, scope and expertise.
  • Can ESG be linked to bonuses and carry? What KPIs define success in this regard?
  • Sunk cost or easy value-add - where is ESG adherence headed from a commercial perspective
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WORKSHOP STREAM B: ESG Regulation - interpreting the rules of the game, aligning your firm and portfolio to expanding regulatory directives
  • How to avoid the pitfalls of SFDR directives
  • What is to be expected from TCFD as regulatory updates come into force?
  • Will the FCA’s SDR position the UK’s markets as global leaders for climate action?
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WORKSHOP STREAM A: Discerning about data - the importance of selecting the correct benchmarks and datasets for your ESG strategy
  • Choosing the right benchmark and databases for your organisation, why industry-standards matter
  • Practical routes to utilising the mass of ESG data most effectively
  • Why collecting, collating and utilising your ESG data will benefit portfolio development in the long-term

Session leaders:

  • Ovie Iroro, ESG Manager, Endless LLP
  • Peter Roberts, Chief Sustainability & Commercial Decarbonisation Officer, Verdane
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WORKSHOP STREAM B: Focusing on materiality - why firms should take a highly selective approach to portfolio company’s ESG impacts and how-to refine a hierarchy of needs
  • Developing ESG strategies can often be caught-up on climate action, but what are the alternatives?
  • Why developing a unique ESG approach can best serve your investment strategy
  • Understanding where your firm can make the greatest impacts and becoming champions of ‘your’ cause

Session leaders:

  • Roshni Bandesha, Head of ESG, BGF
  • Aga Siemiginowska, Head of ESG, Oakley Capital
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Drinks reception

Real Deals ESG Conference 2024

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Registration, coffee & networking
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Chair’s welcome and opening remarks
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Case Study: S-RM - Navigating ESG in an uncertain world
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Panel discussion: The commerciality of quantifying ESG. How integrating ESG becomes a core driver for value creation
  • Pragmatic approaches to quantifying and evaluating a variety of ESG metrics
  • Understanding the linkages between ESG data, material efforts and value creation
  • From due diligence to acquisition to exit - the value of ESG at different stages of the investment cycle

Moderator:

Rebecca Liebel, Head of Munich and ESG & Sustainability, PER

Speakers:
Dörte Höppner, Chief Sustainability Officer, The Riverside Company
Richard Burrett, Chief Sustainability Officer, Earth Capital
Misa Andriamihaja
, Private Equity Lead, Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)
Christine Chang
, Head of Impact, Apposite Capital

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Coffee & networking
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Assessing biodiversity impacts - how to proactively engage with the emerging push for biodiversity risk mitigation
  • The emergence of biodiversity impacts and how investors should prepare for regulation
  • How firms can begin to assess exposure to biodiversity risks
  • What are the nature-based solutions available to fund managers seeking an alternate course of action
  • What are the biodiversity regulatory expectations facing firms

Speakers:

Noëlla de Bermingham, Chief Sustainability Officer, Andera Partners
Maria Carradice, Managing Director - ESG Specialist, Mayfair Equity

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Sustainable finance - The debt products encouraging better ESG outcomes
  • How long until sustainability become an essential element of debt products
  • The sustainability drivers behind Direct, NAV and Subscription lines.
  • How can sustainable finance become a more attractive new avenue for credit?
  • Understand the varied requirements that make sustainable-credit viable


Speakers:

Claire Hedley, ESG Director, 17 Capital
Stephanie Wall
, Sustainability Director, Palatine
Katie Cotterell, Senior ESG Manager, Bridgepoint

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Lunch & networking
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Dancing around reporting demands - how best to refine ESG reporting requests
  • Information on ESG mitigation is ever-growing and increasingly burdensome, can firms cut through the tsunami of reporting requests
  • How best to engage and communicate the challenges of reporting between LP, GP & Portco
  • Aligning attitudes across the value chain, where can efficiencies be created and where are the greatest hurdles

Speakers:

Caroline Löfgren, Chief Sustainability Officer, Hg

Marta Jankovic, Head of Sustainability, Stafford Capital

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Coffee & Networking Break
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The Big Debate: The House believes that the utility of the EU’s ESG Fund Articles are no longer fit for purpose
  • The EU’s Article 8 & 9 classifications have come under scrutiny for the ambiguity of how or what justifies the designation. With many concerned the requirements for an Article 9 fund can be manipulated to include high-performing, high-emitting companies.
  • The panel will argue for and against examples that can be found in Article 9 funds
  • Do ‘activist’ investors create lasting change through ‘impact-focused’ funds?
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Champagne roundtable discussions
  1. The carrot & stick approach - can tying ESG KPIs to carry and bonuses drive faster change
  2. Gender pay as a reporting initiative - why removing pay gaps is essential element of equity and inclusivity
  3. Convergence or divergence - a conversation on where European ESG regulation is headed in 2024
  4. AI as a tool to drive sustainability - how to use emerging softwares to maximise ESG adherence
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Chair’s closing remarks