Presentations from ECCE & UNPRI Academic Conference on September 17th-19th 2008

(22 Sep '08)

Please find below the presentations from the ECCE and UNPRI Academic Conference held in Maastricht University, the Nederlands, on September 17th, 18th & 19th 2008.

This event was considered a huge success and definitely serves as the first step in building a truly global academic network around responsible investment, as well as facilitating joint research projects in the field.
ECCE and UNPRI thank all the participants for helping make the conference such a remarkable event.

For further information, please contact ECCE's Project Leader and researcher Paulo Peneda: p.peneda@finance.unimaas.nl.

          September 18th

Session I: “Active Ownership” (Moderator: Rob Bauer, ECCE)

• James Hawley (Elfenworks Center for the Study of Fiduciary Capitalism): Sovereign Wealth funds and PRI
• Tessa Hebb (Carleton Centre for Community Innovation): Pension Funds and Corporate Engagement
• Charles Sampford (The Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law): Connecting investor's values to their investments

Session II: “SRI: Beyond Equities” (Moderator: Jeroen Derwall, ECCE)

• Nils Kok (ECCE): Sustainability in the real estate sector
• Daniel Hann (ECCE): ESG and Credit risk

Session III: “Responsible Investing” (Moderator: Paulo Peneda, ECCE)

• Andreas Hoepner (University of St. Andrews): The 52 most influential studies within the RI Discipline
• Pontus Cerin (UMEA University): Analysts’ use of extra-financial information
• Neil Eccles (University of South Africa): Some lessons from South Africa's past

Session IV: “Investors and ESG” (Moderator: Robin Braun, ECCE)

• Magnus Jansson (Univ. Gothenburg): Psychologic determinants of SRI
• Alexander Bassen (University of Hamburg) & Ralf Frank (German Society of Investment Professionals): KPIs and ESG

      September 19th

Morning session: “SRI Performance” (Moderator: James Gifford, UNPRI)

• Belinda Richards (Boston College): Form and Function: Research on Responsible Investment across Asset Classes
• Jeroen Derwall (ECCE): Responsible Investment Performance: How to peel the onion
• Bert Scholtens (University of Groningen): Mean Variance Spanning and SRI

Panel Discussion: “Collaboration and Research” (Moderator: Rob Bauer, ECCE)

• Rob Lake (APG): What do practitioners REALLY need from Academics
• Danielle Guyatt (MERCER): Collaboration and convention theory
• Eva Thörnelöf (MISTRA) & Gordon Hagart (Onvalues)