Room151’s 3rd LGPS Investment Forum

Aoifinn is passionate about financial markets, knowledge sharing and education. She strives to demystify the world of investing for clients by educating them rather than merely offering advice. Her commitment to reducing complexity has empowered countless clients to make informed decisions.

In her role as Managing Director – Global Wealth, Aoifinn is responsible for leading the team’s overall investment efforts and serving as a liaison to Moneta’s in-house investment department. Aoifinn also operates as the team’s Chicago Market Leader with an emphasis on serving the Family Office Practice.

Originally from Ireland, Aoifinn began her career in London as an investment banking associate at Goldman Sachs International and a specialist consultant at Cambridge Associates Limited. She subsequently founded Clontarf Capital, a pan-alternatives research and consulting firm. She later served as CIO for the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago and head of investment for Ireland at Hermes Fund Managers Ireland Limited.

When Aoifinn joined Moneta in 2021 as CIO, she brought with her a wealth of experience in institutional client management and alternative investments, coupled with a robust background in portfolio oversight. Her illustrious global career, spanning key financial hubs such as London, Hong Kong, New York City, and Chicago, has enriched her perspective and nurtured her creativity, innovation, and adaptability. Over the years, she has cultivated a vast network of industry contacts and gained exposure to a diverse array of investment manager talent. Most recently, Aoifinn excelled as Moneta’s Chief Global Market Strategist, leveraging her over two decades of experience in the financial industry to provide a truly global investment outlook.

Aoifinn is also a licensed attorney and has been a member of the New York Bar since 1996. She holds law degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University, an MBA from INSEAD in France, and an MSc in Applied Neuroscience from Kings College London.

In addition to her professional achievements, Aoifinn hosts and produces The Fiftyfaces Podcast, which highlights diversity and inclusion within the investment industry and other professions. She has completed 55 marathons, speaks German, French and Spanish, and enjoys traveling, particularly when it involves some skiing in the winter months.

Chris joined us in 2022 as an Investment Consultant in our London office. He provides strategic investment advice to a wide variety of pension scheme investors. Chris helps Schemes to formulate suitable investment strategies for their time horizons. In addition, he has advised on de-risking strategies, helped Schemes select new investment managers, run successful trustee training events and helped Schemes to implement long term journey plans.

Chris appreciates that all clients have differing needs and objectives and tailors his advice directly to their needs. He believes in taking a straightforward and collaborative approach with both the Scheme Trustees and other stakeholders. Chris is a CFA Charterholder.

Joined Ruffer in 2012, having graduated from Edinburgh University with an MA Honours in French and Spanish. He became a member of the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment following completion of the CISI Diploma, receiving the highest mark in that year. He manages portfolios predominantly for institutional clients and is co-manager of two of Ruffer’s flagship funds.

George retired from his role as Director of the South Yorkshire Pensions Authority after nearly 8 years in December 2025, after a career in local government finance and pensions which included senior finance roles in district and county councils and leading the Lancashire Pension Fund during the creation of LPP follows by leading LPP’s administration business. He now acts as an independent adviser to Border to Coast Pensions Partnership on local investment and is Independent Chair of Lincolnshire’s Local Pension Board as well as providing advice on a range of issues to other LGPS funds. 

Heather is Managing Director, Institutional Business and a member of the GHAM Board. Heather held the position of Head of Institutional Business from May 2018 to April 2021. Prior to joining Gresham House, Heather spent seven years at Fidelity International, latterly as Head of Institutional Distribution for UK & Ireland. She previously held business development and client relationship positions at BankInvest, Capital International and Gartmore where she held roles focussed on U.K & Ireland and Nordic institutional investors.

Heather has 24 years of financial experience and holds a BA (Hons) in Politics from Durham University and the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society of the UK.

With over 35 years’ experience in the investment market and 27 years working at Jupiter, including seven years as CEO, Edward has extensive knowledge of the fund management business. Edward stepped down from the Jupiter Board in May 2021. He continues to be actively involved in meeting with Jupiter’s investee companies, as well as contributing to Jupiter’s collaborative engagement and policy work.

Edward joined Jupiter in 1994 as a UK fund manager, after working at Schroders (1982-1986) and Electra Investment Trust (1986-1994). He was appointed Chief Investment Officer in 1999 and Joint Chief Executive in May 2000. He became Group Chief Executive in 2007 and led Jupiter through its management buyout that year and its subsequent IPO in June 2010. Edward relinquished his role as Group Chief Executive in March 2014, when he was appointed Vice Chairman.

Piers Hillier is Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Jupiter Asset Management, with overall
responsibility for investment strategy and the leadership and development of the firm’s
investment teams. He is a member of the Jupiter Asset Management Board and its Strategy and
Management Committee.

Piers has over 30 years of experience in the industry and previously served as CIO at Royal
London Asset Management and LV= Asset Management, and held senior leadership roles in
equities at Kames Capital, WestLB Mellon Asset Management, Deutsche Asset Management
and Schroders.

He has also held board positions across Europe and Asia. Piers is a Chartered Accountant
(ACA), a CFA Charterholder, a Chartered Director (IoD), and an alumnus of Oxford University
and Bristol University

Kallum Pickering joined Berenberg in August 2015 as a senior economist. He leads on UK macroeconomic analysis and covers global economic issues. Kallum joined from BNP Paribas where he worked as an economist focusing on UK, Ireland and Nordic macro and real estate. Kallum regularly contributes to the public debate through interviews on Bloomberg, CNBC, the BBC and CNN. He writes a regular column for The Telegraph and has written for The Evening Standard and City AM. He holds an MSc in Economics from The University of Warwick and a BA in Economics from The University of Sheffield.

Joined Storebrand Asset Management in 2010.

Holds a Masters in theoretical high energy physics (University of Bergen, 2005), a doctorate in experimental high energy physics (University of Freiburg, Germany 2009), followed by a post-doctoral position in Freiburg in connection with research lab CERN, Geneva (2009-2010).

Chris is a Director within the Clients Department and Chair of our Local Authority Business Group. He joined Baillie Gifford in June 2010. Prior to joining Baillie Gifford, Chris gained more than ten years of accountancy and corporate finance experience in both the UK and Australia. He graduated BA (Hons) in Business Economics from Durham University in 1999 and qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) in 2003.

Jason Fletcher is the Chief Investment Officer at the London CIV and joined in July 2020. Jason has significant experience in the LGPS sector; he has previous experience as Chief Investment Officer at LGPS Central and at West Midlands Pension Fund prior to that, where he has worked in partnership with a multitude of pension funds.

His familiarity with the LGPS sector complements 25 years of experience in the financial services industry more broadly, where he has previously progressed at the Universities Superannuation Scheme Investment Management (USSIM), initially specialising in Equities and succeeding as Co-Deputy Chief Investment Officer.

John has over 30 years’ experience in LGPS investment as a fund manager, independent adviser, investment consultant and LGPS pool officer. After a fund management career with UBS Global Asset Management, including five years as UK Chief Investment Officer from 2005 to 2010, since 2010 John has since embraced plurality. At various times he has been an adviser to five LGPS pension funds, a Partner at Aon Hewitt, a Director in the Henderson Multi-Asset team, head of the UK advisor network at MJ Hudson Allenbridge and a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School. His roles have also included acting as Interim Chief Investment Officer for the Border to Coast LGPS pool (2018 and again in 2022/23) and for the British Airways Pension Fund (2019/20). He is currently adviser to Border to Coast and independent investment adviser to Staffordshire Pension Fund.

Helen Anthony is a Portfolio Manager on the Global Multi-Sector Fixed Income Global Total Return Bond strategies at Janus Henderson Investors. She joined Henderson in 2010 as a fixed income performance trainee, subsequently moving to the fixed income investment team in 2011 before becoming a Portfolio Manager in 2017.

Helen graduated with a BA degree (Hons) in accounting and finance with European studies from Exeter University. She also attended the Universidad de Cantabria. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and has 12 years of financial industry experience.

Bola recently joined Harrow Council as Treasury and Pensions Manager and prior to this worked at Enfield Council as a Finance Manager (Pension & Treasury) overseeing and directing the management of the council’s pension investment strategy of £1.5bn assets and treasury strategy of some £50m of investment portfolio and over £900m of borrowing portfolio.

Previously Bola was responsible for directing and overseeing the management of £1.7bn assets of Tower Hamlets Pension Fund. Prior to joining Tower Hamlets, she worked in a similar role for over 7 years with London Borough of Lewisham Pension Fund before moving on in 2007 to oversee a private corporate pension fund, Trafalgar House Pension Trust with over 40 fund managers with investments in different asset class such as hedge funds, liability matching investments, swaps, CLOs, infrastructure, property, private equity, etc. for almost 3 years.

Bola has gained first-hand experience on a wide range of activities, such as creating and enhancing external relationships with key stakeholders, project management, procurement, performance measurements & monitoring, cash flow management, funding gap management, investment portfolio restructuring, managers’ selection, asset allocation, managing the valuation of swaps legs and collateral managements.

Bola is a frequent participant on the local government conference circuit, she is currently the chair of London Treasury Officers Forum (LTOF). Bola holds a degree in chemical engineering and an associate member of chartered institute of management accountant (ACMA CGMA).

Jing is responsible for expanding Franklin Templeton’s investment offerings and client reach in the Asia Pacific region, with a particular focus on private equity, venture capital and other alternative asset investment capabilities. Additionally, Jing plays a leading role in Franklin Templeton’s China business. Jing is a member of Franklin Templeton’s Management Committee and is Deputy to the firm’s chairman of Asia Pacific.

Jing has more than two decades of experience in investment banking, corporate M&A, and private equity. She has previously served in senior management roles in technology, media, and public policy firms. She also served as a Limited Term Appointee at the US Federal Communications Commission. Before joining Franklin Templeton, Jing was an operating executive and head of Asia strategy at Golden Gate Capital.

Jing holds a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College. She is a member of the Global Advisory Board of Darden School of Business.

James Penney’s early career was in academia, including undergraduate and postgraduate research at Trinity College, Cambridge, followed by six years as Principal Lecturer at Westminster College, Oxford. After Oxford, he was a Sloan Fellow at London BusinessSchool from which he has an MSc in Management Studies. 

Until 2013, James was the owner and Managing Director of Darwin Consulting, a strategy consulting firm he co-founded in 1998. Darwin provided strategic advice to directors and investors in a range of industries, including financial services, private equity and media. In 2003 Mr Penney co-founded the Darwin Group with Anthony Esse.  From 2007 to 2014, James was also Vice-Chairman of MAX BANK, a retail bank specialising in micro-credit and SME finance in the Philippines. He was chairman of the credit committee and member of the corporate governance committee.  

Since 2016 James has been a Board member of Loudspring Oy, a Finish company listed on the Helsinki and Stockholm stock exchanges.  Loudspring is an investment group focusing on Nordic growth companies that save natural resources. 

In 2007 James and Anthony Esse established the Darwin Leisure Property Fund. He is Chairman of Darwin Alternatives which is also the investment advisor to the Darwin Leisure Development Fund and Darwin Bereavement Services Fund.

Emma Gullifer is the co-fund manager of the Columbia Threadneedle UK Housing Fund, a strategy focused on delivering resilient income and positive impact through the delivery of affordable build-to-rent housing. Emma joined Columbia Threadneedle REP following a portfolio manager role at DTZ Investors, where she worked across two discretionary balanced UK Property pension fund mandates. Emma holds a BA in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Real Estate from Bayes Business School, and is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Emma is the also the Fund Manager of the CT UK Property Fund.

Simon is Resonance’s chief investment officer. He joined Resonance in 2012 to establish and grow its award-winning impact investment fund management business, building on Resonance’s 20 year heritage in UK social enterprise. Resonance’s impact property funds now manage c.£330m across its three themes of homelessness, learning disability and vulnerable women, and are attracting institutional investment. In addition, Resonance operates a number of more specialist impact investment funds supporting social enterprise through its Impact Labs.

Simon has over 27 years of investment experience and was previously at Rothschild & Co where he focused on advising on energy and infrastructure projects across Europe and Asia. He has first-hand experience of social enterprise having previously served as a Trustee for a pioneering London-based homelessness charity and for the Transformational Business Network, which focuses on impact investing in Africa and Asia.

David is an actuary with over 25 years’ experience in the pensions industry, having spent 10 years at KPMG, where he provided advice to the social housing sector as well as leading KPMG’s proposition around pensions to the higher education sector.

David supported the National Housing Federation with their response to the Pension Regulators Code of Practice around pension funding and he has also advised on asset backed funding vehicles and strategic asset allocation for pension funds more generally.

More recently, David has joined Barnet Council as their Head of Pensions and Treasury, where he will be working closely with the Pension Fund Committee to help reshape their investment strategy as they seek to develop their Responsible Investment policy and prepare for, what could be, a very different investment outlook to that experienced over the last 10 years or so

Elizabeth is an investment and country risk advisor and Managing Director of Geopolitical Risk Advisory, a geopolitical tech company. 

Using their proprietary data analytics model, Geopolitical Risk Advisory generate geopolitical risk forecasts that give their clients a competitive investment advantage by pinpointing risk and opportunities in over 1,500 regions of the world.

Elizabeth is a regular conference speaker and guest Lecturer at London and Henley Business Schools, where she delivers Masters and Executive Education courses on Geopolitical Risk Management and Strategic Business Analytics.

She has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics where she specialised in US foreign policy towards the Middle East.

Aoifinn is passionate about financial markets, knowledge sharing and education. She strives to demystify the world of investing for clients by educating them rather than merely offering advice. Her commitment to reducing complexity has empowered countless clients to make informed decisions.

In her role as Managing Director – Global Wealth, Aoifinn is responsible for leading the team’s overall investment efforts and serving as a liaison to Moneta’s in-house investment department. Aoifinn also operates as the team’s Chicago Market Leader with an emphasis on serving the Family Office Practice.

Originally from Ireland, Aoifinn began her career in London as an investment banking associate at Goldman Sachs International and a specialist consultant at Cambridge Associates Limited. She subsequently founded Clontarf Capital, a pan-alternatives research and consulting firm. She later served as CIO for the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago and head of investment for Ireland at Hermes Fund Managers Ireland Limited.

When Aoifinn joined Moneta in 2021 as CIO, she brought with her a wealth of experience in institutional client management and alternative investments, coupled with a robust background in portfolio oversight. Her illustrious global career, spanning key financial hubs such as London, Hong Kong, New York City, and Chicago, has enriched her perspective and nurtured her creativity, innovation, and adaptability. Over the years, she has cultivated a vast network of industry contacts and gained exposure to a diverse array of investment manager talent. Most recently, Aoifinn excelled as Moneta’s Chief Global Market Strategist, leveraging her over two decades of experience in the financial industry to provide a truly global investment outlook.

Aoifinn is also a licensed attorney and has been a member of the New York Bar since 1996. She holds law degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University, an MBA from INSEAD in France, and an MSc in Applied Neuroscience from Kings College London.

In addition to her professional achievements, Aoifinn hosts and produces The Fiftyfaces Podcast, which highlights diversity and inclusion within the investment industry and other professions. She has completed 55 marathons, speaks German, French and Spanish, and enjoys traveling, particularly when it involves some skiing in the winter months.