2012 Financial Services Dinner

event_image Event offered by:
Foreign Policy Association

Event Details

Date:
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
6:30 PM - 9:00 PM 
Location:
The Pierre Hotel
2 East 61st at Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
Event type
Lunch / Dinner  

Event Transcripts and Video

Nearly four hundred guests dined at the Pierre for FPA’s annual Financial Services Dinner.  The event honored financial and insurance leaders noted for their outstanding social responsibility initiatives. Those presented with the Corporate Social Responsibility Award were William Heyman, Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Travelers, Jim Leech, President and CEO of Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, Yngve Slyngstad, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, and Richard Yorke, Executive Vice President and Head of the International Group at Wells Fargo. The honorees spoke about the importance of understanding international affairs in order to make sustainable investments at home and abroad, and highlighted corporation’s role in aiding the non-profit sector. Mr. Slyngstad inspired attendees with Norway’s model of a government pension fund, created to safeguard the long-term financial interests of future generations.
 

Part I:  Introduction by FPA President & CEO Noel Lateef

 

Part II: Introduction by Michael Hopkins, President, Fixed Income and Risk, Broadridge Financial Solutions 

 

Part III: Remarks by Richard Yorke, Executive Vice President and Group Head, International Group, Wells Fargo and Company

 

Part IV: Introduction by Curtis Arledge, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive, Asset Management, BNY Mellon



Part V: Remarks by Yngve Slyngstad, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer for Allocation, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM)



Part VI: Introduction by Michael Kumin, Partner, Great Hill Partners



Part VII: Remarks by William Heyman, Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, The Travelers Companies, Inc.



Part VIII: Introduction by Andre Esteves, CEO, BTG Pactual



Part VIIII: Remarks by Jim Leech, President and CEO, Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan

Event Speakers

    • Richard Yorke
      Executive Vice President and Group Head, International Group, Wells Fargo & Company

      Group, which provides a wide range of international services to small businesses, corporations, financial institutions, multilateral organizations, and individuals. The group serves the needs of its customers through offices across the U.S. and more than 30 overseas locations, including branches in Hong Kong, London, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo, and the Cayman Islands. Richard is based in San Francisco.

      Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Richard worked for HSBC for 20 years in various international roles and spent time in Dubai, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jersey in the Channel Islands, and the U.S. Most recently, he served as the president and CEO of HSBC Bank (China) Company Limited. Richard also worked at Wells Fargo on assignment from HSBC from 1992 to 1994, during which time he completed the Credit Management Training Program and then worked in the Real Estate Managed Asset Group in Northern California.

      Richard earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in German and economics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

      Active in promoting the foreign-banking industry in China, Richard was the first director of the China Banking Association’s Foreign Bank Working Committee in 2007. He was named an “Honorary Citizen of Shanghai” in 2009 for his contributions to developing Shanghai into a financial services center, training local people in the banking industry, and supporting education and social welfare development in the city. He also received the Magnolia Award from the Shanghai Municipal Government and is a member of the board of trustees of Shanghai’s Tongji University.

      Richard grew up in Basel, Switzerland before moving to England to attend secondary school. He is married and has three children.

    • Richard Yorke
    • William Heyman
      Vice Chairman & Chief Investment Officer, Travelers Companies, Inc.


      William H. Heyman is Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, and a member of the Management Committee, of The Travelers Companies, Inc. [NYSE:  TRV], a major U.S. property and liability insurance company, and responsible for all Travelers’ public and private investment activities, with a portfolio of approximately $75 billion.

      Mr. Heyman is also a member of the Board of Governors and the Executive Committee of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the successor to the NASD (of which he was also a Governor).

      From August 2002 until August 2005, while it was a subsidiary of what was then St. Paul Travelers, Mr. Heyman was a director of Nuveen Investments, Inc. [NYSE:  JNC].  From May 2000 through May 2008, he was an independent director of Max Capital Group, Ltd. [NASDAQ:  MXGL], a Bermuda-based insurance holding company, a member of its executive committee, and chairman of its audit and risk management committee.    

      In addition, from July 23, 2007 (when he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate after having been nominated by President George W. Bush) until June 15, 2011, Mr. Heyman was a director (and chairman of the investment committee) of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).  SIPC is the entity responsible for the ongoing liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.  Mr. Heyman is also a member of the SIPC Modernization Task Force, created to review SIPC’s statute and rules.     
       
      Until March, 2002, Mr. Heyman was Chairman of Citigroup Investments Inc., which managed Citigroup’s proprietary investments.  His responsibilities included all public and private equity-related investments, real estate, and alternative investments, as well as Citigroup’s pension fund.  He founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Tribeca Investments, L.L.C., a Citigroup subsidiary (and NYSE member firm) which conducted merger arbitrage, convertible hedging, and distressed securities investing.

      Mr. Heyman rejoined Citigroup in 1995.  From 1993 to 1995 he was a managing director, and head of the Private Investment Department, of Salomon Brothers Inc.  From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Heyman was Director of the Division of Market Regulation of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.

      Before entering government, Mr. Heyman was head of the arbitrage department of Smith Barney, and before that, for nine years in the 1980s, he ran his own broker-dealer, Mercury Securities, also in the arbitrage business.  He began his career as a securities lawyer, principally with Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

      Mr. Heyman received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Princeton University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and his law degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

      He is currently a member of the Advisory Council of the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton University; the Economic Club of New York; and the Council on Foreign Relations.  

      Mr. Heyman is married to Katherine (Wendy) Dietze, and they live in New York City with a son from her first marriage.
       

    • William Heyman
    • Jim Leech
      President and Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

      As head of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Jim Leech oversees the management of the pension fund and the administration of pensions for 295,000 plan members in Ontario.


      Mr. Leech joined Teachers’ in 2001 to lead Teachers’ Private Capital and was appointed President and CEO in 2007. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan was established by the Ontario government in 1990 as an independent organization to manage the pension plan. Today, Teachers’ is recognized for its outstanding service to members and its innovative investment program.


      During his distinguished career, Mr. Leech has gained recognition for his expertise and leadership in the private equity industry and as CEO of several public companies. He has a solid reputation for building businesses and strong management teams and has led large public companies operating and investing in the financial services, real estate and energy industries, as well as start-up technology businesses.


      Under his leadership, Teachers’ Private Capital became one of the world’s leading private equity investors. Before joining Teachers’, Mr. Leech was president and CEO of Unicorp Canada Corporation, one of Canada's first public merchant banks, and Union Energy Inc., then one of North America's largest integrated energy and pipeline companies. During the 1990s, Mr. Leech guided two start-up technology companies to the revenue generation stage.


      He graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada with a B.Sc. (Honours Math and Physics) and holds an MBA from Queen's University.


      He is a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors and serves on the boards of Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation, the MasterCard Foundation and was a founding director of Right To Play International. He also chairs the advisory board of the Queen's School of Business and participates on the advisory board for The Learning Partnership, the advisory council for the Toronto Board of Trade and the Toronto Financial Services Leadership Council.
       

    • Jim Leech
    • Yngve Slyngstad
      Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer for Allocation, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM)

      Yngve Slyngstad was named Chief Executive Officer of NBIM on 1 January, 2008. In addition he has held the position as Chief Investment Officer Allocation since April 2011. Slyngstad joined NBIM in 1998 to head and build its equity management activities. He held the positions of Head of Equities and Chief Investment Officer Equities between 1998 and 2007.

      Prior to joining NBIM, Slyngstad held the position of Chief Investment Officer, Asian Equities, at Storebrand Asset Management. He also worked as a strategist and portfolio manager at Storebrand. Slyngstad started his career as a researcher at Norges Bank in 1993.

      Yngve Slyngstad holds a law degree from the University of Oslo and a degree in economics from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. He also has a Master of Arts degree in economics from the University of California and a Master of Arts degree in political science from the University of Paris.

    • Yngve Slyngstad

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