News & Events

As pension funds, asset managers, consultants and companies increasingly agree to forego short-term profit for long-term value creation, and consider the societal impact of capital allocation, a new paper, Long-term investing in public equity markets: what does success look like… and how to organise it?, by Jaap van Dam and Lars Dijkstra, members of the […] read more...
Whilst responsible investment was limited for a long time to a few pioneering investors, it has now become a major consideration for all long-term investors.  There are now many who have realised that ignoring environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges entails running risks. And equally, on the other end, new opportunities for creating return have […] read more...
Although investors and their clients are becoming increasingly aware of the role they play in broader society – and the impact they have – there are still questions on how best to act in regards to this. The ability to affect change through investment practices is still spread unevenly across asset classes and investors are […] read more...
The 300 Club, an independent group of leading investment professionals from across the globe, has added PGGM’s Jaap van Dam as its newest member. As the Principal Director of Investment Strategy at PGGM, one of the largest pension fund managers in the Netherlands, van Dam is responsible for formulating and implementing strategic change for the […] read more...
The 300 Club was launched in 2011 to challenge conventional thinking on investing. Founder Saker Nusseibeh and current chairman Stefan Dunatov, sat down with Sebastian Cheek for a frank discussion on the future of the think-tank as an influential force for good among the wider investment community. Read the full interview on Portfolio Institutional read more...
This March, I celebrated 30 years in the asset management industry, having joined Mercury Asset Management as an older graduate trainee in March 1987. A decade later, IPE published its first issue. Much has changed in the industry and within the financial sector. We witnessed the ascendency of Friedman economics, the fall of the Berlin […] read more...
The 300 Club, an independent group of leading investment professionals from across the globe, has announced the establishment of a North American chapter headed up Chris Ailman, CIO of CalSTRS and current 300 Club member, under the guidance of Stefan Dunatov, Chairman. Alongside the new North American chapter, the Club also welcomes three new members: […] read more...
Investment is reduced to “mere gambling” if savers use capital solely for wealth creation and fail to act as stewards of the companies they invest in, the 300 Club says. The investment think-tank’s latest paper argues that investors need to fundamentally rethink the purpose of investment and how its success is measured in order to […] read more...
Investors need to fundamentally rethink the purpose of investment and how they measure its success in order to reconnect capital with its true underlying purpose, according to Saker Nusseibeh, Founder and Member of the 300 Club, in his paper entitled The Why Question. Nusseibeh argues equity holdings should no longer be seen as a way […] read more...
The asset management industry needs a philosophy. If it continues to claim that it is a process-driven science whose sole purpose is to increase the wealth of investors, it has a problem because there are more efficient ways to do that. Investors would be better off using their money to finance a top-seeded poker player. […] read more...
The turn of the year is a time for the asset management industry to discuss its views on how markets will fare in the year ahead. Unfortunately, too often these views are of little value to investors. This is not necessarily because asset management firms are bad at forecasting asset price movements. It is rather […] read more...
Investors should pay more attention to money-weighted returns than time-weighted returns, according to the chair of the 300 Club, an industry think-tank. Stefan Dunatov, CIO of Coal Pension Trustees, said the shift in focus more towards “wealth” rather than just percentage gains would improve investor understanding of how to achieve investment objectives and the risks […] read more...
Investors should set objectives and measure investment success using their level of wealth rather than total returns, the 300 Club believes.  A paper written by 300 Club chairman and Coal Pension Trustees Investment CIO, Stefan Dunatov, has argued that focusing on the total amount of return rather than the effect of compounding on wealth, will […] read more...
Investors are being lambasted from all sides for their ‘short-termism’ when it comes to investment policy. But, in an environment of continued uncertainty, driven by political rather than fundamental factors, the whipsaw between risk on and risk off is creating a series of shorter, sharper cycles as investors increasingly trade in and out of securities […] read more...
With a new government comes the chance to reassess policy and implement reform. The savings and investment industry needs overhaul; here are some suggestions. First, design a better savings policy with clear rules that encourage people to set aside significant levels of wealth for their retirement. Then, leave these rules alone so that pension and […] read more...
The order in which returns are earned over the lifetime of an investment can have “significant implications” for the level of wealth accumulated, according to the 300 Club chairman.  Stefan Dunatov, who is also chief investment officer at Coal Pension Trustees, warned investors are compromising their total wealth level by focusing solely on the amount […] read more...
The 300 Club, an independent group of leading investment professionals from across the globe, is pleased to announce Mark Walker, Global Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director of the Univest Company, Unilever’s internal pension investment organisation, as its newest member. In his role, Mark and his team are responsible for overseeing the investments of the […] read more...
European pension funds need to make a “fundamental” behavioural and cultural shift to close “a yawning gap between the rhetoric of governance improvements of recent years and their reality on the ground”, according to a paper from The 300 Club, a group of investment professionals seeking to challenge mainstream investment practice and thinking. Written by […] read more...
Despite the significant changes made to European pension business models since the financial crisis, a more fundamental behavioural shift is needed to address the yawning gap that exists between the rhetoric of governance improvements in recent years and their reality on the ground, according to Sally Bridgeland and Professor Amin Rajan in their paper entitled […] read more...
The unnecessary focus on daily liquidity in DC pension plans is creating a hidden and costly trade-off for savers and society, according to Zuhair Mohammed in his paper entitled The hidden trade-off in DC pensions. read more...
By sharing risk more equitably, a hybrid pension structure that guarantees a minimum benefit and allows both employer and employee to benefit from performance gains, can create a virtuous cycle of governance and lead to better, less volatile investment outcomes, according to David Villa in his paper entitled The Third Way: A hybrid model for pensions. read more...
The 300 Club, an independent group made up of leading investment professionals from across the globe, is pleased to announce Ronald D. Schmitz, Chief Investment Officer of the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) as its newest member. read more...
The 300 Club, an independent group made up of leading investment professionals from across the globe, is pleased to announce Pascal Blanqué, Global Chief Investment Officer at Amundi, as its newest member. read more...
The 300 Club, an independent group made up of leading investment professionals from across the globe, is pleased to announce Jan Straatman, Global Chief Investment Officer of Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) as its newest member. read more...
The need to re-evaluate the social science of economics and finance, and subject investment management to as much revision as other sciences is now time critical, according to Saker Nusseibeh, founder of the 300 Club, in his latest paper, Torn up tracks. read more...
Culture is integral to the quality of investment performance and sustainability of investment organisations, according to Roger Urwin in the latest paper published by the 300 Club entitled: The culture of sustainable investment performance. read more...
The 300 Club, an independent group made up of leading investment professionals from across the globe, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ron Barin. read more...
The asset management industry exerts unprecedented influence on the global economy. With global investable assets expected to increase to more than $100trn by 2020 (six times total US GDP in 2013), and the need to find scapegoats in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, it is important to consider the role and responsibilities of core asset managers in the global economy, says Yves Choueifaty, in the latest paper published by the 300 Club entitled The role of core asset managers in the global economy. read more...
IPE comments on Professor Amin Rajan's white paper for the 300 Club, exploring how the EMH and the CAPM continue to shape the psyche of financial investors and policymakers, even though no longer tenable. read more...
The role of the efficient market hypothesis and the capital asset pricing model in the 2008 crash are discussed in aiCIO, as detailed in Professor Amin Rajan's white paper, The Death of Common Sense: How elegant theories contributed to the 2008 market collapse. read more...
Pauline Skypala reacts to Professor Amin Rajan's white paper, The Death of Common Sense: How elegant theories contributed to the 2008 market collapse , the first paper to be published by the 300 Club. read more...
In an open letter to the Times, leading investors have called on the Government to clarify the law to enable them to best serve their beneficiaries' interests. read more...
For the 15th anniversary edition of IPE, Saker Nusseibeh and Zuhair Mohammed examine the forces bearing down on the fund management industry and outline a vision for institutional managers. read more...
Saker Nusseibeh speaks to Reuters about his view of an uncertain future, and the new breed of investment professional that will be required to navigate this. read more...
Saker Nusseibeh outlines the aims of the 300 Club. read more...
In a Q&A with Shaun Cumming, Saker Nusseibeh explains the motives behind the 300 Club. read more...
Phil Salter asks Saker Nusseibeh about the reasons behind setting up the 300 Club. read more...
The member of the 300 Club outline why they think there is a need to question the very foundations of the investment industry and investing. read more...
Pauline Skypala talks to Saker Nusseibeh and Amin Rajan about the problems faced by investors and savers under the current financial system. read more...
Saker Nusseibeh and the 300 Club raise questions around the impact of current market thinking and behaviours. read more...
Hybrid pension funds must have a “balanced” governance structure in place to ensure no one group of beneficiaries is penalised, the latest paper by the 300 Club has said. David Villa, a member of the group of investment professionals seeking to improve the investment landscape, argued that the hybrid approach of blending defined benefit (DB) […] read more...
In a world of chasing returns, factor investing is gathering interest among institutional investors and asset owners. The current stage of a given risk factor’s lifecycle determines the degree to which the marketplace is aware of, and correctly pricing, the factor itself. This is a crucial aspect that long-term investors should consider when constructing their […] read more...
For too long considered a nice optional extra, it is time for environmental and social governance to become a mainstay of fiduciary responsibility. Emma Cusworth looks at how the industry is progressing. Investing based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria has for too long been considered a ‘nice to have’. In a world threatened by environmental […] read more...
Carlo Svaluto Moreolo explores a paper published by 300 Club founder Saker Nusseibeh arguing that investment managers need to re-assess the very foundations of their economic thinking. Read the full article on the IPE website. read more...
The asset management industry exerts unprecedented influence on the global economy – one of its most fundamental purposes being to invest savings back into the latter. In this context, ‘core’ asset managers, who represent the bulk of investors’ portfolios in order to deliver returns in line with their long-term strategic asset allocation, need to support […] read more...
In analysing the lessons learned from the fallout of 2008 – and its main one is that every reader has taken on the burden of a historically unprecedented amount of debt that will not be cleared for a generation – it seems to me that while commentators have eruditely tackled both the symptoms and mechanics […] read more...
In 2012 a group of leading global investment professionals formed the 300 Club to respond to an urgent need for experienced investment professionals to raise uncomfortable and fundamental questions about the very foundations of the investment market theory and practice. Our 15 members don’t have all the answers, but like the legendary 300 Spartans, we […] read more...
Liam Kennedy spoke to Alan Brown and Saker Nusseibeh, two architects of the 300 Club of investment professionals who seek to challenge mainstream investment practice. Read the full article on the IPE website.  read more...
Once upon a time, up until about 15 years ago, pension investment was straightforward. Conventional wisdom was to have a portfolio that was simple, transparent, focused and patient. Simple, in relying primarily on the public markets with a long-term investment time horizon; transparent, in being relatively easy to understand and explain; focused, in concentrating on […] read more...
The 300 Club, a grouping of leading investment professionals, believes that modern  portfolio theory and practice are failing institutional investors at a time when depressed funding levels require smarter ways of investing. It has issued its first paper, The Death of Common Sense, written by Amin Rajan, a member of the 300 Club and a […] read more...
As those who watched the 2006 film ‘300′ will remember, ‘the 300′ refers to the band of Spartans who heroically fought against the Persians at the battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. A modern re-incarnation – The 300 Club – has been brought to life by Saker Nusseibeh, CIO of Hermes and Alan Brown, CIO of Schroders […] read more...