Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project

Conference Presentation Materials

TENTH ANNUAL PENSIONS AND CAPITAL STEWARDSHIP CONFERENCE
MARCH 28 - MARCH 30, 2012
Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project, Labor and Worklife Program
Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

From March 28 to March 30, 2012, the Project held its tenth annual conference, attended by pension trustees from across the United States as well as from Canada and the United Kingdom.  They were joined by scholars, researchers, and practitioners from the U.S., Canada, France, and Germany. The conference explored a range of issues concerned with the relationship between pension fund investment and economic growth and job creation; assessed the merits of financial markets reform in the United States, especially as it pertains to pension funds; considered the rationales for and the import for themselves and others of pension fund investment in commodities; discussed a range of activities - from research to engagement - concerned with the bearing of S-factors, particularly workplace related considerations, on investment decisions; described new and important ways of rethinking the meaning and practice of fiduciary duty; and described initiatives in the United States by which public sector pension plans can facilitate private sector worker participation in retirement plans.

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Conference Agenda: [Download PDF]

Welcome Reception & Opening Remarks
Elaine Bernard, Executive Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School
Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics, Harvard University; Faculty Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School
Larry W. Beeferman, Director, Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project, Labor andWorklife Program, Harvard Law School

Session #1: “What Can the Role of Pension Funds Be in Economic Growth and Job Creation?”
Speaker: David Levi, President and CEO, Matrix Asset Management

Session #2: Financial Market Post-Meltdown: Are We At the Beginning or the End of the Change That is Needed?
Chair: Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics, Harvard University; Faculty Director, Labor and Worklife
Program, Harvard Law School
Presenters: Marcus Stanley, Policy Director, Americans for Financial Reform [Presentation PDF]
Tamara Lothian, Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School and Principal, International Strategies Group (a Boston-
based consultancy) [Presentation PDF]

Session #3: “Should Pension Funds Invest in Commodities? If So What Are the Implications for Them....and Others?”
Chair: Richard Spurgin, Associate Professor of Finance, Clark University
Presenters: Michael Greenberger, Professor, University of Maryland, Francis Carey School of Law [Presentation PDF #1] [Presentation PDF #2]
Wallace C. Turbeville, Senior Fellow, Demos [Presentation PDF]
Thomas Schneeweis, Michael and Cheryl Philipp Professor of Finance, Isenberg School of Management, University of
Massachusetts – Amherst; Principal, Alternative Investment Analytics [Presentation PDF]
Extra Presentation Materia to download:
Corporate Governance Priorities, New York State Common Retirement Fund, 2011-2012 [Download PDF]
Snapshot of New York State Common Retirement Fund [Download PDF]
New York State Common Retirement Fund Shareholder Proposals, 2011 [Download PDF]
NYS Shareholder Campaign, 2011 Highlights [Download PDF]
ESG Questions in NYCERS Request for Proposals [Download PDF]
ESG EVALUATION OF SMID-MID CAP RFPs, NYCERS, 2009 [Download PDF]

Session #4: “Infrastructure Investments by New York City Unions’ Pension Funds: A Promising Plan? Reasons, Risks, Recommendations”
Speaker: Gregory Floyd, President, Teamster Local 237 and Trustee, New York City Employees’ Retirement System

Session #5: “Investment in Private Markets: Rewards, Risks, and Implications for Economic Growth and Jobs – Good Jobs? – Creation”
Chair: Eileen Appelbaum, Senior Economist, Center for Economic Policy Research
Presenters: Tom Rotherham, Director, Hermes Equity Ownership Services, Ltd.
Stephen Sleigh, Fund Director, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers National Pension Fund
Michael Swack, Professor, University of New Hampshire and Research Faculty, Carsey Institute
Commentator: Daniel Bourcier, Agent de développement, Relations avec les Travailleurs dans les enterprises, Fonds de solidarité FTQ (Quebec)

Session #6: “European Perspectives on Pensions and Capital Stewardship”
Chair: Nicholas Ziegler, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Presenters: Sigurt Vitols, Head of Project Group Modes of Economic Governance, Social Science Research Center Berlin,
Germany [Presentation PDF]
Janice Turner, Founding Co-Chair, Association of Member-Nominated Trustees, United Kingdom [Presentation PDF]
Najat El Mekkaoui de Freitas, Assistant Professor of Economics, University Paris-Dauphine, France [Presentation PDF]

Session #7: “Is It Time for a New Understanding of What Fiduciary Duty Requires?”
Chair: David H. Webber, Associate Professor of Law, Boston University Law School
Presenters: James Hawley, Professor and Director, Elfenworks Center for the Study of Fiduciary Capitalism, Saint Mary's College of California
Keith L. Johnson, Program Director for the International Corporate Governance Initiative, University of Wisconsin Law School
Edward J. Waitzer, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School [Presentation PDF]
Larry Beeferman, Director, Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School [Presentation PDF]

Session #8: “Putting Sustainable Investment in Practice: Making Senseof the “S” in “ESG” and Applying It”
Chair: Jon Lukomnik, Executive Director, Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute
Presenters: John Aaron Bernstein, Senior Research Fellow, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School [Presentation PDF]
Pat Doherty, Director – Corporate Governance, Office of the State Controller (New York)
Daniel Bourcier, Agent de développement, Relations avec les Travailleurs dans les enterprises, Fonds de solidarité FTQ (Quebec) [Presentation PDF]
Bob Mann, Chief Operating Officer, Sustainalytics [Presentation PDF]

Session #9: Doing Well by Doing Good? The Public Sector Plan Role in EnablingPrivate Sector Worker Participation Retirement Plans
Chair: Larry W. Beeferman, Director, Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project, Labor and Worklife Program
Presenters: Hank Kim, Executive Director, National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems [Presentation PDF]
Ellen Bruce, Associate Professor, Gerontology, University of Massachusetts (Boston) [Presentation PDF]