About the event

The Nordic Fund Selection Forum is one of the longest running events dedicated to fund selectors and institutional investors in the Nordic region and we are very excited to bring this to Helsinki in 2025! The event offers ample opportunities for delegates to meet and exchange ideas with peers and gain insight from leading fund managers and external speakers. 

The event is strictly for invited fund selectors and institutional investors. If you would like to register please send an email to Niklas Tell, niklas.tell@tellmediagroup.se or Jennie Nyström, jennie.nystrom@tellmediagroup.se.


We hope to meet you in Helsinki!


All you need to know

For our inaugural Nordic Fund Selection Forum 2025 Helsinki, we will be focusing on sustainability challenges across internally and externally managed assets. We will also gain insight from fund managers from HSBC Asset Management, Impax Asset Management and Stewart Investors.

When: February 26

Time: 08.30-13.15

Questions: Please contact Niklas Tell niklas.tell@tellmediagroup.se or Jennie Nyström, jennie.nystrom@tellmediagroup.se if you have any questions about the event. 

The event is strictly for fund selectors and institutional investors.

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Program

08:30

Registration, coffee & networking

09:00

Introduction

Niklas Tell
Founder & Chief Content Officer at Tell Media Group
09:15

Panel discussion

Making sustainability work across internally and externally managed assets.

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Anna Varpula
Director of Responsible Investment at Elo Pension Fund
Bidita Chakraborty Kjellander
Sustainability Analyst at Länsförsäkringar
09:45

Roundtable presentations by fund managers

HSBC Asset Management: Climate Confusion and the Sustainable Paradox of Choice

IMPAX Asset Management: Seizing investment opportunity amid disruptive change: the role of thematics in sustainability

PGIM Investments: Finding innovative growth companies making a positive difference in the world

Stewart Investors: To be confirmed

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Sefian Kasem
Lead Investment Specialist for Portfolio Advisory & OCIO at HSBC Asset Management
Charles French
Co-Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Listed Investments at Impax Asset Management
Nicholas Samuels
Managing Director, Client Portfolio Manager, Jennison Associates
Timothy Hay
Portfolio Specialist at Stewart Investors
10:30

Networking & coffee

11:00

Roundtable presentations by fund managers

HSBC Asset Management: Climate Confusion and the Sustainable Paradox of Choice

IMPAX Asset Management: Seizing investment opportunity amid disruptive change: the role of thematics in sustainability

PGIM Investments: Finding innovative growth companies making a positive difference in the world

Stewart Investors: To be confirmed

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11:45

Keynote speaker

Annu Nieminen
Founder & CEO at the Upright Project
12:15

Networking lunch

Speakers

Niklas Tell
Founder & Chief Content Officer at Tell Media Group

Niklas Tell is a founding partner and chief content officer at Tell Media Group, a Swedish based research and publishing company focused on the asset management industry. He is the driving force behind the company’s research, editorial and advisory efforts. Niklas Tell has covered and commented on the Nordic and inter national fund industry since 1998. Prior to establishing Tell Media Group and launching the first local b2b magazine for the Nordic asset management industry in 2006, he helped establish Morningstar in Europe and was its first european director of fund analysis. Niklas Tell has a degree in economics and business administration from the Stockholm School of Economics and is a member of the Swedish Society of Financial Analysts. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and he is often invited to address senior management teams on different topics and trends affecting the asset management industry.

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Anna Varpula
Director of Responsible Investment at Elo Pension Fund

Anna Varpula is a Director of Responsible Investment at Elo Pension Fund in Finland. Anna has 20+ years’ experience in finance and last ten years she has been focusing on sustainability. Anna holds a M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from Helsinki University and an MBA from London.

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Bidita Chakraborty Kjellander
Sustainability Analyst at Länsförsäkringar

Bidita recently joined Länsförsäkringar as a Sustainability Analyst within Fund Selection, where she focuses on evaluating and enhancing the sustainability practices of external fund managers. In this role, she assesses the alignment of fund managers with responsible investment criteria and works closely with them to strengthen their sustainability strategies, ensuring that Länsförsäkringar’s fund offerings are aligned with strong ESG principles. Before joining Länsförsäkringar, Bidita worked at Sustainalytics and Morningstar, where she supported business development and provided technical solutions for integrating sustainability data into investment processes across various financial institutions. She also brings experience from sales and account management at Bloomberg and Captor Asset Management. With a solid foundation in sustainability analysis, financial data, and fund evaluation, Bidita is passionate about guiding investors towards more sustainable pension solutions.

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Sefian Kasem
Lead Investment Specialist for Portfolio Advisory & OCIO at HSBC Asset Management

Sefian Kasem is the Lead Investment Specialist for Portfolio Advisory & OCIO and the Global Head of ETF & Indexing Investment Strategists at HSBC Asset Management.

He is based in London and has worked for HSBC Group for over 17 years. Prior to joining HSBC Asset Management, Sefian worked for HSBC Global Banking and Markets, where he held a portfolio management position within Cross-Asset Trading, worked in Global Credit Trading and also worked as an Asset Allocation Strategist within HSBC Global Research.

Prior to joining HSBC, Sefian worked at Credit Suisse within the Fixed Income Portfolio Management team. He started his career as an analyst at a Fund of Hedged funds.

He joined the ETF & Indexing team in 2020, bringing extensive global macro expertise as well as cross asset experience, and recently expand his remit to include the Portfolio Advisory & OCIO services as a Global Lead Investment Strategist.

He holds a PhD in Mathematical Finance from Imperial College in London and a degree Economics and Finance at the London School of Economics.

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Charles French
Co-Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Listed Investments at Impax Asset Management

Charles serves as the Co-Chief Investment Officer providing leadership in the development and growth of the Impax Asset Management’s listed investments business, covering research, idea generation, portfolio management, ESG integration, and trading. He also focuses on overseeing the growth of Impax’s fixed income proposition, as well as the further development of research. Charles is also the co-Portfolio Manager of the Impax Global Social Leaders strategy. Prior to joining Impax Asset Management in 2022, Charles worked at Newton Investment Management where he started out as a global financial analyst before becoming a portfolio manager and heading up Newton’s multi-asset and equity opportunities teams. He was also deputy chief investment officer, providing leadership and oversight to a global investment team. Charles graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Nottingham. He is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) in England and Wales.

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Nicholas Samuels
Managing Director, Client Portfolio Manager, Jennison Associates

Nick Samuels is a client portfolio manager who supports Jennison’s distribution and client relationships across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He serves as a subject matter expert and representative of the investment team. Based in London, Nick joined the firm in 2024. Previously, he was the head of manager research at Redington. Prior to that, Nick was a senior analyst at SEI Investments. He received a BSc in economics from the University of Essex. Nick holds the Investment Management Certificate from CFA Society UK.

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Timothy Hay
Portfolio Specialist at Stewart Investors

Timothy Hay joined the Stewart Investors team in April 2024 with 20 years’ experience in Global Emerging Market equities. Previously he was at Somerset Capital Management for 16 years having started his career at Lloyd George Management in 2003. He holds a BSc in Economic History and Economics from Manchester University and a Masters in Finance from INSEAD.

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Annu Nieminen
Founder & CEO at the Upright Project

Annu Nieminen is the founder & CEO of The Upright Project, a Helsinki-based data company building a new way to measure the true impacts of companies and funds on the surrounding world. Upright has developed a proprietary data model that quantifies the net impact of economic activities by analysing causal relationships between products and their impacts, drawing insights from over 300 million scientific publications. Upright's approach is trusted by leading asset managers and owners, including Nordea, Pictet, and APG, as well as private equity leaders like EQT, LGT Capital Partners, and Summa Equity.Recognised as a pioneer in impact measurement, Nieminen has been named an Innovator Under 35 by MIT Technology Review and honored as Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 at the Nordic Women in Tech Awards. Before founding Upright, she leveraged her engineering background as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and later served as CEO of Kasvuryhmä, a Finnish scale-up initiative.

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