For Institutional Asset Owners
Built for the people
running long-term capital.
About the Event
The Asset Owner Network Private Markets Summit brings together over 100 senior investment decision-makers from the UK and global institutional investment community for a focused single-day conference at Stationers' Hall, London, on 30 June 2026.
Hosted at one of the City's most distinguished livery halls, the Summit is structured around substantive peer-level dialogue, not presentations, not sales pitches. Asset owners from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance balance sheets and endowments will share a programme that moves from a keynote by former Pensions Minister Guy Opperman, the architect of the LTAF framework, through expert panel debates on private credit, infrastructure and transition finance, PE secondaries and the DC default fund challenge.
Index and data providers, Master Trusts, DC and DB Schemes, Investment Consultants and Professional Trustees, join the stage alongside allocators, ensuring that benchmarking, valuation and manager selection data are interrogated in the open, not left to bilateral conversations.
All sessions operate under Chatham House rules. Asset owner attendance is complimentary.
To request a place, contact Steve White at Steve.White@whitehallfinancialmedia.com
Programme
- Pension Funds & Schemes
- Sovereign Wealth Funds
- Insurance Balance Sheets
Endowments & Foundations
Investment Consultants
Master Trusts & Trustees
Index & Data Providers
Institutional Allocators
08:30– 09:15 Networking
Registration & Networking Breakfast
09:15– 10:15 Keynote
PANEL 1: The LTAF Era - Unlocking Private Markets for UK Pension Capital
Panel debate on LTAFs - he LTAF has cleared its regulatory hurdles and the structure now exists to put private assets inside a daily-dealt DC default. This fireside moves past the policy case and into implementation: how to manage liquidity when the underlying assets cannot be sold on demand, how to handle valuation between infrequent pricing points, what the cost disclosure genuinely shows a board once you move beyond headline AMC, and how to explain any of it to members who have only ever understood their pension as a daily-priced pot. The floor will be open.
Guy Opperman· Chair of Asset Owner Network Editorial Board. 
Lizzy Buss· Managing Director at Carne Group10:15– 11:00 Panel
How are asset owners constructing their private markets exposure? What governance frameworks are enabling, or constraining, allocation growth? What role do consultants play? Our panel guests will be taking burning questions from the floor.
Martin Bailey· Assistant Director, Strategic Engagement, City of London Corporation
Rachel Farrell· Director of Public and Private Markets, Nest Invest
Mark Hedges· Chair of Investment and Funding Committee, Professional Trustee, Nationwide Pension Fund
11:00– 11:30 Break
Tea and coffee served in the exhibition room
11:30– 12:00 Fireside Chat
With Morningstar, S&P and MSCI all expanding private markets data coverage, how are asset owners using benchmarks and reference data in manager selection and portfolio monitoring? 
Lindsey Stewart· Director of Institutional Insights, Morningstar
12:00– 12:45 Panel
Direct lending, infrastructure debt, asset-backed finance: where is the conviction, where are the risks, and how are liability-driven investors integrating private credit alongside public bonds?
Chair, Mark Hedges· Chair of Investment and Funding Committee, Professional Trustee, Nationwide Pension Fund
Alan Pickering· President, BESTrustees
Hanna Wan· Senior Director, Investments, WTW
12:50– 13:45 Networking
Lunch provided for all delegates with a chance to catch up with fellow delegates and discuss the sessions so far.
13:45– 14:30 Panel
From renewable energy to digital infrastructure: how are allocators sourcing, underwriting and monitoring transition assets? What do data providers say about measuring transition risk?
Jaime Alvarez· former Head of Sustainable Infrastructure and Private Equity, Brunel Pension Partnership
Maria Nazarova-Doyle· Executive Director, Global Head of Sustainable Investment, IFM Investors
Bobby Riddaway· Independent Trustee, Managing Director, HR Trustees
Kirsty Willman· Chief Operations and Financial Officer, Rebalance Earth
Chair: Toby Belsom· Director of Investor Guidance and Reporting, UN PRI
14:30– 15:00 Fireside Chat
FIRESIDE CHAT: The DC Default Fund — Private Markets at Scale
Chair: Stuart Hall, Group Managing Director, Whitehall Financial Media
With LTAF structures maturing, DC trustees and scheme managers discuss what practical implementation looks like: liquidity management, valuation, and member communications. Stuart & Guy will be talking to Dan about his experience and taking questions from the floor.
James Lawrence· Chief Investment Officer, Smart Pension
Dan Mikulskis· Chief Investment Officer, People's Partnership
Alan Pickering· President, BESTrustees; Trustee, Clara Pensions15:00– 15:15 Break
Afternoon tea and biscuits are served in the exhibition hall
15:15– 16:00 Panel
PANEL 5: Tokenisation and Private Markets — Who Pays, Who Benefits and Who Decides?
The tokenisation of private market assets is moving from concept to cautious reality. For institutional investors, the questions are no longer purely technical. As the infrastructure for tokenised funds and private assets takes shape, asset owners are beginning to ask who absorbs the cost of transition, how custody and administration evolve, and where fiduciary responsibility sits in a distributed ledger environment. This session brings together providers building tokenisation infrastructure with the asset owner perspective — examining what the technology genuinely delivers for pension fund portfolios, what the governance and cost implications look like in practice, and whether the timeline for meaningful adoption is years or decades away.
Chair, Stuart Hall,· Group Managing Director, Asset Owner Network
Pavan Bhardwaj· Trustee Director & Head of Investment, Independent Governance Group (IGG)
James Finch· CEO, Mobius
Amarjit Singh· Partner, EY
Guy Opperman· Chair, Editorial Board, Asset Owner Network16:00– 20:00 Networking
Networking Drinks
We will be taking delegates off-site for an informal networking, a chance to catch up with peers, providers and colleagues.
