Policy shifts and market risks: what public investors need to know

Yara Aziz

Senior Economist

OMFIF

Claire Coustar

Senior Portfolio Manager & Head of UK, Mid Risk Assets & UK

Australian Retirement Trust

Claire Coustar joined Australian Retirement Trust in January 2026 and currently serves as Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of the UK within the Mid Risk Asset team. She plays a key role in shaping the long-term vision for and management of ART’s UK office as well as supporting ART’s engagement with key stakeholders and existing and potential investments.

Claire brings over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry having worked in leadership roles at Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank across developed and emerging markets origination, trading, and structuring. Most recently, Claire led the build-out of Deutsche Bank’s Global Sustainable Finance business within the investment bank fixed income division.

Claire holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Babson College majoring in Finance, Economics and International Business Studies. Claire holds a Non-Executive Director Diploma from the Financial Times. She is a FINRAregistered professional.

Ellie Groves

Head of Strategy, Official Institutions Group

State Street Investment Management

Ellie Groves is the Head of Strategy, Official Institutions Group at State Street Investment Management. She spearheads SSGA’s efforts as a premier partner to sovereign clients across the globe. Prior to joining, Groves worked for OMFIF as managing director of the Economic and Monetary Policy Institute and Sustainability Policy Institute, and head of Europe programmes. She has also held roles at Chatham House, the UK House of Commons and the Social Market Foundation.

Elliot Hentov

Chief Macro Policy Strategist

State Street Investment Management

Altaf Kassam

Europe Head of Investment Strategy & Research

State Street Investment Management

Altaf Kassam is Europe Head of Investment Strategy & Research. He and his team are responsible for developing thought leadership and executing custom projects for clients across EMEA in the fields of asset allocation and portfolio construction. Before joining MSCI, Kassam worked in sell-side research, leading equity derivative and global quantitative strategy teams across Asia Pacific and EMEA for Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.

Jan Kubíček

Board member

Czech National Bank

Zsoka Koczan

Associate Director, Lead Economist

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Zsoka Koczan is Associate Director, Lead Economist at the EBRD Office of the Chief Economist. At the EBRD, she edits the Regional Economic Prospects, which review the latest economic developments in the EBRD regions, works on the Transition Report, EBRD’s annual flagship publication, and runs the Life in Transition Survey, a large household survey covering over 40 economies. Prior to joining the EBRD, she worked as an economist at the International Monetary Fund in the European and the Research Departments, primarily on the World Economic Outlook. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

David Marsh

Chairman

OMFIF

David Marsh is Chairman and Co-Founder of OMFIF. Before starting at OMFIF in late 2009, he worked for City merchant bank Robert Fleming, corporate finance boutique Hawkpoint, German management consultancy Droege and London investment firm London & Oxford. Marsh took over the chairmanship from John Plender on 1 January 2018 having been Managing Director since 2014. He moved to a non-executive role following John Orchard’s appointment as Chief Executive effective 1 January 2020.

Christoph Maron

Head of Trading AM, Deputy Head of Asset Management

Swiss National Bank

Christoph Maron heads up trading within SNB’s asset management division. Together with his teams in Zurich and Singapore, he is responsible for the index-based management of fixed-income portfolios, the equity investments, derivatives trading & repos. In the actively managed fixed-income portfolios, his teams work closely with portfolio management.

He holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Basel and brings extensive banking experience to the role, gained both in Switzerland and abroad. At the SNB, he previously worked in risk management, the money market, and foreign exchange trading before moving to asset management.

Simona Mocuta

Chief Economist

State Street Investment Management

Simona Mocuta is chief economist of State Street Global Advisors. In this role, she helps shape the team’s views on key global economic developments and trends, produces forecasts and analysis for the G7 economies and key emerging markets, and presents these views to internal investment teams, clients, and the media. Prior to joining SSGA, Mocuta led the Asia macroeconomic practice at IHS Global Insight.

Charles Myers

Chairman and Founder

Signum Global Advisors

Charles Myers is Chairman and Founder of Signum Global Advisors, the leading geopolitical risk firm headquartered in New York and London with five additional offices around the world.

Charles also has over 26 years of US political and electoral experience advising candidates in Presidential, Senate and House of Representatives races, including Hillary Clinton for President 2016 and Joe Biden for President 2020. He also has 30 years of experience in banking and the global financial markets.

Formerly Vice Chairman of investment bank Evercore, he was the Founding Partner & Head of their Institutional Equities business. Prior to that, Charles served as Global Head of Equities and Board Member at Fox-Pitt, Kelton and worked at UBS and Barings London.

Charles served two terms on the Board of Trustees of the Central Park Conservancy in NY, the Board of the Mayor’s Fund for NYC, and the NYC Host Committee for the 2024 Democratic Convention.
Charles is currently a member of the Economic Club of New York as well as the Bretton Woods Committee. Charles has a BA from Amherst College in Massachusetts and a post-graduate M. Phil degree from Cambridge University in England. He divides his time between New York City and London.

As Chairman of Signum Global, Charles works with financial institutions and multi-national businesses to anticipate and assess policy agendas and outcomes.  Areas of expertise include US foreign policy and the implications for Europe and Asia. Charles also forecasts global trade policy, energy dynamics and regulation within the financial, energy and technology sectors in the US, UK and Europe.

Sharon White

Senior Managing Director and Head of Global Affairs

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec

Sharon White (Baroness White) is Senior Managing Director and Head of Global Affairs. Based in London, she works closely with asset class managers across the organization. In her role, she represents La Caisse in various markets, as well as with partners, governments, regulators and commercial organizations.

Sharon joined La Caisse in January 2025 as Managing Director and Head of Europe. Before that, she was Executive Chair of John Lewis Partnership, the U.K.’s largest employee-owned company. From 2015 to 2019, she served as Chief Executive of Ofcom, the U.K.’s media, telecoms and postal regulator. She began her career in the U.K. Government as an economist. She held a series of roles including in the U.K. Prime Minister’s office, the Diplomatic Service and at the World Bank, based in Washington, D.C. She was Second Permanent Secretary at the U.K. Treasury, overseeing public finances between 2013 and 2015. She has held various non-Executive roles and is currently non-Executive Chair of Frontier Economics.

Sharon was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for public service and is a crossbench (non-politically aligned) Member of the House of Lords.

She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Cambridge University and a Master’s Degree from University College London.

Eva Zamrazilová

Deputy Governor

Czech National Bank

Eva Zamrazilová was born on 8 May 1961 in Prague. She graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Economics in Prague, where she later lectured on statistical theory and economic statistics. She then worked as a researcher at the Forecasting Institute of the University of Economics in Prague, at the Economic Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and at the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs. In 1990 she completed her postgraduate studies at the Statistics Department of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Economics. In the 1990s she co-authored numerous papers on the transformation of the Czech economy and went on a number of short-term research stays in other countries. In 1994–2008 she was involved in the preparation of macroeconomic analyses and forecasts in the Team of the Chief Economist at Komerční banka. In 2008 she became a member of the CNB Bank Board. After her mandate expired in 2014, she worked as the Chief Economist of the Czech Banking Association. In 2017 the Chamber of Deputies appointed her as Chairperson of the Czech Fiscal Council at the government’s proposal. In 2022 she joined the advisory team for the preparation of the pension reform established by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs. She has a long publication record in Czech and international journals, specialising in macroeconomic equilibrium, the convergence process in transition economies, economic policy, the labour market and budget responsibility. She also gives presentations at conferences.

She became a member of the CNB Bank Board on 1 July 2022 and has also served as CNB Deputy Governor since this date.