4th Annual Symposium on System-level Investing Tuesday, April 8, 2025
TIIP’s 10-year anniversary celebration and 4th Annual Symposium on System-level Investing will be held on April 8, 2025.
As systemic risks grow increasingly complex and interconnected, the need for a cohesive, forward-thinking investment response has never been more urgent. The 4th Annual Symposium on System-Level Investing, co-hosted by The Investment Integration Project (TIIP), the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, with sponsorship from the High Meadows Institute and Omidyar Network, is the premier forum for institutional investors seeking to integrate system-level principles into their policies, programs, and practices.
Register here.
This year’s symposium builds on previous conversations by focusing on practical implementation—offering investors the tools, frameworks, and insights necessary to navigate evolving risks and capitalize on new opportunities. Through compelling case studies, expert panels, and interactive discussions, participants will explore aligning investment strategies with fiduciary responsibilities while actively addressing systemic challenges.
In this week’s TIIP newsletter, we highlight two more sessions:
Spotlight: CIO Outlook
The influence of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) is hard to overstate. MPT set the stage for everything from mutual funds and ETFs to index funds; in effect any type of pre-packaged, diversified product. It has become codified into regulation and law. It is taught in academia as the default dominant theory of how to invest. Simply put, it is how money is managed today. However, MPT has significant blind spots that scream out to be fixed. Where MPT assumes that the price level of the markets is exogenous and therefore creates a self-referential investing discipline focused on relative returns (did you “beat the benchmark?”), system-level investing focuses on absolute (total) return. This panel will tease how investors are building on MPT to adopt system-level investing: the opportunities, challenges, and breakthroughs needed.
Keynote: Steve Lydenberg, Partner, Strategic Vision for Domini Impact Investments LLC, Founder and Chairman of The Investment Integration Project (TIIP)
For nearly 50 years, Steven Lydenberg has been a leader in sustainable investing. As Partner, Strategic Vision for Domini Impact Investments LLC, Founder and Chairman of The Investment Integration Project (TIIP), and Founding Director of the Initiative for Responsible Investment, he has helped shape the field’s evolution.
In this thought-provoking keynote, Lydenberg will explore the pivotal moment facing the sustainable investment movement today and suggest directions it can best take to position itself for the future.
Previously Announced Sessions:
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
At our upcoming Symposium on April 8th in a session entitled, Mission-Aligned Investing for Systems Change, we will hear from leaders of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s 10-year journey to align its $1.4 billion endowment with its mission of contributing to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.
Symposium attendees will hear about how the RBF leverages investment policies and active ownership, together with grantmaking, to influence systems and its role in fostering collaboration within the philanthropic and financial sectors.
Nippon Life Insurance
We are honored to welcome Takeshi Kimura, Special Adviser to the Board at Nippon Life Insurance and Board Director at the PRI, for a fireside chat on system-level risk and long-term value creation.
As a longstanding advocate of system-level investing, Kimura-san will share:
- How Nippon Life views system-level risk and integrates it into investment decision-making,
- The company’s identity as a “future maker”, shaping its policies, programs, and investment approach, and
- Perspectives on how responsible investors should navigate today’s inflationary environment through a systems-thinking lens.
In addition, we previously featured Kimura-san’s co-authored blog post with Nathan Fabian, PRI’s Chief Sustainable Systems Officer, titled “Why System-Level Thinking is Required of Responsible Investors in an Inflationary Environment” in our October 2024 newsletter.
California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)
At our upcoming Symposium on April 8th in a session entitled, “Leveraging Scale for System-level Progress”, we will explore the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) field leading journey in system-level investing. Speakers will discuss key initiatives, including the Sustainable Investment & Stewardship Strategies Program, the Low-Carbon Transition Workplan, and active corporate engagement efforts.
The session will highlight how CalSTRS leverages its scale and influence to drive system-level change, align investments with long-term sustainability, and advocate for stronger market transparency and governance.
Keynote: David Erickson, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
During this opening keynote, David Erickson, Senior Vice President and Head of Outreach and Education, Federal Reserve Bank of New York will provide an overview of the Making Missing Markets Initiative, and how system-level investing is pivotal to making a missing market that involves working within existing ecosystems and/or creating new ones to accomplish the following:
- connect new sources of capital to community needs;
- scale existing sources of capital to meet a community need; and/or
- connect previously unlinked buyers and sellers so that they can work together to finance solutions that create value and wealth, all in the service of creating an economy that works for all.
Expert View: Fiduciary Duty with Tiffany Reeves, Faegre Drinker
Much of the world’s investment capital is managed by fiduciaries—individuals responsible for making investment decisions on behalf of others while focusing on the best interests of the beneficiaries. These fiduciaries must adhere to strict ethical and legal standards, limiting their ability to invest based solely on personal preferences. The same principles apply to system-level investing.
In this session, Tiffany Reeves, Partner at Faegre Drinker, will explore the fiduciary duties that govern system-level investors and their decision-making responsibilities.
Register here.
Want to learn more about Symposium sponsorship opportunities? Email Monique Aiken at [email protected] to explore.
Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with the latest TIIP news and find out how to join the system-level investing movement. Have questions about system-level investing? Email us at [email protected].
