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Institutional investors pride themselves on taking a long-term approach, yet when it comes to public and private equity, they often apply very different standards. While private equity managers are afforded a decade or more to deliver returns, public equity managers can find themselves under pressure after just three years of underperformance. But Aziz Hamzaogullari, chief investment officer of Loomis Sayles’ growth equity strategies, argues this double standard is increasingly difficult to justify. He points to evidence that private equity has underperformed public market benchmarks since 2010, despite its historical reputation for superior returns. He also questions whether the perceived lower volatility of private markets is an illusion created by infrequent valuations, while rising leverage and increased competition for deals are putting further pressure on returns. In a conversation with Top1000funds.com Hamzaogullari examines why investors apply different time horizons to public and private equity, the risks of constantly hiring and firing managers based on short-term performance, and why greater selectivity is essential across both asset classes. He also explores the AI investment boom, arguing that while the technology will be transformational, only a handful of companies are likely to emerge as sustainable long-term winners.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform how people work, access information and participate in democracy, but its rapid advancement is raising urgent questions about governance, political influence and human control. Andrew Hall, Davies Family Professor of Political Economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, warned that as AI becomes increasingly embedded in society, its political biases, access to reliable information and potential for manipulation could have profound implications for democratic institutions. Drawing on research into how AI models provide political advice, Hall argued that stronger evaluation and accountability will be essential to ensuring the technology empowers individuals rather than undermining their independence. In this live recording from the Fiduciary Investors Symposium at Stanford University in September 2026, Hall examines the opportunities and risks of AI, the governance challenges facing policymakers and how society can preserve freedom in an increasingly AI-driven world.

The real promise of the total portfolio approach is not simply greater flexibility in choosing investments, but the ability to dynamically manage risk as market conditions change. Nobel Prize-winning economist Myron Scholes, the Frank E. Buck Professor of Finance, Emeritus, at Stanford Graduate School of Business, argued that institutional investors focus too heavily on selectivity and average returns, when managing downside risk can be critical to improving compound returns over time. “Every period matters. There’s no long run. The long run is made of a sequence of short runs,” Scholes said, arguing that investors should dynamically adjust their risk budgets and preserve capacity to deploy capital when markets are under stress. In this live recording from the Fiduciary Investors Symposium at Stanford University in September 2026, Scholes explores risk, drawdowns and why dynamic risk management should sit at the heart of the total portfolio approach.

Artificial intelligence is entering a new era, moving beyond systems that simply answer questions to agents capable of carrying out complex tasks and taking actions over extended periods. Jack Clark, co-founder and head of public benefit at Anthropic, said the shift from chat to agents brings enormous opportunities, from greater economic efficiency to accelerating scientific discovery, but also creates a new generation of safety and governance challenges. Clark said AI could dramatically multiply the effectiveness of scientists, describing its potential to accelerate scientific progress as “maybe the biggest deal of the century”. In this live recording from the Fiduciary Investors Symposium at Stanford University in September 2026, Clark explores the rapid evolution of AI, agentic systems, safety and alignment, and what could come next as the technology becomes increasingly capable.

The risks building in the US financial system may not come from a single dramatic policy decision, but from the quiet accumulation of individually defensible changes that together encourage excessive risk-taking. That was the warning from Stanford University economist Ross Levine, who said a series of regulatory and supervisory changes in the US are expanding explicit and implicit government backstops while weakening the mechanisms designed to constrain risk-taking. In this live recording from the Fiduciary Investors Symposium, hosted by Top1000funds.com at Stanford University in September 2026, Levine examines the “quiet accumulation” of risk across the US financial system and what it could mean for institutional investors.

China's advanced infrastructure and ballooning debt are two sides of the same story, says Carnegie Endowment nonresident senior fellow Michael Pettis, who compares China's coming consumption-led rebalancing to Japan's in the 1980s. In conversation with Top1000funds.com Asia Pacific correspondent Darcy Song, Pettis unpacks what this means for institutional investors weighing China exposure over multi-decade horizons, and why he remains bearish on the country's outlook.

In the latest episode of the Fiduciary Investors Series, Liao spoke with Top1000funds.com Asia Pacific correspondent Darcy Song on why the convergence of innovation, demographics and improving shareholder returns makes Asian equities an increasingly compelling diversification trade for asset owners navigating a geopolitically fractured world.

APAC equities’ 2025 rally has renewed interest, but Franklin Templeton’s Christy Tan says the case is now structural, driven by trade diversification and domestic growth. Geopolitics and energy volatility will create divergence, so investors should favour targeted country allocations over broad regional exposure. In the podcast with Top1000funds.com, Tan unpacks what this means for portfolio resilience and the region’s outlook.

Pension funds are navigating a more complex environment shaped by higher rates, inflation and shifting currency dynamics. In its latest World View paper, Canada’s IMCO warns of rising bond yields, concentration risks in passive investing, and the need to prepare for a weaker US dollar, with alternatives like the Swiss franc and yen gaining relevance. Speaking to Amanda White on the Top1000funds.com podcast, IMCO chief strategist Nick Chamie said higher yields on risk-free assets are reshaping portfolio construction and the risk-return trade-off across markets.

In a conversation with Top1000funds.com editor Amanda White, Hamzaogullari unpacks the tenets of good genuine active management including a long-term structural approach and truly differentiated insights, which focuses on the quality of ideas not the quantity.  For example, he says there will only be five to six companies which will benefit disproportionally from the AI trend while most of the other companies will struggle to sustain long-term growth.

The Trump administration’s strikes on Iran stems from a deep conflict between the two nations which has existed for the past 47 years, according to Professor Stephen Kotkin, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

In this conversation, Top1000funds.com editor Amanda White spoke to James Clarke, global head of institutional capital at Blue Owl Capital, about the credit cycle, the evolution of private credit, data centre financing, and what institutional investors should expect from their managers.

In this conversation Top1000funds.com editor Amanda White speaks to Oregon State Treasurer, Elizabeth Steiner, about the future role and expectations of private equity, how a maturing of the asset class puts pressure on returns, and the private/ public asset mix in the fund’s four-yearly asset allocation review which has just begun.

The board of CalPERS has approved a momentous structural change that gives the $556 billion fund a single reference portfolio for judging performance, delegated authority to investment staff to construct the portfolio, and a simplified measure of success. The fund’s chief investment officer, Stephen Gilmore, has been behind the fund’s shift to this approach which he says can add 50 to 60 basis points to portfolio returns. In a long and detailed interview, Top1000funds.com editor Amanda White spoke to Gilmore about how a TPA mindset can add value, simplify accountability and open new opportunities for investments.

In this live recording from the Fiduciary Investors Symposium, hosted by Top1000funds.com in Singapore in March 2025, Professor Kotkin unpacks what’s next for the US and the world