The Kogod School of Business’s annual Sovereign Wealth Funds conference reached a milestone this year as it celebrated its tenth anniversary and became the longest-running conference on the topic in the United States. Organized by Kogod professors of finance Ghiyath Nakshbendi and Jeff Harris and supported by the Embassy of Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal Al Saud, the conference convenes each year to discuss trends in sovereign wealth funds and how they relate to current events. With event support from Kogod students and introductions from Dean David Marchick and Senior Associate Dean Parthiban David, the school community came together to make the conference successful while learning more about these topics.
His Excellency Ahmad M. Al-Sayed, Minister of State and chairman of the Qatar Free Zones Authority Board of Directors, defined sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as state-owned investment funds that manage a country’s reserves and are typically tied to natural resources such as oil or minerals. They are designed to support a nation’s financial goals and can be used to make investments and stabilize the economy as needed. At present, sovereign wealth funds manage nearly twelve trillion dollars of assets globally and are particularly prominent in Asia and the Middle East. With so much money involved, these funds have massive global implications, and the conference brought together academics, financial experts, and members of governments and royal families to address changes and challenges from the past year.
This year’s conference spotlighted sustainability initiatives, inflation, and rising interest rates. In his opening remarks, Professor Nakshbendi noted a trend towards sustainable investing, with China no longer investing in oil and Qatar and Saudi Arabia taking an interest in green bonds. Many countries with sizable sovereign wealth funds, such as Norway and China, are also committed to carbon neutrality, and these funds could potentially be used to invest in efforts to get closer to that goal.