2023 Summer Roundtable
Welcome Letter

Dear Friends:

I welcome you to San Francisco and the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute’s (PPI) 2023 Summer Roundtable.

As we quickly approach the halfway point of 2023, we have grown accustomed to the fast pace of change propelling the world into the future, seemingly daily. Advances in machine learning are accelerating at breathtaking speed, with their potential for generating growth and contributing to a brighter future. However, with this promise comes growing concerns for the short-term implications and farther off the horizon.

Technological progress has always had its share of champions and detractors from time immemorial. The institutional investment community, perhaps more than ever before, has the potential to make decisive choices that will lead to more excellent technological development and progress for humanity. This responsibility is one none of us in this community take lightly, and we will explore this issue through multiple dimensions during our time together at the Summer Roundtable. We will consider the consequences for existing industries, evolving regulatory environments, and other aspects of the rapidly created new world.

The pressing need to tackle climate change through green technologies and infrastructure remains a prevailing theme for the institutional investment community, and we will continue to take an in-depth look at this increasingly vital sector. We will also use our time together to learn about other hot-button topics, including the long-term impact of the banking crisis and the geopolitics of technological innovation.

Our community is rich with insights, wisdom, and experience, and we have sourced our speakers from both within our network and beyond. I look forward to this engagement with ideas for which the PPI programming is known, taking time to refresh our knowledge with new perspectives and points of view. For those of you joining us for the first time, our roundtables operate under the Chatham House rules, whereby participants are free to use the information they learn here but without attribution. I encourage all of you to generously share your opinions throughout our time together, with the understanding that this is a safe and comfortable space to engage with your peers.

As always, please do not hesitate to ask if there is anything I or our team can do before and after the roundtable to make your time with us more enjoyable and productive. I look forward to welcoming you all to San Francisco.

With warm regards and best wishes,

Sincerely yours, 

Lionel C. Johnson
President