The City of Montreal
The MIPC takes place in the beautiful city of Montreal, Québec. A diverse and multicultural city, Montreal is constantly buzzing with life – from the vibrant nightlife of bars and clubs on Rue St Laurent to the cobblestone streets of Old Montreal filled with charming cafes and boutiques and everything in between. The in-person track of the MIPC presents the perfect opportunity to explore the city over the weekend.
Host: McGill University
Founded in 1821, McGill University is a public research university located in downtown Montreal, Canada and is one of the oldest and most well-known universities in Canada. McGill counts eleven main faculties and schools and offers over 300 fields of study. Consistently ranked among the top universities, McGill is one of the most prestigious universities in the world, attracting students from more than 150 countries, making it the most internationally diverse medical-doctoral university in the country. Notable alumni include Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, and Julie Payette, the former Governor General of Canada, with the current Governor General of Canada, Mary Simone, having previously taught at McGill University.
Desautels Faculty of Management
Founded in 1906, the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University is ranked as one of the world’s top international business schools. The Faculty’s innovative programs and historic reputation for excellence continue to attract the finest students and the most prominent professors from around the globe to its downtown campus located in the vibrant metropolis of Montreal.
MIPC Faculty
Sebastien Betermier is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University and the Executive Director of the International Centre for Pension Management. His research focuses on risk and return, portfolio management and asset pricing, pension funds and retirement systems, household finance, and sustainable finance. His work appears in top finance journals and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Bloomberg among others. Professor Betermier teaches Applied Investments, and Pension Funds and Retirement Systems at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has been recognized repeatedly through nominations for teaching excellence which includes receiving the Desautels Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016 and 2020 and coaching the winning team of the PRMIA international risk management challenge in 2016, 2017, and 2019. He was named one of the World’s Best 40 under 40 Business School Professors by Poets and Quants in 2017. Professor Betermier holds a PhD in Finance from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. He also serves as Coordinator of the Finance Area at Desautels, Faculty Director of the McGill International Portfolio Challenge, and Academic Advisor at the Bank of Canada. He was born in France and grew up in Paris and San Francisco.
Zahoor Chughtai was appointed Associate Director of the Sustainable Growth Initiative at McGill University in September 2022. He has previously held various management positions at McGill, overseeing all aspects of administration, including finance, human resources, special projects, and day-to-day operations management.
The MIPC Faculty works closely with the student team to ensure all facets of the event run smoothly.
Sustainable Growth Initiative (SGI)
The vision of the Sustainable Growth Initiative (SGI) is to create a global hub of knowledge creation and dissemination in sustainability to help businesses and policymakers contribute more effectively to a sustainable society. Our mission is to mobilize the talent and expertise within McGill University to help businesses move towards more socially and environmentally sustainable business models. The SGI is unique in its focus on mobilizing and building bridges between academic, business and policy leaders to accelerate the movement from sustainability research to implementation. Academic leaders work in close collaboration with industry partners and policymakers to develop practical, actionable solutions to build a more sustainable economy.
Within the SGI, the CIBC Office of Sustainable Finance focuses on strategies to support ESG considerations into the capital allocation framework of investment firms. It also looks at ways to encourage firms that need financial capital to develop more equitable, long-term and resilient operations, and optimize corporate disclosure standards for sustainability initiatives. There are many opportunities to explore ways in which financial strategies can promote long-term, sustainable economic growth.
Aligned with the SGI’s mission, the MIPC provides a rich forum for knowledge and exchange on current sustainability issues, bridges the gap between academia and industry, and provides an excellent experiential learning opportunity for students to tackle real-world problems. The MIPC supports the objectives of the CIBC Office of Sustainable Finance by incorporating training, thought leadership, and student engagement aimed at generating new insights and knowledge that will help companies think differently, and more effectively, about incorporating sustainable finance into their investment models.
The McGill Students Behind MIPC 2024
