Mark Azzopardi

Managing Director, Global Head of Insurance Solutions
BlackRock

Mark Azzopardi, Managing Director, is the Global Head of Insurance Solutions. The Insurance Solutions group combines its knowledge of insurance liabilities, asset-liability management, insurance regulation and capital modelling with portfolio construction, asset allocation and risk management expertise to support BlackRock's clients and investment teams with the design and delivery of tailored mandates for insurance companies. The Insurance Solutions group sits within BlackRock's Financial Markets Advisory Group which provides a wide range of advisory, capital markets, portfolio construction and analytical solutions to clients.

Prior to joining the firm in 2010, Mr. Azzopardi was the EMEA Head of Insurance Solutions at AllianceBernstein and was responsible for insurance product development and the provision of strategic advice to insurance and pension clients. From 2000 to 2008 Mr. Azzopardi was the Global Head of Insurance & Pensions at BNP Paribas. Prior to that he managed actuarial functions at Zurich Financial Services' Head Office and at the Hiscox Group in London. Mr Azzopardi began his career at Clay & Partners, (now Aon Consulting) in 1988.

Mr Azzopardi earned an MA degree in mathematics from Cambridge University in 1988 and became a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1991.

Chris Castaldo

Chief Financial Officer
QBE

With nearly 20 years of experience in the financial services and Property & Casualty insurance sector, Chris has been with QBE for eight years. He spent five in the North America division where he served as a leader in both the FP&A and corporate development functions. Prior to joining QBE, Chris spent 5 years at AIG in a series of roles including Director, Strategic Planning and Corporate Development.

In 2017, he was appointed Group Head of FP&A where he helped shape the strategy for the Group and led a number of transformation initiatives. Specifically, he led the Group's business planning process, drove performance management initiatives and supported strategic decisions focused on corporate development and capital management activities.

Lyenda Simpson Delp

Managing Director, Head of the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) – Americas
BlackRock

FIG Americas is part of a global business which engages with insurance company senior executives to deliver asset management, advisory and risk management capabilities from BlackRock's enterprise platform dedicated to the insurance industry.

Ms. Delp is accountable for driving the overall success of FIG Americas including leading a high performing team of client professionals and directly managing relationships with senior clients. Prior to becoming Head of the FIG Americas business, she was Head of the Client Relationship team within FIG Americas.

Prior to joining the FIG team and BlackRock in 2009, she was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs which she joined in 2000. In her most recent role there, she worked in GSAM as a Client Portfolio Manager for the manager-of-managers, also called OCIO business providing comprehensive multi-asset class portfolio solutions to US and European insurers, pensions, endowments and foundations. Prior to GSAM she spent two plus years at Deloitte Consulting as a management consultant in the financial services practice.

She earned an MBA with concentrations in finance, marketing and strategy from Carnegie Mellon University and a BSc. in chemistry and biochemistry, double major with honors, from The University of the West Indies (UWI).

She is a Member of the Business Board of Advisors for the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and the Advisory Board for the American Foundation for the UWI (AFUWI), based in NYC.

Mark Erickson

Global Head of Business Strategy for Financial Institutions
BlackRock

Prior to joining BlackRock, Mark was the COO of the Investment Office at Global Atlantic Financial Group, a leading insurance and reinsurance provider that was acquired by KKR in 2021. Prior to Global Atlantic, Mark spent eight years at Eton Park, a global, multi-strategy hedge fund. Mark started his career at Goldman Sachs and earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard College.

Mark serves on the Board of the Vietnamese Boatpeople and previously served on the Board of American Corporate Partners (ACP) and as a David Rockefeller Fellow for the Partnership for New York City (PFNYC).

Outside of financial services, Mark is a photojournalist and author of Other Streets: Scenes from a Life in Vietnam not Lived, an official selection of the 2019 Photobook Awards of the L.A. Center of Photography.

Kunal Khara, CFA

Managing Director, Global Head of Financial Institutions for the Aladdin business
BlackRock

Previously, Mr. Khara was Head of the Americas for the BlackRock Financial Markets Advisory (FMA) group. FMA supports clients across a range of advisory services focusing primarily on balance sheet management, capital markets and transaction support, data and analytics, and risk and regulatory matters.

Prior to joining FMA in 2012, Mr. Khara was a senior member of the Market Analytics team within BRS, responsible for managing and evolving the analytics platform and serving as a subject matter expert on risk analytics and financial models, with an emphasis on securitized products. Mr. Khara began his career at BlackRock as an analyst in 2007 as a member of the Portfolio Analytics Group where he performed portfolio risk analyses focusing on mortgage, structured, and derivative products for various commercial banks. Prior to working at BlackRock, Mr. Khara was a Senior Analyst at ALM First Financial Advisors, a firm that provides investment advisory and ALM services to credit unions and co-operative banks.

Mr. Khara earned a BS in Business Administration, summa cum laude, with a finance concentration from the University of Texas, Dallas in 2004. He is a CFA charterholder.

Anna Khazen

Managing Director, Head of Financial Institutions Group for EMEA
BlackRock

Ms Khazen joined BlackRock in 2018 as Head of BlackRock Private Capital Markets for EMEA, within BlackRock Alternative Investors.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Ms Khazen was Head of Investments at Generali Investments, based in Paris & responsible for an insurance perimeter of Fixed Income, Equities & Fund of Funds as well as diverse Third Party client assets. From 1999-2015, Ms Khazen was at Morgan Stanley & was lastly responsible for Credit Trading, Securitised Products Trading, Structuring & Sales as well as Asset-Based lending for EMEA.

Ms Khazen serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Theatre Foundation.

Ms Khazen graduated with a BAHons & MAHons from Cambridge University & an MSc from the London School of Economics.