THE EUROPEAN
ALTERNATIVE
FUNDS LANDSCAPE

2-3 November 2025

Parklane, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Limassol

Brochure

The Conference

About the 11th International Funds Summit & Expo

The 11th Cyprus International Funds Summit is set to take place on 2-3 November 2025, in Limassol, Cyprus, bringing together a distinguished group of fund managers, institutional investors, policymakers, and industry experts from around the world. Organized by the Cyprus Investment Funds Association (CIFA) and Invest Cyprus, this summit serves as the premier annual gathering for
professionals in the funds and asset management industry, offering an in-depth analysis of the latest trends, regulatory updates, and emerging opportunities within the sector.

Earn up to
8 CPD units

Facts & Figures

30+

Speakers

500+

50+

15

Participants

Participating
Companies

Countries

Programme

Two Days of Informative Talks

2-3 November

Previous Speakers

Verena Ross

Chair
European Securities and Markets Authority

Verena Ross is the Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). She took up the role on 1 November 2021 and is responsible for representing the Authority as well as preparing the work of and chairing its Board of Supervisors and Management Board.

Between 2011 and 2021 Verena Ross served as ESMA’s first Executive Director, when she was responsible for building up the organisation and overseeing its day to day running.

Prior to this, Verena held a number of senior posts in the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) and was a member of the FSA's Executive Committee. Verena joined the FSA in 1998 to run the Executive Chairman’s office during the regulator’s start-up phase and was briefly a seconded advisor to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission in 2000. She held various positions in the FSA’s Markets Division and was Director of Strategy & Risk Division before becoming Director of the International Division.

Verena is a German national. Following studies in Sinology and Economics in Hamburg, Taipei and London (SOAS) she began her career at the Bank of England in 1994, where she worked as an economist and banking supervisor.

Dr. George Theocharides

Chairman
Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission

Dr. George Theocharides (BΕng (Hons), MBA, PhD) is the Chairman of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). He is also the Chairman of the Risk Standing Committee (RSC). The RSC is part of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the successor of the Committee for Economic and Markets Analysis (CEMA), for which Dr. Theocharides served also as Chairman, between March and December 2022. He served as CySEC’s Vice Chairman from July 2020 to September 2021 and was previously a CySEC Board member. He has extensive experience working in the wider financial sector.

Tilmann Galler

Global Market Strategist
J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Tilmann Galler, Executive Director, works as a global capital market strategist for German-speaking countries at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Frankfurt. He is part of the global Market Insights team, which creates, analyzes and derives implications for investment strategies based on extensive research for institutional and retail clients around the global economies and capital markets.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Tilmann spent six years at UBS Global Asset Management as a portfolio manager managing equity and balanced mandates for institutional clients. He was a member of the European equity portfolio construction team. He also worked for Commerzbank Securities as an equity trader. Tilmann holds a diploma in business administration (BWL) of Hohenheim University. He is a certified EFFAS Financial Analyst (CEFA) and a CFA charterholder.

Jigna Gibb

Head of Commodities & Crypto Index Products
Bloomberg

Jigna Gibb is Head of Commodities and Crypto Index Products at Bloomberg. In her role, she is responsible for the flagship Bloomberg Commodities (BCOM) family index suite, which is linked to products totalling over $107bn AUM, as well as the roll out of new index launches.

Prior to joining Bloomberg Mrs. Gibb was Head of Origination for the Quantitative Investment Solutions team at Deutsche Bank. Her responsibilities included Portfolio, Cross Asset and FICC QIS product development, marketing, and origination to institutional investors globally. She has created and innovated risk premia and quantitative investment solutions at the bank since the platform’s inception in 2012 and worked in collaboration with the DB Quant Research team.

Mrs. Gibb worked at Barclays for eight years both in London and New York. In a structuring sales role, she was integral in developing the Commodities Investor Solutions business. Over her tenure at Barclays she delivered a diverse range of investment solutions such as index strategies, collateralised commodities obligations, structured products and fund solutions to institutional investors. She started her career at Goldman Sachs as a Financial Sales Analyst in the Securities division.

Mrs. Gibb received her M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.

James People

Senior Alternatives Sales Specialist EMEA Alternative Wealth Management
Franklin Templeton

James joined Franklin Templeton in October 2021 as an Alternative Sales Specialist, covering the EMEA region, with a particular focus on the UK and Ireland.

Prior to joining FT, James was a principal at CQS, distributing alternative credit solutions to the UK, Swiss and Nordics clients. James also worked at Muzinich and BlueBay Asset Management, both credit focused asset managers, as a sales director with global remit. James started his career, spending 7 years at Goldman Sachs, initially on the credit trading desk and later as an institutional portfolio manager in the Fixed Income team at GSAM. James holds a BSC in Economics from Westminster business school and a post graduate business degree in International Banking & Finance from Columbia Business School in New York.

Dimitrios Batzis

Head of Southern CEE & Mediterranean countries
Schroders Investment Management (Europe) S.A.

Dimitrios Batzis is Head of Southern CEE & Mediterranean, and is responsible for the business and strategic development in this region which consists of overall 7 countries. He is also the ESG Representative Germany, Austria & CEEMED covering all client-facing topics around ESG, sustainability and impact.

From 2019-2022 he was Head of Greece, Cyprus & Malta. He joined Schroders in Frankfurt in 2017 as Sales Executive servicing clients located throughout the CEE & Mediterranean region.

From 2016-2017 Dimitrios worked for Deutsche Bank within the Investment Banking division.

From 2013-2016 he was a Product Manager at the Treasury department of Bank of China in Frankfurt. He was responsible for the bank’s bond offerings and relationship building with German institutional clients seeking to invest in Chinese bonds.

From 2009-2013 he was a Trader for a Family Office in Switzerland & Greece.

Mr. Batzis holds a Diploma (MA) in business administration from the Goethe-University in Frankfurt and holds the CFA ESG certification.

Benjamin Alt

Head of Global Private Equity Portfolios
Head of Private Equity Consumer Investments
Schroders Investment Management (Europe) S.A.

Benjamin Alt is head of Global Private Equity Portfolios and also heads the Private Equity Consumer Investments team.

Prior to taking on his current role, Benjamin covered Schroders Capital private equity investment activity in Europe, as well as in the US while in secondment in New York. Before joining Schroders Capital in 2008, Benjamin worked in the Investment Banking division of Sal. Oppenheim in Frankfurt and Cologne, Germany.

Benjamin holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Private University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany.

Richard House

Managing Director - CIO for Emerging Markets, Allianz Global Investors

Richard House leads the Emerging Market Fixed Income area at Allianz Global Investors. He joined Allianz Global Investors in 2018 as CIO Emerging Markets Debt and is primarily responsible for managing the Allianz GI EM Bond team. His public EM Debt track record stretches back to 2000. He is a sovereign specialist and a portfolio manager by training. He has research responsibilities for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) area in the Near East/Central Asia and other “distressed” sovereign borrowers. Previously, Richard was Head of Emerging Market Debt at Standard Life Investments from 2012 to 2017. He held the same role at Threadneedle Asset Management for five years before that. Earlier in his career, Richard worked for eight years as an emerging market debt portfolio manager for HSBC based in Geneva, and for three years as an emerging market debt trader at Wadhwani Asset Management. He began his career in 1994 as an emerging markets economist with Lombard Odier Asset Management. Richard holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Sunderland, UK, and an MSc in Finance and Economics from York University, UK.