Speakers
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Ravi Rastogi Senior Adviser, Insurance Segment—bfinance
Ravi is the principal at ARK Advisors, a boutique consulting firm dedicated to the insurance investment space supporting insurers directly, as well as asset managers and advisory firms servicing insurers. His most recent engagement is with bfinance, as a Senior Advisor to steward and drive further growth in their well-established global insurance-focused segment.
As a qualified investment actuary, Ravi brings over 30 years of experience in financial services, including investment leadership roles at EY, Mercer, and WTW and spanning insurance, pensions and wealth management. Over the past 16 years, he has worked with the full range of insurers from life and P&C to health, reinsurance and captives across all the major jurisdictions in EMEA, North America and Asia.
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Bob Sharma Head – EMEA and APAC Insurance — AllianceBernstein
Bob is a Senior Vice President, Managing Director, and Head of EMEA and APAC Insurance for AB, where he is responsible for leading the insurance initiative across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC). In this role he advises insurance clients on portfolio strategy, strategic asset-allocation topics, developments in the investment market and insurance industry dynamics.
Bob joined AB in 2024 and has been working in the investment industry since 1999. Previously, he held the role of managing director and head of EMEA insurance at Wellington Management, where he led the insurance business for many years. Bob holds a BSC (Hons) in economics from the University of Manchester. He is a CFA charterholder and holds the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR) Certificate from the Global Association of Risk Professionals.
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Dr. Neil Hepworth Principal — AllianceBernstein
Neil is a Principal for AB CarVal, responsible for managing global investments in structured credit. Prior to joining AB CarVal in 2013, he was a director at BlackRock within their Financial Markets Advisory business advising European Financial Institutions and Governments on legacy distressed structured credit and whole loan portfolios. Neil also worked for RBS in their European Structured Credit Business and began his career at DrKW in their Structured Credit research team.
Neil received his PhD in chemical engineering from Imperial College, London and M.Eng. from Cambridge University.
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Mike Casagranda Head of Sales Europe — Gemcorp
Mike, Gemcorp’s Head of Sales for the UK & Northern Europe, has over 25 years experience working with institutional investors. He joined Gemcorp from Global Evolution where he represented Global Evolution’s Emerging & Fronter Debt strategies with UK institutional clients.
Previously, he spent ten years with Stone Harbor Investment Partners where he was responsible for institutional sales and relationship management across the UK & Ireland. Prior to Stone Harbor, he was at BlueBay Asset Management where he had responsibility for clients in the Nordics & Benelux. Mike began his career at the Capital Group Companies in Los Angeles.
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Pranav Khamar Partner, Portfolio Manager — Gemcorp
Pranav is a Portfolio Manager and member of the Investment Committee. Prior to joining Gemcorp, he spent most of his career at Royal Bank of Scotland in both London and Dubai executing structured finance transactions across Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Pranav has an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge. He has 13 years of emerging markets experience and has been with Gemcorp Capital since 2014.
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Dean Heaney Head of Sales and Distribution — Mercia
Dean joined Mercia in 2025 to lead its institutional distribution strategy, with a focus on building strong relationships with pension schemes, insurers, and financial institutions. He has over 20 years of experience in asset management, including senior roles at Franklin Templeton, Invesco, and Royal London Asset Management.
At Mercia, Dean is responsible for shaping and executing the firm’s engagement with institutional investors, helping to align Mercia’s private market capabilities with long-term client objectives. He holds a degree in International Business and Finance and is an IMC holder.
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Ed Bradburn Deputy Head of Property Finance - Frontier Development Capital — Mercia
Ed joined the property team from HSBC where he worked primarily in Corporate Banking and Real Estate Finance. A qualified banker, with extensive knowledge of the structuring, negotiation and execution of real estate transactions across a broad range of sectors. Ed is Deputy Head of the team responsible for the growth, delivery, modelling and management of the property funds.
