The Laureate Dialogue: Insights from Robert C. Merton and Dimensional Fund Advisors
Dimensional Fund Advisors, a US$1 trillion systematic investing giant, has been a key partner from the early days since Endowus’ inception.
Dimensional’s success over the past 45 years has been driven by an evidence-based approach, Nobel Prize-winning insights, and decades of expertise in applying financial science to real-world portfolios, and are honoured to have been among the first platforms to bring best-in-class strategies to clients in Asia.
Endowus is excited to host an exclusive in-person event with Dimensional Fund Advisors, featuring Nobel Laureate Robert C. Merton during his rare visit to Hong Kong on 11 June 2026 (Thurs). Register now to secure your spot!
Panel 1: Fireside Chat with Nobel Laureate, Professor Robert C. Merton
Professor Robert C. Merton, Nobel Laureate and Resident Scientist at Dimensional Fund Advisors, will share his insights and reflections on financial markets and investing. He will discuss the evolution of financial theory, his vision for the next frontier of financial innovation and strategies to improve the probability of retirement success.
This session will be moderated by Samuel Rhee, Co-Founder, Chairman & Group Chief Investment Officer at Endowus.
Panel 2: Navigating Markets with Dimensional Leadership Team
Following Professor Merton’s sharing will be a deep-dive discussion with Dimensional’s Leadership team. Salvina Rizova, Co-Chief Investment Officer at Dimensional Fund Advisors and Joel Kim, CFA, Chief Executive Officer, Asia ex-Japan and Head of International Fixed Income will discuss the founding principles of Dimensional, the investment philosophy and processes that drive Dimensional’s multi-decade success in serving investors, and how to navigate market volatility through science and discipline.
This session will be moderated by Hugh Chung, Chief Investment Officer at Endowus.
Exclusive In-Person Event
Date: Thursday, 11 Jun 2026
Time: 8:30-10 AM HKT (Registration starts at 8:10 AM)
Location: Central (Disclosed upon confirmation)
Language: English
This is an invite-only event. Secure your spot by registering via the link above. Due to limited capacity, registration will be on a first-come-first-served basis, with priority given to Endowus clients.
For inquiries, please email [email protected].
About the speakers
Robert C. Merton, PhD
Distinguished Professor of Finance, John and Natty McArthur University Professor Emeritus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, Harvard University
Robert C. Merton is the School of Management Distinguished Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. He was the George Fisher Baker Professor of Business Administration (1988-98), the John and Natty McArthur University Professor (1998-2010) at Harvard Business School, and served on the finance faculty of MIT's Sloan School of Management until 1988. He is currently Resident Scientist at Dimensional Holdings, Inc., where he is the creator of Managed DC, a global integrated retirement-funding solution system.
Merton received the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1997 for a new method to determine the value of derivatives. He is past president of the American Finance Association, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Merton received the inaugural Financial Engineer of the Year Award from the International Association of Financial Engineers, which also elected him a Senior Fellow. A Distinguished Fellow of the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance ('Q Group') and a Fellow of the Financial Management Association, he received the Nicholas Molodovsky Award from the CFA Institute. He received the 2011 CME Group Fred Arditti Innovation Award and the 2013 World Federation of Exchanges Award for Excellence.
Merton's research focuses on finance theory, including lifecycle and retirement finance, optimal portfolio selection, capital asset pricing, pricing of options, credit risk, loan guarantees, and improving the methods of measuring and managing macro-financial risk.
Merton received a BS in Engineering Mathematics from Columbia University, an MS in Applied Mathematics from California Institute of Technology and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Savina Rizova, Co-Chief Investment Officer, Dimensional Fund Advisors
Savina Rizova is Co-Chief Investment Officer at Dimensional Fund Advisors LP. She helps lead a team of more than 300 investment professionals across six countries alongside Gerard O’Reilly, who is also Co-Chief Executive Officer. Savina chairs the Investment Research Committee and is a member of the Investment Committee. She previously served as Dimensional’s Global Head of Research.
Since joining Dimensional’s Research department in 2004, Savina has helped drive innovation across Dimensional’s product offering, including the development, launch, and rapid growth of Dimensional exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the expanded separately managed accounts (SMAs) and unified managed accounts (UMAs) offerings, and model portfolios. She was instrumental in expanding the Research team to include specialists in investment research, strategy research, and analytics and data.
Savina has been recognized by Barron’s as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in US Finance and by Pensions & Investments as one of the most influential women in institutional investing. She holds a PhD in finance and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She also earned a BA in economics and mathematics from Dartmouth College, where she was a research assistant to Professor Kenneth French.
Joel Kim, CFA, Chief Executive Officer, Asia ex-Japan and Head of International Fixed Income, Dimensional Fund Advisors
Joel Kim is CEO of Dimensional’s Asia ex Japan business as well as a Director of Dimensional Fund Advisors Pte. Ltd. (Dimensional’s Singapore subsidiary) and a Director of Dimensional Hong Kong Limited. Based in Singapore, Joel manages Dimensional’s business interests in the region and ensures alignment with the firm’s global priorities. In partnership with local and global leadership, he oversees the development and implementation of the region’s growth strategy and day-to-day business operations. Joel represents Dimensional in client and regulatory affairs, as well as relevant industry and community events.
Joel has more than 25 years of industry experience, and he joined Dimensional in 2016. He most recently served in the firm’s London office solely as Head of International Fixed Income, overseeing fixed income portfolio management outside the US. He continues to fulfill this role from the firm’s Singapore office. Prior to joining Dimensional, he was head of Asia Pacific fixed income for BlackRock in Singapore, where he was responsible for portfolio management of fixed income strategies in the region, including Australia and Japan. Before his time at BlackRock, Joel spent nearly 14 years with ING Investment Management, where he held various fixed income portfolio management positions in Europe and Asia, lastly as head of Asian debt.
Joel has a master’s degree in economics from the University of Amsterdam and is a CFA® charterholder.
Samuel Rhee, Co-Founder, Chairman & Group CIO, Endowus
Samuel Rhee is Co-founder, Chairman and the Group CIO of Endowus, Asia’s leading digital wealth platform. He is the former CEO and CIO of Morgan Stanley Investment Management in Asia, with nearly three decades of institutional investing experience in Singapore, Hong Kong, and London.
Today, Sam heads the Endowus Group Investment Office and ensures every client has greater access to holistic portfolios that are thoughtfully designed to meet their specific wealth goals. He is responsible for the company’s asset allocation and investment selection across all offerings, with a vision to provide individual investors with the same knowledge, resources, and products traditionally only made available to institutional investors, at a low, fair fee. Endowus solves the biggest problems of wealth and investing, and retirement adequacy, leading the firm to become the first and largest digital advisor for CPF investing in Singapore.
Hugh Chung, Chief Investment Officer, Endowus
Hugh Chung is the Chief Investment Officer at Endowus.
In his current role, Hugh leads the integration of investment functions and strategies across the Endowus Group. He oversees the centralised Investment Office, which provides group strategic direction on the expert curation and management of all investment solutions across public and private markets, for individual and institutional investors in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Before joining Endowus, Hugh has more than 20 years of experience in the asset management and financial advisory space in Asia. In his previous role as the Chief Investment Officer for a single family office, he was responsible for strategic asset allocation, portfolio construction and fund selection across all regions and asset classes.
Hugh was also previously Managing Director at Kadensa Capital and Azentus Capital as the founding member and senior investor of two of the most successful hedge fund launches in Asia. Before this, Hugh had oversight of Korea equity distribution at J.P. Morgan, and began his career at Goldman Sachs and Samsung Securities.