Infralogic Investors Forum Australia 2023
The premier Infrastructure forum in Australia
Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney and Online
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Australia: Thinking outside the box
Given the current macro environment, and that different infrastructure assets are more exposed than others to inflationary pressures, rate rises, labour shortages, supply-chain issues, and consumer spending trends, investors will be strongly considering where to invest and how to protect their portfolio. As valuations for high-quality infrastructure assets continue to climb, investors are also increasingly trying to find additional “value added” opportunities to drive greater returns throughout the asset hold period, and to determine whether more risk needs to be taken to meet the Your Future, Your Super benchmark and find deal flow. The past 12 months have demonstrated a continued demand for quality infrastructure assets. We have seen several large, listed assets being taken off the ASX, a series of Telco Towers deals, and there have been transactions in healthcare. In this session, a panel of leading domestic investors will discuss how to manage and grow a portfolio for success in challenging times.
- How do you see the inflationary environment impacting infrastructure investments?
- How is the need for value creation being managed with assets that require a hands-on operational approach?
- What is the new frontier of “core plus”?
- How do you access sustainability loans, and what is required?
- What sectors are gaining the most traction in terms of infrastructure investment?
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Networking break
Global outlook: Conviction in uncertain times
The global economy faces diverse and complex challenges. However, the infrastructure asset class offers inflation protection, defensiveness, high yield, and exposure to structural growth drivers, all of which should be attractive to investors in 2023. Secular trends such as digitalisation and decarbonisation will continue to drive the need for new investments. That said, macro conditions have worsened significantly. Investors can no longer count on cheap credit to boost investment returns, and 2023 could potentially be a tough year for fundraising as LPs retract due to weak public markets and budgeting issues. One thing is for certain, more reflection and rigor are needed in investment and asset management strategies to deliver positive outcomes.
- How are investors measuring different types of risk, and which geographies, sectors, and strategies are positioned to thrive amidst the geopolitical adversity?
- How is policymaking currently shaping the infrastructure investment market?
- Why are infrastructure valuations staying higher than anticipated, and will it remain this way?
- Where are exits and liquidity likely to be found?
- How do you effectively manage data and technology for ESG integration and reporting?
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Focus on renewables: Winning the race for decarbonisation
2020 was a watershed year as bipartisan support saw improved emission reduction targets for Australia, namely a 43% cut in 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050, thereby creating a massive need for investment in the renewable energy space. However, issues relating to storage, firming capacity, grid access, and PPAs remain unresolved, as does the continuing disconnect between the brownfield and greenfield markets, with the cost of construction, skills shortage, and the cost of capital weighing heavily on investors’ minds. For those not afraid to invest in businesses that have an emissions profile, decarbonising coal-related infrastructure is a viable option. In this session, a panel of renewable energy investors will go beyond the headlines to tackle a range of tough questions to find the right deals that will deliver consistent returns.
- Which part of the renewables sector are investors bidding on to deliver consistent returns?
- What is the outlook for storage technologies and grid reliability for renewables?
- How do you navigate the issues when transitioning from a coal plant to a clean energy source?
- Are greenfield projects the only viable option, or are investors still looking at brownfield projects?
- What needs to change to minimise the risks of investing in long-term renewable projects?
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Networking Lunch
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2023 and beyond: Infrastructure of the future
The events of the past year have impacted the way people live, work, travel, shop, and communicate. Figuring out the extent of this paradigm shift and where temporary changes become ingrained habits are essential to fashioning investment theses. For private market investors, finding an angle to broaden the scope of the asset class and locate infrastructure-like characteristics to participate in sectors that are experiencing unprecedented growth has enabled a flurry of deals and new projects in telecom towers, data centres, fibre-optic networks, land and motor registries, healthcare and screening services, social housing, and other sectors ripe for savvy fund managers. In this discussion, a panel of industry experts will review the opportunities.
- Which sectors have the best prospects for capturing growth?
- Has digital transformation changed the definition of infrastructure?
- How do you measure the long-term risk and return profile?
- What skills are required to manage these assets?
- What will prove the biggest influence on the changing definition of infrastructure in the next five years?
- How are investors approaching the social housing opportunity?
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Networking break
Solving the construction conundrum: Collaborating to find a winning formula
Traditionally, a new infrastructure project would be a design and construct contract, where the government finances the whole project, but builders sign fixed price contracts to deliver it. However, the contractual inflexibility of D&C and PPP deals have often led to litigation when costs skyrocket due to unforeseen risks and usually a refinancing of the project mid-construction. This is now even more likely given that the rapid inflation and interest rate rises, labour shortage, and increasing material costs have caused numerous small and large builders to struggle with significant losses. However, reforms are starting to be brought in to address the need to collaborate in real-time in terms of project risk management, such as allowing the risk responsibilities to shift among the various parties as circumstances change during a project. In light of a number of high-profile cases, it has been recognised that an urgent transformation is needed of how projects are procured, delivered, and governed in Australia. Furthermore, a closer look must be taken at the role that the Federal Government can play.
- How are contractors dealing with inflation and transport disruptions?
- Are the COVID-19 and war-related pressures that created the supply-chain crunch easing?
- How do you drive flexibility and genuine collaboration?
- How should risk be allocated and shared?
- What reforms are in place, and how is the government planning to change the model further?
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LP spotlight: Staying the course
LPs investing in infrastructure are faced with a range of challenges as they brace for a downturn and decide how best to act. Budget constraints after a wave of re-ups, valuation concerns, Your Future, Your Super benchmarking, and macro-issues cascading down to geographic and sector worries – all of this means that LPs must be deliberate in how and when to allocate to be defensive but flexible to find the best opportunities that fit the infrastructure bucket. In this panel, with ESG and impact considerations also taking centre stage for many LPs, a group of experienced investors will share how they are looking to the future at a time when knowing where and how to invest – via a pooled fund or direct – and identifying the sectors and geographies that can deliver growth are critical to delivering strong returns.
- How is an increasing inflation and interest rate environment changing the way you invest return expectations?
- How has Your Future, Your Super impacted investment decisions?
- Which geographies, fund types, and GP relationships are LPs seeking?
- What are the challenges associated with measurement and monitoring in ESG?
- How do you think about the role that listed infrastructure can play in your portfolios?
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Robin oversees global editorial and research coverage for Infralogic. A 24-year news veteran, with 16 of them spent editing financial news, Robin has worked for some of the world's leading news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and Bloomberg. He has been a regular on live television, commenting mainly on Chinese government and central bank policy. At Infralogic, he is responsible for daily news coverage and analysis written by a team of journalists spread across the globe, including the Americas, EMEA and the Asia-Pacific region.
Paul Bloxham is HSBC’s Chief Economist for Australia, New Zealand and Global Commodities and is a Managing Director. He is chief spokesperson for HSBC on forecasts and trends for the Australian and New Zealand economies and their interaction with global financial markets and international economies. Mr. Bloxham is also a key spokesperson on HSBC’s unique view on global commodity markets and works closely with HSBC’s global equities team. He is also a member of the Australian National University's Shadow Reserve Bank Board and is an Adjunct Professor at Curtin University. In 2017, Mr. Bloxham’s team won Focus Economics awards for best overall forecaster for each of Australia and New Zealand. Prior to joining HSBC in 2010, Mr. Bloxham spent 12 years as an economist within the Reserve Bank of Australia's Economic Analysis Department. Mr. Bloxham holds a Master's degree in public financial policy from the London School of Economics.
Shaun has been a senior reporter, news editor and deputy editor at Infralogic covering Australia, NZ and Asia for more than seven years. Prior to that, he worked as a reporter and editor at Fairfax Media for eight years. His roles there included editor of CFO magazine, reporter on AFR Dealbook and financial services reporter for the Companies and Markets section of The Australian Financial Review.
Gregory Lovell has been an Investment Director in CDPQ’s team of infrastructure experts in Australia since 2016. The assets under his responsibility include public-private partnerships.
Mr. Lovell possesses extensive experience in transport infrastructure, social infrastructure and corporate governance. Before joining CDPQ, he worked in infrastructure investment at CP2 and Citigroup and in corporate advisory at Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Scotland
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Science and Master of Commerce (Hons) from the University of Melbourne. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of Plenary Asia Pacific and five of their projects – AgriBio Centre for AgriBioscience, Casey Hospital, South Australian Police and Courts, Single LEAP 1 and Single LEAP 2. He has previously worked on assets including Sydney Metro, WestConnex, Port of Brisbane and DP World Australia.
Gordon has overall responsibility for the Utilities Trust of Australia and Morrison Infrastructure Partnership. He is a member of the firm’s Asset Management Committee and Valuation Committee. Gordon is a senior infrastructure professional with 20 years of experience spanning investment management, corporate governance and corporate advisory across a wide range of infrastructure subsectors, including renewable and conventional power generation, electricity, gas and water utilities, transport and data infrastructure. Prior to joining Morrison, Gordon was a Principal in the Queensland Investment Corporation’s (QIC) Global Infrastructure business, where he led the Energy & Utilities investment team. Gordon is currently a Director of TransGrid and Uniti Group.
Gavin Kerr is a Managing Director in the Igneo Infrastructure Partners team. He is based in the Sydney office and has been with the business since 2013. Gavin is a member of the GDIF Investment Committee. Gavin represents GDIF on the boards of portfolio assets including Tuatahi First Fibre and First Gas. Prior to joining the team, Gavin held a number of senior roles at Macquarie Group over a 17 year period. During that time he focused on both infrastructure M&A and funds management in a variety of OECD and emerging markets. Gavin also spent five years with Arthur Andersen & Co (Sydney) in the Corporate Finance and Consulting group. Gavin is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and has a Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Andrew Jennings joined KKR in 2020 and is a member of the Asia Pacific Infrastructure team. Mr. Jennings is responsible for infrastructure investments in Australia and New Zealand, and serves on the Board of Directors of Spark Infrastructure and Ritchies Transport. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Jennings was a sector lead for the energy & utilities team within QIC's global infrastructure business. Mr. Jennings has led transactions across various sectors including renewable energy, regulated utilities and transport. Prior to QIC, Mr. Jennings worked in Deutsche Bank's corporate finance team in both London and Sydney, specialising in infrastructure & utilities. Mr. Jennings holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil), with First Class Honours, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Queensland.
Adam Stapledon is the Head of Banking & Finance at Corrs Chambers Westgarth. He has over 25 years’ experience advising sponsors, borrowers and lenders in Australia and the Asia Pacific region, focusing on project and acquisition financing transactions across the infrastructure, renewables, energy and resources sectors.
Adam is consistently recognised as a leading lawyer by respected industry publications such as Chambers Asia-Pacific and Chambers Global, Best Lawyers and Legal 500. He has lectured on syndicated lending at the University of Sydney and is a member of the APLMA project finance sub-committee.
Prior to joining Corrs in July 2022, Adam was Head of Debt and Projects in Australia for a top tier global law firm.
Darren is a Senior Managing Director with Stonepeak. Before joining Stonepeak, Darren was a Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Telecommunications, Media & Technology (TMT) with Macquarie Capital having joined Macquarie Group from Bankers Trust Australia in 1999. During his 25-year career at Macquarie, Darren worked across various industries and geographies including being based in London for ten years. Since 2011, Darren has been located in Sydney and focused on opportunities in Asia Pacific. He was a member of Macquarie Capital’s Global Executive Committee as well as a board member for several operating subsidiaries. Darren received a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws (Honors) from the Australian National University.
Ken Wong joined EQT Partners in October 2018 and is the Head of Asia Pacific, Infrastructure.
Prior to joining EQT, Ken worked at Affinity Equity Partners focusing on private equity investments in the technology, media, telecommunications and consumer sectors. Prior to Affinity, Ken worked at Macquarie Capital, based in Melbourne.
Ken holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from The University of Melbourne.
Speaker bio coming soon
Ross co-founded QIC Global Infrastructure (‘GI’) in early 2006. Ross provides overall leadership to the team which currently manages 23 direct investments across six countries, out of five offices located in Australia, UK and US. He has had oversight as a member of the QIC Global Infrastructure Investment Committee of all of the team’s investments. In addition to his infrastructure responsibilities, Ross is also a member of QIC’s Executive Management Committee.
Ross has over 30 years of experience in the field of corporate finance and funds management with specialist skills in infrastructure, asset management, capital raisings and M&A.
Prior to QIC, Ross was with AMP Capital from 2000 to 2005. He co-led the AMP team responsible for the creation of the Diversified Utility and Energy Trusts (DUET). After which he was seconded into the management joint venture between AMP Capital and Macquarie Bank established prior to DUET’s listing on the ASX in August 2004. He was DUET’s Chief Operating Officer until his departure to QIC. Prior to joining AMP Capital, Ross worked for ABN AMRO and BZW in their Australian Infrastructure Corporate Advisory and London M&A teams and with Ernst & Young in their Sydney Corporate Tax division.
Ross is currently a director at Generate Capital.
Ross holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Law from the University of Queensland.
Mary Zhu is a Senior Vice President within Brookfield’s Infrastructure investments team. In this role Ms. Zhu is responsible for the origination, execution and management of digital infrastructure assets in APAC.
Prior to joining Brookfield in 2019, Ms. Zhu held roles in the M&A and corporate development team at Telstra, where she worked on a number of deals across its enterprise networks and services, health and software sectors. Ms. Zhu also held roles in Macquarie Capital’s DCM and TMET teams.
Ms. Zhu holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales.
Rob Clow is a senior reporter with Infralogic in Sydney, covering energy mergers and acquisitions, project finance and trading in the Asia Pacific region.
A financial journalist with over 20 years’ experience in London, New York and Sydney, Rob has previously worked on the staff of the Financial Times, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, the New York Post and Institutional Investor magazine.
Jonathan joined Octopus Group in 2013 in London, before moving to Australia in 2018. He is responsible for product development and overseeing day to day delivery of Octopus managed investments in Australia. Since joining Octopus, Jonathan has delivered over c$1.4 billion of utility scale renewables debt and equity financings across retail as well as institutional fund mandates.
Jonathan has a BA from Columbia University and a MBA (Distinction) from Oxford University.
Tom is the Head of Infrastructure, Asia Pacific and Co-Head of Infrastructure for Macquarie Capital in Australia and New Zealand.
Tom has 22 years of experience working in the infrastructure sector initially providing valuations and professional services to clients, before moving into a principal investment role and over the past 18 years as an investment banker.
Tom has been active across all infrastructure sub-sectors including transport, regulated utilities, gas infrastructure, gentailers, renewables, data and core plus. He has significant experience providing strategic and M&A advice, running trade sale processes, privatisations, capital structure reviews, arranging debt and equity for a variety of transactions and principal investments.
Tom has a broad range of experiences advising clients in both the public and private sectors and both in Australia and key jurisdictions offshore including UK, Europe, North America, South America and Asia.
Her strong expertise across the energy transactions sector has earned Sally Torgoman recognition as a leading professional within the field. She is a partner in the commercial advisory and transaction team based in NSW, specialising in energy and focusing on renewables. For more than 18 years, Sally’s focus has been on major projects and transactions in generation, transmission, and retail, such as major renewables buy and sell side services as well as large government procurement processes. Sally is a dual qualified electrical engineer and lawyer, with deep knowledge and expertise in clean energy and decarbonisation related investments across wind solar batteries pumped hydro hydrogen and gas infrastructure. She is a non executive director of Plant Ark, and prior to KPMG worked in private enterprise and large corporate organisations, which cemented her capability to deliver commercial services to private and public clients.
Nick Hawke is an Associate Director in the Investment team at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation focusing on large-scale wind and solar transactions. Nick has previous experience in the ANZ Bank specialised finance team, based in Auckland. Nick has project finance experience in public private partnerships, irrigation schemes, oil and gas, geothermal energy, and undersea cabling. He has also been involved in a number of asset financing and leveraged financing transactions. Nick holds a Bachelor of Commerce in finance and economics and has also completed a Master of Engineering, both from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Jay joined Igneo Infrastructure Partners in 2010, becoming responsible for the team’s transactions origination and due diligence process, as well as asset management function. He currently represents Igneo on the Board of Tuatahi First Fibre in New Zealand.
Prior to joining the team, Jay worked for two years in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). During this time, he gained experience in CBA’s strategic development and investment decision teams, where he was responsible for evaluating M&A opportunities. Jay completed a Bachelor of Commerce and Arts from the University of New South Wales, majoring in Finance and Accounting.
He is a CFA® charterholder and a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).
Andrew joined PEP in 2007 where he co-founded and leads PEP’s Secure Assets Fund strategy. Prior to joining PEP, he was a Consultant with Bain & Company in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He received a MBA from INSEAD and has a Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Honours) from the University of New South Wales and the Dean’s Medal.
Jared leads Northleaf’s infrastructure activities in North America, with a primary focus on transaction origination, due diligence, execution and asset management. Jared acts as the asset manager for a number of Northleaf’s infrastructure investments and serves as a director on several asset-level boards.
Prior to joining Northleaf in 2012, Jared was at ONCAP, the middle-market private equity platform of Onex Corporation, where he was involved in sourcing and evaluating principal investment opportunities and managing existing portfolio companies. Previously, he worked with the Macquarie Group as part of the Public-Private Partnerships and Industrials teams where he was primarily involved in principal acquisitions and M&A advisory assignments.
Jared received a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours with Distinction) from Queen’s University
Luke Edwards is the Head of Australia in the Renewable Power & Transition Group. In this role, Mr. Edwards is responsible for the overall growth and management of renewable power and transition investments, operations and development activities in Australia.
Mr. Edwards began his career at Brookfield in 2021 as a Vice President in Brookfield’s Infrastructure group, where he focused on investment origination, analysis and execution. Prior to joining Brookfield, Mr. Edwards held various roles across engineering, commercial and investments sectors including a Director position at Citi. He has also held roles at Goldman Sachs, in its power, utilities and infrastructure investment banking teams and has experience as a field engineer for Schlumberger in Brazil and Alaska.
Mr. Edwards holds Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) and Bachelor of Commerce degrees, both from the University of Sydney.
Robin oversees global editorial and research coverage for Infralogic. A 24-year news veteran, with 16 of them spent editing financial news, Robin has worked for some of the world's leading news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and Bloomberg. He has been a regular on live television, commenting mainly on Chinese government and central bank policy. At Infralogic, he is responsible for daily news coverage and analysis written by a team of journalists spread across the globe, including the Americas, EMEA and the Asia-Pacific region.
Chau Phan-Vu is a director in Project Finance at MUFG Bank, Ltd., based in Sydney. She has been with the bank since 2017 and is engaged in the origination and execution of project finance transactions across Oceania, with a key focus on renewable energy and power, infrastructure and natural resources.
Prior to her current role, Chau spent over 9 years in debt and advisory roles across Sydney, London and Paris where she also covered structured finance across these sectors in Australia and EMEA.
Dan is a Director at the Department of Treasury and Finance, joining in 2016. He provides commercial and risk management advice on major commercial transactions to Victorian government departments, agencies and government business enterprises. In Infrastructure Delivery group, that includes Partnerships Victoria, the Victorian Government flagship Public Private Partnership (PPP) specialist group, he works on a range of social and transport infrastructure projects.
Dan has carriage of the Rail, Health and energy portfolios within the group. Overseeing the development and procurement of the Melbourne Airport Rail Project, Melton Hospital PPP and the new Offshore Wind initiative and the construction of Melbourne Metro, Footscray Hospital, Frankston Hospital and the High Capacity Metro Trains projects.
Prior to joining the Department of Treasury and Finance, Dan worked in a range of roles in Australia and Japan. He started her career with URS as an environmental geologist before heading to Japan in to work with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on gas to liquids and Carbon Capture and Storage projects, before returning home to Melbourne with Mitsubishi Corporation, focusing on transport PPPs and power projects.
Dan holds a Bachelor of Science (Geology) from the University of Melbourne.
Bede Noonan is the Chief Executive Officer and a significant shareholder of ACCIONA’s infrastructure business in Australia and New Zealand, with projects under construction of approximately $5.5 billion.
Prior to ACCIONA, Bede ran Geotech Group, an Australian diversified civil engineering business, where he oversaw growth in annual revenue from $5 million to more than $300 million before ACCIONA acquired a majority shareholding in March 2017. In September 2020, Bede finalised the transaction to purchase the Engineering business of Lendlease, such that the proud project history of Abigroup and Baulderstone Hornibrook are now part of the ACCIONA story. This rich history includes iconic Australian landmarks such as Anzac Bridge, Sydney Opera House, Story Bridge, Legacy Way Tunnel, Bolte Bridge and Docklands Stadium.
Bede is an experienced business leader with a passion for innovation and a focus on corporate strategy, business development and financial and systems management.
His entrepreneurial approach to business through a combination of disciplined organic growth and carefully timed strategic acquisitions has positioned ACCIONA well to cement itself as the leading sustainable, reliable and trusted infrastructure partner in Australia and New Zealand.
Bede is a board member of the Australian Constructors Association and was a board member of Master Builders Association of Victoria and the Piling and Foundation Specialists Federation.
Julie-Anne has more than 30 years’ financial markets and investment management experience across real assets and listed equities in Australia and overseas.
Julie-Anne joined as the inaugural CEO of Plenary Funds Management in 2021 responsible for creating and building the boutique infrastructure investment management business from a standing start through capitalising on the strengths of the Plenary Group. She now holds the role of Non Executive Director & Senior Advisor.
Julie-Anne worked at AMP for more than 25 years in Sydney and London in equities management, corporate strategy and M&A and for 14 years in infrastructure, most recently as AMP Capital’s Global Head of Social Care. While there, she founded and led the transformation of the Community Infrastructure Fund into the leading brownfield social infrastructure fund in Australia and New Zealand of its day, comprising 18 assets with an enterprise value of more than $8 billion.
Julie-Anne previously worked in investment management at companies including Ord Minnett / J.P. Morgan, ANZ McCaughan and NZI Investments.
She is the founder of the Australian Chapter of Women in Infrastructure (WIN) and remains a WIN Advisory Committee member at Infrastructure Partnerships Australia.
In 2015 Julie-Anne was named one of the 100 Women of Influence by the Australian Financial Review and Westpac for her contribution to promoting women in infrastructure.
Julie-Anne holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Masters of Commerce degree as well as being a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She also recently completed an INSEAD course on Strategic Decision Making for Leaders.
When she is not managing infrastructure investments, Julie-Anne enjoys cooking, playing board games with her family and beating her best time in expert sudoku. She has passed AMEB 7th Grade in Piano and has a wide interest in music. She is also passionate about art and architecture and is a Governor of the Art Gallery of NSW Foundation.
Robert Sobyra is Head of Policy with the Australian Constructors Association (ACA). Responsible for driving ACA's policy agenda, Robert is a leading voice for a more sustainable and progressive construction industry. He writes and talks regularly on Australian construction trends and is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Queensland with a special interest in regional economic growth.
Ken Licence joined Principle in 2009 and was appointed to the role of Managing Director in December 2010. Mr. Licence has over 25 years’ financial services experience across a range of investment strategies including property, private equity and infrastructure. He has held senior management positions with Lend Lease, Deutsche Asset Management, and CP2, assisting major domestic and international institutional clients.
Mr. Licence has been a Board Member of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (NSW) and holds a Bachelor\ of Commerce from Griffith University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Queensland.
- Ilan has over 22 years of experience in investment and asset management and structuring and managing debt processes across multiple infrastructure businesses
- Currently serves on the boards of Spark Infrastructure, Victoria Power Networks, SA Power Networks, the Sydney Desalination Plant and Connexa
- Previously responsible for the transition of the Victorian Land Registry from the Victorian Government and prior to that led the Australian New Investments team at Hastings Funds Management
Gary is an Investment Manager Infrastructure at HESTA. HESTA is an Australian industry superannuation fund for workers in health and community service sectors and has $80 billion in funds under management.
The infrastructure portfolio is approximately A$9 billion and includes funds, co-investments and direct investments across a range of sectors and regions.
The infrastructure portfolio is approximately A$7 billion and includes funds, co-investments and direct investments across a range of sectors and regions.
Gary was previously a Senior Manager Infrastructure at New South Wales Treasury Corporation (TCorp)
and prior to that in the corporate transactions & strategy departments of major listed companies (Origin Energy and APA Group) as well as consulting (PwC Transaction Services, Sydney & UK).
Gary is a Chartered Accountant, holds a Masters of Applied Finance from Macquarie University, a Masters in Computer Science and a Batchelor of Civil Engineering.
Jiren Zhou is a Portfolio Manager - Infrastructure & Direct Assets at Aware Super. His key responsibilities include deployment, asset management and portfolio management of Aware Super’s infrastructure portfolio. Jiren has 20 years’ experience in infrastructure investment and financial services, and has held senior roles in Plenary Group and AMP Capital Investors prior to joining Aware Super in 2022. Jiren led and participated in over $15 billion of transactions in renewable, utility, transport, telecommunications and social infrastructure sectors across Australia, New Zealand, North America, and Asia, and successfully deployed over $8 billion capital in more than 30 deals. Jiren is an experienced company director, held multiple board positions in portfolio companies, with a solid focus on operational & ESG performance, risk management and capital structure management. Jiren started his career at Pacific Equity Partners, a leading private equity manager in Australia.
Jiren holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Master of Applied Finance degree both from Macquarie University, Sydney. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Matthew is a Senior Manager in the Rest Investments (Infrastructure) team, with portfolio responsibilities for Rest’s infrastructure assets located in America and Europe.
Matthew has over 15 years experience in private investment markets, and infrastructure procurement. Prior to joining Rest in 2010, he was a Development Manager with Thiess and previously held engineering roles with Aurecon and Mott MacDonald(UK).
Matthew is a CFA® charterholder.