Infralogic Investors Forum Australia 2024
Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney and Online
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Charlie Reid, Managing Director, joined BlackRock in 2011 and is a founding member of BlackRock Climate Infrastructure. Charlie led the establishment of the team, firstly in London and subsequently in Asia Pacific. Charlie currently leads investment activities in the Asia Pacific region for BlackRock Climate Infrastructure and is responsible for sourcing, executing and managing climate investments across the APAC region from Sydney, as well as setting strategy for the business. Charlie has played a leading role in building BlackRock Climate Infrastructure into a c.$9bn global platform and has invested in over 100 climate infrastructure assets across a range of markets.
Hans-Martin Aerts is a Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure & Natural Resources, Asia Pacific at APG Asset Management, one of the largest pension fund asset managers in the world.
In February 2007, Hans-Martin moved to Hong Kong to establish APG’s first office in Asia Pacific and has since been responsible for APG’s regional infrastructure strategy and investments and as of 2019, he is also responsible for APG’s regional natural resources investment program.
Prior to working for APG, Hans-Martin was a Senior Portfolio Manager at ABP. He joined ABP in 2001 and has since worked in various areas, including listed equities, structured finance, infrastructure, and natural resources. Hans-Martin is a CFA charter holder and holds an MSc degree in Economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, an MBA degree for Executives from Tsinghua University, and an EMBA degree from INSEAD.
James is a Senior Director at Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and leads Quinbrook’s Digital Strategies. Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is a ‘value add’ investment manager with a specialist focus on low carbon and renewable energy supply, storage, grid stability and related assets and businesses.
James led Quinbrook’s acquisition of Habitat Energy (an AI focused battery optimisation platform) in 2021 and is a senior member of the Quinbrook investment team focusing on wind, solar, storage, green data centres, green hydrogen and decentralised investment strategies such as virtual power plants. He is responsible for the firm’s digital strategies including machine learning based algorithmic trading, hourly tracing and matching of renewable power and approaches to advanced weather prediction.
Prior to joining Quinbrook, James was a Director at Frontier Economics. James led the firm’s modelling group from 2007 to 2015 before opening the firm’s first office in Asia (sited in Singapore) in 2016. During his time at Frontier, James advised governments, regulators and market participants on all aspects of gas, electricity and green markets. His work included market design, price regulation, commercial transactions and merger clearances in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia amongst other countries.
James was an inaugural member of the Who’s Who Energy Expert list from 2018.
Paul Bernath is responsible for leading CPPIB’s Infrastructure presence in the Asia Pacific region (ex-India), and for identifying, executing and managing significant infrastructure investments. Mr. Bernath is also CPPIB’s Australia Office Head and is based in Sydney, Australia, having previously been based at CPPIB’s Toronto headquarters.
Prior to joining CPPIB in 2014, Mr. Bernath spent over 10 years focusing on public and private mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and restructuring projects and large infrastructure transactions, including time as a corporate attorney at Allens Linklaters and as an M&A transaction consultant, based in Australia and the USA.
Mr. Bernath holds a BSc (Hons) (Pharm.) from the University of Melbourne and an LLB (Hons) from the Melbourne Law School; and has also studied on exchange at the University of British Columbia.
Mr. Bernath is a non-executive director of Pacific National, WestConnex and NorthWestern Roads Group, and is a member of the Board of Commissioners for the Cikopo-Palimanan (Cipali) toll road in West Java, Indonesia.
Michael is Co-Head of Infrastructure at Dexus. He has more than 30 years of investment management and investment banking experience, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, equity raising and developing infrastructure projects. He has worked in Europe and North America and has led teams undertaking investments in Europe, Australasia and North America.
He is a member of the Dexus Infrastructure Investment Committee and a Director of Powerco NZ and Dexus Investment Services Pty Limited and was previously Executive Chairman of AMP Capital Investors Limited and a Director of Opal Healthcare.
He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Economics, both from the Australian National University in Australia, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Jan Brand joined Ontario Teachers’ in 2015 and is a member of its Infrastructure & Natural Resources team. He helps manage Ontario Teachers' investments across the Asia-Pacific region, including Connexa Limited in New Zealand, and Spark Infrastructure and the Sydney Desalination Plant in Australia. He has worked on the group’s acquisitions of Connexa in 2022, Spark Infrastructure in 2021, Enwave Energy Corporation in 2021, the National Investment & Infrastructure Fund in 2019, and Atlantic Aqua Farms in 2017. Jan sits on the boards of directors of Spark Infrastructure, Connexa Limited, TransGrid, and the Sydney Desalination Plant.
Jan holds a Masters in Financial Economics from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management as well as a Joint Honours Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Finance from McGill University.
Chloé Brayne is a Director in CDPQ’s team of infrastructure experts in Australia. Her role includes supporting the development and execution of infrastructure investment and asset management activities across Australia and New Zealand. She is also responsible for the management activities of selected investments such as WestConnex, Port of Brisbane, Plenary and NRT (Sydney Metro).
Ms. Brayne has over 13 years of combined experience in infrastructure investing, mergers and acquisitions and asset governance, including at AustralianSuper, where she more recently led its investment into WestConnex 2 and managed its holdings in Transurban Queensland and WestConnex. Prior to this, she spent six years in Paris, France, where she worked at a global infrastructure contractor focussing on PPP bids, execution and delivery across Northern Europe. Her expertise is in bringing governance, financial and strategic principles to both origination and deal execution as well as broader asset management.
Ms. Brayne is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Masters of IP Law, Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne. She sits on the Board of Directors of WestConnex, Port of Brisbane, Plenary and NRT. Her previous board appointments include WestConnex (for AustralianSuper) and Transurban Queensland.
Wilson Chung is a Managing Director at DigitalBridge Investment Management. Mr. Chung is based in Singapore and focuses on identifying and evaluating Asia Pacific investment opportunities. He has over 15 years of infrastructure, private equity, and corporate finance experience in Asia.
Prior to joining DigitalBridge, Mr. Chung was most recently a Senior Vice President in the infrastructure principal investments team at Macquarie Capital. He led Macquarie’s balance sheet investments in digital infrastructure in Asia, with a focus on building platforms and developing greenfield datacenters and other digital infrastructure assets. Prior to that role, Mr. Chung worked in Macquarie Capital’s private capital markets team where he focused on principal investments and advisory mandates across the consumer and technology sectors in Asia.
Prior to Macquarie Capital, Mr. Chung was a co-founder and CFO of Litegrid Holdings Ltd, a Hong Kong telecommunications infrastructure developer and prior to that, he covered consumer, industrial and telecom investments for Unitas Capital, an Asian regional private equity fund. Mr. Chung started his career as an investment banking analyst at Citigroup.
Mr. Chung received a Bachelor of Laws, with honors, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne.
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.
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.
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.
Sam Franklin joined EQT Partners in July 2019.
Prior to joining EQT Partners, Sam was an Associate at Affinity Equity Partners in Sydney, focusing on private equity investments in the Financial Services, TMT, Data & Digital and Consumer Sectors.
Prior to Affinity, Sam worked at Macquarie Capital in Sydney and Deutsche Bank in New Zealand. Sam holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from The University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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.
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.
Melissa is a partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Australia’s leading independent law firm. Melissa advises on the development, financing and acquisition of infrastructure and energy projectsacross the APAC region, including infrastructure directly benefiting from the rapid rise of AI such as data centres, and renewable energy generation and storage.
Having spent most of her career to date at international firms advising on projects across a variety of international markets including Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and the USA, Melissa brings her international infrastructure experience and exposure to the Australian market.
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.
Brad Hopkins joined AEMO Services from its establishment and currently serves as General Manager - Commercial. The Commercial Team leads the design and implementation of our competitive tender processes.
Brad Hopkins has more than 15 years’ experience financing energy projects around the world, including 12 years with Macquarie Bank. Prior to joining AEMO Services, Brad played a leading role in implementing the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap and designing the policy whilst a Partner at KPMG.
Since returning to Australia from the UK in 2016, Brad has led some of the largest and most complex renewable energy transactions and energy policies.
Brad has a Master of Science (Environmental Economics) from the London School of Economics, a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Queensland.
Mr. Kelly is a Senior Managing Director in the Infrastructure Group and European Head of Infrastructure for Blackstone, based in London. Since joining Blackstone, Mr. Kelly has been involved in the execution of Blackstone Infrastructure’s investments in Autostrade per I’Italia (ASPI) and Mundys, while also serving on the Board of Directors for ASPI, Mundys, including Mundys’ subsidiaries Abertis and Telepass, and Phoenix Tower International. Mr. Kelly also currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Childhood Trust.
Prior to joining Blackstone in 2020, Mr. Kelly was a Managing Partner at Brookfield Asset Management, where he spent over 12 years. During his time at Brookfield he worked in various global offices including in Australia, Europe and North America. His most recent role at Brookfield was as Head of Europe for Brookfield Infrastructure, as well as Global Chief Investment Officer for Data Infrastructure and Utilities. He previously served as a Director of BUUK Infrastructure, Wireless Infrastructure Group, TdF, Ascenty, Evoque Data Centers, Enwave North America, among others. Prior to joining Brookfield, Mr. Kelly worked at CIBC World Markets.
Mr. Kelly graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) in 2005.
Nick Kuys is part of the Private Infrastructure Asset Management team, based in Sydney. He is member of the Board of Directors of the firm's portfolio companies Evolution Rail (HCMT), Ararat Wind Farm and Unity Digital Infrastructure. He has 17 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Partners Group, he worked at Australian Industrial Energy, DUET Group, Macquarie Group, Westpac Banking Group and Deloitte and Touche. He holds a bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and a Masters of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management in Australia and was previously a Chartered Accountant.
Danny Latham is a Partner in the Igneo Infrastructure Partners team. He is based in Sydney and has been with the business since 2007. Danny is primarily responsible for GDIF portfolio management and business development including fundraising and deal origination. Danny is a member of the infrastructure investments Senior Management Team and the GDIF, EDIF I and II Investment Committees. Danny currently sits on the board of directors of coNEXA . Prior to joining the team, Danny was director of RREEF Infrastructure based in London and Sydney, with responsibilities for portfolio management, asset acquisition and asset management and was Senior Partner and a foundation member of AMP’s infrastructure team in 1994. Danny has a Masters of Applied Finance and a Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University, Sydney.
Owen is a Portfolio Manager at Telstra Super responsible for the management of the Infrastructure portfolio. Owen has over 9 years’ Infrastructure experience across origination, asset management and portfolio construction. Prior to Telstra Super, he worked at Rest in the Private Markets team. In his spare time, he is a keen swimmer and a not-so-keen runner. Owen is a CFA® charterholder.
Roger has over 25 years experience across funds management and investment banking. He joined Palisade in 2008 and was appointed Managing Director in January 2014. Roger is a member of Palisade’s Board of Directors and responsible for the day to day running of the business.
Prior to joining Palisade, Roger spent two years with Perpetual Investments, including as Head of Infrastructure and 12 years with Macquarie and Bankers Trust (acquired by Macquarie in 1999).
At Macquarie and previously Bankers Trust, Roger focused on infrastructure advisory, working with both Government and private sector clients, across a number of sectors including Public Private Partnerships, transport and student accommodation.
Prior experience includes two years in portfolio accounting as well as six years in insolvency and reconstruction, having worked with leading practitioners Ferrier Hodgson and Price Waterhouse.
Roger is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Business from Kuring-gai College (now University of Technology Sydney).
Karthikeyan M is a Partner with NIIF. He has an overall experience of around 19 years and has worked in investments across the transportation sectors such as roads, metro rail and airports. At NIIF, he is part of the initial team that set up the building blocks on investments, fund raise and policies for the fund. He covers the transportation sector. He has set up Athaang Infrastructure (Roads platform for NIIF), partnership with GMR on specific airport assets, and has led partnerships for several transactions with global and domestic institutions.
Prior to joining NIIF, he was the Chief Investment Officer for the infrastructure platform for Khazanah /UEM Group (Malaysia), in JV with IDFC. Earlier, he worked with KPMG’s Infrastructure Advisory practice as Associate Director in Transaction & Restructuring and Corporate Finance, and at L&T IDPL as Assistant General Manager on bidding and investments in infrastructure assets.
Karthikeyan graduated as a gold medalist with a Bachelor in Engineering degree from Govt. College of Technology, Coimbatore and has done his management in Finance and Strategy from XLRI, Jamshedpur.
Alex has over 25 years of investment and infrastructure experience spanning superannuation, infrastructure advisory, project finance, energy infrastructure and government.
Alex joined Cbus in 2016 and is currently Senior Investment Director, Infrastructure. His responsibilities include leading deal teams on the origination, execution and asset management of direct investments (including brownfield, greenfield and digital infrastructure investments), co-investments and fund manager investments for the Cbus Infrastructure team.
Alex has previously held senior roles including at KPMG (Infrastructure and Projects Group), Lloyds Banking Group (Project Finance), EnergyAustralia Network, Duke Energy International and Queensland Treasury. Alex holds postgraduate and undergraduate degrees in economics.
In her role, Jo advises government, corporate and financial sponsor clients on access to equity capital for significant private capital transactions across sectors such as infrastructure and energy, telecommunications, healthcare and transport. Since 2015, PCM has raised over AUD230bn of equity for these deals.
Jo is responsible for Macquarie Capital’s relationships with many of the worlds’ largest institutional investors, including pension funds, superannuation funds, sovereign wealth funds and asset managers. She provides advice and guidance to these investors on deal flow and investment opportunities that meet individual mandates and strategic objectives.
Jo leads a global team of executives covering North America, UK/Europe, Japan, Korea and China and is responsible for the global connectivity of capital flows for transactions across these regions.
Jo has been with Macquarie for over 25 years in a range of leadership roles and businesses spanning both listed markets and private capital.
She is on the Infrastructure Partnerships Australia Advisory Board, and is a member of Chief Executive Women, the Hawthorn Club and sits on the Hawthorn Club Membership Committee for APAC.
Jo is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion and is a proud parent to three children.
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.
Daniel Timms is a Managing Director in the Igneo Infrastructure Partners team. He is based in Sydney and has been with the business since 2016.
In his role, Daniel oversees the management of the regional utility and transport infrastructure assets within the group. Daniel brings more than 19 years of energy utility sector experience, having previously worked at a major energy utility across asset management, energy trading, business development, project development and transactions in Australia and abroad. Given his background, Daniel’s role also includes originating, evaluating and securing investment opportunities in the energy sector. He is a current director of First Gas, Gas Services NZ, Atmos Renewables and Clean Peak Energy Renewable Investments.
Daniel holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (First Class Honours) from the University of Adelaide, a Masters of Applied Finance from Kaplan and is a graduate from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
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.
James is a Senior Investment Manager at Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, which provides superannuation services to over 700,000 employees of the Australian Government and members of the Australian Defence Force. James has over 15 years’ experience in investing in and advising on infrastructure assets, and at CSC he looks after CSC’s direct and indirect investments in infrastructure assets.
Rob leads MUFG’s Project Finance and ESG Finance businesses in Oceania.
In Project Finance, he continues to expand MUFG’s market leading business in the region, spanning infrastructure, renewables, utilities and natural resources.
In the newly created ESG Finance role, Rob is responsible for all ESG financing in Oceania, contributing to MUFG’s stated target of arranging JPY 35 Trillion (~AUD 417billion) in this field by 2030.
Rob has 24 years investment banking experience covering structured finance, advisory and debt capital markets. He previously led MUFG’s Advisory business in Oceania. Prior to joining MUFG in 2012, he worked at RBS, ABN AMRO and Bankers Trust. He has worked in Australia and in London, where he specialised in emerging markets including Russia and Kazakhstan.
He is a member of the Advisory Board of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia and also the Australian Council of the International Project Finance Association.