Steven DeWitt Senior Vice President for Business Development ACS Infrastructure Development

Steven DeWitt has enjoyed a long career in transportation having retired from the NCDOT in 2012 after having served in many senior roles including State Construction Engineer, Director of Construction, and Chief Engineer of the North Carolina Turnpike Authority.  He led the development of NCDOT’s design-build program, NCDOT’s first P3 procurement, and North Carolina’s first modern toll road.  Upon retirement, he joined WSP (Parsons Brinckerhoff) where he led P3 advisory efforts for state transportation departments as well as participating in regional and national pursuits of P3 and design-build projects and related efforts.  Since 2015, Mr. DeWitt has served as the Senior Vice President of Business Development for ACS Infrastructure Development, Inc.  In this role, he leads and/or assists ACS pursuits and implementation of major infrastructure Public Private Partnership projects across the US.  He also serves as the CEO of the project company overseeing the historic Angels Flight funicular in downtown Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and is a licensed Professional Engineer.  He has been very active in numerous national transportation organizations with key leadership roles over his career including AASHTO, TRB, ARTBA, AIAI and others. 

Nicholas Rubio Partner, Chief Executive Officer North America Meridiam

Based in New York, Nicolas is Chief Executive Officer, Americas, and Partner with Meridiam. Meridiam is a leading public infrastructure developer, investor and manager specializing in greenfield infrastructure with a core focus on sustainability and impact. It thrives in three key sectors: mobility and transportation; energy transition and environment; and social infrastructure. Globally it invests in over 100 projects across 25 countries representing $19.5bn assets under management. With a proven record of success and unparalleled industry expertise, Meridiam Infrastructure North America (MINA) manages 20 infrastructure projects in the US, Canada, and Chile; develops new projects; and explores new investment opportunities, now with its $1.2bn MINA III Fund. Key investments include La Guardia Airport in New York, the Purple Line light rail in Maryland, Managed Lanes projects in Texas, Colorado and Virginia, Campus energy in Iowa and California, and Fiber networks in Alberta and Indiana. Nicolas has over three decades of international leadership within the private infrastructure and construction sectors in Europe, Africa and the Americas. In 2010 he was awarded the “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association for his role promoting PPPs for transportation in the United States In 2017 he was selected by the National Council for PPPs as part of America’s Top 10 P3 Transportation Infrastructure Pioneers Nicolas holds a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain.

Anthony Phillips Senior Managing Director John Laing

Anthony is the Regional Managing Director for John Laing’s North American business based in Los Angeles.  Building upon John Laing’s successful long-term involvement in the North American P3 and Energy markets, Anthony has responsibility for all activities in the region.

Anthony has over 16 years experience across multiple Infrastructure markets including North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.  Anthony joined John Laing in 2005 and during this time has worked in London, Singapore and Sydney.  Anthony successfully led John Laing’s entry into the Australia and New Zealand markets prior to relocating to the United States in 2014.

Anthony leads a large team of infrastructure specialists based throughout the United States and Canada focused upon securing and delivering major Transportation, Social, Digital and Energy transition projects.

Anthony is on the board of The Association for the Improvement of American Infrastructure.

Raymond Di Prinzio Managing Director, Sponsor Coverage & Co-Head of Infrastructure Global Structured Finance-North America SMBC

Ray co-heads a team of bankers at SMBC responsible for originating, arranging financing and providing advisory services for a wide range of infrastructure projects in North America.

Ray has over 30 years of experience include project lending, investment banking and financial advisory for transportation, social infrastructure, environmental, energy generation, and telecommunication facilities. Highlighted financings include sole buy- side advisor on the acquisition of the A25 toll bridge concession (Montreal), coordinating lead arranger for the Vista Ridge (TX) Water Supply Project, and mandated leader arranger (MLA) for the LAX Automatic People Mover, the Long Beach (CA) Civic Center, the State Street (IN) Redevelopment Project, the Champlain Bridge in Montreal, the Regina By-Pass, Edmonton Light Rail, Ottawa Light Rail and Ohio State University’s CampusParc financing.

Prior to joining SMBC, Ray served as financial advisor to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIFIA Program Office on seven TIFIA financings; successfully closed project financings for the U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense, National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Ray was previously a Managing Director & Head of Project Finance at CIFG; Managing Director at Scully Capital; and held project finance roles at Ambac and Credit Suisse.

Ray serves as a Member of Advisory Board of Cornell University’s Program on Infrastructure Policy (CPIP), the Editorial Board of the Journal of Structured Finance and the Committee on Revenue and Finance of the Transportation Research Board. Raymond holds an MBA from the Columbia Business School a BA in History, with Honors, from the University of Michigan

Sam Nakhleh Director Infrastructure Finance, The Americas Assured Guaranty

Sam Nakhleh is a Director at Assured Guaranty in the Project Finance / Infrastructure group covering the Americas and is based in New York.  Sam Nakhleh has a wide range of experience in the infrastructure and structured finance markets where he has been a participant for the last 20 years.  Prior to joining Assured Guaranty in 2007, Sam Nakhleh was with Ambac.  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University.

Anne Tricerri Director Fitch Ratings

Anne is a Director in Fitch’s Global Infrastructure and Project Finance Group and heads the U.S. toll road sector. In addition to toll roads, she covers U.S. transportation credits including airports, seaports, rail transit, availability-based projects, and public-private partnership projects.

Prior to Fitch, Anne spent four years as an investment banking Associate covering the Technology and Business Services sector at Bank of Montreal. Before receiving her MBA, Anne was as a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) consultant for five years at Poten & Partners, a ship brokerage and consultancy for the energy and ocean transportation industries.

Anne received an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University.  

Michael Pikiel Co-Chair, Energy & Infrastructure Industry Group and Co-Chair, Project Finance Practice Winston & Strawn

Michael Pikiel represents sponsors, developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters in a wide range of projects and complex finance transactions, including project financings and acquisition financings. He also has significant experience with public-private partnerships (PPP).

Mike was selected as a David Rockefeller Fellow for the Class of 2015-2016 by the Partnership for New York City, an organization comprised of New York City’s chief executives from the city’s largest private-sector employers that is focused on business and corporate civic engagement and leadership.

Mike is a member of the U.S. Branch Council of the IPFA.

Bio to follow shortly. 

Evan Feinman Deputy Associate Administrator for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) National Telecommunications and Information Administration

Bio to follow shortly. 

Josh Broder Chief Executive Officer Tilson

Joshua Broder serves as CEO of Tilson, which under his leadership, has grown from less than 10 employees to 750, earning a top spot on the Inc. 5000 list for the past twelve years. He is also the founder of Tilson’s public utility affiliate, which develops, owns, and leases back 5G infrastructure including poles, towers, and fiber nationwide. Josh cut his teeth in leadership as an Army Signal Officer on missions in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia, where he was awarded the Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan designing, building, and operating the communications network for US forces. Josh holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and is a graduate of AT&T’s Operation Hand Salute at JFK University with a certificate in entrepreneurial studies. Josh is on the boards of Versant Power, an investor-owned T&D utility, VETRO FiberMap a fiber network mapping software tool, Kleinschmidt Associates, a hydro engineering firm, The Jackson

Bryan  Kendro Senior Program Management Consultant RS&H

Bryan Kendro is a Senior Program Management Consultant at RS&H where he works as an advisor to transportation agencies and authorities assisting in the delivery of projects using progressive forms of alternative delivery including public-private partnerships (P3).

Prior to joining RS&H, Bryan was the Project Development Director for Star America Infrastructure Partners, an equity investor and developer of P3 projects in North America.  While at Star, he was responsible for identifying investment opportunities across a variety of infrastructure sectors including broadband, establishing strategic relationships with project partners, and working closely with the investments team on various project pursuits.

Bryan has also held positions in state and federal government.  He was the Director of P3 and Policy at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and spent several years as a Congressional aid to a member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Santanu Khan Senior Vice President, Corporate Development Centrio

Santanu Khan leads Corporate Development activities at CenTrio. With 20+ years of experience in strategic planning, corporate development, energy infrastructure investment, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), and P3s, Santanu is an accomplished energy sector executive. He is responsible for M&A activities as well as all corporate development activities for district energy systems, microgrids, and other campus energy and utility infrastructure P3/concessions across the U.S. His recent most accomplishments include the LSU Baton Rouge campus Utility P3 that reached financial close in March 2022. He successfully completed nearly $4.5 billion in landmark, comprehensive Utility P3 concessions and M&A transactions involving critical energy infrastructure at Georgetown University, The Ohio State University, University of Iowa, Howard University, and Boston’s Longwood Medical Center, which serves 6 Harvard-affiliated hospitals. Santanu holds an MBA degree in Finance from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Bio to follow shortly

Raam Pandey Vice President of Corporate Development Enwave

Raam Pandey is the Vice President of Corporate Development and is responsible for originating, negotiating, and structuring partnerships, acquisitions, and other investment opportunities that support Enwave's strategic objectives.

During his career as a development and investment professional, Raam has led due diligence on pursuits across North America and in a variety of roles, including as a financial and development advisor and as an equity investor. Since joining Enwave in 2019, Raam has successfully executed transactions in excess of $4 billion across the US and Canadian district energy sectors.

Raam holds a Bachelor of Arts, Economics from the University of Western Ontario.

Serdar Tufekci Vice President and Head of Major Partnerships ENGIE North America

Serdar Tufekci heads ENGIE’s major partnerships business that includes the campuses at Ohio State, University of Iowa, Georgetown University, Howard University and the Longwood Medical Center in Boston. Prior to his current role, Serdar was the CEO of Ohio State Energy Partners where he started up the first comprehensive higher education energy P3 trailblazed by The Ohio State University.

For the past 25 years Serdar has led manufacturing, operations, construction, engineering and business development activities for US, Japanese and European organizations.

Serdar holds a PE license from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is a Fellow Chartered Engineer at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, London, UK. Serdar has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University and an executive MBA from Purdue University.

Greg Kitscha Managing Director John Laing

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Jorianne Jernberg Director, WIFIA Management Division, Office of Wastewater Management Office of Water, U.S. EPA

Jorianne Jernberg is the director of the WIFIA Management Division.  In this capacity, she is spearheading the implementation of a Federal infrastructure bank at EPA – overseeing the origination, underwriting, negotiation, and monitoring of water, wastewater, and stormwater projects around the country.  Prior to joining EPA, Jorianne served as the head of risk management and financial operations at the TIFIA program within the Department of Transportation where she was responsible for a team conducting a wide range of financial, programmatic, and credit functions. 

Shylene De Jesus General Counsel Puerto Rico Partnerships Authority

Shylene De Jesus currently serves as General Counsel of the Puerto Rico Public Private Partnerships Authority (P3A), the agency in charge of promoting collaboration between the public and private sectors with the goal of promoting sustainable economic impact, improve public services, and establishing Puerto Rico as a global competitor in infrastructure development. The P3A was recently presented with the Organization of the Year-Public Sector award at the P3 Awards 2021 international awards ceremony.

Through her role in the P3A, Ms. De Jesus is in charge of overseeing all legal processes within the organization, which has a track record in leading large-scale projects in the public-private partnerships (PPP) industry, including the recent transfer into private hands of the operation and maintenance of Puerto Rico’s electric transmission and distribution system, one of the largest remaining public utilities in the United States, in what is considered one of the biggest PPPs in the history of the country.

Prior to joining the P3A in 2021, Ms. De Jesus worked as a litigation attorney in complex commercial litigation, specializing in secured transactions, debt restructuring, creditors rights, and intellectual property. Ms. De Jesus was a partner at Adsuar, Muniz Goyco Seda & Perez-Ochoa, P.S.C. from 2012 to 2021. She also worked at O’Neill & Borges, LLC from 2003 to 2011, where she became partner in 2007. Ms. De Jesus career began in 2001, when she served as clerk for Hon. Baltasar Corrada del Rio, former judge at the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico.

Ms. De Jesus graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law in 2001.

Sonia Axter Managing Director, Head of Asset Management Ullico Infrastructure Management Company, LLC

Sonia Axter is a Managing Director for Ullico Infrastructure Management Company and is the Head of Asset Management.  Ms. Axter has over 25 years of experience in infrastructure development, principal ownership and project management.  Prior to joining Ullico, Ms. Axter was a senior member of Deutsche Bank's alternatives investment group and performed both acquisitions and asset management of infrastructure assets.  Ms. Axter was also formerly a senior member of Bechtel Enterprises, the infrastructure finance and development arm of Bechtel Group Inc.  In her tenure at Bechtel, Ms. Axter led the redevelopment of one of the first public-private partnerships in the U.S., the $150 million light rail and real estate Cascade Station development in Portland, Oregon.  Prior to business school, Ms. Axter spent 7 years as a Project Manager and Project Engineer on a range of transport, utility and environmentally-impacted civil construction projects for the Pacific NW division of Granite Construction Company.  Ms. Axter holds an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington.

Mansi Patel Head of U.S. Infrastructure and Project Finance MetLife Investment Management

Mansi Patel is a Senior Director at MetLife Investments Management in the MetLife Private Capital group.  She is a member of the Infrastructure and Project Finance team, responsible for transaction sourcing, origination, underwriting and portfolio management.  She is primarily focused on the transportation, power, water, pipeline, energy and social infrastructure sectors. 

Prior to joining MetLife Investment Management in 2006, Ms. Patel held roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their advisory and consulting tax divisions.  She holds a B.S. degree in Statistics and a B.S. degree in Finance from Rutgers College and a M.B.A. in Finance from Silberman College of Business at Fairleigh Dickinson University.   

Amir Nayeri Deputy Business Development Director Meridiam

Amir has been with Meridiam since 2017 where he is the Deputy Director for Meridiam’s Global Business Development activities. Amir also leads origination and new sectors strategies in the Americas regions, including investments in the digital infrastructure and energy transition sectors.

Prior to joining Meridiam, Amir co-founded Discern Data, a technology company using drones to provide aerial data to industrial, infrastructure and government clients. Before launching that venture, Amir gained expertise advising governments and companies in a variety of organizations. His experience includes roles at strategic communications firm Richard Attias & Associates in New York, the Clinton Foundation's Health Access Initiative in Togo, private equity fund PHI Industrials in Madrid, and merchant bank Genoa Capital Markets in Toronto. Amir holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).