Infrastructure Investor Digital Infrastructure Forum 2024 | Infrastructure Investor Network Digital Infrastructure Forum

Bruno Alves

Senior Editor, Infrastructure Investor

Bruno Alves is the Senior Editor of award-winning publication Infrastructure Investor. Bruno has been a journalist for nearly 20 years and first joined Infrastructure Investor in December 2009, where he quickly rose to become Associate Editor and a leading writer covering the infrastructure asset class. He’s been Senior Editor since 2015 and is also responsible for Agri Investor, PEI Group’s agriculture-focused publication.

Miltos Andriopoulos

Principal, Analysys Mason

Miltos is a Principal based in Analysys Mason's London office. He specialises in strategy development and M&A, having worked closely with operators, investors and governments on TMT topics since 2014. He has advised clients worldwide including: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America.

Miltos has recently led diverse engagements including: business planning for first large-scale mobile RanCo; commercial advisor to multi-billion dollar IPO of European telecoms infrastructure asset; corporate business planning and 5-year strategy for Middle Eastern integrated operator across mobile, fixed, wholesale and digital markets; buy-side commercial advisory for pan-European hyperscale DC platform.

Miltos holds a B.Sc. Honours Degree (First Class) in Management Science and Technology from Athens University of Economics and Business and an M.Sc. in Management from London Business School.

Analysys Mason

Analysys Mason is the world's leading management consultancy focused on TMT, a critical enabler of economic, environmental and social transformation.

We bring together unparalleled commercial and technical understanding to deliver bespoke consultancy on strategy, transaction support, transformation, regulation and policy, further strengthened by globally respected research.

Our clients value our advice which combines deep domain knowledge with global reach and local insight into markets to help them achieve meaningful business results.

We are committed to our clients, employees and communities – contributing to a world where technology delivers for all.

For more information, visit: www.analysysmason.com

Canan Anli

Senior Advisor, PMP Strategy

Canan specializes in TMT and Digital Infrastructure investments. Before joining PMP, Canan spent the last 10 year with Mubadala Investment Company where most recently she was heading the new investments in ICT and Digital Infrastructure. Prior to that Canan was a consultant with McKinsey. Canan holds an MSc in Earthquake Engineering from Bogazici University and an MBA from INSEAD.

PMP Strategy is a boutique strategy consult.ancy firm with 150 consultants in 8 offices: Paris, London, Madrid, Brussels, Casablanca, Dubai, Montreal and Toronto with a strong sector focus to create a differentiated, highly insightful and impactful offering in TMT, Transport/Mobility/Tourism, Energy, Retail and Banking/Insurance sectors. In addition to all the traditional strategy management consulting subjects, PMP has strong practice in Innovation & Transformation, Digital, Big Data, Client Capital, Finance & Performance and Due Diligence.

Ashraf Arafeh

Director of Cloud Park, TONOMUS Compute

Ashraf is a business leader in the technology sector. Ashraf has led country operations of many regional and international organizations. To name a few, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Cisco Systems, and International Turnkey Systems (ITS). Currently, Ashraf is the director of the Cloud Park at Tonomus (a Neom Company) where he leads the creation of a Regional Cloud Hub at Neom to provide services to the middle east, north Africa, and east Europe, based on next generation green data center technologies in compliance with ESG guidelines.

Ashraf engages with many potential investors to create business cases then structure M&A deals in Data Center space.

TONOMUS

TONOMUS is a world-leading technology enterprise powering the world's first ecosystem of cognitive technologies at NEOM. Evolving from its technology and digital sector, it is the first conglomerate to be established as a subsidiary of NEOM, a region in Saudi Arabia charting the course for a new future fueled by pioneering technologies. TONOMUS' digital infrastructure will be the operating system of NEOM, enabling the bold ambitions of its communities and industries. In partnership with global tech-industry leaders, it will co-invent the future of living with groundbreaking cognitive technologies. TONOMUS will leverage accurate, protected data shared by residents to deliver predictive and personalized services based on their day-to-day needs. Its solutions will be powered by unrivaled connectivity and computing capability, as well as cutting-edge AI and immersive technologies, all underpinned by global security standards.

For further information, visit https://tonomus.neom.com/

Ashli Aslin

Senior Analyst Real Assets and Infrastructure, Albourne

Ashli Aslin joined Albourne in 2021 as a Senior Analyst on the Real Assets team. She has 19 years of experience working in institutional investments, both as an allocator and an investment consultant. Ashli is responsible for investment diligence on across real assets, focusing on infrastructure.

Prior to Albourne, Ashli was an Investment Officer with the South Carolina Retirement System working across different portfolio initiatives in credit, private equity, emerging markets, and traditional fixed income. Most recently was responsible for the build-out of the pension’s infrastructure program, where she led the sourcing, portfolio construction, and underwriting process for real assets mandates totaling over $2.0bn, including fund and co-investment opportunities. Ashli also worked as a Senior Analyst at NEPC, LLC, where she helped pension, endowment, and corporate clients with asset allocation and implementation decisions. Ashli holds a BA in economics from Vanderbilt University and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina.

Zak Bentley

Americas Editor, Infrastructure Investor

Zak Bentley is Americas editor at Infrastructure Investor, based in New York. Zak joined Infrastructure Investor in London in 2016 from Centaur where he was a reporter at their Clean Energy Pipeline title. He now leads Infrastructure Investor’s coverage across the Americas region and has a detailed knowledge and experience of the financial and regulatory aspects of the global infrastructure market. He is also editor of Infrastructure Investor’s weekly newsletter The Pipeline. Zak has a degree in English and History from the University of Birmingham.

David Blackford

Managing Director, Investments, CIM Group

David Blackford has 25 years of investment and transaction experience focused on power, water, and digital infrastructure. David leads CIM Group’s digital infrastructure strategy where he invested in 10 data center projects in joint-ventures with various industry partners, successfully divested a data center portfolio, and led the formation investment in platform company, Novva Data Centers - plus numerous upsizings as Novva’s portfolio expanded to serve a growing client base of global technology companies. Previously, he led Macquarie Capital’s principal and advisory activities in U.S. power generation where he also advised JPMorgan Infrastructure’s take-private acquisition of Southwest Water. His focus on infrastructure started at Citigroup Investment Banking’s Global Power & Utilities Group, where he led Citi’s team that successfully advised RWE AG’s spin-off IPO of American Water. He is a CFA Charterholder and received a B.S. from Lehigh University and M.B.A. from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Bethany Brantley

Global Head of ESG, IPI Partners

Bethany Brantley is a sustainability executive and ESG investor with over a decade of experience driving corporate action and investment strategy on climate change and ESG integration in private equity. As Head of ESG for IPI Partners, Bethany oversees all aspects of the firm’s responsible investment, sustainability, and portfolio stewardship activities.
Bethany is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, where her work centers on complex ESG risk and opportunity areas within digital infrastructure private equity.
Before IPI, Bethany was SVP and Head of Investor Relations and ESG at Orion Infrastructure Capital. Earlier, she was a VP and Head of Fundraising and Impact Measurement at Energy Impact Partners. Earlier in her career, Bethany was a technical analyst in roles focused on renewable energy procurement and ESG at S&P Global, the U.S. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Bethany has a master’s in environmental management and sustainability from Harvard University and a BBA in finance and marketing from Texas Christian University.

IPI
IPI Partners, LLC is a global real estate investment platform focused exclusively on data centers and digital infrastructure. With more than $15 billion invested across 25+ markets spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific, IPI is the largest private data center owner globally focused on hyperscalers and leading technology companies. Since its formation in 2016, IPI has executed its strategy by acquiring, developing, leasing, and operating data centers via a vertically integrated approach alongside STACK Infrastructure, IPI’s wholly owned operating and development company. IPI currently has over 60 employees with offices in Chicago, Amsterdam, Singapore, San Francisco, Dallas, New York, and Washington D.C.

Mark Carney

Chair, Brookfield Asset Management; Head of Transition Investing, Brookfield

Mark Carney is the Chair of Brookfield Asset Management and Head of Transition Investing. In this role, he is focused on the development of products for investors that will combine positive social and environmental outcomes with strong risk-adjusted returns.

Mr. Carney is an economist and banker who served as the Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, and prior to that as Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 until 2013. He was Chairman of the Financial Stability Board from 2011 to 2018. Prior to his governorships, Mr. Carney worked at Goldman Sachs as well as the Canadian Department of Finance.

He is a long-time and well-known advocate for sustainability, specifically with regard to the management and reduction of climate risks. He is currently the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and Co-Chair for the Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero. 

He is also Chair of the Group of Thirty, Chatham House and Bloomberg LP’s Board of Directors, as well as an external member of the Board of Stripe, a member of the Global Advisory Board of PIMCO, the Group of Thirty, Harvard University, Rideau Hall Foundation, Bilderberg, the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, the Peterson Institute for International Economics the Hoffman Institute for Global Business and Society at INSEAD, Cultivo, Senior counsellor of the MacroAdvisory Partners, and Advisor of the Watershed.

Mr. Carney holds doctorate and master’s degrees from Oxford University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University.

Brookfield

Brookfield Asset Management is a leading global alternative asset manager with over $825 billion of assets under management across renewable power & transition, infrastructure, private equity, real estate, and credit. Its objective is to generate attractive, long-term risk-adjusted returns for the benefit of its clients and shareholders. To accomplish this, it brings the strengths of its operational expertise, global reach and large-scale capital to bear on everything it does.

Gwen Colin

Head of ESG and Partner, Vauban Infrastructure Partners

Gwen Colin is the ESG Director of Vauban Infrastructure Partners, in charge of overseeing the ESG methodology evolution and its alignment with Vauban IP long term strategy. Gwen was previously a consultant for PE/Infra funds looking to develop their sustainable projects in Europe and Asia, and has managed projects on topics like impact management, climate change and sustainable finance more broadly. She has started her career as a legal advisor, then project manager, at Credit Agricole Asset Management (now Amundi) in Paris and Luxembourg. Her involvement in sustainable finance started in 2008, when she led the product innovation and supported the distribution of a Socially Responsible Investments offer targeting the Middle Eastern and South East Asian sovereign entities, institutional clients, private banks and family offices. Gwen graduated with a Master in Business Law and a Master in Business Administration from the University of Bretagne Occidentale in France. She has a certification in Islamic Finance from the Security Investment Institute of London.

Vauban Infrastructure Partners

Vauban Infrastructure Partners is a leading infrastructure asset manager focused on European core infrastructure investments. Headquartered in Paris, Vauban employs c.70 professionals, the majority of whom have been working together for over a decade. Vauban targets predominantly European brownfield mid-market assets, and pursues a long-term, yield-driven strategy matching the underlying nature of the assets and long-term commitment to all stakeholders’ interests through a strong focus on creating sustainable value. Vauban has raised c.€8bn across 7 funds in core infrastructure, and has invested in the mobility, energy transition, social infrastructure, and digital infrastructure sectors spanning 12 different geographies.

Nic DiLoretta

Managing Director, Head of Real Assets, Aksia LLC

Nic has over 16 years of experience in alternative assets with a focus in real assets investments. He assists in the management of the teams responsible for sourcing, conducting due diligence, and evaluating investments for real assets primaries and co-investments. Nic helped to design and is an instructor for ILPA’s “Real Assets for the Limited Partner”, a one day, deep-dive seminar offered to ILPA members.
Prior to Aksia’s acquisition of TorreyCove Capital Partners, Nic was a Senior Vice President, joining the firm in 2011. Prior to that, Nic was an Associate at PCG Asset Management, where he supported the Risk Management department and assisted in the due diligence of private equity investments.
Nic graduated from the University of San Diego with a BBA and holds an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
In 2019 and 2020, Nic was recognized as a Knowledge Brokers “New Guard” and Knowledge Broker, respectively, by Chief Investment Officer.

Aksia LLC
Aksia LLC, together with its wholly-owned subsidiaries, (collectively, “Aksia”) is a specialist portfolio advisory firm providing alternative investment solutions to clients across private equity, private credit, natural resources and infrastructure, real estate and hedge funds. Aksia provides an array of services including non-discretionary, discretionary and investment management.

Aksia advises on over $290 billion of client alternative allocations globally (as of August 31, 2023). The firm represents pension plans, insurance companies, government-related institutions, endowments, foundations and superannuation funds.

Aksia employs over 450 professionals across the globe, including 220 investment research, operational due diligence, and risk management professionals (as of September 30, 2023). The firm is 100% employee owned by its 16 partners and is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Diego, London, Tokyo, Chicago, Athens, and Hong Kong.

Christian Fingerle

Senior Managing Director, StepStone Group

Christian Fingerle is a Senior Managing Director at StepStone Group where he serves as a member of the infrastructure and real assets investment committee.
Prior to joining StepStone, he was Chief Investment Officer Infrastructure and member of the management board at Allianz Capital Partners where he was responsible for building a significant direct and indirect infrastructure investment program for Allianz and third-party clients.
Over the years he held various non-executive directorships and currently serves as non-executive director at Scotia Gas Networks Limited.
He received his Master of Economics (Dipl.-Volkswirt) from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and his PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) from Technische Universität München.

StepStone Group

StepStone Group Inc. (Nasdaq: STEP) is a global private markets investment firm focused on providing customized investment solutions and advisory, data and administrative services to its clients. As of September 30, 2023, StepStone was responsible for approximately $659 billion of total capital, including $146 billion of assets under management. StepStone’s clients include some of the world’s largest public and private defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies, as well as prominent endowments, foundations, family offices and private wealth clients, which include high-net-worth and mass affluent individuals. StepStone partners with its clients to develop and build private market portfolios designed to meet their specific objectives across the private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real estate asset classes.

Stephan Freitas Krause

Director – Infrastructure Financing, KfW IPEX-Bank

Stephan Freitas Krause is a Director within the Digital and Energy Infrastructure team of KfW IPEX-Bank, being responsible for the origination and execution of large-scale infrastructure projects globally. The focus lies on senior debt-financing underwriting and arranging mandates within the digital and energy infrastructure space.
Stephan has over 10 years banking experience, having completed numerous transactions across the various infrastructure / alternative asset classes, structured as corporate or project financings. He holds an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of Konstanz.

KfW IPEX-Bank

As a leading bank in digital infrastructure with strong footing in the international markets, KfW IPEX-Bank offers structuring know-how, reliable underwriting capabilities and execution certainty. Our digital infrastructure team is formed by over 25 telecom and infrastructure professionals based in Frankfurt, London, Singapore and New York and includes a designated team specialised in infrastructure financings.
KfW IPEX-Bank is a specialised bank, with a focus on international project, asset and export finance. The bank provides tailored medium to long-term financing solutions as a core product and offers customer reliability and in-depths industry expertise. The bank hold a AA+ rating and has over 80 offices and representations worldwide.

Krish Gandy

Associate Portfolio Manager - Infrastructure, Aware Super

Krish is an experienced investment professional with over 15 years experience in origination and asset management in markets across Australia, India and the Middle East.

In his current role a Portfolio Manager at Aware Super, the third largest superannuation fund in Australia with more than A$170 billion FUM, Krish has relocated to join the London office where he is helping deliver the Fund infrastructure investment platform in the UK and Europe. Prior to joining Aware Super, Krish held roles in Tribe Infrastructure Group, Olirek Partners, Sydney Motorway Corporation and EY.

Returns for the Fund’s A$17.5 billion infrastructure portfolio are driven by a globally-diversified program which captures global trends in demography, sustainability and technology to achieve a broad universe of assets. It has a targeted focus on opportunities in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia with a sector focus on energy transition and digital opportunities.

Aware Super

Aware Super is one of Australia’s top-performing and largest industry super funds with a core objective of delivering the strongest risk-adjusted returns for its 1.1 million members. Our Australian and London-based investment teams currently originate and manage A$180 billion AUM on behalf of our members with a projected growth target of A$250 billion AUM in the next few years.

As one of the top 50 institutional investors globally, we typically take an active management approach across alternative assets, including infrastructure, real estate and private equity, and additionally allocate to liquid markets.

Returns for our A$19.5 billion infrastructure portfolio are driven by a globally-diversified program which captures global trends in demography, sustainability and technology to achieve a broad universe of assets. It has a targeted focus on opportunities in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia with a sector focus on energy transition and digital opportunities.

Omar Jaffrey

Managing Partner and Sole Founder, Palistar Capital

Omar Jaffrey has been involved in technology, media and telecommunications (“TMT”) investments, mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, public and private capital raises, restructuring and bankruptcies for over 30 years.

Mr. Jaffrey founded Palistar Capital (formerly, Melody Investment Advisers, “Palistar”) in 2019 as a specialist digital infrastructure investor as his go-forward investment platform and created Symphony Wireless, an affiliated easements origination platform (“Symphony”). The team successfully raised a $2 billion dedicated digital infrastructure fund at the end of 2021, has built out a specialist team with deep investment and operating expertise and has invested in a number of macro tower investments including Harmoni Towers, Parallel Infrastructure, CTI Towers, and an easements and tower portfolio originated by Symphony.

Prior to Palistar, Mr Jaffrey co-founded Melody Capital Partners (“Melody”) in 2012 where he was also a Managing Partner. The team at Melody raised two fund families - a Structured Credit platform with $1 billion assets under management (“AUM”) and a digital infrastructure platform with $700 million AUM (“Melody Wireless Infrastructure”). Mr. Jaffrey crafted the strategy, built Melody Wireless Infrastructure as its CEO and successfully exited Melody Wireless Infrastructure in 2021. Melody is now actively harvesting its remaining investments and is no longer making new investments or fundraising.

Prior to Melody, Mr. Jaffrey was a Managing Director of UBS Investment Bank, most recently serving as Americas Co-head of the Special Situations Group. Mr. Jaffrey was an advisor to some of the leading telecommunications and technology companies globally covering over 50 global clients in the TMT space for their strategic and financing needs. Mr. Jaffrey also helped build UBS’s Telecommunications Media and Technology Investment Banking practice and was Global Head of Satellite Investment Banking while specializing in the convergence of TMT sectors between 2003 and 2009. Prior to joining UBS, Mr. Jaffrey was a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch where he built the Global Satellite Investment Banking practice. In the early 1990s, Mr. Jaffrey helped build Bear Stearns’ Investment Bank in Asia, and was a founding member of Bear Stearns’ Telecommunications sector Investment Banking practice.

Mr. Jaffrey holds a BS magna cum laude in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and an MBA from Stanford University, and is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies.

Palistar Capital

Palistar Capital is an alternative asset manager led by Managing Partner and Founder, Omar Jaffrey, focused on private equity and structured investments in digital infrastructure assets, specifically on the mission-critical communications digital infrastructure which underpins the global telecommunications, media and technology (“TMT”) sectors. The firm seeks to invest through direct asset ownership as well as by developing innovative financing solutions to complex problems for leading global digital infrastructure and communications companies. To learn more about Palistar, visit www.palistar.com

Mamoun Jamai

CFA - Head of Digital Infrastructure, ADIA

Mamoun Jamai is a senior member of the Infrastructure Department at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (“ADIA”), where he is responsible for developing and implementing investment strategy for Digital Infrastructure, globally. Previously, he was responsible for European origination and coverage across infrastructure sectors and as such served on the Board of numerous infrastructure businesses including Tank & Rast and Anglian Water Group.

Mamoun presently sits on the Board of a number of Digital Infrastructure businesses across fiber, data centers and towers including Landmark Dividend in the US, EdgePoint Infrastructure in Asia and FiberCop in Europe. Mamoun also previously served on the board of Cellnex Telecom.
Prior to joining ADIA in 2008, he served as a member of the Industrials team at Bank of America in London.

Mamoun Jamai holds a Master’s degree in Finance from HEC Paris.

ADIA

ADIA is a globally diversified public institution established by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as an independent investment institution. ADIA, together with its subsidiaries, invests in more than two dozen asset classes and sub-categories including, through the Infrastructure Department, investments in infrastructure.

The Infrastructure Department was created in 2007 to build and manage a global portfolio of infrastructure investments with a core focus on assets with strong market-leading positions and relatively stable cash flows, including data centers, towers and fiber, in addition to other transport, utilities and energy infrastructure.

Willem Jansonius

Partner and Head of CIF, DIF Capital Partners

Willem joined DIF in 2016 and is heads of core + / value add infrastructure at DIF. He founded and leads the investment management of our DIF CIF funds, which includes today over 30 portfolio companies worldwide. He also co-heads the broader DIF investment team globally. Willem has circa 25 years of experience in investment management in Energy, TMT and infrastructure. He previously worked at Macquarie, Cyrte private equity and ABN AMRO. Willem holds a Master’s degree in Chemistry from Utrecht University and a Master’s degree in Finance from Nyenrode University.

Thor Johnsen

Managing Partner, Digital Gravity Infrastructure Partners

Thor Johnsen, Managing Partner of Digital Gravity Infrastructure Partners (DGP), has nearly two decades of experience in infrastructure investing and has led prominent European portfolios. Prior to DGP, Thor was investing on behalf of a family office and a listed investment trust, raising and investing $1.5bn across 9 digital infrastructure investments. Thor's investment career began at Arcapita Limited in 2006, where he ultimately led their European infrastructure strategy. His expertise lies in building growth infrastructure platforms. Thor has also held senior investment banking roles at Credit Suisse and BAML, focusing on Infrastructure and Energy Transition. A U.S. Navy Reserves Lieutenant Commander (inactive), Thor holds a J.D. from Georgetown Law, an MBA from Georgetown, and a BA in Economics from Northwestern (with honors). He serves on the charitable board of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps Scholarship fund.

Digital Gravity Infrastructure Partners

Digital Gravity Infrastructure Partners is a European digital infrastructure advisor that aims to capitalise on the opportunity to deliver next-generation digital infrastructure in a more sustainable and inclusive manner. Our strategy seeks investments in, and builds capabilities across the global connectivity value chain, with a real asset focus, utilising the depth of our network and deep domain expertise to drive convergence opportunities.

The Fund will invest in data centres, fibre, and wireless networks that contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing emissions and resource waste across digital infrastructure, and that improve digital transformation by expanding data connectivity and bridging digital divides. Building and upgrading the digital infrastructure required to improve global economic and social productivity will be one of the greatest investment opportunities that arises over the coming generation – join us in shaping the future of digital infrastructure, ensuring its availability and accessibility for generations to come.

Isabelle Kemlin

Business and Innovation Executive - RISE / Vice Chair of the Board - Swedish Datacenter Industry

Mrs. Kemlin is active in the global datacenter industry community with the focus of bringing efficiency on top of the agenda through sustainable solutions by increasing the interest and understanding of the possibilities of the digital infrastructure sector as an enabler in the twin transition.
Mrs. Kemlin works as a Business and Innovation Executive at ICE Datacenter at RISE – Research Institutes of Sweden. Previously,
Mrs. Kemlin has been leading teams performing maintenance and projects in critical environments for almost 15 years in different industries ranging from steel beam and sawmill production sites, hospitals, telecom, as well as working as a CEO within the mining industry. The last six years she has been within the digital infrastructure industry, building up the datacenter business for CBRE in the Nordics. Mrs. Kemlin is the Vice Chair of the board and a founder of the Swedish Datacenter Industry. In this role, she is also engaged in working with the other Nordic and European industry associations.
In 2020, she was awarded for outstanding contributions within the Digital Infrastructure community by the industry association IMasons.
Mrs. Kemlin has a MSc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
www. Linkedin.com/in/isabellekemlin

RISE – Research Institutes of Sweden / Swedish Datacenter Industry
RISE – Research Institutes of Sweden is Sweden’s research institute and innovation partner. Through international collaboration with industry, academia and the public sector, to ensure business competitiveness and contribute to a sustainable society. RISE is stately owned and has 3300 employees engage in and support all types of innovation processes. RISE is an independent, stat-owned
research institute, which offers unique expertise and over 130 testbeds and demonstration environments for future-proof technologies, products, and services.
ICE Datacenter is a unit of RISE, and ICE stands for Infrastructure and Cloud datacenter test Environment, which is a world-leading testbed and innovation center focusing on digitalization and IT infrastructure. It was founded 2016 and is a stately owned, neutral platform where more than 100 projects have been performed for companies, organizations and authorities. Some of the partners are Meta, Vertiv, Ericsson, Vattenfall, ABB, BP Castrol, as well as highly interesting start-ups who uses the testbed to test their latest research and innovations in practice.

Angenika Kunne

Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure Equity, Aviva Investors

Angenika Kunne has over 15 years of experience in corporate advisory and investing across infrastructure, renewable energy and energy transition. As Head of Infrastructure Equity at Aviva Investors she is responsible for the continued growth of its Infrastructure Equity platform across the UK and Europe, including portfolio management and asset origination activities for its Climate Transition Real Assets Fund.

Angenika previously co-headed the investment team at White Summit Capital, a private equity real assets investor specialising in the energy transition, decarbonisation and sustainability. Prior to this, she was co-leading the European investment team at John Laing, with a focus on the mid-market, renewables, and energy infrastructure. She also spent more than 11 years at Macquarie Capital, latterly as Senior Vice President, focussing on a range of sectors including digital infrastructure and PPPs.

Aviva Investors

Aviva Investors is one of Europe’s largest real assets investment managers with over €48bn in AUM as of December 2023 and 165+ specialists across 5 locations. With ca.€13bn in infrastructure AUM across solar, wind, energy from waste, energy centres, fibre/broadband, EV charging and biogas assets across the UK and Europe, Aviva Investors’ diverse capabilities enable us to offer investors sustainability-focused solutions aligned to various client outcomes. ESG considerations influence every aspect of the investment lifecycle and are fully integrated into our investment processes. Our ambition is to achieve net zero across our real asset investments by 2040.

Romain Le Mélinaidre

Investment Executive Director, Infranity part of Generali Investments

Romain joined Infranity in 2022 as an Executive Director, supporting Infranity's increased activities in Equity transactions. He is bringing substantial infrastructure buy-side experience with a strong expertise in digital assets. He is leading Infranity’s equity digital infrastructure investment strategy and has recently led the investment in Vantage EMEA’s stabilized assets (2023).

Romain started his career in investment banking at ABN AMRO and subsequently joined Société Générale. In 2013, Romain moved to InfraVia Capital Partners as an Investment Director, where he gained significant exposure to European digital infrastructure including the acquisitions of Cignal (Irish towerco – sold to Cellnex in 2019), NGD (UK datacenter – sold to Vantage in 2020) or Green Datacenter (Swiss datacenter).

Romain graduated from the EM Lyon Business School and holds a Master’s degree of Science in Management.

Infranity

Infranity is an asset management company specialised in sustainable infrastructure investments created in 2018. Within 5 years Infranity was able to establish itself as one of the leading global Infrastructure Asset Managers in the industry.

The Company offers a broad investment scope from a sectoral and geographical point of view, a governance structure that guarantees the company's independence in the management of its assets and a founding principle of acting as a responsible investor, investing for positive impact, and reconciling financial and non-financial performance.

Infranity has raised in excess of €9bn of capital commitments from institutional investors and has built one of the largest infrastructure teams in Europe with over 55 industry experts which draws on decades of collective experience in infrastructure.

Infranity benefits from the full support of the Generali Group for the development of our business, which owns 51% of the company while the Managing Partners own the remaining 49%.

Andrea Logan

Director, FirstPoint Equity

Andie Logan is a Director at FirstPoint and has over a decade of experience in the financial services industry. Ms. Logan is based in New York and specializes in fundraising across institutional investors and advising General Partners throughout their firm’s lifecycle. Prior to joining FirstPoint, Ms. Logan was a Senior Vice President at MVision Private Equity Advisors, where she provided capital raising and advisory services to alternative asset fund managers. Previously, Ms. Logan worked at Grain Management in Washington DC in capital raising and investor relations. She has also worked as an Investor Relations Consultant within the Global Private Equity segment at The Carlyle Group, and held similar investor relations roles at Tailwind Capital, Goldwater Asset Management and Core Capital. Ms. Logan holds a BA from Louisiana State University.

First Point Equity

FirstPoint Equity is a global and independent private capital solutions advisor focused on fund placement and GP capital advisory services. FirstPoint offers a range of services, including primary, secondary, and co-investments with expert advice both on and off cycle.

Over the past two decades, our executives have completed more than 200 fundraising assignments totaling in excess of USD 125 billion.

FirstPoint provides a Bespoke, Experienced and Effective service to a select number of clients by leveraging our expertise, deep industry knowledge, and trusted investor relationships globally. Our reputation is built on delivering exceptional results as referenced by our clients and investors.

Victor Magny

Partner, PMP Strategy

Victor Magny is a Partner at PMP Strategy, in the Telecom, Media & Technology practice. He leads the Benelux office and plays a pivotal role in driving the TMT Sector across Europe. His expertise extends to advising Telecom operators, Digital infrastructure players and Investment funds on telecom infrastructure, performance improvement, market consolidation, and investment strategies.

Victor has a robust track record in Telecoms and has developed a strong expertise in Telecommunication Towers. He supports Operators through both the carve-out & sell process, as well as investors through investing in new acquisitions. He helps Tower companies transform their businesses by helping them to diversify and improving efficiencies.

Victor is a graduate of Centrale de Lyon where he specialized in Strategy and Business Development, with a major in Telecom networks. After a first experience in M&A banking, he joined PMP Strategy after as a consultant and steadily advanced to Partner, overseeing European development and Belgian operations.

PMP Strategy

PMP Strategy advises both corporates and investors (through CDD, CVDD and value creation post-acquisition) on their growth and transformation strategy. They have driven over 200 significant transactions in the last 5 years around the world.
A multi-specialist firm, PMP Strategy has strong expertise on infrastructures such as Telecom (towers, fiber, and datacenters), transport (rail, road and aviation), energy and social infrastructures (schools, retirement houses, clinics….). PMP Strategy also addresses the Tech, FIG, and healthcare industries.

PMP Strategy operates from three key hubs: Europe, North America, and the Middle East.

Steven Marshall

Chairman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Cordiant Digital infrastructure

Steven Marshall is Chairman of Cordiant’s Digital Infrastructure practice. He is Co-Head of both Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited (CORD:LSE), Chairman of Brasil Tower Corp; and a co-founding and Board Director of Paradigm Infrastructure Ltd..

Formerly President of American Tower’s core business (AMT:NYSE; market capitalisation ~$100Bn), he oversaw two $5 billion acquisitions, as well as a significant programme of organic growth and tuck-under acquisitions during his 10 year tenure. Prior to that he helped American Tower establish operations in EMEA, India and parts of Latin America. Before AMT, he was CEO of National Grid Wireless (then Europe’s largest digital infrastructure business) and Executive Chairman of a $1.5 billion fibre joint-venture between France Telecom, Sprint and National Grid. He served as Chairman of the Wireless Infrastructure Association in USA, and as a Director of the CTIA (the mobile carriers’ association in the USA).

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure listed on the London Stock Exchange (CORD) currently owns and Mr Marshall currently chairs the Boards of CRA, Czech Republic; Emitel, Poland; Speed Fiber Group, Ireland; and Hudson Interexchange, an interconnected Data Center in NYC. Mr. Marshall trained as a building and civil engineer at the University of Manchester, UK and subsequently earned his MBA at Manchester Business School, UK.

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Group

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Management LLP is a London-based, partner owned firm investing in Digital Infrastructure.
Cordiant Digital is led by Steven Marshall, former President of American Tower Corporation, and Benn Mikula, former head of European Technology Investment Banking at JP Morgan. Cordiant Digital’s team blends investment experience with deep operational expertise. The team currently manages the portfolio of Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited (CORD:LSE), a listed £800m investment trust with a Core Plus investment strategy, applying active management through a ‘Buy, Build and Grow’ model. CORD has fast growing tower, fiber and DC assets in Poland, Czech Republic, Ireland and the USA.
Digital Infrastructure enables modern communication networks, which have assumed a central place in the day-to-day activities of society, government and business. Digital Infrastructure is commonly described as consisting of the communications towers, data centres, fibre-optic networks and sensors that constitute the physical layer of the internet.

Jon Mauck

Senior Managing Director, DigitalBridge

Jon Mauck is a Senior Managing Director, Digital Bridge Investment Management. Mr. Mauck has 25 years of experience investing in, advising and operating communications infrastructure businesses. Mr. Mauck leads the data center investment strategy at Digital Bridge Investment Management and is responsible for the identification, evaluation, consummation, and management of new investments in the data-center sector on a global basis.
Previously, Mr. Mauck was a partner in IO Data Centers, a- privately held data center company, that developed and operated over 1.5 million square feet of data center space across North America, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Mauck was also a Managing Director and the Global Head of the Technology Infrastructure group at Citi group’s Investment Bank.
Mr. Mauck currently serves on the Board of Directors of Vantage North America, Vantage Europe, Scala Data Centers and Agile Data Centers.
Mr. Mauck was an attorney focused on mergers and acquisitions and received a Bachelor of Arts, with honors, in Economics from George Mason University and a Juris Doctor, with distinction, from Boston College.

Dolly Mirchandani

Partner, White ＆ Case

Dolly Mirchandani is the leader of White ＆ Case’s Global Infrastructure, Transportation and Logistics Industry Group. Her practice focuses on infrastructure assets and public private partnerships, reflecting over 25 years' of experience working on some of the most significant deals brought to successful closing. She represents infrastructure funds, sponsors, commercial banks, underwriters, institutional lenders, contractors, secondary market investors and governments in the tender, development, financing, acquisition and disposal of greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets. Dolly has advised across multiple infrastructure asset classes including digital infrastructure, transportation, water and wastewater, district energy, and social infrastructure. Her breadth of practice and decades of experience allows her to anticipate concerns, propose solutions and promote agreement. She has played a leading role in the introduction of private investment and ﬁnance in the infrastructure sector in North America, having advised on multiple, award-winning transactions, including those that were ﬁrst-of-their-kind. She is, without a doubt, one of the most widely respected and successful practitioners in this field.

Erica Noda

Principal Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group)

Erica Noda is a Principal Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group), where she leads investments in the Digital Infrastructure space as the Global TMT Sector Lead for Europe, Global Clients & New Business. IFC invests across the capital structure and the TMT / Digital Infrastructure ecosystem, spanning from - mobile network operators, towers, broadband infrastructure and services, data centers and cloud, satellites, digital infra technology, and media, with a focus on emerging markets and connecting the unconnected. Previously at IFC, Erica led TMT investments for Latin America, based in Sao Paulo and Washington D.C.. Before joining IFC, Erica worked at Macquarie Capital in New York and Mexico and JP Morgan in London. Erica holds a BSc. in Economics from University College London and an MSc. from the London School of Economics.

International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group)

The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. IFC has invested in the private sector in emerging markets for over six decades as a pioneer in impact investing. IFC has over US$70 billion in committed portfolio with exposure in over 125 countries across a wide range of industries and sectors. IFC deploys strategic capital in emerging markets to bring sustainable solutions to scale, build successful business environments, and create opportunities for all.

Isabel O'Brien

Reporter, Americas, Infrastructure Investor

Isabel O’Brien is the Americas Reporter at Infrastructure Investor based in New York. Isabel joined Infrastructure Investor in 2021 after freelancing with outlets such as Freakonomics Radio and the Granite State News Collective. Her expertise of the global infrastructure market spans all sectors – from transportation, to energy, to data and digitisation. Isabel has two bachelor’s degrees: one in Politics and Government from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Paris), and another in Economics from Columbia University.

Ljudmila Popova

Director Digital Infrastructure, NIBC

Ljudmila Popova is a Director within the Digital Infrastructure team of NIBC Bank where she is responsible for the client coverage and origination of Digital Infrastructure transactions in the DACH region. She joined NIBC four years ago and has been working within different roles and sectors across the corporate bank.

Before that she has acquired more than 15 years of experience in banking, management board positions within listed companies and different investment roles within family offices. All were predominantly within the Real Estate sector.
Ljudmila holds a master’s degree of Econometrics with the specialization of Financial Econometrics from the University of Amsterdam and a Kellogg-WHU EMBA.

NIBC

NIBC was founded in 1945 to finance the visionary entrepreneurs who helped rebuild the Netherlands after World War II. Over time, we evolved to become an enterprising bank offering financing, advisory and co-investing to our clients. Over the past decade, we have reinvented ourselves, focusing on being flexible and agile.

Today - owned by Blackstone - NIBC focuses on three main pillars with the digital infrastructure being one of the largest.

NIBC entered the digital infrastructure seven years ago in Germany, The Netherlands and UK, becoming one of the first movers in these markets. Since then, we have increased our coverage to Pan-Europe with our focus on fibre network and datacentres and successfully grew our lending portfolio above EUR 1.5bn.

Mark Prybutok

Managing Director, GI Partners

Mark Prybutok is a Managing Director at GI Partners, a private investment firm with $33 billion in AUM. He is co-Head of the GI Data Infrastructure platform, which has invested $2.4 billion into data infrastructure businesses over the past 3 years. GI Data Infrastructure invests in companies providing essential services in data centers, data transport, wireless access, and tech-enabled infrastructure in North America and Europe. Mark currently sits on the boards of DR Fortress, Blue Stream Fiber, LightEdge, Bluepeak, and Orbcomm.
Mark has been a private equity investor in the data infrastructure space since 2007. He holds a J.D. and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University, and a B.A. from Penn State University.

GI Partners

Founded in 2001, GI Partners is a private investment firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm has raised over $25 billion in capital from leading institutional investors around the world to invest in private equity, real estate, and data infrastructure strategies. The private equity team invests primarily in companies in the Healthcare, IT Infrastructure, Services, and Software sectors. The real estate team invests across a broad range of platforms and strategies. The data infrastructure team invests primarily in hard asset infrastructure businesses underpinning the digital economy. For more information, please visit www.gipartners.com.

Romain Py

Partner, Arjun Infrastructure Partners

Romain is a Partner and Head of Investments at Arjun Infrastructure Partners, where he’s notably led the following investments including Altitude Infra, Amarenco, Angel Trains and Onivia. He was previously the CIO for African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM, the former Macquarie-Old Mutual JV), where he supervised the successful deployment of AIIF2 and AIIF3, and partial realisation of AIIF2 (5 exits out of 8 assets). Prior to that, Romain was the Head of European Transactions for J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Infrastructure Investment Group and was one of the founding team members in Europe. Before that, Romain worked at HSBC and Société Générale, where he structured and executed over $30bn of infrastructure transactions in both advisory and arranging capacities across the EMEA region and the Americas. Romain holds an MSc in Corporate Finance from EM Lyon Business School and an MSc in International Economics from Paris-Dauphine University.

Arjun Infrastructure Partners

Arjun Infrastructure Partners is an independent European infrastructure fund manager with €5.7bn AUM. Founded in 2015, Arjun provides direct access to European mid-market core/core plus infrastructure through funds as well as separately managed accounts. Arjun has an experienced, sector-specialist team of 38 with decades of operational knowledge combined with institutional financial pedigree.

Fred Robert

Senior Principal, Global Infrastructure, Investment Management Corporation of Ontario

Fred Robert is Senior Principal, Global Infrastructure at IMCO. He leads a team of professionals focused on direct infrastructure investments. In particular, Fred is responsible for overseeing the firm’s investment strategy in digital and logistics infrastructure.
Before joining IMCO in 2020, Fred was Investment Banking Director with Agentis Capital, where he built a team of infrastructure advisory professionals and expanded the firm’s footprint with a new office in Toronto. Prior to that, he was an infrastructure investment professional with PSP Investments.
Fred holds a Master of Science in Financial Economics from HEC Montreal and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from McGill University.
He serves as a non-executive director on the boards of DataBank, euNetworks, and Red Funnel.

Investment Management Corporation of Ontario

IMCO manages over C$73 billion of assets on behalf of public sector clients in Ontario. Designed exclusively to drive better investment outcomes for Ontario's broader public sector, IMCO operates under an independent, not-for-profit, cost recovery structure. We provide leading investment management services, including portfolio construction advice, better access to a diverse range of asset classes and sophisticated risk management capabilities. As one of Canada's largest institutional investors, we invest around the world and execute large transactions efficiently. Our scale gives clients access to a well-diversified global portfolio, including sought-after private and alternative asset classes. IMCO’s Infrastructure strategy has about C$10 billion of asset under management globally.

Hannah Schofield

Managing Director, DC Advisory

Hannah is part of our global Infrastructure team, based in the US. Hannah has over 15 years’ experience within infrastructure debt both in the European and US market. She started her career at Lloyds Bank and most recently spent almost a decade on the buy side with BlackRock.

Hannah has deep experience across Infrastructure, Transportation, Media & Telecom, Energy & Power. Her track record includes infrastructure financings in both Europe and North America, with structures including senior, holdco and mezzanine positions.

DC Advisory

DC Advisory is an international investment bank committed to making a difference. As part of an established global business we offer access to over 700 professionals in 23 locations throughout Asia, Europe and the US. Across 11 industry focused teams, we offer tailored, independent advice on M&A, debt raisings and restructurings, private capital and access to unrivalled Asia investment knowledge. For more information, visit http://www.dcadvisory.com/aboutus

Rick Shrotri

Managing Partner, Digital Alpha

Mr. Shrotri, founder of Digital Alpha, has been managing market shaping investments in technology and telecommunications for over two decades. Prior to founding Digital Alpha, Mr. Shrotri spent 10 years at Cisco Systems, focused on growth strategy and investments with the firm’s most senior leadership. Prior to Cisco, Mr. Shrotri worked in the Seoul, Korea headquarters of Samsung, where he focused on external innovation strategy, including M&A and JV investment structures. Mr. Shrotri began his investment career at Goldman Sachs, focusing on technology and telecommunications investments in the Principal Investment Area (PIA) of the Merchant Bank. Mr. Shrotri holds degrees from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Finance and International Relations, both summa cum laude, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Digital Alpha

Digital Alpha Advisors, LLC is an investment firm focused on digital infrastructure required by the rapidly expanding digital economy, with total assets under management of over $1.5B. The firm has a strategic collaboration agreement with Cisco Systems, Inc. and has partnered with other leading Silicon Valley firms. Digital Alpha believes it is the first firm focused on making private equity investments in the significant growth opportunities required to underpin the Digital Economy, including next generation communications networks, IoT platforms for urban infrastructure, and cloud-based data management platforms. Digital Alpha was founded in 2017 by Rick Shrotri, former Head of the Global Infrastructure Funds (GIF) team at Cisco, and closed its latest Fund – Digital Alpha Fund II, LP – in early 2021.

Laurens-Jan Sipma

Senior Portfolio Manager, Infrastructure Private Equity, APG Asset Management

Laurens-Jan is a Director in APG’s European infrastructure team and is leading the digital infrastructure efforts in Europe and is responsible for sourcing, executing and performing asset management of APG’s digital infrastructure equity investments. He led the acquisition and setup of Glaspoort (APG-KPN FTTH JV), euNetworks and Swiatłowód Inwestycje (APG-Orange Poland FTTH JV) and has led the expansion of these platforms since. Furthermore, he holds non-executive board positions in Glaspoort, Swiatłowód Inwestycje, euNetworks and TDF (the leading telecom infrastructure platform in France). Before joining APG, Laurens-Jan worked for NWB Bank as VP leading and establishing their infrastructure finance franchise. Prior to this, Laurens-Jan worked for NIBC Bank as an Associate in the Infrastructure & Renewables team.

APG AM

APG Asset Management is the world’s largest independent pension fund manager with pension assets of c.€600bn (as of Sep-24), representing over 30,000 employers and 4.5m participants in the Netherlands, with offices in Amsterdam, Heerlen, New York and Hong Kong. On behalf of its clients (all of which are Dutch pension funds), APG has been an active infrastructure investor since 2004, investing c.€29bn to date and has invested in over 70 infrastructure portfolio companies. APG’s investments include assets within energy and utilities, renewables, digital infra, and decarbonisation of transport infrastructure.

Dr Christopher Stief

Co-Founder and CEO, DATA CASTLE

Dr. Christopher Stief is Co-Founder and CEO of DATA CASTLE, a green data center platform and provider in Germany. The company designs, builds and operates colocation- and hyperscale data centers. DATA CASTLE is a joint venture between DATA CENTER DEVELOPERS and global alternative investment firm TPG. Furthermore, Dr. Christopher Stief is Founder and CEO of DATA CENTER DEVELOPERS, a boutique development firm for large colocation- and hyperscale projects across Europe: Covering the entire life cycle from site identification to site development, construction, leasing and operations.

Data Castle GmbH

DATA CASTLE is a joint venture between DCD Data Center Developers, a specialist developer for colocation and hyperscale data centers from Germany, and Angelo Gordon, a global investment company from the US. Together, we will become the leading green data center platform in Germany. To do so, our company headquartered in Munich develops, plans, builds and operates energy-efficient and highly available data centers at central German locations. Thanks to our team of experienced experts, we offer customized colocation solutions for corporate clients and hyperscalers alike.

David Strauss

Principal, Broadband Success Partners

Mr. Strauss is the co-founder of Broadband Success Partners - a consultancy focused on the technology and operations due diligence for digital infrastructure investors and service providers in Europe, North America and South America. Clients include Antin, Apollo, Blackrock, Brookfield, EQT, DIF, DigitalBridge, GI Partners, Macquarie, Omers, Novacap, Searchlight, and Stonepeak.

Previously, Mr. Strauss designed and executed the launch enterprise go-to-market plan for Comcast Business. He was also the VP of Marketing at Lightpath (Altice/Cablevision). Earlier in his career, David was part of the leadership team for Sprint’s wireless business in the New York Metro Area. He also worked at AT＆T/McCaw, IBM and Juniper Networks.

Mr. Strauss has an MBA from New York University and a BA from Tufts University.

Broadband Success Partners

Broadband Success Partners is the leading M＆A Advisor specializing in technical due diligence. Operating in Europe, North America and South America, the firm has completed over 80 network assessments for over 55 clients including Antin, Apollo, Brookfield, EQT, DIF, DigitalBridge, GI Partners, Macquarie, Omers, Novacap, Searchlight, and Stonepeak. In 2023, the firm completed 27 network evaluations including VX/Freedom Fibre for Equitix and Speed Fibre (Enet/Magnet Plus) for Cordiant. Broadband Success Partners is a winner of the 2023 TMT M＆A Award for “U.S. Fiber Deal of the Year” as technical advisor to BlackRock on Gigapower. As former network executives including a CTO at Charter Communications and a Director at Google Fiber, the team applies an operator’s perspective to each engagement. To learn more, please visit broadbandsuccess.com.

Gabriele Todesca

Head of Infrastructure Investments, European Investment Fund

Gabriele Todesca joined the European Investment Fund in 2006. He currently heads the investment activities in Infrastructure Funds, after having worked in various roles covering both investments and business development. Previous appointments include working at Francisco Partners, a technology-focused private equity firm, in Menlo Park and London, and as an associate at Soros Private Equity Partners, London. Earlier in his career, Mr. Todesca was an investment banker at Citigroup in London. Mr. Todesca holds an LLM in Banking and Finance from the London School of Economics, awarded with Merit, and law degrees from the Università degli Studi di Trento, Italy, and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain.

The European Investment Fund (EIF)

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments that specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment.

Quynh Tran

Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure Finance, North America, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

Quynh Tran is Managing Director and Head of North American Infrastructure Finance at SMBC, with over 20 years of structured finance experience in the infrastructure sector, covering digital infrastructure, transportation, airports, water, power and social infrastructure. Quynh focuses on expanding SMBC’s infrastructure platform through serving the financing needs of sponsors and developers for investments in North American assets.

Quynh has taken the lead in building out SMBC’s coverage of the digital infrastructure sector, with a focus on developing the liquidity pool for this asset class. SMBC is a leading bank in the sector, structuring transactions for greenfield development, portfolio financing, securitizations, JV financing and acquisition financing across product platforms.

Prior to SMBC, Quynh was an investment banker at Robertson Stephens where she specialized in the “e-tail” and “e-finance” sectors, providing M&A advisory, equity underwriting and equity private placements.
Quynh earned a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

Headquartered in Tokyo, SMBC Group offers a diverse range of financial services, including banking, leasing, securities, credit cards, and consumer finance. The Group has more than 150 offices and 86,000 employees worldwide in nearly 40 countries. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG) is the holding company of SMBC Group, which is one of the three largest banking groups in Japan. SMFG’s shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and ADRs on the New York (NYSE: SMFG) stock exchanges.

In the Americas, SMBC Group has a presence in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. Backed by the capital strength of SMBC Group, the Group offers a range of commercial and investment banking services to its corporate, institutional, and municipal clients. It connects a diverse client base to local markets and the organization’s extensive global network.

Vicente Vento

Managing Partner, DTCP

Vicente has been an investor, advisor and senior executive in telecommunications, media, and technology for over 20 years. With a strong track record and network, Vicente is behind the investment strategies of DTCP. He has deployed over €2.7 billion in invested capital and executed over $100 billion in announced M&A transactions.

Vicente is a Managing Partner and a member of the investment committee of DTCP Infra, and a member of the investment committee of DTCP Growth. He currently serves as a board member at Cellnex Netherlands, Open Dutch Fiber, Community Fibre Ltd. and maincubes. Previously, he held board positions at Scout 24 (G24.DE), Ströer Media AG (SAX.DE), Cellnex Switzerland, Strato AG, Nexmo, Keepler and Cellwize.

Prior to founding DTCP, Vicente was the Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions and a Senior Vice President at Deutsche Telekom between 2010 and 2015. During this time, he executed – amongst other transactions – the merger of MetroPCS with T-Mobile US, the lease-leaseback of over 7,000 T-Mobile telecommunication towers to Crown Castle, the sale of EE to British Telecom, and the acquisition of GTS Central Europe.

DTCP

DTCP is an independent investment management firm with 2.7 billion euros in assets under management and over 50 professionals. With a focus on digital transformation, the firm invests across two strategies:

DTCP Infra invests in European digital infrastructure and specializes in investments in mobile towers, fiber networks and data centers. The firm‘s infrastructure investments include Swiss Towers (acquired by Cellnex), Community Fibre Limited, Cellnex Netherlands, Open Dutch Fiber, e-fiber, maincubes and Asteria.

DTCP Growth invests in leading software companies out of its latest fund DTCP Growth Equity III (GE III). The team has made over 30 investments in Europe, Israel and the US, with notable investments including LeanIX (acquired by SAP), Aircall, Arctic Wolf Networks, Auth0 (acquired by OKTA), Guardicore (acquired by Akamai), Fastly (NYSE: FSLY), Pipedrive (acquired by Vista Private Equity), and Signavio (acquired by SAP SE).

Thomas Vieillescazes

Partner and Head of DIF France, DIF Capital Partners

Thomas Vieillescazes, partner at DIF Capital Partners, joined DIF in 2007 to start the DIF operations from Paris. He manages the origination, execution, and optimisation of investments across all the infrastructure asset classes in France. He currently holds board positions, amongst others at Saur (water), Iélo (fibre) and various transport investments in France and elsewhere. Prior to DIF, Thomas worked for the French ministry in charge of transports, where he was responsible for French rail infrastructure projects and financing. Thomas is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global infrastructure fund manager.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Amsterdam, we now have more than €17 billion of assets under management. We invest in traditional infrastructure classes like public transport concessions and utilities, as well as newer infrastructure classes like renewable energy generation and storage, high-speed fibre rollouts and data centres.

Our dedicated team, with seasoned leadership and a deep focused investment team, makes the real difference. With over 240 professionals in 11 offices, DIF offers a unique market approach combining global presence with the benefits of strong local networks and investment capabilities.

We have an outstanding track record and our focus on mid-market investments allows us to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns to investors.

Mark Weisdorf

Chair of the Investment Committee, IST3 Infrastruktur Global

Mark Weisdorf Associates focuses on private market infrastructure and real assets investment strategies. Mark is Investment Committee chair of Zurich-based Swiss pension plan cooperative, IST3 Infrastruktur Global; and Senior Advisor to Seraya Partners based in Singapore. In addition to strategic consulting services, since 2015, Mark has facilitated over $5 billion of renewable energy, digital, FttH, transportation and other infrastructure investments and financings.

As Global CIO and CEO based in NYC, Mark established JPMorgan’s Infrastructure Investments platform in 2005 growing it to $10 billion AUM by 2014. Prior to 2004, Mark was Head of Private Markets at the CPP Investment Board in Toronto, where he developed and implemented Private Equity, Venture, Real Estate and Infrastructure investment strategies, and established strategic partnerships, totaling $7 billion.

Prior to 2000, Mark was a senior investment banker and executive in Toronto, at HSBC Canada (Deputy CEO), CIBC World Markets, and Merrill Lynch Canada. Mark is a CPA, CA, CFA and CBV; served on the Board of the ILPA, and was founding Chair of its Research, Benchmarking & Standards Committee. Mark is a past President of the University of Toronto Alumni Association, where he obtained a B. Comm.

Mark Weisdorf Associates, LLC

Mark Weisdorf Associates specializes in identifying, developing and implementing alternative investment strategies, generating attractive asymmetric risk-adjusted returns. MWA provides strategic consulting services, and also works with institutional investors, investment management firms, and corporations, on specific investment opportunities. Past clients include Actis Power, Arjun Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, Climate Innovation Capital, China Construction America, Crane Capital, Global Infrastructure Partners, Hydrogen Equity Partners, Investment Management Corporation of Ontario, IST Investment Foundations, JCM Power, JP Morgan Asset Management, Macquarie Capital, National Treasury Management Agency of Ireland, Ontario Pension Board, Partners Group, and Teck Resources Limited.

Dr. Stefan Weissenböck

Founder & Managing Partner, infrAM

Dr. Stefan Weissenböck is Founder & Managing Partner of infrAM, which he launched in late 2023. Before launching infrAM, he was a member of the management team within IST3 Infrastructure Global (IST3) and responsible for M&A as well as asset and portfolio management activities. He was the first joiner of the inhouse team of IST3, was instrumental in building a team of more than ten infrastructure experts and in growing the fund to more than CHF 1bn in AuMs during his eight years with the firm. In total, he has almost 20 years of experience in infrastructure investments both from a practical and theoretical angle. Prior to joining IST3, Stefan worked as a researcher and lecturer at ETH Zurich, and as a project manager for Hochtief, being responsible for the acquisition of transportation assets. Stefan holds a master’s degree from the Technical University of Vienna and a doctoral degree from ETH Zurich.

infrAM:

infrAM – Infrastructure Asset Management – is an advisory firm dedicated to private infrastructure equity investments based in Zurich, Switzerland. As part of its offering, infrAM supports existing owners of infrastructure assets in actively managing their assets in an active and targeted manner. In case of a change in ownership, infrAM supports existing asset owners in finding the best suitable buyers (from a holistic point of view) and supports incoming investors in actively managing their new acquisition over their full holding period. Further, infrAM provides educational services in connection with infrastructure as an asset class to (potential) investors and educational institutions.

Jonathan Zelmanovitch

Partner, PMP Strategy

Jonathan is a Partner at PMP in charge of the Global Datacenter, Cloud & Software Practices as well as the Private Equity Practice. He mainly advises infrastructure investors and Private Equity firms.

Jonathan started his career in Investment Banking at ABN Amro Corporate Finance in Paris and NYC and then worked 10 years at Orange in NYC and Paris in Corporate Dev roles and then VP M&A. Afterwards, he was successively the Head of M&A of 3 corporates: VimpelCom / Veon (#7 largest telco in the world) in Amsterdam, Cegid (#3 SaaS seller in France, owned by Silver Lake and KKR) and Carrefour (#2 largest retailer in the world). He closed more than 60+ deals in his career as a principal throughout the globe.

Jonathan has been a panellist in many TMT conferences in Europe and in the US and he graduated from HEC Paris business school and a JD from Paris I Sorbonne.

PMP Strategy

Founded 20 years ago, PMP Strategy is a strategy consulting firm with 150+ consultants between Paris, London, New York, Seattle, Montréal, Toronto, Brussels, Madrid, Casablanca. PMP Strategy advises both corporates and investors (through CDD, CVDD and value creation post acquisition) on their growth and transformation strategy. PMP has been involved in more than 200+ transactions in the last 5 years throughout the world.
PMP is positioned as a multi-specialist firm with a strong focus on infrastructures such as telecom (towers, fibre, and datacenters), transport (rail, road and aviation), energy and social infrastructures (schools, retirement houses, clinics….). PMP Strategy also addresses the Tech, FIG, and healthcare industries.

Building the future: harnessing the power of connectivity

Key themes included:

Senior Advisor, PMP Strategy

Managing Partner and Sole Founder, Palistar Capital

CFA - Head of Digital Infrastructure, ADIA

Business and Innovation Executive - RISE / Vice Chair of the Board - Swedish Datacenter Industry

Director Digital Infrastructure, NIBC

Senior Principal, Global Infrastructure, Investment Management Corporation of Ontario

Six specialist forums. One Global Summit.

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Agenda

Infrastructure Investor Digital Infrastructure Forum 2024 - Monday 18th

Registration opens

Introduction from Infrastructure Investor

Welcome from the chair

Andrea Logan

Opening Panel: Macroeconomic opportunities and challenges in digital infrastructure

Dolly Mirchandani

Mamoun Jamai

Omar Jaffrey

Thor Johnsen

Romain Py

Vicente Vento

Panel: Discussing the significance of investing in digital tower infrastructure for the telecommunications industry

Mark Weisdorf

Victor Magny

Steven Marshall

Erica Noda

Coffee and networking with ESG ＆ Sustainability and Emerging Markets attendees

Panel: Unleashing the potential: investing in data centres for future growth

David Strauss

Canan Anli

Ashraf Arafeh

Willem Jansonius

Ljudmila Popova

Dr Christopher Stief

Panel: AI - Looking beyond the buzzword

Zak Bentley

David Blackford

Jon Mauck

Mark Prybutok

Quynh Tran

Networking lunch with ESG ＆ Sustainability and Emerging Markets attendees

Panel: Driving growth: unleashing the role of fibre investments

Angenika Kunne

Nic DiLoretta

Stephan Freitas Krause

Rick Shrotri

Laurens-Jan Sipma

Thomas Vieillescazes

Fireside chat: How do we tackle the AI beast from a sustainability standpoint within the datacenter sector?

Isabel O'Brien

Isabelle Kemlin

Coffee ＆ networking with ESG ＆ Sustainability and Emerging Markets attendees

Panel: Navigating the roadmap to sustainable digital infrastructure

Dr. Stefan Weissenböck

Bethany Brantley

Gwen Colin

Romain Le Mélinaidre

Hannah Schofield

LP Panel: The evolution of institutional investment in digital infrastructure

Andrea Logan

Ashli Aslin

Christian Fingerle

Krish Gandy

Fred Robert

Gabriele Todesca

Polling debate: The next frontier for digital and smart infrastructure

Canan Anli

Miltos Andriopoulos

Thor Johnsen

Dr Christopher Stief

Jonathan Zelmanovitch

Closing comments from the chair

Andrea Logan

Keynote: Keynote: The next frontiers of transition investing with Mark Carney

Bruno Alves