Infrastructure Investor Energy Transition Forum 2021

Carlos Abuin

Investment Director, Infrastructure, InfraRed Capital Partners

Carlos joined InfraRed in 2016.

Carlos is focused on the origination, structuring, execution and management of energy and infrastructure investments in Europe.
Since joining InfraRed, Carlos has taken lead roles in transactions including renewables, low carbon energy generation and energy related infrastructure investments (offshore wind, flexible generation, solar, transmission etc.)

His previous experience at InfraRed includes roles in the Portfolio& Asset management team focused on the implementation of value enhancement initiatives and non-executive director representation on boards of multiple portfolio companies. Before joining InfraRed, Carlos led the team responsible for commercial, strategy& business development of the operational offshore transmission infrastructure in Orsted.

Carlos graduated from Universidad Pontificia Comillas ICAI (Master in Engineering) in Madrid, Spain.

Ignacio Asensio

Head of Business Development Europe, Cubico Sustainable Investments

Cubico Sustainable Investments

Founded in May 2015, Cubico Sustainable Investments is a leading investor in, and long-term owner and operator of, global renewable energy projects. Cubico is jointly owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and PSP Investments. Its global portfolio in 12 countries has an installed gross capacity of around 3 GW, with a development pipeline of nearly 2 GW. Cubico is headquartered in London and has offices in Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), Athens (Greece), Bordeaux (France), Bogotá (Colombia), Fortaleza and São Paulo (Brazil), Mexico City (Mexico), Montevideo (Uruguay), Stamford (USA) and Sydney and Melbourne (Australia). The company leverages its strong local presence with a unique combination of in-house business development, operations, financial, commercial and technical expertise. The Cubico team believes that the generation of electricity from renewable sources is not only socially responsible, economically beneficial and sustainable, but is also essential for protecting the environment for current and future generations.

Michael Bonte-Friedheim

Founding Partner and Group CEO, NextEnergy Group

Founded NextEnergy Group (“NextEnergy”) in 2007.

NextEnergy is one of the leading specialist international investment and asset managers focused on the solar sector. It has c.200 employees across multiple offices, including London, Milan, Hyderabad, Madrid, New York, Luxembourg and Guernsey.

NextEnergy’s activities span investment management, operating asset management and asset development across the main solar infrastructure markets globally.

Since inception it has acquired over 325 utility-scale solar assets and currently manages c.$3bn in equity dedicated to the solar infrastructure sector across its three institutional funds (NextPower III, NextPower II - divested January 2022 - and NextEnergy Solar Fund). The installed capacity across the Group’s institutional investment vehicles exceeds 1.3GWp.

The Group’s operating asset management division, WiseEnergy, manages and monitors in excess of 2GWp of installed solar capacity spread across Europe, USA, Africa and Asia. WiseEnergy’s clients include assets owned by the Group’s funds and unaffiliated owners of operating solar plants.

NextEnergy Group

“NextEnergy Capital (NEC) was founded in 2007 to become a leading market participant in the international solar sector. Since its inception, it has been active in the development, construction and ownership of solar assets and currently has assets under management of c.$2.8bn across two investment vehicles. It most recently closed its international fund, NextPower III ESG, in January 2022 taking total capital raised to $896m and launched NextPower UK ESG with the UK Infrastructure Bank as a match funding cornerstone investor. NEC announced at the beginning of the year the divestiture of its private fund, NextPower II, focused on the Italian subsidised solar market.

In addition, through its sister company, WiseEnergy, it operates over 1.7GW of solar globally. To date NEC has invested into 350 solar plants for a capacity in excess of 2.9GW across its institutional funds, located in the US, UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, India and Chile.”

Richard Braakenburg

Managing Director - Investments, SUSI Partners

Richard Braakenburg is a Managing Director in SUSI Partners’ investment team, focusing on energy storage and broader energy transition investment opportunities. He has almost 20 years of experience in the financial sector, with a strong emphasis on sustainable energy investments. Before joining SUSI Partners in April 2020, Richard was Chief Financial Officer at Pivot Power, a London-based developer of a transmission-connected battery storage and electric vehicle charging network. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President, Distributed Energy & Onshore Renewables, at Macquarie Green Investment Group. He also worked for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change as well as JPMorgan.

SUSI Partners

SUSI Partners is a Swiss fund manager specialised in sustainable energy infrastructure investments with EUR 1.6bn in capital commitments from institutional investors. The firm’s investment strategy focuses on equity and credit opportunities across the energy transition spectrum, including clean energy generation, energy efficiency measures, and energy storage and integrated solutions. With a successful track record of more than 100 transactions in 20 countries to date, SUSI Partners seeks to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns for its clients and their beneficiaries while contributing meaningfully to achieving global carbon neutrality.

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.

Anthony Catachanas

Chief Executive Officer, Victory Hill Capital Advisors LLP

Anthony is CEO of Victory Hill Capital Advisors LLP, a specialist investment firm targeting direct investments in global energy infrastructure that support the Sustainable Development Goals, with the aim of facilitating an orderly energy transition to a net zero carbon future.

Before Victory Hill, Anthony helped build and develop the real asset investment business of Asset Management One, the asset management arm of the Mizuho Financial Group. Anthony was also a founding principal of Mizuho's Energy Special Situations Group.

Anthony is also co-founder and shareholder of structured credit market making and private capital advisory boutique, Nemera Capital Group Ltd. Prior to this he was a Partner at AlphaOne Partners LLP focusing on their energy focused private-equity business, and an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs, where he was responsible for financial institutions strategy and other strategic relationships with institutional investors.

Marco van Daele

CEO, SUSI Partners

As CEO, Marco van Daele heads SUSI Partners’ Leadership Team and is responsible for the overarching strategy development and execution. He joined the firm in 2017 as Chief Investment Officer, overseeing the company’s global investment and asset management activities, in 2020 took over broader management responsibilities as Co-CEO, and now heads the management of the company as CEO.

Before joining SUSI, Marco was a Senior Vice President at Brookfield Asset Management, where he was responsible for the European renewable energy investments team and led the strategy formulation, origination, and execution activities in this segment. Prior to that, he was a Principal in the Infrastructure and Private Equity team at Arcapita, a global alternative assets firm, after starting his career in M＆A at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

SUSI Partners

Founded in 2009, SUSI Partners is a Swiss-based investment manager specialised in sustainable energy infrastructure investments with EUR 1.9bn in capital commitments from institutional investors. The firm’s investment strategy focuses on private equity and credit opportunities across the energy transition spectrum, including clean energy generation, energy efficiency measures, and solutions enabling clean energy use. With a successful track record of more than 140 transactions in over 20 countries to date, SUSI Partners seeks to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns for its clients and their beneficiaries while contributing meaningfully to achieving global climate neutrality.

Michael Ebner

Head of Infrastructure, KGAL

Michael Ebner is Managing Director Infrastructure of KGAL Investment GmbH & Co. KG. He is responsible for the Infrastructure department which he started sixteen years ago: Today, KGAL is the German market leader for renewable energies investment schemes.

KGAL focuses on the composition of diversified portfolios of renewable energy projects in the wind power, solar power, and hydropower sectors in Europe. KGAL’s investment style has evolved from a pure brownfield approach to a value-add strategy creating superior returns for investors. As part of an active risk management, its portfolio composition targets a broad set-up across regions, technologies and project partners.

Michael Ebner has been with KGAL for more than twenty years, during which time his work has included development of investment models for structured financing, real estate and infrastructure funds. He holds a degree in banking and business administration.

Thomas Engelmann

Head of Energy Transition, KGAL Investment Management

Thomas Engelmann is the Head of Energy Transition of KGAL Investment Management GmbH & Co. KG. As of 1st July 2020, he is responsible for the development of the Energy Transition asset class within KGAL, investing in energy transition related Equity investments such as green hydrogen and related derivatives.

Prior to this role Thomas Engelmann was Head of Transaction and Investment Management at Allianz Global Investors GmbH. Before that, he had been with KGAL as a Senior Director in the Renewable & Infrastructure Department.

Thomas Engelmann got his deep industry experience additionally from various senior management positions at Siemens AG and Siemens Financial Services. Positions at Corporate M&A, as Commercial Head of Industrial Power Plants and as Senior Investment Director demonstrate his significant know-how in technologically driven Impact investments.

He holds a Master in Business Administration and was part of the Siemens Graduate program. Additionally, he is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) as well as a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA).

Gniewomir Flis

Project Manager Hydrogen, Agora Energiewende

Gniewomir is an energy and climate advisor to Agora Energiewende, a think tank that develops evidence-based and politically viable strategies to advance the goal of climate neutrality. He seeks to unlock hydrogen’s potential as a decarbonization and development tool. Prior to joining Agora, Gniewomir was the content lead and lecturer behind Terra.do New Hydrogen Economy course, and led the supply side analysis of hydrogen in Northwestern Europe for Aurora Energy Research. In London, he spent two years as personal analyst to Michael Liebreich, founder of BloombergNEF, as well in a shared mobility startup and in investment banking. He holds Masters in climate change and finance from Imperial College Business School, and in chemistry from University College London.

Hans Fredrik Forssman

Senior Investment Manager, Skandia Norden

Hans Forssman has spent more than 30 years in the financial industry, within a wide variety of assets and strategies. Before joining the Skandia PEI team (Private Equity & Infrastructure) to head management of the infrastructure portfolio, he was responsible for procuring alternative investment mandates, creating and managing Skandia’s Thule Real Estate Fund as well as managing multi-assets funds within Skandia Investment Management.

Hans has also been responsible for setting up and managing hedge fund portfolios and private credit mandates for Skandia. Prior to joining Skandia, he was a senior Nordic equity research sales at Credit Agricole Cheuvreux Nordic serving Swedish and European institutional investors. Before this he spent around ten years in different roles in private banking with local Swedish banks.

During his career he has been based in Stockholm, but he has always had an international focus and a global network to gain experience and knowledge regarding international financial markets. Mr. Forssman has a BSc in Economics from the University of Lund, Sweden.

Pierre-Etienne Franc

Co-founder and CEO, FiveT Hydrogen and CEO, Hy24

Pierre-Etienne Franc, a graduate from HEC Paris, is one of the most recognized Hydrogen experts globally. He has spent the last decade developing Hydrogen activities at Air Liquide and is now building in a Joint Venture with Ardian, Hy24, the first large Clean H2 Infrastructure asset manager.

Mr. Franc joined the Air Liquide Group in 1995 as strategic analyst for the Group general management. He then held several positions in large Projects Business Development, Operations General Management, Strategy and Diversification activities. From 2010, he has been supervising the portfolio of advanced businesses and technologies companies of the Group, mostly servicing energy transition markets, which included Hydrogen Energy activities. In this position, he also created the Air Liquide Venture Capital arm (ALIAD). From June 2017 to March 2021, he was Vice President of Air Liquide’s Hydrogen Energy World Business Line, in charge of developing the full potential of Hydrogen activities for the Group worldwide.

Leading Hydrogen development sector-wide, Mr. Franc chaired Hydrogen Europe and the EU’s Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) public-private partnership from 2010 to 2016. In 2017, he co-founded the Hydrogen Council, a global CEO-led coalition, and served as the initiative’s co-secretary until the end of March 2021. Under his leadership, the Council grew from an initial 13 to 100+ member companies across the entire value chain - the largest global industry initiative of its kind. He has also authored several books, including “Hydrogen, the energy transition in the making” (Manifesto / Gallimard, 2015).

As of 1 April 2021, Pierre-Etienne Franc is taking the lead in the formation and management of FiveT Hydrogen, a dedicated pure play hydrogen fund platform with a first significant move via the set-up of a 50/50 Asset Management Company (Hy24) with Ardian to manage the first large Clean H2 Infrastructure Fund. Since October 2021, Pierre Etienne is the CEO of Hy24 (www.Hy24partners.com), a deposited, approved company. The Clean H2 Infra Fund is now running with €1Bn allocations.

Filippo Gaddo

Director, Arup

Filippo Gaddo leads Arup’s Energy Investor Advisory Team and has almost twenty years’ professional experience working for Government departments and major consulting firms. Filippo has led a number of major network investment projects’ assessments as part of regulated network transactions in the energy and water sectors, for example, supporting companies in the acquisition of power, gas and heat distribution companies.
His experience also includes working with utilities, energy companies and government departments in the development, design and assessment of market mechanisms, tariff structure and new commercial/business models – for example supporting Government and Ofgem in the design of UK mechanisms and regulations. He has managed and delivered vendor and buy side due diligence projects and coordinated with other disciplines and divisions to ensure timely delivery of good quality, effective policy decisions and consultancy support to clients.

Bertrand Gautier

Founding Partner, Greencoat Capital

Bertrand joined Greencoat in 2010 and, together with Paul O’Donnell, oversees the management of Greencoat Renewables plc. He has over 25 years of operational, financial and investment experience, of which the last ten years were focussed solely on renewables.
Bertrand joined Greencoat from Terra Firma Capital Partners where he managed a variety of LBO and re-financing transactions and oversaw the management of portfolio businesses, focusing on asset-backed companies. Before joining Terra Firma in 2007, Bertrand spent five years at Merrill Lynch as part of the M&A Advisory Group in the Infrastructure and Industrials team. Prior to that, he gained extensive operational experience over eight years at Procter & Gamble in supply chain and purchasing management, as well as in several French engineering SMEs.
Bertrand holds an MSc in General Engineering from ICAM (France) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (USA).

Dr Harald Haas

Senior Investment Manager, MEAG MUNICH ERGO

Dr. Harald Haas is Senior Investment Manager of Munich Re’s asset manager MEAG. Harry works in MEAG’s infrastructure debt team. Initially Harry was responsible for direct equity investments in renewable energy. Prior to joining MEAG in 2011, Harry held managment roles with i.a. Linde and ThyssenKrupp financing projects in oil & gas, defence, automotive, steel. Harry studied finance at the University of Reading and of Trier and Chinese at the National Chengchi University in Taipei. He earned a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Bremen on monetary history.

MEAG

MEAG is the asset manager of Munich Re and ERGO.

Since its foundation in Munich on 30 April 1999, MEAG has been one of the world's major asset management companies, together with its offices in New York and Hong Kong. It currently has around € 270 billion in assets under its management. The global footprint of Munich Re and ERGO gives MEAG access to the international capital markets. MEAG manages all the main asset classes, such as interest-bearing securities, equities, real estate, renewable energies and infrastructure, under one roof. The company's investment experts pursue a stringent and risk-controlled approach to investment, with the goal of generating a strong performance for its investors over the long term. Because of its large size and freedom from dependencies on specific banks, MEAG obtains extensive information from international investment companies and can offer low transaction costs. MEAG is the ideal asset management partner to both private investors and institutional investors.

Kirsty Hamilton

Seconded Advisor - Investment, COP Energy Transition team

Kirsty Hamilton is completing a secondment to the COP26 Energy Transition Council team with a focus on conditions to mobilise capital for clean power scale up in emerging markets and developing economies. She set up one of the first initiatives to bridge between policymakers and clean energy finance to drive sector-level solutions in the early 2000s as part of three decades of efforts to tackle climate change. She was awarded an OBE for services to green energy, finance and climate change in January 2021.

Munir Hassan

Head of Energy & Climate Change Group, CMS

Munir Hassan is the Head of CMS Energy & Climate Change Group. The Clean Energy practice at CMS is the market leader in the renewables sector in Europe, with a vast portfolio of low carbon projects and transactions across all technologies, particularly offshore wind, onshore wind and solar, and across legal disciplines from M&A and financings through to commercial and regulatory issues and disputes. The practice is also world renowned for its depth in electricity market reform, restructurings, privatisations and reforms of regulatory frameworks. CMS has been, and continues to be, deeply involved in the development of the energy transition technologies such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCUS), advising clients in these areas and producing regular thought leadership material.

Thomas Hecker

Founder, 800 Volt Technologies

Thomas is Co-Founder of 800 Volt Technologies, a company that‘s dedicated to accelerate the transition to electric mobility. Their app PUMP is one of the leading products that helps customers to deal with the complexity of charging networks by planning complete trips with a tap of a button.
Thomas is an experienced mobility and automotive executive with extensive experience in product strategy and innovation.
He advices several companies in the transition to new forms of mobility and product execution on their way.
Prior to founding 800 Volt Technologies, Thomas was executive at Daimler and their subsidiary Moovel and was leading product and engineering teams to create and deploy Mobility-as-a-Service solutions.

Knut Hechtfischer

Founder, ubitricity

Fully qualified lawyer, MBA, worked for leading international law firms in Berlin, Frankfurt and London in M&A, finance and regulatory.

Initiated and co-founded ubitricity in 2008, a Berlin based EV charging infrastructure start-up, that was acquired by Shell earlier this year after it had become UK market leader

Concepted, lobbied, funded, and delivered London’s lamppost charging solution.

Now working to decarbonize the building sector, with a focus on cost efficient smart grid integration of heat pumps.

Nicolai Herrmann

Partner, Enervis Energy Advisors

Nicolai Herrmann works as a Partner for enervis energy advisors GmbH in Berlin. He has more than 15 years of experience in power market analysis and modelling, investment evaluation of conventional and renewable generation assets, storage and PPA pricing and negotiation. Nicolai holds a degree as an industrial engineer and a PhD in economics from Flensburg University, Germany. He also studied at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia and was a visiting scholar to the University of Maryland, USA. Nicolai is a regular speaker at conferences, has published many articles and is also a lecturer at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and Oldenburg University (both Germany).

Enervis Energy Advisors

Enervis Is an independent consultancy company based in Berlin with 20 years of market experience. We are specialized on the European energy industry with a strong focus on energy market assets, renewable and conventional generation and storage. Our services cover market analysis, power price forecasts, evaluation of merchant assets, PPAs and renewable tenders. For our clients we develop sophisticated computer-based models and provide support for strategic investment decisions as well as operational business.

Bruce Huber

Chief Executive Officer, Alexa Capital

Bruce is CEO of Alexa Capital. Throughout his career, he has advised on hundreds of capital markets and M&A transactions, including IPOs, follow-ons, convertible & debt, energy project financing, as well as corporate finance, including public and private M&A.
Before establishing Alexa Capital, Bruce was previously Global Head of Cleantech Investment Banking for Jefferies & Co. where he led the industry group operating across offices in Frankfurt, London, New York, San Francisco, Mumbai and Shanghai.
He was also a member of the board of Jefferies International. At Jefferies, he helped found and build the #1 global industry equities, research and investment banking platform in the new energy sector, with substantial activities financing renewable energy and circular economy businesses.Prior to Jefferies & Co, Bruce was CEO of Broadview International, a technology-focused investment bank.
He is a Princeton University graduate with a BSc in Engineering.

Verena Kempe

Head of Investment Management, KENFO

Verena Kempe is Head of Investment Management at KENFO where she is currently focussing especially on the expansion of its private markets activities. Before joining KENFO, she was the Co-Head of Private Equity at FERI Trust where she successfully invested for institutional investors and advised on tailor-made investment strategies. She started her career at WestLB and was a Director in Structured Finance/Global Energy in London. She holds degrees in Economic Geography and Business Administration.

Kowalewska Montfort, Alicja ETF21 CROPPED

Alicja Kowalewska-Montfort

Principal – Energy Storage, Gore Street Capital

Alicja is a Principal with Gore Street Capital. She heads up the Technical Team overseeing the development, construction and operation of the Gore Street Fund portfolio including the route to market strategy.
She holds MSc from Cranfield University in Renewable Energy Technology and Processing Engineering. Previously she worked at Origami Energy and RES where she focused on energy storage technology and route to market respectively.

Lars Kyrberg

Partner, Bird & Bird

As a partner in our Hamburg office, I offer our clients long-standing expertise in renewables, energy networks and complex infrastructure projects. I have been active in the energy sector since 2010, which has provided me with a profound inside knowledge as well as a good understanding of the energy business.
Here at Bird & Bird, I am co-head of our international Energy Networks and Grids Group and our international wind team as part of our international Energy and Utilities Sector Group.
I advise on all aspects of complex EPC and commercial contracts as well as (Corporate) PPAs. My clients range from developers, investors, asset managers, owners, IPPs, utilities to O&M service providers and manufacturers.
Amongst my core focal areas are wind (on- and offshore), solar, electricity grid (e.g. offshore interconnectors, HVDC transmission lines) and complex infrastructure projects (e.g. with regard to emobility). My advice is targeted at projects during their full lifespan (development, tendering/contracting, financing, construction, and commissioning), including claims and arbitration/litigation. My expertise encompasses advising on project-related corporate/MaA transactions, joint ventures and corporate restructurings.

Steen Lønberg Jørgensen

Partner, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners

Steen Lønberg Jørgensen is responsible for the Investor Relations, Fund Raising, and Business Development Team. Mr. Jørgensen has more than 15 years of experience in executive management and has held several senior management positions. Prior to joining CIP in January 2016, Mr. Jørgensen was Global Head of Institutional Customers in Nordea Bank (2012-2015) and before that Head of Corporate Finance & Equities (2009-2012). During 2005-2009, Mr. Jørgensen was Managing Partner at the Danish private equity company Dansk Kapitalanlæg (DKA Capital). From 2002-2005, Mr. Jørgensen served as CEO and CFO in BioMar, a leading aquaculture company. Prior to that, Mr. Jørgensen worked in McKinsey & Company, where he progressed to Engagement Manager. Mr. Jørgensen holds a Master in Economics from the University of Copenhagen and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.akob Baruël Poulsen is the Managing Partner of Copenhagen Infrastructurfund management company founded in 2012 by Mr. Poulsen and four other senior executives from the energy industry, and the Danish labor market pension fund, PensionDanmark, as founding investor.

About CIP

CIP specializes in energy infrastructure investments and is among the largest fund managers globally within renewable energy with a focus on offshore wind, onshore wind, solar PV, biomass and energy-from-waste, storage, transmission and distribution, Power-to-X and other energy assets. CIP has approximately 130 employees and offices in Copenhagen, New York, London, Hamburg, Utrecht and Tokyo.
CIP manages seven funds with around EUR 15 billion in commitment under management. The funds have made more than 20 investments in large scale energy infrastructure assets totaling almost 8 GW in capacity (including transmission projects) across the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Spain, and Taiwan. In addition, more than 20 greenfield energy infrastructure projects are in process to reach final investment decision and start of construction within the next 3 years. CIP has approximately 100 investors across the CIP funds including several blue-chip institutional investors from the Nordics, Continental Europe, the UK, Israel, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, and multilateral organizations e.g. EIB. The investors in CIP’s funds comprise mainly pension and life companies and large family offices.

Marie Lucey

Director, Head of M&A, Ørsted

Marie is a Director and Head of M&A at Ørsted. Marie has been at Ørsted since 2015 primarily focused on the farm down activities within the company, looking to create and execute processes that attract investors to the sector. Amongst other projects, Marie has recently been responsible for the divestment of Greater Changhua 1 and Hornsea 1. Prior to joining Ørsted, Marie worked in the infrastructure teams in Deloitte Ireland and Canada and worked at Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

ØRSTED

Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy) is a leading energy company in Northern Europe and proud to be a world leader in offshore wind with 30 years of experience in developing, constructing and operating offshore wind farms. Ørsted has been successful in attracting financial partners to support its ambitious expansion strategy. Equity partners ranging from pension funds to large scale industrial companies outside of the utility sector, have become co-shareholders in Ørsted's offshore wind projects. This has been achieved by offering a unique partnership model to investors allowing for a customized risk / return profile matching the investment strategy of the individual partner.

Our major financial and industrial (non-utility) partners include:
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), PGGM, PensionDanmark, PFA, PKA, Macquarie, Masdar, Marubeni Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation, the LEGO Group (Kirkbi), Green Investment Group (GIG), William Demant (Oticon), TRIG, Glennmont Partners, Gulf, BAE Pension Systems, USS, Cathay Private Equity and other Danish pension funds and debt investors

Seán Maguire

Managing Director, Impax Asset Management

Seán joined Impax in January 2021 and is a member of Impax’s Private Equity/Infrastructure Transaction Team. He is responsible for sourcing and executing new investment opportunities.

He has over 13 years’ experience in the renewables industry having worked for leading European developers and utilities focusing on M&A, debt raising and power purchasing agreements structuring. Prior to joining Impax Seán worked at Statkraft for two years where he led a team tasked with sourcing and executing project and platform M&A opportunities across onshore wind, solar, storage and EV in Europe. Seán qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG Dublin and initially worked in renewables with Airtricity before joining Element Power in 2010, a private equity backed pan-European renewable developer.
Seán has a BA in Economics from Trinity College Dublin.

Rosheen McGuckian

Chief Executive Officer, NTR

Rosheen was appointed Chief Executive Officer of NTR plc in April 2013.  Since joining NTR in 2008, Rosheen has held a number of leadership positions in NTR including most recently as Group Business Development Director and CEO positions in solar development, energy storage, water treatment and waste management platforms within the group.
Prior to joining NTR, Rosheen was CEO of GE Money Ireland, the consumer finance division of General Electric. Prior to that, Rosheen led the business transformation initiative for Irish utility ESB Power Generation.   
Rosheen is a Director of Grafton Group plc and construction group Sisk. Rosheen was recently voted as one of the Top 25 in the Global Women’s Power List and Top 50 in the Global Green Fund Power List. She holds a PhD and MA from Dublin City University, and BSc from Trinity College Dublin.

NTR Plc

With almost 40 years of experience in investing in and managing infrastructure assets, NTR now applies that expertise on behalf of investors who wish to avail of the attractive, reliable cash flows that quality sustainable infrastructure assets can provide.
For two decades, NTR has invested in renewable energy and during that period, NTR has through its associated companies, constructed and operated c.2GW of wind projects and 630MW of solar projects across Europe and the US.
Since 2015, NTR has acquired and managed renewable energy investments on behalf of third party investors through its renewable energy funds.

Benn Mikula

CEO, Cordiant Capital

Benn Mikula is Cordiant’s CEO; he also co-heads the firm’s Digital Infrastructure practice alongside Steven Marshall. Cordiant’s funds in this area include Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited (CORD:LSE) and the new value-add Cordiant Digital Infrastructure II.. He and J-F Sauvé led the purchase of Cordiant from Ontario Teachers’, and the two are Cordiant’s principal shareholders.

He began his career at RBC, where he was a top-ranked equity analyst and led the technology ＆ telecoms industry research group. He subsequently became Head of European Technology Investment Banking at JPMorgan (advising major telecommunications equipment and digital infrastructure companies on capital structure and M&A). A founding investor of a managed services provider acquired by BMC, his board experience ranges from hybrid cloud optimisation and management to edge data centres and encompasses both private and public companies. He currently sits on the Board of portfolio companies including CRA and Hudson InterXchange. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from McGill University.

Cordiant Capital

Cordiant invests in growth platforms in the infrastructure middle market through dedicated, specialist teams in Digital Infrastructure, Energy Transition Infrastructure, Agriculture Value Chain and Direct Lending. We view these three sectors as constituting “Infrastructure 2.0”, where technology change and operating expertise drive IRR. The firm manages ~$4 billion of institutional capital. An early signatory of UN PRI, and a founding signatory of Operating Principles for Impact Management, Cordiant aims to combine profitable investment with sustainability and a responsible approach to capital deployment. Partner-owned and -run (ensuring tight alignment with LPs), Cordiant welcomes co-investment partnerships. The firm manages permanent capital vehicle Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited (CORD:LSE) and GP/LP funds (such as the pending Digital Infrastructure II). Cordiant has offices in Montreal, London, Luxembourg and Sao Paulo.

Lluis Noguera

CEO, X-ELIO

Lluís Noguera (born in Barcelona, Spain) is a Telecommunications Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. He also completed management studies at the Imperial College London Business School.

He began his professional career as a Project Manager at the transport company TNT in Amsterdam.

In 2005, he joined the Investment Banking division of J.P.Morgan, where he held a variety of roles related to the Infrastructure M&A units in London and Madrid.

He then joined Gas Natural Fenosa (now Naturgy) in 2008, as M&A Director, until he moved to Global Power Generation (joint venture between Naturgy and KIA) in 2015, where he was appointed CEO.

In 2019, he joined X-ELIO (sustainable energy developer JV between KKR and Brookfield) as Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Noguera has done several Executive Education courses at AIF-INSEAD, IESE, Oxford Said Business School, ESADE and Singularity.

X-ELIO

X-ELIO (www.X-ELIO.com) is a company specialized in the development, construction, financing and operation of solar plants and sustainable energy development with global presence in Europe, United States, Latin America, Japan and Australia. The firm has 16 years of experience with more than 2.8 GW built. In 2020, it achieved over €300M revenue. The group is a global leader in renewable and sustainable energy, with a strong commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gases and the fight against climate change.

www.x-elio.com

Kunal Patel

Vice President - Partnerships & Corporate M&A, Ørsted

Kunal is a Vice President and Head of Partnerships & Corporate M&A in Ørsted, responsible for M&A, structuring and financing in relation to Ørsted's offshore wind assets as well as corporate M&A activities. Kunal has been with Ørsted since 2012 primarily focussed on the farmdown activities within the company, looking to create and execute structures that attract new investors to the sector. Among other
projects Kunal has most recently overseen the divestment and financing of the Walney Extension, Hornsea 1 and Greater Changhua 1. Prior to joining Ørsted Kunal worked in the infrastructure and project finance team at Barclays, working across the renewables and UK PFI/PPP sectors. Kunal holds a degree in Economics and Philosophy along with being a CFA charterholder.

ØRSTED

Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy) is a leading energy company in Northern Europe and proud to be a world leader in offshore wind with 30 years of experience in developing, constructing and operating offshore wind farms. Ørsted has been successful in attracting financial partners to support its ambitious expansion strategy. Equity partners ranging from pension funds to large scale industrial companies outside of the utility sector, have become co-shareholders in Ørsted's offshore wind projects. This has been achieved by offering a unique partnership model to investors allowing for a customized risk / return profile matching the investment strategy of the individual partner.

Our major financial and industrial (non-utility) partners include:

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), PGGM, PensionDanmark, PFA, PKA, Macquarie, Masdar, Marubeni Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation, the LEGO Group (Kirkbi), Green Investment Group (GIG), William Demant (Oticon),

Chris Pateman-Jones

Chief Executive Officer, Connected Kerb

Chris is the CEO of Connected Kerb, an award winning, fast growth EV charging and smart cities business, deploying infrastructure in the UK and overseas. Chris is an experienced infrastructure executive, with extensive commercial, innovation and strategy experience developing projects in the UK and overseas energy and commodities sectors.

Prior to joining Connected Kerb Chris was a Director at Ernst and Young (EY), within the global infrastructure team, working across regions with EY teams and clients to deliver major and mega (multi billion) projects in the Transport, Energy and commodities sectors. Prior to EY, Chris was at Bechtel, working in Europe and the Middle East within their Oil and Gas portfolio of projects.

Laurent Segalen

Managing Partner, Megawatt-X

Laurent Segalen is a franco-british clean energy investment banker. He is the founder of Megawatt-X, the London-based Energy transition meta-platform, which he currently heads. Megawatt-X has listed more than 15GW of Wind and Solar transactions over the past 8 years. Between 2019 and 2022, Laurent Segalen was Board Member of the PPA digital platform Zeigo, successfully sold to Schneider Electric in Q1_22.

His career in Clean Energy spans over 25 years, from Director at PWC, Fund Manager at Natixis/Mirova to Managing Director Clean Commodities at Lehman Brothers then Nomura. He was awarded Environmental Deal of the Year 2006 by Environmental Finance. While trading carbon, he was one of the co-authors of "scope 1, scope 2, scope 3" emissions concept and helped create the ETS. He is now special adviser to the Board of IC-VCM.

Finally, Laurent co-hosts the award-winning podcast Redefining Energy

Martin Sichelkow

Managing Director - Infrastructure, Eurazeo

Martin joined Eurazeo as Managing Director of the Infrastructure team.

Prior to Eurazeo, Martin spent over a decade in the investment team of Marguerite, manager of three unlisted EU infrastructure equity funds with 1.5bn€ AuM, where he started at fund inception in 2010. During his time, he closed seven transactions, mainly in the energy space, with an aggregate enterprise value of 3bn€, and held multiple board positions.

He began his career at Cube, a 1.1bn€ Western Europe focused first-time infrastructure equity fund sponsored by Natixis, where he assisted in raising over 800m€ of third-party capital between 2007 and 2010 as well as investing more than 100m€ of equity.

Martin holds a Master of Science in Business Administration (International Business) from the Copenhagen School of Business.

Eurazeo

Eurazeo is a leading global investment group, with a diversified portfolio of €22.7 billion in assets under management, including €16.0 billion from third parties, invested in 450 companies. With its considerable private equity, private debt, real estate and infrastructure expertise, Eurazeo accompanies companies of all sizes, supporting their development through the commitment of its nearly 300 professionals and by offering deep sector expertise, a gateway to global markets, and a responsible and stable foothold for transformational growth. Its solid institutional and family shareholder base, robust financial structure free of structural debt, and flexible investment horizon enable Eurazeo to support its companies over the long term. Eurazeo has offices in Paris, New York, São Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, London, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Berlin and Madrid. Eurazeo is listed on Euronext Paris.

Lawrence Slade

Chief Executive Officer, Global Infrastructure Investor Association

Lawrence Slade became Chief Executive Officer of the Global Infrastructure Investor Association (GIIA) in January 2020. GIIA represents investors with over US$1tn AUM. Prior to his role with GIIA Lawrence Slade worked with Energy UK since 2011, becoming their Chief Executive in January 2015, additionally he served on the boards of Eurogas and Eurelectric in Brussels. He has been involved in the energy industry since the late 1990’s working in countries all over the world. Lawrence is currently a Board member of Connected Kerb, a Board Trustee and Audit Committee member of the Money Advice Trust (who run the National Debtline and Business Debtline) and is also a Fellow of the Energy Institute.

GIIA

GIIA is the membership body for the world's leading institutional investors. With more than 80 members, we work with governments and other stakeholders to boost the role of private investment in providing infrastructure that improves national, regional and local economies. GIIA members have investments in over 1700 assets across six continents, totalling US$1 trillion of infrastructure assets under management.

Karl Smith

Managing Director, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, Green Investment Group

Karl is a Managing Director of energy transition in Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets. He is an investment committee member and oversees the dedicated renewable energy fund business and investments in the broader energy transition sector. Karl joined the Green Investment Bank in 2012 where he led the fund management business, having previously spent three years advising on and developing energy and infrastructure transactions with Hideal Partners. Prior to this role, Karl spent four years with Babcock and Brown in principal equity investment, and also held similar positions at a number of top level institutions. He has extensive experience in principal equity investment, debt investments and financial advisory across the energy and infrastructure sector.

Karl has a Bachelor of Finance with Honours from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Green Investment Group

Green Investment Group is a specialist in green infrastructure principal investment, project delivery and the management of portfolio assets, and related services. Its track record, expertise and capability make it a global leader in green investment, dedicated to supporting the growth of the global green economy.

The business was launched initially by the UK Government in 2012 as the first institution of its type in the world. The organisation was acquired by the diversified financial group Macquarie Group Limited in 2017, creating one of Europe’s largest teams of dedicated green infrastructure investors.

For more information, visit www.greeninvestmentgroup.com

Dominic Swan

Head of Private Debt, HSBC Alternatives, HSBC Asset Management

Dominic is the Head of Private Debt, HSBC Alternatives. He has almost 30 years’ experience across portfolio management, credit, secured lending, workouts and structuring.
Dominic is responsible for establishing and managing the direct investment capability for alternative assets such as Infrastructure, Real Estate Lending, Middle Market Loans, Corporate Lending, Consumer Finance and other forms of Private Debt.
Before taking up his current role, he has served as Senior Adviser to the Global CIO across all asset classes (Fixed Income, Equities, Liquidity and Alternatives), and Global Head of Fixed Income for HSBC Halbis Capital Management, where he was responsible for teams managing over USD 200bn of Fixed Income and Liquidity assets around the world.
In previous roles at HSBC, he established and led the wind down of the HSBC Bank plc’s USD 95bn structured credit portfolio including the Structured Investment Vehicles, Securities Conduit, and proprietary ABS investment businesses, where he gained considerable workout experience and won The Banker's 'Most Innovative Asset-Liability Management Award' in 2008. He has also established HSBC UK’s Credit Card, Covered Bond and RMBS issuance programmes.
Before joining HSBC in 2001, Dominic worked for almost 10 years at Moody’s Investors Service where he was rating committee chairman for much of the European secured credit markets. He has a BSc in Financial Economics from London University.

HSBC Asset Management

HSBC Asset Management is the investment management business of the HSBC Group. We are a truly global organisation, with local presence in 20+ countries and territories around the world. Our vision is to be a trusted asset manager for our clients, helping them thrive by capturing global growth opportunities. By offering expert insights and specialist investment strategies that draw on the depth of our global on-the-ground expertise, we aim to provide investors with sustainable investment opportunities. As at 30 June 2021, we managed assets of USD625billion across equities, fixed income, multi-asset, liquidity and HSBC Alternatives.
HSBC Alternatives, a part of HSBC Asset Management, is 150-strong team across Infrastructure Debt and Equity, Hedge Funds, Real Estate, Private Markets, Private Debt and Venture Capital and represents combined assets under management and advice of USD53 billion.

[1] – As at 31 March 2021. Alternative assets include USD3.1bn from committed capital ('dry powder'), which is not included in the total reported AUM.

David Swindin

Managing Director - Head of EMEA, Cubico Sustainable Investments

David Swindin has been Head of EMEA at Cubico Sustainable Investments since its inception at the beginning of 2015, when the business was spun out of Banco Santander. Cubico is a leader and global investor in renewable energy owned jointly by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and PSP Investments. The company has a portfolio of around 5 GW, comprising wind, solar PV, CSP and transmission line technologies at various project lifecycle stages. It focuses on operational excellence and tends to hold assets for their whole lives, investing across the entire value chain from development and construction to operations. As of 2021, Cubico has renewable energy projects in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, the United States, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Previously, David was Head of Credit Markets for Asia Pacific at Santander and was responsible for debt and equity financings across the region. Before moving to Hong Kong in 2011 to assume this role, David was the Global Head of Asset Structuring at Santander, based in London, focusing primarily on equity investments in renewable energy, shipping and aviation transactions. The earlier part of his career was spent advising multinational corporations and governments in structuring complex financing transactions.

Cubico

Founded in May 2015, Cubico Sustainable Investments is a leading investor in, and long-term owner and operator of, global renewable energy projects. Cubico is jointly owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and PSP Investments. Its global portfolio in eleven countries has an installed gross capacity of around 3.2 GW.

Cubico is headquartered in London and has offices in Uxbridge (UK), São Paulo and Fortaleza (Brazil), Milan (Italy), Stamford (US), Mexico City (Mexico), Madrid (Spain), Lyon (France), Sydney and Melbourne (Australia), Montevideo (Uruguay) and Bogotá (Colombia). The company leverages its strong local presence with a unique combination of in-house business development, operations, financial, commercial and technical expertise.

The Cubico team believes that the generation of electricity from renewable sources is not only socially responsible, economically beneficial and sustainable, but is also essential for protecting the environment for current and future generations.

Shane Swords

Managing Director, Head of Investor Relations - NextEnergy Capital

Shane, with over 20 years’ experience, joined NextEnergy Capital in 2019. Shane and his team have just announced the first close for NextPower UK ESG (“NPUK ESG”) at £327 million, which is over 65% of NPUK ESG’s target of £500m. The fund has a hard cap of £1 billion. Prior to this, the team also completed the fundraising for the first international fund fund, NextPower III ESG, at $896 million (target of $750 million).

Before NextEnergy, Shane was the Head of Institutional Fundraising at Downing LLP where he created their first institutional fund, the GBP 125 million reserve power fund. Before that he structured and raised a £1 billion solar platform with Blackrock. Prior to this Shane was one of the initial Directors at Rubicon Infrastructure Advisors where he led several capital raises including a USD 750 million raise for a global infrastructure and solar platform.

NextEnergy Capital, the investment management arm of the NextEnergy Group, was founded in 2007 to become a leading market participant in the international solar and energy transition sector. Since its inception, it has been active in the development, construction and ownership of solar assets and currently has assets under management of c.$3.1bn across three investment vehicles. It most recently held a first close of its latest UK solar strategy, NextPower UK ESG, at £327m which was launched in partnership with the UK Infrastructure Bank. NEC is currently fundraising for NextPower UK ESG up to its £1bn hard cap. In January 2022, NextEnergy Capital closed its international solar fund, NextPower III ESG, at $896m and also announced the successful exit of its private fund, NextPower II, which focused on the Italian subsidised solar market.
To date NextEnergy Capital has invested into 350 solar plants for a capacity in excess of 2.5GW across its institutional funds, located in the US, UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, India and Chile.
Through NextEnergy Capital’s sister companies, WiseEnergy and Starlight, the NextEnergy Group operates over 1.7GW of solar globally and is also currently developing a pipeline of over 8GW.

Amarik Ubhi

Partner, Global Head of Infrastructure, Mercer

Amarik Ubhi is Global Head of Infrastructure in Mercer's Alternatives group. He is responsible for overseeing the sourcing, due diligence and monitoring of infrastructure investment opportunities, and also the construction of infrastructure portfolios on behalf of Mercer’s clients. As part of this role, Amarik oversees more than US$4 billion of discretionary capital in unlisted infrastructure globally. He also works with some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated institutional investors on an advisory basis, assisting them with portfolio construction, the analysis of co-investment opportunities, and the establishment of bespoke mandates.

Amarik is also responsible for a team of infrastructure investment professionals, based across Canada, Switzerland and Australia. He is a member of Mercer's Real Assets Investment Committee, and also the leadership team within the Alternatives group.

Amarik is also a member of Mercer's Sustainable Opportunities Investment Committee, and is involved in the firm's efforts to better integrate sustainability-related factors into the private markets' investment, monitoring and reporting processes.

Amarik joined Mercer in 2003 and began his career within investment consulting, where he was responsible for advising institutional clients on the full range of investment-related issues, including strategy, portfolio construction and implementation. Amarik holds a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Cambridge, and is a CFA charterholder.

Dr. Barbara Weber

Founding Partner, B Capital Partners

Barbara Weber, PhD, Lic., MSc is the Founding Partner of B Capital Partners. She is a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Bekk og Strom AS, a company owning and operating hydro power plants in Norway. Further Barbara was a Non-Executive Director on the Board of London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) from 2017 to July 2021. She was instrumental in setting up an infrastructure investment platform for Swiss pension funds (IST3), for which she also served on the Investment Committee for several years. Barbara has over 20 years of infrastructure and private equity as well as project finance experience gained during several years with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, PolyTechnos and, since 2003, with B Capital Partners. She previously worked for the private sector development group of the World Bank in Washington DC. She is a prolific author and has written four books on infrastructure investing, the latest one being "Infrastructure as an Asset Class. Second Edition" (2016). Barbara wrote her Ph.D in Economics at Harvard University and University of St. Gallen. She holds an MSc in Business & Operations Research from Warwick University and a post-graduate degree in International Relations from Mannheim University.

Ekow Yankah

Founder & Management, Executive Board, RealPort

Ekow is a serial tech entrepreneur (> 20 years). He has successfully built fast growing tech organizations in the US, Asia and Europe. Ekow was part of the management executive board to IPO mobile-data and payment company Buongiorno, which was sold to NTT Docomoco. He is an expert in digital business engineering, product development and sales. As Founder, Ekow is the architect of RealPort’s operational and business model.

RealPort

Realport is a digital brokerage platform that facilitates passive capital of small institutional investors in sustainable infrastructure assets to address the mezzanine and secondary capital needs of investment managers. Hence, small institutions are empowered to access positions in low-risk, long-dated infrastructure cash flows through a standardised co-investment structure at low transaction costs, fees and in small ticket sizes.

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Agenda

Energy Transition Forum - Thursday 21st

Introduction from Infrastructure Investor

Welcome from the chair

Laurent Segalen

Global perspectives on the energy transition as the world moves to net zero

Kirsty Hamilton

Michael Bonte-Friedheim

Anthony Catachanas

Lluis Noguera

Generating risk-adjusted returns in an ultra-competitive market

Laurent Segalen

Michael Ebner

Rosheen McGuckian

Martin Sichelkow

David Swindin

Marco van Daele

Offshore wind: is there a danger of an asset bubble as valuations continue to increase?

Ekow Yankah

Bertrand Gautier

Marie Lucey

Karl Smith

Coffee & networking

Why green hydrogen is key to realising ambitious net zero targets

Munir Hassan

Thomas Engelmann

Gniewomir Flis

Pierre-Etienne Franc

Steen Lønberg Jørgensen

Dr. Barbara Weber

Why solar remains competitive with other forms of generation

Nicolai Herrmann

Carlos Abuin

Ignacio Asensio

Seán Maguire

Benn Mikula

Shane Swords

Lunch

EV charging infrastructure: is the market ready to deliver the necessary infrastructure?

Dominic Swan

Filippo Gaddo

Thomas Hecker

Knut Hechtfischer

Chris Pateman-Jones

Investor perspectives on renewables and the energy transition

Lawrence Slade

Hans Fredrik Forssman

Dr Harald Haas

Verena Kempe

Amarik Ubhi

Development of battery technology and what it means for infrastructure

Lars Kyrberg

Richard Braakenburg

Bruce Huber

Alicja Kowalewska-Montfort

Close of conference

Investment Director, Infrastructure, InfraRed Capital Partners

Head of Business Development Europe, Cubico Sustainable Investments

Founding Partner and Group CEO, NextEnergy Group

Managing Director - Investments, SUSI Partners

Americas Editor, Infrastructure Investor

Chief Executive Officer, Victory Hill Capital Advisors LLP

CEO, SUSI Partners

Head of Infrastructure, KGAL

Head of Energy Transition, KGAL Investment Management

Project Manager Hydrogen, Agora Energiewende

Senior Investment Manager, Skandia Norden