IJGlobal Awards 2020 Winners

► One of the best-known members of the HSBC team, in December 2020 Susan joined John Laing as a senior adviser to the company. Susan brings with her a wealth of experience built from more than 20 years of transaction and financing experience across the infrastructure and utilities sectors. She was previously global co-head of infrastructure and real estate finance at HSBC, where she oversaw debt and financial advisory, lending and capital markets, across sectors including energy, transport, telecoms and social infrastructure. Her experience at HSBC spans Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East where she served an international client base including governments, corporations, pension funds and insurance companies. During her career, Susan has worked in both London and Australia.

► Allan Baker has worked at Societe Generale since 2007, rising to his current role of managing director, global head of power advisory and project finance – and has been involved in the power sector for more than 30 years, initially as an engineer and then in finance.

► Caroline Miller Smith is a partner at White & Case and is head of the EMEA project development and finance group. Her practice focuses on infrastructure and power transactions, including road, rail and airports, transmission and distribution, renewable and thermal generation, desalination and water management, ports, social infrastructure and defence projects, in all of which she has long-standing experience.

► Chris joined LBBW in September 2018 to establish a new team focused on infrastructure and renewable opportunities across the UK and Ireland. The Team now consists of 6 people and has closed 12 deals to date (at the time of writing) with commitments totalling around €850 million. Previously he was at Bank of Ireland for almost 19 years in project finance origination covering PPP, infrastructure and renewable energy transactions in UK, Europe and occasionally North America, spending the last 4 years in Northern Ireland as head of project finance for NI.

►Claus Fintzen is the CIO and head of infrastructure debt at AllianzGI in London. The infra debt platform was created in 2012 to develop the institutional market for this asset class and to originate suitable transactions for the Allianz Group and certain external institutional investors. So far, the team has invested in excess of €18 billion in projects across the transport, social infrastructure, energy and utility sectors globally. Before joining AllianzGI, Claus spent 8 years at MBIA/Trifinium as a director, prior to that working at Citigroup in the structured finance, securitisation and alternative risk transfer departments.

► Emilio joined PIDG in 2015 as executive director of The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, becoming head of technical assistance in December 2019. He has more than 35 years of corporate finance, asset management and advisory experience across several markets, including Africa, Latin America, India and Southern Europe. Emilio spent close to 20 years with HSBC in the UK and abroad, subsequently working in a number of smaller firms, including an advisory M&A boutique that he founded and ran for 7 years and in a commodity brokerage firm focused on emerging markets, including Africa. He also spent time as a director of asset management at Climate Change Capital where he was closely involved in developing renewable energy and agri-business transactions in Africa.

► Fiona is managing director of FiRe Energy as well as serving as a strategic advisory board member to the Nuclear Industry Association; non-exec director of Ansaldo Nuclear; and is the UK representative and co-chair of the EMWG for the GIF. She has more than 25 years’ experience encompassing nuclear, oil and gas, renewables and thermal power having previously been a partner and global head of nuclear services at Norton Rose Fulbright before moving away from law to join PwC as the global nuclear lead for capital projects and infrastructure. Following PwC, Fiona became an executive partner and board director in Atlantic SuperConnection.

► Sarah joined CIBC in 2012 to set up and lead its project finance and infrastructure business in Europe, with a focus on origination and structuring for balance sheet deployment and client coverage. She is now managing director and head of project finance and infrastructure for Corporate Banking Europe at CIBC Capital Markets. Prior to this, Sarah was at Dexia’s London-based project finance and infrastructure team for 10 years, and RBS before that.

►Mark has been involved in structuring and raising the capital needed for Gridserve’s sustainable energy infrastructure platform – a tech-enabled sustainable energy business that develops, builds, owns and operates solar energy and battery storage solutions for critical power infrastructure. In the UK, Gridserve is constructing the country’s largest subsidy-free hybrid solar farms and a network of large-scale, ultra-fast electric vehicle charging stations. Previously he financed power projects at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Societe Generale, before establishing the project finance power and renewable energy team at Investec and the solar investment fund at Greencoat Capital.

► Matthew is a well-known figure in the infrastructure community having advised on project and property financings for 30 years and is a founding partner of Newbridge Advisors. He previously worked for Royal Bank of Canada for 12 years following a 9-year career at Greenwich NatWest and was the managing director, head of RBC’s social infrastructure team.

► Sarah took an active role in working on Canada’s first P3 projects and these days splits her time between the INTECH offices in Toronto and Vienna. She is heavily involved with designing and implementing insurance specifications in all major agreements forming part of large projects, including roads, bridges, tunnels, hospitals, schools, courthouses, and other major publicly funded projects.

► Kevin Ryder recently stepped down as UK Country Head at Nedbank Limited, London Branch, a role he had filled since September 2015 to establish an independent consultancy, advising project developers and investors. Kevin spent 12 years at Nedbank London, following a transfer from Nedbank’s head office in Johannesburg in 2008. He is a lawyer by background and has worked in financial services for more than 30 years. His specialities include project finance and M&A, with particular focus on his home continent of Africa.

► Manish is a long-established partner at EY based out of the London office in the infrastructure corporate finance team, with responsibility for the transport sector. He has more than 20 years’ experience in infrastructure financing and M&A, with transactions ranging from project finance, refinancings and complex restructurings. He has extensive cross-border development and financing experience, having worked with governments, banks and investors across the entire transport and infrastructure space. Prior to EY, he worked with Bechtel Enterprises and with IL&FS, a specialist infrastructure lender in India.

► Victoria Westcott is a partner at Reed smith where she leads the project finance practice and co-heads the Africa business practice. She is dual-qualified practicing under English law and French law, and has led teams financing projects across the globe including in Europe, Turkey, Middle East, Asia, Central Asia, CEE and Africa with a particular focus on emerging markets. Victoria specialises in particular on transport and social infrastructure projects, renewable and conventional energy projects and water deals of all types (desalination, wastewater treatment, etc.). Project financing, particularly complex cross-border deals, often involve multiple lender groups including multilateral and bilateral financing institutions, export credit agencies and commercial banks as well as industrial and financial investors, and Victoria is adept at keeping such complex projects on track, moving forward and ensuring smooth progress along the way.

► Olusola was appointed co-managing director in August 2020 and has more than 16 years of corporate finance and infrastructure equity investing experience across European and African markets. Previously he was an investment manager in Macquarie’s European Infrastructure Funds team in London, where he worked on a number of European infra transactions in a principal capacity, and played a key role in portfolio company management, primarily in the petrochemical storage and transport space. Prior to joining Macquarie, Olusola worked at PwC London, where his focus was on transaction advisory services to a primarily private equity client base.

► Shaun has more than 22 years’ experience in infrastructure, working for both the public and private sectors across Australia, the UK & Europe and now the Middle East. He started his career at Ashurst and then Freshfields, and has spent the last 16 years in-house holding down positions within sponsor/equity groups. He has closed deals in several sectors spanning water, waste, aviation, industrial gases, health and education. Since 2016, Shaun has been living in the Middle East, initially working at Vision Invest and now as VP and board secretary at Miahona (a Vision Invest subsidiary focused on utilities in the GCC).

► Suresh is executive VP and chief business development officer for Engie in the newly formed Middle East, South and Central Asia, Turkey, Africa (MESCATA) region. His core skills are in strategy, project development, financial analysis, equity/debt structuring and financial closing in relation to acquisitions, green field, and brown field opportunities. Before joining Engie, Suresh worked with US utility AES as part of its Indian BD team, and prior to that with Indian power companies like Reliance Power and GMR Energy.

► Based in Dubai since 2011, Maarten leads the region’s capital projects and infrastructure practice focusing on privatisation and government fiscal efficiency transformation engagements. Maarten’s career at PwC has spanned three continents during which time he has advised on more than $100 billion of CAPEX consulting engagements in over 15 countries in Europe, Middle East and Oceania. He has also specialized in large scale financings and procurements of “mega projects” across a range of industry sectors (energy, utilities, transport, real estate and social infra) acting for the private sector and for government agencies and ministries.

► Abbas is the Standard Chartered Bank regional head of project and export finance EMEA & Pakistan and head corporate finance for Africa, Middle East & Pakistan based out of Dubai. He has worked in finance for more than 20 years and has deep experience in credit analysis, structuring and documentation. Before joining SCB, he worked for Citibank managing a portfolio of MNCs and local corporates. Prior to that, Abbas worked at Bank of America where he managed a diversified portfolio.

► Laughlan is head of corporate and project finance at SMBC’s Middle East department based in Dubai, having switched roles with Tom Waterhouse in the summer of 2020. He has 25 years’ experience in banking with more than 20 of those in project and structured finance. He has experience on a wide variety of projects and corporates in the energy and infrastructure sectors including power, renewable energy and oil and gas, petrochemicals, waste to energy, wastewater, utilities, social infrastructure and transportation.

► Yusuf has c. 25 years’ experience in energy and infrastructure financing and investments, and has held leadership roles on the buy-side and sell-side of the energy and infrastructure sectors (as sponsor, adviser or lender) in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He has closed more than 30 transactions, representing around $20 billion, across frontier, emerging and developed markets. Yusuf created Cranmore in 2015 as a boutique advisory firm in the project advisory space in the wider Middle East and Africa region.

► Catherine is a partner and head of the Middle East region for Pinsent Masons. In addition she is the board sponsor for the law firm’s bsiness in Saudi Arabia, while also serving as a board member of the British Aviation Group. Catherine is a projects lawyer specialising in PPP projects across a range of sectors particularly airports, ports and waste management. She has worked on projects across Europe (including Croatia, Cyprus, Greece and Poland), Africa (including South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana) and the Middle East (UAE, Saudi, Kuwait and Oman).

► Adel is the Dubai-based managing director and co-head investment banking, coverage, and infrastructure energy finance at Natixis – responsible for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. He more than 20 years of experience in banking, including 9 years with RBS’ infrastructure finance group in London covering advisory, lending and equity. Adel worked across numerous sectors in the infrastructure sector including power, renewables, oil and gas, telecoms, water, waste, and social infrastructure as well as accommodation in META, delivering delivered fixed rate solutions from institutional investors.

► Matt is head of Linklaters’ Middle East energy and infrastructure practice and has been with Linklaters for more than 25 years. His practise focuses advising investors, developers, contractors and funders on the development, acquisition/disposal and financing of energy and infrastructure projects around the world. Matt’s experience spans the oil and gas, power and infrastructure sectors. He has spent most of his career based in London, but ran the Linklaters energy and infrastructure practice in Moscow from 2010 to 2015, relocating to the Middle East in 2020.

► Sami is managing partner of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Investcorp joint venture focusing on infrastructure in the GCC and MENA region. He previously held the position of assistant general manager of energy at SMBC in London. Sami is an emerging markets specialist with long experience in the MENAT region. He headed Sumitomo’s BD for Africa and led teams working on financing projects in renewable, power generation, transmission and distribution.

► Nicolas’s infrastructure finance career spans over 20 years, having worked at SocGen, Dexia, Deutsche Bank. He has also worked on impact investments at Juilliard Global Ventures and NM Strategy. Nicolas’ professional exposure spans the Americas, EMEA and Asia. His areas of expertise range from strategic business development, building & nurturing diverse and inclusive teams, investments due diligence, risks management, advising, structuring and distributing Acquisition/LBOs, project finance & PPPs, asset backed securities, structured trade & export finance, as well as operational & financial optimisation of new ventures for transport, energy, telecoms, waste, water, education & social assets.

► Lysa Scully Leiponis, principal and president of LL Aviation Advisors is a forward thinking aviation leader with 35 years of notable transport industry experience. Prior to starting her own advisory firm, Lysa had a distinguished 33-year career as a leader at The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. As the former CEO/Airport General Manager of LaGuardia Airport, Lysa created a detailed vision for customer excellence to serve the airport’s 30 million annual passengers. She inspired and led 400 staff, and galvanized airport stakeholders, to implement pioneering projects to transform the customer experience. Lysa was recently appointed independent senior adviser for the Ferrovial Airports US division.

► Lindsay is a senior manager in KPMG’s infrastructure advisory practice with over 12 years’ experience. She provides strategic, financial and commercial advice to a diverse mix of public and private sector clients. Lindsay has worked across social infrastructure, defence and energy sectors, but with a particular focus on transit and transport. She specialises in delivering large, complex, city-changing infrastructure around the world. She has advised on projects around the world, bringing international leading practice to all of her clients.

► Sia is Plenary America’s group head for project development and partnering and senior vice president. In this role, he leads project development across all sectors. He is responsible for development, identification and assessment of new opportunities, as well as interaction with owners and assisting them in bringing projects to market. He positions Plenary with appropriate project sponsors and selects partners through leveraging industry relationships. A forty-year veteran of the industry, Sia is a highly experienced programme and project executive who has delivered a variety of infrastructure programmes for a diverse range of public and private clients. He has been instrumental in integrated delivery policy development in the US and has helped public owners develop design-build and P3 legislation, programmes, project pipelines and procurement processes in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia.

► Luuk Veenstra is head of distribution North America, M&G Investments Americas. He set up the North American distribution office for M&G in 2018 and is based in New York. He transferred across from the Amsterdam office which he joined in 2013 as a director institutional distribution for the Benelux region. Prior to joining M&G, Luuk spent 3 years at PGGM Investments as a senior investment manager where he was responsible for the sourcing, negotiation, execution and asset management of direct investments in infrastructure.

► Tim leads Arup’s advisory services business based in New York. He joined Arup in 2018 following a 38-year career in banking and finance, principally in project finance, across a wide range of sectors and geographies. His specialties include project finance, PFI/P3P3, privatisations, and restructurings. Tim has delivered projects in transport, energy, and social infrastructure and has worked with public authorities developing their projects and programs including providing input to necessary legislation. With experience of delivering projects from multiple perspectives as adviser to public authorities, bidding groups and, as a principal as both lender and equity investor/developer, Tim brings a depth of experience and market knowledge in developing alternative delivery models for public and private clients alike.

► Tom Rousakis is a senior managing director and US infrastructure leader with EY Infrastructure Advisors (EYIA). Tom has 24 years of experience in US infrastructure finance and is a recognised authority on the growing US public-private partnership market. Tom joined EYIA in 2013 after 16 years in infrastructure investment banking for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. He led transaction teams from inception through execution of debt and advisory assignments, developing rating agency, deal structure and investor marketing strategies for over $25 billion in infrastructure projects for highway and transit agencies, as well as universities and state and local governments generally.

► Laurie Mahon serves as vice-chair of CIBC’s US investment banking business, a role she assumed after having led the global infrastructure and power team since August 2013. She has spent her entire professional life in the infrastructure space, having had a multifaceted career as a banker, public sector manager, infrastructure executive, consultant, journalist and developer focusing on the development and financing of large infrastructure projects around the globe. Laurie also spent 12 years as an independent adviser, helping numerous public and private entities develop transport projects in the US, Latin America, China and the UK.

► Mike Pikiel is a New York-based partner at Winston & Strawn and co-head of the firm’s energy & infrastructure industry group. He represents sponsors, developers, investors, lenders and underwriters in a wide range of projects and complex finance transactions, including project financings and acquisition financings.  Mike has nearly 20 years of experience representing clients in the infrastructure, transport and energy sectors and he also has significant experience with public-private partnerships (PPPs).

► Jill Jamieson is CEO of Illuminati Infrastructure, a boutique professional services firm specializing in public sector advisory services. A globally recognized leader in public-private-partnerships, Jill has worked extensively throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia. With nearly 30 years of experience, successful transaction experience encompasses work across multiple infrastructure sectors, including transportation, water, energy, education, climate/resilience, and social sector, with a capital portfolio of over US$32 billion. Jill is also a national authority on infrastructure policy, frequently called to testify as an independent expert before Congressional committees on P3 and other forms of innovative finance and delivery.

► At Natixis, Nasir is responsible for infrastructure finance for power and renewables, transport, social infrastructure and telecoms. He has over 20 years’ experience in infrastructure and energy. Prior to his new role, he was managing director and head of infrastructure for the Americas at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. There, he specialised in business development across lending, advisory and capital markets. He has also held positions at Ports America Group and Citigroup.

► Aitor Alava heads Natixis Infrastructure Finance for Latam. He has 20 years of diverse infrastructure finance experience, on the banking, developer, and construction sides. He joined Natixis’ Americas Platform in 2013 after having headed Project Finance Spain & Portugal for Natixis since September 2011. Prior to joining Natixis, Mr. Álava was Deputy Head, Project Finance Spain & Portugal at BNP Paribas and, earlier, Director, Global Export and Project Finance Iberia at Fortis Bank. He has also worked at Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, Andersen Consulting, and OHL. Mr. Álava holds a Masters in Public Services and Infrastructure Management from Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos Canales y Puertos de Madrid and a BA Civil Engineer from Universidad Politécnica Madrid. Aitor is a CFA chart holder.

► Ariel Ramos. Ariel is a senior partner of the Energy, Infrastructure and Finance groups of Mayer Brown based in Mexico City. With almost 30 years of experience, he is consider a top leading expert in Infrastructure, Energy, Governmental Procurement and Regulatory matters related to the above including been one of the first lawyers to participate in the implementation of projects under the Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) or Asociaciones Público Privadas (APP) – previously Proyectos de Prestación de Servicios (PPS) scheme in Mexico.

► Juan José Cárdenas is a seasoned lawyer with more than 25 years of experience mainly focused in large transactions in Peru and Latam. His professional practice focuses on PPP projects, Project Finance, M&A, Venture Capital and Corporate Finance. During his professional career Juan José has led and participated in large PPP projects in several sectors such as in port, airports, energy, transportation, sanitation, telecom, among others, providing legal counsel to international and domestic companies, banks, multilateral organizations and governmental entities.

He currently leads the Projects & Infrastructure practice in EY Law Peru. Juan José obtained his law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

He also holds an LLM in Financial Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

► Miriam Signor is partner at Stocche Forbes Advogados and her practices focuses on banking and finance, infrastructure, structured finance, sustainable finance, concessions and PPPs. Miriam has extensive experience in advising financial institutions, investment funds, development agencies, borrowers and sponsors in structuring, developing and financing infrastructure projects in various regulated sectors. Recognized by Chambers and Partners as one of the leading lawyers in Brazil in Project Finance. Recognized by International Financial Law Review (IFLR 1000) as highly regarded in Banking, Project Finance, M&A and Project Development. Recognized as Leading lawyer in Projects and Infrastructure and recommended in Banking and Finance and Hydrocarbons by The Legal500 Latin America. Recommended as standout practitioner in Project Finance by Who’s Who Legal Brazil. Miriam holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LL.B.) from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), Postgraduate Degree in Securities Law and Capital Markets from Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and a Masters of Laws Degree (LL.M.) from New York University School of Law.

► Tobey leads the energy practice for Latin America, including both conventional energy and renewable energy. Recent transaction highlights include gas-fired power in Central America; solar projects in Chile, Brazil and El Salvador; wind projects in Argentina and Brazil; and transmission projects in Brazil and Chile. Tobey is also CEO of our affiliate, Astris Securities, LLC. Prior to joining Astris in 2013, Tobey spent ten years leading transactional finance teams as a sponsor/owner of electricity assets, including six years at the AES Corporation. Tobey graduated with a degree in Government, magna cum laude from Harvard University and holds a masters degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. Tobey is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

► Jorge Camiña joined Allianz Global Investors in June 2016 as Director within the Infrastructure Debt team based in New York with responsibility for origination and execution in all sectors. Since joining AllianzGI, Jorge has spearheaded the development of debt investments in the energy and renewables sectors in U.S and the expansion of the Infrastructure Debt strategy into Latin America in 2018. Jorge has executed over $3 Bn of investments in US and $ 1.8 Bn in Latin America, including milestone transactions such as the 8point3 solar (US), Grande Prairie Wind (US), El Encino La Laguna gas pipeline (Mexico) or Celeo Redes Electric Transmission (Chile) or Sigma Wind portfolio (Peru) among others.

Prior to joining Jorge was Head of Project & Acquisition Finance for Santander in New York, leading a team responsible for non-recourse financing in North America. Jorge joined Santander in 2005 and held several positions in non-recourse financing in Madrid and with the Corporate Syndicated Loans group in New York. His background includes experience across transaction in Latin American, US and Europe, and segments ranging from Corporate Loans and Project Finance to Leveraged Buyouts. Prior to Santander he was with BBVA at the M&A Advisory Group in Madrid. He initiated his career with Arthur Andersen and ABN Amro Bank. Mr. Camiña received a BS from Deusto Business School, Bilbao, with specialization in Finance.

► Francisco is a partner at Barros & Errázuriz and co-leads the Projects and Finance Group. He graduated from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, studied Comparative International Law at Universidad de Salamanca School of Law, Spain, and obtained a Master in Law at Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago. He was a Professor of Commercial Law at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile School of Law, Santiago. De la Barra joined Barros & Errázuriz in 2010. His main areas of practice include project and corporate finance transactions, as well as project development and financing transactions in the infrastructure, energy (generation and transmission), transportation and water utilities.

► Fuensanta heads structured finance at Intesa Sanpaolo in New York, where she is responsible for activities in the Americas focusing on originating, evaluating, and structuring investments in the Infrastructure, Energy, Oil&Gas, and Real Estate sectors. She has structured, arranged and financed public and private biddings for infrastructure assets in support of local and global players in the industry including assets such as roads, tunnels, ports, logistics, social infrastructure, petrochemical facilities, gas pipelines, conventional power, and wind and solar portfolios. She holds a bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of Missouri, Saint Louis, and an MBA from the American University in D.C.

► Pedro is a partner at the Santiago de Chile office of Garrigues, where he heads the project finance team. A repeated name in a number of relevant transactions, from banking to capital markets, including energy, transportation, water and toll roads. He recently advised the Central Bank of Chile in the design and implementation of a $50 billion secured liquidity facility to local banks, to provide them with lowcost funding. A graduate from Catholic University of Chile and from the LLM Program of Duke University, Pedro is also a lecturer at his alma mater and member of the panel of arbitrators of the Arbitration and Mediation Center of Santiago.

► Partner at the Brazilian law firm Lefosse Advogados, Paloma focuses on cross border financings, investments, and M&As particularly in the infrastructure sector. She guides clients navigating through the complexity of regulations in industries such as airports, transportation, traditional and renewable energy, oil & gas and shipping. She advises corporations on project and infrastructure finance, multisourced financing, privatizations and corporate restructurings, formation and reorganization of business ventures. She has worked for prominent law firms, financial institutions and the International Multilateral Bank IDB in Washington, DC. She holds a bachelor’s in Law degree from Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and has specialization degree in Corporate Governance from Stanford University.

► Pablo is a partner at Mattos Filho law firm. Based in Rio de Janeiro, he concentrates his expertise in transactions, project development and financing of the energy sector. He has worked for both sponsors and lenders in dozens of transactions awarded as “IJGlobal Deal of the Year” and has been in the forefront of most innovative transactions in the infrastructure and energy sectors in Brazil. Sorj holds an Executive MBA in Finance by IBMEC/RJ and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Stanford Law School. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School.

► Cynthia is a senior partner in Shearman & Sterling's Project Development and Finance Practice and heads the firm's Mining and Metals Group. She represents sponsors, borrowers, lenders, and alternative financiers in project development and finance transactions worldwide, with extensive experience in the energy, infrastructure, mining and general manufacturing industries, as well as in power, infrastructure and mining restructurings. Cynthia’s significant experience includes a long history of notable transactions both domestic and foreign. She is ranked as a Leading Lawyer for Project Finance for the US and Latin America by several institutions.

►With more than 30 years’ experience, Alice Chow is a member of Arup’s East Asia Board, leading the firm’s Advisory Services in the region to help clients think long-term, design for success, invest wisely and manage for better business performance.

With a passion to combine engineering expertise with commercial and operational know-how, she has managed numerous award-winning projects ranging from strategic airport gateways to mission-critical systems and much-needed education and healthcare facilities. Alice is a registered structural engineer and Fellow of Association for Project Management, Institution of Structural Engineers, Institution of Civil Engineers, Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and Hong Kong Institute of Facility Management Limited.

► Anna Chung is a Partner and Head of the Shearman & Sterling Seoul office. She began her career at Australian firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth and joined Shearman’s London office over 14 years ago. She has since worked in our Shanghai and Singapore offices before relocating to Seoul to head up the Korean practice. Anna concentrates her practice in the development and financing of projects, with a focus on power, infrastructure, oil and gas, and petrochemical sectors. Anna represents sponsors and lenders, including regional development banks, multilaterals and export credit agencies. Anna is recognized as a leading lawyer for Projects & Infrastructure for Singapore and South Korea by Chambers Asia-Pacific (2016-2021) and for Projects and Energy in South Korea by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific (2021). She is ranked as a “Rising Star” for Project Finance and Project Development as well as for Banking in Singapore and South Korea by IFLR1000 (2019-2021). She is also a recognized practitioner for Projects, Infrastructure & Energy in the Philippines by Chambers Asia-Pacific (2020-2021). Anna was listed as Law 360’s MVP 2017 after being selected as a Rising Star for “attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments transcend their age”.

► Audra has overall responsibility for strategic leadership for the company and performance Clifford Capital. Since joining Clifford Capital at its inception in 2012 as Head of Origination and Structuring, Audra had spearheaded the growth of the Clifford Capital franchise in the relevant project and asset finance markets across the sectors covered by the company.

She brings with her a wealth of experience working with Singapore-based companies on infrastructure projects locally and overseas. Prior to Clifford Capital, she spent 12 years in project finance with HSBC, playing a key role in the origination and financing of numerous award-winning projects in South East Asia, both as financial advisor and lead arranger.

Audra has an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Accountancy from Nanyang Technological University.

► Isabel is the Regional Industry Director, Infrastructure and Natural Resources, Asia and Pacific, based in Singapore. For seven years prior to her current role, Isabel was the Regional Manager for PPP Transaction Advisory Services, initially for South Asia based in Delhi, and subsequently in Singapore as her mandate expanded to cover all Asia Pacific for the last four years.

Isabel spent four years in IFC’s Subnational Finance unit where she worked in deal origination, structuring and supervision of debt and structured finance products in more than six countries in LAC.

Isabel, a civil engineer by training, holds an MBA and a PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK).

► Kanna leads Private Capital Markets team in Japan where her primary role is to connect Japanese capital to global infrastructure opportunities. Her most recent experiences include successful formation of a partnership with JERA on Formosa 1, 2 and 3 offshore wind projects in Taiwan, and acquisition of Electricity North West in UK by a consortium including Kansai Electric.

Since joining Macquarie in 2013, she has worked on 2 of the first 3 major infrastructure privatisation projects in Japan, Sendai Airport and Aichi Toll Road, as a financial advisor to the winning consortium of each transaction.

Before joining Macquarie, Kanna engaged in commercial lending for non-EU EMEA companies in Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s EMEA headquarter in London for 5 years. Kanna started her career as a business consultant at BaringPoint (currently PwC) where she worked on various business process optimisation projects for Japanese companies.

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► Kian Min is responsible for business development for energy projects in Asia for JERA.

He brings with him more than two decades of experience in the power industry. He led the entry of JERA into Bangladesh with two investments in 2019 – a 718MW CCGT plant and a 22% equity investment in Summit Power International Limited.

Prior to joining JERA, Kian Min was Head of Business Development for ASEAN, Sembcorp Industries. At Sembcorp, he led the company’s expansion into Myanmar with the Myingyan IPP – the first internationally tendered and project financed power transaction in that country.

► John is the Asia Head of Energy and Infrastructure at Linklaters, having previously served as our Tokyo Managing Partner between 2012 and 2020. He has previously been based in the UK and Hong Kong.

John advises sponsors, lenders and export credit agencies on the development and financing of, and acquisitions in, world-scale and or new-market energy and infrastructure projects throughout the world, including offshore wind, LNG, petrochemical as well as conventional power projects. His experience also includes cross-border rail and large-scale infrastructure projects.

John is recognised in Chambers and Legal 500 as a “Band 1 / Leading Individual” lawyer in his field, with clients and peers commenting that ‘he has an outstanding reputation for project finance’, is ‘always inspiring’ and that ‘he is a big personality, very diplomatic in the way he presents and frankly a pleasure to deal with’.

► Nicky Davies is a project finance and construction and engineering partner based in the Singapore office of Norton Rose Fulbright. She relocated from the London office in 2007.

Nicky specialises in financing and construction aspects of major infrastructure projects, focusing on negotiating concession agreements, design and build/EPC, facilities management/O&M and associated project and finance documentation. She has advised lenders, sponsors and governments alike across a broad range of sectors including defence, accommodation, education, health, mining, power generation, rail, sport and leisure infrastructure, and water and waste.

In addition, Nicky advises major corporates on their commercial contracts and strategic procurement arrangements.

Nicky studied law at Exeter University, UK and the Université d'Aix-Marseille III, France before completing the LPC at the College of Law, Guildford. She qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2002.

► Quyn is based in Hong Kong and runs Citi’s Project & Infrastructure Finance in Asia Pacific business. He has 13 years experience of project & structured debt across Asia Pacific.

He led many of Asia Pacific’s landmark project bonds, as well as debt and ratings advisories. Prior to joining Citi in 2016, he was with NAB for 9 years in Australia and Hong Kong where he worked in project finance, transportation finance and mezzanine debt teams.

► Rob leads MUFG’s Project Finance and ESG Finance businesses in Oceania.

In Project Finance, he continues to expand MUFG’s market leading business in the region, spanning infrastructure, renewables, utilities and natural resources.

In the newly created ESG Finance role, Rob is responsible for all ESG financing in Oceania, contributing to MUFG’s stated target of arranging JPY 20 Trillion (~USD200bln) in this field by 2030.

Rob has 24 years investment banking experience covering structured finance, advisory and debt capital markets. He previously led MUFG’s Advisory business in Oceania. Prior to joining MUFG in 2012, he worked at RBS, ABN AMRO and Bankers Trust. He has worked in Australia and in London, where he specialised in emerging markets including Russia and Kazakhstan. He is a member of the Australian Council of the International Project Finance Association and an active contributor to Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, having served on several industry task forces.

► Shantanu Chakraborty is the Director, Infrastructure Finance Division 1, in the Private Sector Operations Department (PSOD) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) based in Manila, the Philippines. He has been with ADB for over 15 years. His current responsibilities include managing a team of investment professionals, responsible for origination and execution of infrastructure and project finance transactions in South and Central Asia.

► Stephen has in excess of 30 years insurance broking experience, more than 25 of which specialising in providing insurance and risk solutions for the construction industry.

Stephen heads up the Marsh JLT Specialty Construction practice in Asia and is a member of the Global Construction practice. Based in Hong Kong and maintains responsibility for major construction projects and clients in Asia and Asian interests abroad.

Throughout his career, Stephen has worked in Australia, London and Hong Kong.

Stephen is a regular presenter at construction conferences and seminars and conducts Marsh JLT Specialty’s annual construction training “Academy”.

► Zia is currently the Head of Asia in the Global Structured Finance (GSF) team at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). GSF provides financing solutions including Project Finance, Export Credit and Agency Finance and Acquisition Finance across power, renewables, infrastructure and natural resource sectors GSF team for Asia has about 45 staff spread across Singapore and Hong Kong.

Zia has been in the GSF team at SMBC since 2006 where he initially worked on advisory and arranging transactions across wide range of sectors before leading the team’s business in the Mining Metals space in Asia for about 4 years from 2009 Then Zia headed the Power Infrastructure team where he played a key role in developing SMBC’s renewables business across Asia, including establishing SMBC as a leading bank in the Offshore Wind space in Taiwan.