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CDPQ’s Tall to join Carlyle as infrastructure co-chair

Tall joins Carlyle as the DC-based firm continues investing its $2.2bn flagship Global Infrastructure Opportunity Fund.

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New hire: after helping build CDPQ’s infra business, Tall will move to Carlyle early next year

The Carlyle Group has brought on veteran infrastructure leadership through the hire of Macky Tall from Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

Tall will join the Washington, DC-based fund manager early next year, after spending 16 years at CDPQ, one of North America’s largest pension investors with C$333 billion ($259.7 billion; €214.6 billion) in assets under management. During his time at CDPQ, Tall helped build the pension fund’s infrastructure strategy into an investment group managing more than C$28 billion in assets. He also helped launch and served as the first chief executive of CDPQ Infra, a direct investment arm of CDPQ which has taken on large public infrastructure developments such as the ongoing Réseau express métropolitain light rail project in Montreal.

Carlyle chief executive Kewsong Lee touted Tall as a high-profile infrastructure leader, describing him as “one of the most seasoned and well-respected executives” in the asset class. “We see tremendous opportunity in infrastructure given the growing demand for private capital for essential assets, and look forward to benefiting from his deep expertise and decades of investing experience in all aspects of this sector,” Lee said in the statement.

As co-chair, Tall will report to Lee and work alongside Brooke Coburn, Carlyle’s other infrastructure co-chair who is also deputy chief investment officer of the firm’s real assets group. Tall will also work closely with Pete Taylor and Pooja Goyal, co-heads of the firm’s Carlyle Global Infrastructure Opportunity Fund.

The CGI fund closed last July on $2.2 billion, $300 million short of its target, and is investing in assets across the transportation, energy, renewables, water and wastewater and digital sectors. Carlyle has announced investments from the fund into the modernisation of Terminal One at New York’s JFK International Airport and Lone Star Ports Harbor Island Crude Export Terminal in Texas.

Most recently, in August, Carlyle acquired a portfolio of solar projects in Maine currently under development. Representing more than $130 million in capital investments, the portfolio is expected to generate over 100MW.

Carlyle declined to comment beyond its public statement.