Fundraising

Ex-Macquarie senior exec joins Palisade

David Bennett's appointment comes two months the firm sealed a A$1bn renewables partnership with Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

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Australian infrastructure fund manager Palisade Investment Partners has appointed David Bennett as an independent member of its investment committee. 

Bennett retired from Macquarie Group in 2013 where he held the position of group treasurer and executive director, after a career spanning 36 years in investment banking. 

He spent 13 years as Macquarie’s global head of debt capital markets, where he managed a team of up to 80 staff based in Europe, the US, Canada, Southeast Asia, Japan and Australia. During his tenure, the business underwrote or arranged more than A$500 billion ($379 billion; €342 billion) of debt financing across all major global markets, Palisade said in a statement. 

Bennett continues to be a board member of the Macquarie Group Foundation. 

After departing from Macquarie, he became a company director at Social Enterprise Finance Australia for three years, his Linkedin profile states. 

“Bennett is a highly experienced investment professional who provides a deep understanding of and insight into global debt capital markets, which complements and underscores Palisade’s credit approach to investing in infrastructure,” said Roger Lloyrd, managing director and chief executive officer of Palisade. 

“Palisade has intentionally sought to build out an investment committee comprised of diverse, independent thinkers to ensure that risk is being assessed from multiple perspective.”

Independent members of Palisade's investment committee also include Ross Barry, David Howell and John Hughes, working alongside Palisade’s founding directors, Ian Mitchell and Ian Macoun. 

Most recently, Palisade has been busy working on Queensland’s Gold Coast Light Rail, teaming up with partners to provide additional equity needed to construct the 7.3km, A$420 million additional stretch. 

The fund manager and Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the country’s state-run renewables financier, have also hammered a partnership to develop about A$1 billion of renewable energy projects across the country. The firm, which is committing up to A$400 million of equity to the programme alongside CEFC, plans to launch a pooled renewable energy fund in the second half of 2016.