PIP hires star infra fundraiser as non-exec

The Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) has appointed Isabel Liu as non-executive director as it gears up to become a fully fledged asset manager.

Liu is a serial entrepreneur in the infrastructure fund management business, having set up four outlets over the course of her 20-year career in the industry. These have included AIG's $1 billion Asian Infrastructure Fund, launched in 1994, and ABN AMRO 's €1.1 billion Global Infrastructure Fund, a 2005 vehicle Eiser Infrastructure bought in 2010 after spinning out from the Dutch bank.

Liu joins little more than a month after PIP received authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority , the UK's financial regulator, to become a full-scope Alternative Investment Fund Manager. Her appointment follows the hire of Ed Wilson and Paula Burgess , respectively as PIP's first investment director and chief operating officer.

Founded in 2013, the platform is formed of a group of UK pensions that aims to raise £2 billion ($2.8 billion; €2.6 billion) for “infrastructure investments combining long-term, low risk, inflation-linked cash flows, with scale and true institutional alignment,” according to a statement.

The platform in July passed the £1 billion fundraising mark , bringing it more than halfway towards its target.

The capital is so far managed through the Dalmore PPP Equity PIP Fund and Aviva Investors ' PIP Solar Photovoltaics Fund – which have respective sizes of more than £500 million and £130 million – as well as a £370 million co-investment alongside Dalmore in the £4.2 billion Thames Tideway Tunnel .

PIP's ambition is to now raise a multi-strategy infrastructure investment fund, which will make direct investments into UK infrastructure. Liu will play “a crucial role” in this process, said Mike Weston, PIP chief executive.