We said that 2018 would be a record year for infrastructure. And so it proved, with over $90 billion raised. The ‘golden age’ we predicted appears to be going strong with 2019 on track to set a new record of around $100 billion. This seems an ideal time for our inaugural Rainmaker 20 – a list acknowledging professionals’ exceptional fundraising prowess. To find out who should feature, we posed a straightforward question to a large sample of GPs, LPs and placement agents around the world: “If you were out there raising a fund, who would you want on your team and why?” Those with the most nominations made the list. No one was allowed to nominate fundraisers from within their own organisation.
A ‘rainmaker’ is usually defined as someone who can generate business and income. However, our respondents fleshed out the definition by referring to nominees’ skills and qualities, including trustworthiness, integrity and relationship building.
Although some of our rainmakers have recently changed firms, they are here because of what they have achieved throughout their careers. The list includes the young, the seasoned, founders of firms, those who have helped raise mega-funds and those who have helped kickstart niche strategies. While some have been cited for their interpersonal skills, their responsiveness to investors’ needs and their work ethic, all have been cited for their knowledge and understanding of the asset class.
We hope you find the choices a compelling read. As the asset class grows, we look forward to drawing more of infrastructure’s best fundraisers into the spotlight.
Who’s who
Click on the names below to go straight to the full entries for each of our Rainmakers
- Greg Wiener, partner, Campbell Lutyens
- Andreas Moon, head of investor relations, I Squared Capital
- Sébastien Lecaudey, partner – investor relations, Antin Infrastructure Partners
- Sam Pollock, managing partner and CEO infrastructure, Brookfield Asset Management
- Pierre Anctil, president and CEO, Axium Infrastructure
- Christoffer Davidsson, partner, Campbell Lutyens
- James Wardlaw, head of infrastructure, Campbell Lutyens
- Cathleen Ellsworth, managing director, BlackRock Real Assets
- Louisa Yeoman, co-head, European distribution, AMP Capital
- Matthieu Muzumdar, chief operating officer Europe, Meridiam
- Martin Donnelly, co-head, Asia, FIRSTavenue
- Daniel Zinic, principal, Park Hill Group
- Sean Ham, head of client relations and capital raising Asia, EQT Partners
- Bruce Chapman, co-founder, Threadmark
- Brenden Woods, managing director, investor solutions group, Americas, MIRA
- Nina Dohr-Pawlowitz, chief executive, DC Placement Advisors
- Irene Mavroyannis, managing director, investor solutions group, MIRA
- Neil Brown, head of the investor development group, Actis
- Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman, Global Infrastructure Partners
- Adam Lygoe, senior managing director, investor solutions group, EMEA, MIRA
In the interest of space, we have had to condense certain job titles or feature only the most pertinent in the context of this list.
Pierre Anctil
President and CEO
Axium Infrastructure
Anctil may have co-founded Axium Infrastructure in 2008, but his experience spans more than three decades in infrastructure investment and engineering.
He previously served as executive vice-president and member of the office of the president at SNC-Lavalin Group, where he was responsible for the investment activities of the firm’s infrastructure division, including public-private partnerships.
Since its founding, Axium Infrastructure has invested C$3.5 billion ($2.7 billion; €2.4 billion) in the energy, transport and social infrastructure sub-sectors in North America. In the past 24 months alone, Axium invested C$1.4 billion in 46 core infrastructure assets. But it has also been busy raising capital, with the help of its senior vice-president of investor relations, Anne-Sophie Roy, and collecting another C$1.75 billion for its open-ended Axium Infrastructure North America funds.
It’s not just Anctil’s lengthy track record that’s earned him a spot on our Rainmaker 20 list; it’s also his effectiveness and reputation as a “leader of a world-class business”, as one source puts it.
Neil Brown
Head of the investor development group
Actis
Overseeing more than $5.5 billion of fundraising activity over the last four years, Brown was singled out by one source for his “sharp understanding of what makes a good investment, his strong interpersonal skills, his sheer perseverance and his charming manner” – all essential qualities for the head of the firm’s investor development group.
He led his in-house team in raising Actis’s fourth energy fund, Actis Energy 4, in 2016-17, exceeding its $2 billion target in seven months and hitting its $2.75 billion hard-cap four months after its initial close. Described as a “straight-talking, proud Australian”, Brown has worked on investments in markets around the globe, with assets as diverse as a renewable energy platform in India and a logistics hub in South Africa. He was also heavily involved in Actis’s acquisition of Standard Chartered’s Principal Finance Real Estate business in Asia last year, helping to expand the firm’s remit outside the infrastructure asset class.
Bruce Chapman
Co-founder
Threadmark
Having raised capital for more than 50 vehicles across private equity, infrastructure, real estate and credit opportunities in the 18 years since he became active in capital raising and corporate finance, it seems inevitable that Chapman would be among those appearing in our inaugural Rainmaker 20 list. Threadmark, the placement agent he co-founded, has focused on infrastructure from the beginning, raising more than $12.5 billion for 15 funds, associated vehicles and co-investments.
Most recently, the firm helped raise €1.3 billion for Mirova Infrastructure (now Vauban Infrastructure Partners) and helped InfraRed reach its $1.2 billion hard-cap for Fund V. In fact, all of the funds Threadmark has helped raise have closed above target, with a significant proportion reaching their hard-cap. Perhaps it’s Chapman’s approach that makes the difference.
“Bruce worked with us to help define the product and the market in a way that went above and beyond what others in the market were offering,” says one source who considered several placement agents for his firm’s maiden fund. “I’m very happy that we chose Bruce.”
Christoffer Davidsson
Partner
Campbell Lutyens
Davidsson heads up Campbell Lutyens’ New York office and is responsible for the firm’s fund placement activities in the US and Canada.
This experienced fundraiser has been involved in private markets for more than 18 years, having joined his current firm in 2001 following stints with ING Barings and WR Hambrecht, and raising more than $80 billion across more than 80 fund and secondaries opportunities.
Fluent in Swedish and Spanish, he is described by one insider as someone with “a global vision, a local network and a friendly approach” who has “consistently delivered” for clients.
Davidsson is also very much not just an infrastructure fundraiser, having helped raise private equity and private debt funds for managers in all corners of the globe.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he also featured in the debut edition of sister publication Private Equity International’s Rainmaker 50.
Nina Dohr-Pawlowitz
Chief executive
DC Placement Advisors
Dohr-Pawlowitz founded DC Placement Advisors in 2008 and has gone on to establish it as one of the leading placement agents in infrastructure. She is also one of the few senior female voices in the placement agent market.
She has been lauded for her “deep institutional contact base” and has raised funds for the likes of AMP Capital, Alinda, Schroders and Natixis. With interpersonal skills a must-have in the world of fundraising, “it is always a pleasure to present with her and she strikes the right balance during intense fundraising meetings”, according to a nomination.
Dohr-Pawlowitz has raised more than €5.5 billion for equity, debt and renewables-focused vehicles across Europe and Asia. She has overall responsibility for the DCPLA distribution team and chairs the company’s Senior Advisory Group, which uses its network to open up new opportunities.
Before forming DCPLA, she worked for the likes of Siemens and Thomson Group.
Martin Donnelly
Co-head, Asia
FIRSTavenue
Donnelly joined FIRSTavenue in 2014 and is responsible for distribution and origination in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He was previously a managing director for Blackstone’s hedge fund solutions group, where he focused on business development and client relations in Australia and the Pacific. He has worked for ING Investment Management Australia, Barclays Global Investors and Deutsche Asset Management, where he led institutional capital raising for private equity. He was also part of DB Capital Partners’ investment team and a founding member of its private equity and infrastructure team.
With almost 20 years’ experience in alternative assets, we are told he is appreciated for his “in-depth understanding of LPs and their needs”, and that his “flexible mindset” allows him to meet GPs’ requirements “in a bespoke way”. He was one of the forces behind the €2 billion close of InfraVia Capital Partners’ European Fund IV, which was originally targeting €1.5 billion. He also contributed to the fundraising of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners’ inaugural vehicle, focused on lower carbon and renewable energy infrastructure investment, which reached a final close last March after raising over $1.6 billion.
Cathleen Ellsworth
Managing director
BlackRock Real Assets
It’s not just the nearly three decades Ellsworth has spent in the energy and infrastructure space that leads to one source describing her as “the consummate professional” – it’s also her work ethic, her achievements and her relationship-building: “She works incredibly hard, and is detailed and diligent in every aspect of process management.”
Another source says: “She is very good at building strong LP relationships and knows how to listen. LPs like to deal with her.”
Having started her career at Chemical Bank in New York, Ellsworth joined First Reserve, an energy-focused private equity firm, in 1990. She spent 27 years there, raising more than
$20 billion in capital commitments across infrastructure and private equity.
In June 2017, when BlackRock acquired First Reserve’s two energy infrastructure funds, Ellsworth and the rest of the firm’s infrastructure team joined the New York-based manager. Since then, she has led the fundraising effort for BlackRock’s Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Fund III, raising more than $3 billion in commitments. Ellsworth and the First Reserve team also continue to manage the First Reserve vehicles.
Sean Ham
Head of client relations and capital raising, Asia
EQT Partners
Ham, managing director and head of client relations and capital raising in Asia for EQT, has been expanding the fund manager’s reach in the region. We’re told he has been keen to hear the needs of regional LPs, especially Japanese ones, through much-valued face-to-face meetings.
His efforts have clearly paid off: Ham and his team of seven more than doubled the number of Asia-Pacific LPs investing in EQT’s vehicles in the last three years, raising €2.5 billion across the region for EQT Infrastructure IV. “This has been particularly important for a firm like EQT that is constantly looking for ways to grow, both geographically and when it comes to new innovative products,” one source says.
Ham manages capital raising in Asia not only for EQT’s infrastructure strategy, but across all business lines. Before joining the fund manager, he worked at the Blackstone Group in Hong Kong, where he focused on investor coverage and business development. He had previously gained experience in private funds placement while working with UBS and Merrill Lynch.
Sébastien Lecaudey
Partner – investor relations
Antin Infrastructure Partners
Lecaudey has been at Antin since its inception in 2008 and his record at the BNP Paribas spin-out speaks for itself, with the group raising a total of €8 billion.
He has led and built an investor relations team which now numbers eight and has amassed an investor base of 120 LPs from 22 countries. However, for Lecaudey, this large mix of investors does not remove the personal connection needed for the task.
“He knows his clients perfectly, which is not that common,” one nomination states.
Lecaudey also sits on Antin’s investment committee, thereby demonstrating his ability as an all-rounder. Sources tell us his leadership and dedication are reflected in the loyalty shown by Antin’s LPs. And as our nomination puts it: “He has been largely successful in Antin’s fundraising – from the first mid-sized vehicle to the current multi-billion fund”.
Lecaudey joined Antin from BNP Paribas, where he was chief operating officer of the alternative and private equity investments unit.
Adam Lygoe
Senior managing director, investor solutions group, EMEA
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets
As one of our sources stresses, Lygoe and his team of around 20 people have been “significant contributors” to the firm’s fundraising efforts for many years. Most recently, the team co-ordinated the closing of Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 6 at its hard-cap of €6 billion. In the year to 31 March, the team contributed A$9 billion ($6.2 billion; €5.6 billion) of the total A$18 billion raised by MIRA across funds and co-investments. Lygoe and his team are responsible for investor relations across MIRA’s European-domiciled infrastructure funds, which involve approximately €24 billion in equity commitments and over 280 LPs.
Lygoe joined the firm in 2002 in Sydney and relocated to London in 2006. He previously spent two years with Perpetual Asset Management.
Irene Mavroyannis
Managing director, investor solutions group
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets
Mavroyannis is a managing director for MIRA’s investor solutions group in New York. She was previously head of North America and head of business development for the region at Hastings Funds Management. In little more than a year, MIRA’s global fundraising team has raised approximately €13 billion from investors. Mavroyannis has worked with others around the world in fund formation and capital raising on vehicles such as Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 6, which closed at its hard-cap of €6 billion in June, and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners IV, which closed on $5 billion in January.
One source describes her as “a focused and strong team player” with a “high sense of integrity” – adding that they would “always hire her” as she would be key to any fund’s success. An experienced operator, Mavroyannis also worked in energy investments for KKR and was a director in equity capital markets at Citigroup.
Andreas Moon
Head of investor relations
I Squared Capital
One industry source puts it best: Moon is “a person you know will make it happen”. He’s been doing just that for years at both Morgan Stanley and I Squared Capital.
At Morgan Stanley, he played a supporting role in helping the firm raise $4 billion for its inaugural infrastructure fund. But Moon has really made his presence felt at I Squared. As head of investor relations, he has led the firm’s first two fundraises, bringing in
$3 billion and $7 billion respectively. “Impressive,” is how one industry professional describes it. “They raised it without much of a track record to speak of.” Or, as another puts it: “Moon is a tireless worker who always strikes the right tone with investors. He is a one-stop shop for information, the highest compliment I would give any fundraising professional.”
I Squared’s hallmark deals have come off the back of Moon’s fundraising efforts. From Fund I, the firm made acquisitions, including a $1.9 billion deal for Hong Kong-based Hutchison Global Communications (since rebranded as HGC Global Communications), and built portfolio companies, including now-exited Cube Hydro.
Matthieu Muzumdar
Chief operating officer Europe
Meridiam
“I am hugely impressed with Matthieu,” is what one industry insider says about Muzumdar, who joined Meridiam in 2011 as an investment director and became investor relations director two years later. Muzumdar, the source says, combines traditional fundraising skills “with a close understanding of the co-investment process” and has become “an integral member of the deal team”.
Last year he was promoted to chief operating officer, Europe. Though he may no longer be directly involved in fundraising, the industry insider says Muzumdar remains “highly responsive to investors’ inquiries, is strategic in his thinking and has a deep knowledge of their business”.
As investor relations director, he led the fundraising of the last four funds as well as co-investment activities. In addition to his work at the Paris-based firm, Muzumdar has been teaching project finance at the École des Ponts ParisTech since 2009. Between 2016 and 2018, he served as programme director for the school’s Infrastructure Project Finance Master’s Programme.
Adebayo Ogunlesi
Chairman and managing partner
Global Infrastructure Partners
Global Infrastructure Partners is the house that Ogunlesi built. Some people in infrastructure are synonymous with the firms where they work, and GIP’s chairman certainly fits that bill. Launching the firm in 2006, he has shaped infrastructure investing in a way few others have done. GIP was behind transactions such as the purchase, and subsequent sale, of stakes in London Gatwick Airport, which created the mould for infrastructure deals thereafter.
Ogunlesi’s career began in the legal world, where he served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall of the US Supreme Court. Since entering the world of finance, investors around the globe have learned his name, especially in infrastructure, where GIP has raised the industry’s largest funds ever.
In 2017, the firm closed its third flagship fund on $15.8 billion. Now, it is set to break the record again with a final close expected to top $20 billion.
Sam Pollock
Managing partner and CEO, infrastructure
Brookfield Asset Management
Since 1994, Pollock has worked for Brookfield, one of the largest asset managers in the world. In doing so, he has helped to build one of the most prominent infrastructure businesses in the industry. With over $110 billion in managed assets, Pollock oversees a portfolio of assets across several sub-sectors, including transport, renewables, utilities, energy and data. In assembling that portfolio, he has helped build a fundraising machine that has set a standard of excellence for the industry.
Pollock has made his presence felt on the fundraising trail, making Brookfield the de facto rival of infrastructure heavyweight Global Infrastructure Partners. In 2016, the firm’s third infrastructure fund closed on $14 billion. At first close in May, the vehicle’s successor had raised $14.5 billion on its way to an anticipated $20 billion.
In addition to fundraising, Pollock is chief executive of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield’s listed infrastructure vehicle.
James Wardlaw
Head of infrastructure
Campbell Lutyens
Wardlaw has been head of the infrastructure practice at Campbell Lutyens for nearly eight years. Previously, he worked at Goldman Sachs and as a UK Treasury official, where he was involved in some of the country’s largest infrastructure projects.
Wardlaw spends much of his time meeting institutional investors and advising them on the deployment of capital into the asset class.
He travels frequently to Asia and, according to one source from Japan, is “a great contributor” to growing the asset class in the country. The source singles out Wardlaw’s knowledge of infrastructure and his insight into the asset class for particular praise.
Wardlaw hasn’t just furthered the asset class through direct conversations with LPs. Campbell Lutyens also held a seminar about infrastructure investment for dozens of institutional investors in Japan.
As part of its expansion plan in the Asia-Pacific region, the firm opened an office in Singapore last year.
Since 2014, the firm has raised over $45 billion for infrastructure funds and secondary transactions.
Greg Wiener
Partner
Campbell Lutyens
“There aren’t many people whose calls I will respond to for sure,” says one source, naming the Campbell Lutyens partner as one of the few exceptions to this rule. Wiener joined the firm in 2005 and works on its fund placement team, primarily focusing on the US market. He previously worked in the alternative investment fund placement group at Merrill Lynch, where he helped in the origination, structuring and placement of a variety of private equity, real estate, venture capital and mezzanine funds.
Over the last two years, he has helped raise $2.1 billion for several clients, including for Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners’ flagship funds, Meridiam and Infracapital. A nomination describes him as “high-calibre, hardworking and as honest as the day is long”.
The source adds: “Integrity, trustworthiness – those are the gold standard for me. If I were a GP, he’d be the person I turned to.” Wiener is currently actively working with four infrastructure clients at a time of strong fundraising in the sector.
Brenden Woods
Managing director, investor solutions group, Americas
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets
Woods has more than 20 years’ experience working in infrastructure and real assets, and this year joined MIRA for the second time after a stint in 2006-13. He leads an investment team responsible for client service, capital raising and business development for the US, Canadian and Latin American markets.
However, it’s Woods’ six years at Stonepeak that are at the forefront of many people’s minds. As an investor relations specialist, he built a reputation as “having an investor mindset and a deep understanding” of the asset class, according to one industry professional. Woods helped Stonepeak raise all three of its infrastructure funds – the first collecting $1.65 billion, its successor raising $3.5 billion and the most recent vehicle hauling in $7.2 billion.
Louisa Yeoman
Co-head, European distribution
AMP Capital
Since joining AMP Capital from Moore Europe in 2012, Yeoman has focused on growing the firm’s LP base in Europe for its debt and equity platforms. She has certainly proved her worth in this regard, increasing AMP Capital’s European LPs from fewer than 10 on her arrival to more than 100, with her focus on the UK and Ireland. She “could really bring her fund manager close to the investors”, one source says.
Yeoman has introduced cornerstone commitments to AMP Capital’s funds in the past 12 months, and brought three investors into a direct investment in London Luton Airport in 2018. “Investors really trust her judgement,” our source says. Yeoman has introduced 11 UK local government pension schemes to AMP Capital’s equity and debt platforms. As part of this work, she has been involved in arranging fees to suit individual funds.
She has more than 18 years’ experience in investment management, having held similar fundraising roles in the hedge fund industry.
Daniel Zinic
Principal
Park Hill Group
After spending more than nine years with FIRSTavenue, Zinic left for Park Hill last year to build up the placement agent’s infrastructure business.
Zinic is a specialist in the German-speaking countries and has used these skills to raise funds for the likes of Stonepeak, Actis, InfraVia and Star America Infrastructure Partners – a colourful record that underlines his ability to raise capital for first-time funds, emerging markets funds and debt vehicles.
However, he is “not just another infrastructure sales specialist”, one source emphasises. “He understands well what pension funds and insurance companies’ objectives are.”
Yet fundraising is a people person’s game and Zinic is lauded for this too. “He is a relationship builder, not a broker, and investors like him,” the source says.
Before joining FIRSTavenue, Zinic worked in Citigroup’s Alternatives Distribution Group.
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