Women of Influence: Infrastructure

Natalie Adomait
Brookfield Asset Management

Coming second only to President Joe Biden in Infrastructure Investor’s reader-voted Personality of the Year award category for 2022, Natalie Adomait, a member of Brookfield Asset Management’s renewable power and transition group, enjoys a reputation as a leading light in the energy transition space. One of the youngest female managing partners at Brookfield, Adomait is also chief investment officer for the firm’s Global Transition Fund. She plays a key role in developing strategy and fundraising for the fund, which closed on $15 billion last year. Outside of the office, Adomait works with programs mentoring women in the early stages of their careers.

Charlotte Brunning
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

As managing director in the EMEA infrastructure and natural resources team at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Charlotte Brunning is responsible for leading the institution’s energy transition work across a number of its utility investments. Brunning has been with the pension plan since 2015 and has more than 15 years’ experience in infrastructure investing. Her achievements over the last year include overseeing the completion of OTPP’s purchase of an increased stake in UK gas distribution company, SGN, expanding its natural gas portfolio. Advocates describe Brunning as a “great role model to others in the industry”.

Jennifer Gandin
CIM Group

With 20 years at CIM Group under her belt, Jennifer Gandin is the longest-tenured and highest-ranking woman at the firm. Today she leads CIM’s infrastructure strategy in her role as principal, investments, and serves on the firm’s investment committee. Over the course of her career at CIM, she has completed more than $2.7 billion-worth of infrastructure deals. Key investments in the past 12 months include the investment and development of Westlands Solar Park in California as well as CIM’s acquisition of renewable natural gas development platform MAS Energy, which is now known as Terreva Renewables.

Lucy Heintz
Actis

As partner and head of energy infrastructure at Actis, Lucy Heintz manages over 50 investment professionals alongside heading up the Actis Energy 5 fund. Heintz has led on a raft of deals over the past 12 months, including the sale of Solenergi Power to Shell for $1.55 billion and the acquisition of a majority stake in Levanta Renewables, which marked Actis’s first energy investment in Vietnam. An executive committee member, Heintz also co-launched the inclusion and diversity committee at Actis and helped to establish a virtual 12-month mentorship programme for talented women working across the firm’s African portfolio companies.

Hillary Higgins
Stonepeak

In less than two years as managing director and head of co-investments at Stonepeak, Hillary Higgins has executed on six co-investments representing approximately $3 billion of total co-investor capital and built a dedicated co-investment team. Peers say she has “demonstrated strong leadership” and been a “critical” factor in the firm’s success over the last year. Aside from co-investments, Higgins has become a mentor to younger women at the firm. Outside of work, she leads a non-profit that facilitates financial literacy education and empowerment for women of all ages.

Julia Kosulko
Infranode

Stockholm-based Julia Kosulko is operations and sustainability manager at Infranode, where she is responsible for analyzing the Nordic infrastructure manager’s business portfolio, as well as building evidence-based future prospects and value-add initiatives. According to colleagues, Kosulko’s experience in navigating the EU Taxonomy has enabled her to play an instrumental role in driving the firm’s sustainability agenda, including the implementation and integration of ESG policies and reporting throughout Infranode’s portfolio. In 2022, Kosulko set up an internship program at the firm designed to support people who have relocated to Sweden from Ukraine because of the war in the region.

Rosheen McGuckian
NTR

As chief executive of Irish sustainable infrastructure developer and asset manager NTR since 2013, Rosheen McGuckian has been instrumental in driving the success of several projects to deliver clean energy across Europe. With McGuckian at the helm, NTR has launched three funds in the energy transition space and now manages more than 50 renewable energy projects. In 2022, the firm completed investments from NTR Renewable Energy Income Fund II, deploying 97 percent of capital, and partnered with Legal & General Investment Management to launch the Clean Power (Europe) Fund, which had raised €390 million at its first close in April 2023.

Ruth Murray
Gresham House

Ruth Murray joined Gresham House’s sustainable infrastructure team in early 2020 as a consultant after two decades in the legal profession, quickly rising through the ranks to take on the role of investment director earlier this year. Her promotions were “testament to her adaptability and tenacity in approach and passion for developing portfolio businesses that deliver on profit and purpose”, according to the firm. Alongside portfolio company Environment Bank, Murray led the development of a business model for a new strategy to serve the biodiversity net gain market – ‘habitat banks’ – which aims to deliver 8,000 hectares of nature restoration over the next five years.

Zizile Ndziba
African Infrastructure Investment Managers

African Infrastructure Investment Managers investment principal Zizile Ndziba is credited by a peer as being “a driving force” behind the firm’s digital infrastructure strategy, “particularly in the terrestrial-access fiber arena”. She played a key role in concluding a $50 million secondary equity acquisition in Metrofibre Networx in 2022, just a year after working on a $90 million funding round for the South African fiber network operator. She also led on the firm’s $90 million acquisition of Southern African logistics company The Logistics Group last year and later initiated follow-on acquisitions and greenfield expansions of the platform worth more than $100 million.

Jennifer von Bismarck
Galway Sustainable Capital

As CEO of Galway Sustainable Capital, Jennifer von Bismarck is a strong advocate for investing in clean energy, agriculture and small businesses. She co-founded Galway in 2020 and since then the firm has attracted $350 million in institutional capital, completed over 27 deals and expanded to 18 staff members. Bismarck also co-leads Galway’s efforts to originate and underwrite transactions in sustainable credit, serves on the boards of portfolio companies, raises corporate capital and oversees day-to-day operations. She recently helped Galway establish a Washington, DC office in a LEED-certified building powered by 100 percent renewable energy.