We pride ourselves on staging peer-review awards, gathering a team of independent industry experts to weigh up submissions and (secretly) select winners for the coveted IJGlobal Awards.

With submissions building up nicely for the regional awards – portal open until 12 March ... access it here – we are delighted to announce the Asia Pacific judging team for IJGlobal Awards 2020.

As always, we have pulled together a line-up of judges who have deep experience across the panoply of infrastructure and energy sectors – industry professionals who have a finger on the pulse.

Needless to say, judges are recused so as not to influence voting in areas where they and their organisations are involved.

We will meet (virtually) after IJGlobal processes the submissions to discuss them and vote on the merits of individual organisations.

The judges (in alphabetical order) are:

• Zia Azeez – SMBC
• Stephen Boddington – Marsh Insurance
• Shantanu Chakraborty – Asian Development Bank
• Isabel Chatterton – IFC
• Alice Chow – Arup
• Anna Chung – Shearman & Sterling
• Nicky Davies – Norton Rose Fulbright
• Audra Low – Clifford Capital
• Kian Min Low – JERA Asia
• John Maxwell – Linklaters
• Kanna Mihara – Macquarie Capital
• Quyn Siew – Citigroup
• Rob Ward – MUFG

The judging teams for the other regional awards are:

• Europe & Africa
• Latin America
• Middle East & North Africa
• North America

Biographies …

Zia Azeez – SMBC

Zia Azeez is SMBC’s head of Asia for global structured finance (GSF). His team provides project finance, export credit and agency finance, and acquisition finance, for the power, renewables, infrastructure and natural resource sectors. The GSF team in Asia has about 45 staff in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Zia, who works from Singapore, has been on the GSF team since 2006 when he initially worked on advising and arranging transactions across a wide range of sectors before leading the team’s business in the metals and mining space in Asia for about 4 years from 2009.

Then Zia headed the power infrastructure team where he played a key role in developing SMBC’s renewables business across Asia, including establishing SMBC’s reputation in Taiwan’s offshore wind market.

Prior to joining SMBC, Zia worked at PwC, where he advised the public sector on infrastructure projects, including waste-to-energy projects and Singapore’s landmark sports hub project. Before PwC, Zia worked on the project finance advisory team at Fuji Bank (now Mizuho).

Stephen Boddington – Marsh Insurance

Stephen Boddington has more than 3 decades of experience in insurance broking. More than 25 years of which he has specialised in insurance and risk solutions for the construction industry.

Stephen leads Marsh JLT Specialty’s construction practice in Asia and is a member of the global construction practice. Based in Hong Kong, he maintains responsibility for major construction projects and clients in Asia and Asian interests abroad.

Throughout his career, Stephen has worked in Australia, London and Hong Kong.

You’ll regularly find Stephen presenting at construction conferences and seminars and facilitating Marsh JLT Specialty’s annual construction training called Academy. 

Shan Chakraborty – Asian Development Bank

Shantanu Chakraborty is the director, infrastructure finance division 1, in the private sector operations department (PSOD) at ADB. Based in Manila, he has been with the multilateral for more than 15 years. His current responsibilities include managing a team of investment professionals, who are responsible for origination and execution of infrastructure and project finance transactions in South and Central Asia.

Prior to this assignment, he was director of PSOD’s private sector transaction support division, which provides support to origination divisions in areas of safeguards, guarantees and syndications, development effectiveness, integrity due diligence and technical assistance. His earlier roles in ADB included being the senior adviser to the vice-president of private sector and cofinancing operations, providing strategic and operational support to the vice-president’s office.

Shan was also a principal investment specialist in PSOD, originating, executing and managing infrastructure projects in South and Central Asia. In this role, he gained significant experience in project financing in Asia and closed a number of financings in South and Central Asia. Overall, he has nearly 25 years of project finance experience, primarily in emerging markets.

Prior to joining ADB, Shan had almost 10 years’ experience in project finance and investment banking in India with ICICI Bank and in the US at UBS Warburg and Landesbank Hessen Thuringen.

Isabel Chatterton – IFC

Singapore-based Isabel Chatterton is IFC’s regional industry director of infrastructure and natural resources for Asia and the Pacific. Seven years before this role, Isabel was the regional manager for PPP transaction advisory services, initially for South Asia in Delhi and then in Singapore, as her mandate expanded to cover all of Asia Pacific during the past 4 years.

Isabel spent 4 years in IFC’s subnational finance unit, where she worked in deal origination, structuring and supervision of debt and structured finance products in more than 6 Latin America countries.

Before joining IFC, Isabel held various positions in the World Bank in the urban (the Middle East and North Africa), water (Latin America), and transport, power and urban sectors (South Asia).

Before joining the World Bank in 2001, Isabel worked in emerging markets and Western Europe for WS Atkins in the UK as a senior management consultant, working on infrastructure finance in Thailand, Argentina, Barbados, Qatar, the UK and Europe.

Alice Chow – Arup

With more than 30 years’ experience, Alice Chow is a member of Arup’s East Asia board, leading the firm’s advisory services in the region to help clients think long-term, design for success, invest wisely and manage for better business performance.

She's known for combining engineering expertise with commercial and operational know-how. Alice has managed many award-winning projects, ranging from strategic airport gateways to mission-critical systems and much-needed education and healthcare facilities.

Recent projects in Hong Kong include New Acute Hospital at Kai Tak, CUHK Medical Centre, HKEx Next Generation Data Centre, NTT Data Centre and AsiaWorld-Expo Phase 2 development.

In 2019, Arup named Alice an Arup Fellow – a high honour of technical and professional achievements across the industry globally.

Anna Chung – Shearman & Sterling

Anna Chung is a partner and head of Shearman & Sterling’s Seoul office. She began her career at Australian firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth and joined Shearman’s London office more than 14 years ago.  She has since worked in the firm’s Shanghai and Singapore offices before relocating to Seoul to lead the Korean practice.

Anna concentrates on project development and financing, focusing on power, infrastructure, oil and gas, and petrochemical sectors. She represents sponsors and lenders, including regional development banks, multilaterals and export credit agencies.

Anna is recognised as a Rising Star in banking, project development and finance in Singapore and South Korea by IFLR1000 (2019-2021). IFLR is a sister outlet to IJGlobal. 

Nicky Davies – Norton Rose Fulbright

Singapore-based Nicky Davies is a project finance and construction and engineering partner at Norton Rose Fulbright.  She relocated from the London office in 2007.

Nicky specialises in financing and construction aspects of major infrastructure projects, focusing on negotiating concession agreements, D&B/EPC, facilities management/O&M and other project and finance documentation.

She has advised lenders, sponsors and governments across a range of sectors, including defence, accommodation, education, health, mining, power generation, rail, sport and leisure infrastructure, and water and waste.  In addition, Nicky advises major corporates on their commercial contracts and strategic procurement arrangements.

Nicky is recognised by IFLR1000 as a Notable Practitioner in project finance.

Audra Low – Clifford Capital

Audra Low, as chief executive, has overall responsibility for Clifford Capital’s strategic leadership and performance. Since joining Clifford Capital at its inception in 2012 as head of origination and structuring, she has spearheaded the growth of the Clifford Capital franchise in project and asset finance markets spanning several sectors.

Audra brings with her a wealth of experience working with Singapore-based companies on infrastructure projects locally and overseas. Prior to Clifford Capital, she spent 12 years in project finance with HSBC, playing a key role in the origination and financing of numerous innovative projects in South East Asia, both as financial adviser and lead arranger.

Kian Min Low – JERA Asia

Singapore-based Kian Min Low, as chief development officer, is responsible for JERA’s business development for energy projects in Asia.

He brings with him more than 2 decades of experience in the power industry. He led JERA’s entry into Bangladesh with 2 investments in 2019 – a 718MW CCGT power plant and a 22% equity investment in Summit Power International.

Prior to joining JERA, Kian Min was Sembcorp Industries’ head of business development for ASEAN. At Sembcorp, he led the company’s expansion into Myanmar with the Myingyan IPP – the first internationally tendered and project financed power transaction in the country.

Kian Min was also formerly the chief executive of Paiton Energy, Indonesia’s largest IPP. He led the development, construction and operation of the 815MW coal-fired Paiton III project. He was deputy regional director (Asia), head of business development (Australia) and general counsel (Australia) for International Power (now part of Engie).

John Maxwell – Linklaters

John Maxwell is Asia head of energy and infrastructure at Linklaters, having previously served as the firm’s Tokyo managing partner between 2012 and 2020.  He has also worked in London and Hong Kong.

John advises sponsors, lenders and export credit agencies on the development and financing of, and acquisitions in, world-scale and new-market energy and infrastructure projects throughout the world, including offshore wind, LNG, petrochemical and conventional power projects. His experience also includes cross-border rail and large-scale infrastructure projects.

The Tokyo-based partner is recognised by IFLR1000 as a Highly Regarded lawyer in banking and project finance, covering energy, transport and utilities.

Kanna Mihara – Macquarie Capital

Tokyo-based Kanna Mihara, a Macquarie Capital senior vice-president, leads the private capital markets team in Japan, where her primary role is to connect Japanese capital with global infrastructure opportunities. Recent experiences include the formation of a partnership with JERA on Formosa 1, 2 and 3 offshore wind projects in Taiwan, and acquisition of Electricity North West in the UK by a consortium including Kansai Electric.

Since joining Macquarie in 2013, she has worked on 2 of the first 3 major infrastructure privatisation projects in Japan – Sendai Airport and Aichi Toll Road – as a financial adviser to concessionaire of each transaction.

Before joining Macquarie, Kanna was in commercial lending for non-EU EMEA companies in SMBC’s EMEA headquarters in London for 5 years. She started her career as a business consultant at BaringPoint (now PwC), where Kanna worked on various business process optimisation projects for Japanese companies.

Quyn Siew – Citigroup

Based in Hong Kong, Quyn Siew runs Citi’s project and infrastructure finance business in Asia Pacific. He has 13 years’ experience of project and structured debt across Asia Pacific.

He led many of Asia Pacific’s landmark project bonds, as well as debt and ratings advisories. Prior to joining Citi in 2016, he was with NAB for 9 years in Australia and Hong Kong, where he worked in project finance, transportation finance and mezzanine debt teams. 

Rob Ward – MUFG

Sydney-based Rob Ward leads MUFG’s project finance and ESG finance businesses in Oceania.

In project finance, he continues to expand MUFG’s infrastructure, renewables, utilities and natural resources businesses in the region.

In the newly created ESG finance role, Rob is responsible for all ESG financing in Oceania, contributing to MUFG’s target of arranging ¥20 trillion ($189 billion) in ESG financing by 2030.

Rob has nearly 25 years of investment banking experience, covering structured finance, advisory and debt capital markets. He previously led MUFG’s advisory business in Oceania.

Prior to joining MUFG in 2012, he worked at RBS, ABN AMRO and Bankers Trust. He has worked in Sydney and London, where he specialised in emerging markets including Russia and Kazakhstan.

You’ll often find Rob engaging International Project Finance Association’s Australian Council and actively contributing to Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, having served on several industry task forces.