As submissions pile up for the IJInvestor Awards 2021, we are delighted to unveil the first members of our esteemed judging team.

These established industry leaders from the energy and infrastructure funds and M&A space will carry out an independent peer-reviewed judging exercise to select the next winners of the IJInvestor Awards.

The submission deadline of 15 October is swiftly approaching so if you haven’t already, be sure to nominate the deals, businesses and colleagues that you believe are worthy of a prize in this judging period – 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. To access the submissions portal, CLICK HERE...

We are also incredibly excited to be planning a return to a physical awards ceremony in December. More details to follow soon.

Once the submissions are in, the judges will convene (physically and virtually) for a meeting moderated by IJInvestor’s Funds and M&A team to make the final call on this year’s entries.

(Judges are recused from voting in categories where they and their organisations are involved.)

The judging team (which is still being rounded off with a few members from across the globe) has been joined by:

• Chantale Pelletier – Global Head of Infrastructure in Private Assets, Schroders (Paris)
• Charlotte Madden – Partner, Clifford Chance (London)
• Elise Dupuy Vaudour – Chief Operating Officer, Eurazeo Infrastructure (Paris)
• Gordon Bajnai – Partner and Head of Global Infrastructure, Campbell Lutyens (London)
• Ilya Bonhomme-Gomez – Executive Director, DC Advisory (London)
• Maria Kang – Managing Partner, Sera Advisory (NY)
• Matthias Fackler – Partner and Head of Infrastructure Advisory in Europe, EQT Partners (Munich)
• Melannie Pyzik – Managing Director, Argo Infrastructure Partners (Sydney)
• Udit Ghandi – Partner, EY (London)

BIOGRAPHIES

Chantale Pelletier

Chantale was appointed global head of infrastructure by Schroders at the start of this year. She joined from Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), after more than 20 years in senior global roles with the Canadian institutional investor.

Chantale has overseen transactions such as CDPQ’s investment in Heathrow Airport, the acquisition of an interest in Eurostar, and an investment in offshore windfarm London Array.

She was most recently a managing director for capital solutions, having previously been head of European infrastructure investment and directing the Paris office.

Charlotte Madden

Charlotte is a partner in the Clifford Chance infrastructure team. She has been with the firm for over 10 years and specialises in advising infrastructure funds and private equity houses on domestic and cross-border M&A.

Charlotte has represented financial investors through all stages of the investment cycle across a range of infrastructure sectors, including highly regulated transactions.

Charlotte has been featured in various legal awards as a ‘rising star’ and among the ‘40 Under 40’.

Elise Dupuy Vaudour 

Elise Dupuy Vaudour was recently appointed COO of Eurazeo Infrastructure Partners.

She joined from Macquarie, where she looked after infrastructure and energy for 15 years. She was also on the independent board of directors at Cory Riverside Energy from 2018 to 2020 while at Macquarie.

Elise began her career on ABN Amro’s structured finance team.

Gordon Bajnai

Gordon is responsible for Campbell Lutyens’s infrastructure capabilities globally and has advised on both primary and secondary placement mandates. He is chairman of the firm’s Global Advisory Board and a member of the Management Committee.

Prior to joining Campbell Lutyens, Gordon was COO of Meridiam Infrastructure. Before this, he held roles as CEO of the Wallis Group, a Hungarian investment group, and as deputy CEO of CA IB Securities, a Hungarian investment bank. In addition to his role at Campbell Lutyens, Gordon serves on the investment committee of the European Fund for Strategic Investments.

Prior to his private sector career, Gordon was the prime minister of Hungary in 2009-2010.

Ilya Bonhomme-Gomez

Ilya is part of the DC Advisory UK Infrastructure team, with more than 12 years’ investment banking experience in M&A advisory in energy, transport and telecoms across Europe.

Among other deals, he has advised First Sentier Investors on the acquisition of FEAB, USS on an investment in G.Networks, and EQT on the acquisition of Molslinjen.

Prior to joining DC Advisory, Ilya worked as a vice president at Société Générale in the Power, Utilities & Infrastructure team in London.

He began his career with BBVA’s energy, transport and telecoms M&A team and PwC prior to that.

Maria Kang

Maria this summer joined Sera Global as a managing partner within the company’s infrastructure advisory business.

Kang advises infrastructure sponsors, operators, and investors on a broad range of transactions.

She has over 2 decades of experience in infrastructure advisory, having previously been managing director at Rubicon Capital Advisors, where she was responsible for investor relationships and infrastructure projects in North America.

She was also previously managing director at Scotiabank.

Matthias Fackler

Matthias joined EQT Partners in 2008 and is head of infrastructure for Continental Europe.

Prior to joining EQT Partners, Matthias worked from 2000 to 2008 at Rothschild, mainly on transactions related to the infrastructure sector.

Between 1996 and 2000, Matthias worked at Arthur Andersen focusing on transaction services and financial audits.

Melannie Pyzik

Melannie is managing director at Argo Infrastructure Partners with a focus on investor solutions in the Asia Pacific region.

She has over 18 years’ experience working with institutional investors in real assets, having previously led the fundraise of the QIC Global Infrastructure Fund.

Melannie started her career at Macquarie Capital in 2001, working across M&A, fundraising, infrastructure funds, business development and relationship management. She then moved to Credit Suisse’s pension coverage group.

She has also worked as chief executive of the non-profit organisation Skin Cancer Network.

Udit Ghandi

Udit is a partner in EY's transaction advisory services practice. He advises fund and corporate clients on mergers and acquisitions, divestments and refinancings.

Udit focuses on the infrastructure, energy, telecoms and transportation. He leads EY's client relationships with a number of global infrastructure and private equity investors. Udit has wide ranging transaction and consulting experience, having lived and worked in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

He was previously with KPMG from 2000 to 2011.