Alina Osorio – president of Fiera Infrastructure – wins the IJInvestor Awards 2021 trophy for being Outstanding Individual of the Year for the Americas, impressing the independent panel of judges for her work “at multiple organisations at a high level”.

The judges pointed to impressive performance over the years lauding Alina for having “presided over impressive growth in the mid-market space for her fund”.

And she is, indeed, an impressive infrastructure professional serving as president at Fiera Infrastructure, a Canadian infrastructure fund manager with C$3 billion of assets under management as at 30 September 2021.

Alina initially founded the firm as Aquila Infrastructure where, as chief executive, she grew it to more than C$225 million in AUM.

Then in 2016, Alina formed a joint venture with Fiera Capital, transforming Aquila Infrastructure into Fiera Infrastructure.

Under her leadership, assets under management grew 10-fold over the last 5 years to C$3 billion, with 13 platform investments successfully executed.

Fiera Infrastructure is a global midmarket core and core-plus infrastructure fund that balances yield and capital appreciation. As chief executive, she leads the firm overseeing all investment, asset management and finance teams as well as determining strategic direction.

Alina is a seasoned professional in the infrastructure asset class and has been a key player in the sector for nearly 3 decades.

Prior to Fiera Infrastructure, Alina held a variety of roles across the infrastructure and financing sectors. She started her career as an equity research analyst covering Canadian utility companies, followed by several years as an investment banker at RBC covering the infrastructure sector where she was involved in many formative deals for the growing sector.

She then transitioned to a principal investor role as the chief executive of the Macquarie Essential Assets Partnership (MEAP) – North America's first unlisted infrastructure fund – which invested in Canada and the US. Under her leadership, MEAP pursued and assessed numerous opportunities, completed 5 acquisitions and 1 divestment.

Alina went on to lead the infrastructure programme at OPTrust, with a capital allocation of $2.5 billion. In this role, she was responsible for setting strategic direction, overseeing investment strategies and acquisitions, and managing an infrastructure portfolio in excess of $1 billion.

She is a respected voice and thought leader in the infrastructure space. In the past she has spoken on the importance of ESG in infrastructure, P3 delivery in Canada, and the unlisted infrastructure fund model. She continues to be actively involved in community forums such as the Women in Infrastructure Network, where she supports and mentors female infrastructure professionals.

A seasoned veteran

Alina Osorio is viewed by her colleagues – and the industry at large – as a pioneer in the infrastructure space and a role model for women in infrastructure.

As president of Fiera Infrastructure, Alina continues to demonstrate her ability to anticipate market trends and drive value creation.

In Canada, Fiera is a key player in the PPP sector and is the second largest manager by projects owned.

By partnering with EllisDon in 2019, Fiera created a de-risked pipeline of brownfield PPP opportunities, providing investors with access to essential Canadian infrastructure assets.

Under Alina's guidance, Fiera Infrastructure successfully anticipated the advent of the digital infrastructure asset class, investing in IslaLink (a European fibre platform) in 2018 and Conterra Networks (a US fibre platform) in 2019.

As an infrastructure investor, Alina takes a long-term view, incorporating ESG considerations into investment goals.

Alina has been a pioneer and a significant driver in the development and maturing of the infrastructure sector not only in North America, but also at the global level.