IJGlobal ESG Awards 2022 – Full Judging Panel
Now that the deadline to submit for IJGlobal ESG Awards 2022 has passed, we are delighted to announce the remaining members of the judging panel.
The latest batch of industry experts is not expected to attend Judgment Day in person, unless they happen to be here on the day, but are most likely dialling in over Teams to bolster the international view of the market.
IJGlobal prides itself on the peer-review nature of all our awards which (we believe) make them the single most impactful in the infrastructure and energy community (conflicted judges are recused from relevant sections).
The judges being announced (in alphabetical order) today are:
- Simon Currie – founder, Energy Estate (Australia)
- Shaun Johnson – general counsel, BEEAH Group (UAE)
- Sola Lawson – co-managing director, African Infrastructure Investment Managers
- Sami Neffati – managing partner of Investcorp and Aberdeen Standard Infrastructure Partners (Bahrain)
- Ana Carolina Oliveira – managing director, head of sustainable financing for the Americas, ING Bank (New York)
- Mike Pikiel – partner, co-chair of the energy and infrastructure industry group and co-chair of the project finance practice at Winston & Strawn (New York)
Simon Currie – Energy Estate
Fast forward a few years and he has skipped continents to his original hemisphere (he is a New Zealander by birth) working as the (now) Norton Rose Fulbright global head of energy from its Sydney office.
In the summer of 2018, Simon forged ahead with his ambition to establish Energy Estate – an advisory firm and business accelerator, focused on driving the transformation of the global energy sector. IJ wrote all about this in the autumn of 2019.
He is ideally placed to drive this business as a renowned leader and pioneer in the transformation of the global energy sector with a focus on integrating the energy sector alongside other industries.
Simon is passionate about the digitisation of the industry, new and emerging technologies and the potential for creating jobs and economic growth through this approach.
He is recognised for his innovative approach to realising the broader environmental, social and economic outcomes of all the projects he works on, while also encouraging partners and other industry leaders to do the same.
Energy Estate’s track record includes many pioneering projects that have delivered broader benefits through community ownership schemes, mandated local content and local employment, Indigenous engagement and biodiversity outcomes.
Shaun Johnson – BEEAH Group
The last time Shaun was on a judging panel for the MENA region of the IJGlobal Awards 2020 and we are delighted to have him back to judge the ESG Awards.
At the time of the last awards, he was a legal VP at Miahona (translated “our water”) in Saudi Arabia working with the PPP developer and operator of sustainable solutions in water and wastewater projects for municipal and industrial utilities in KSA.
Early this year, Shaun moved from Saudi Arabia to the UAE to take up the role of general counsel at Sharjah-based renewable energy company BEEAH Group. He has also been Middle East chair of IPFA since 2020.
Shaun has more than 23 years’ experience in infrastructure, working for both the public and private sectors across Australia, the UK and Europe… before relocating to the Middle East where he has focused his career since 2016.
He started his career as a lawyer in private practice at Blake Dawson (now Ashurst) and then Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and has spent the last 17 years in-house holding down positions within sponsor/equity groups.
He has closed deals across a range of sectors spanning water, waste, aviation, industrial gases, health and education.
During his time in the Middle East, he initially worked at Vision Invest (formerly ACWA Holding) and then as VP and board secretary at Miahona (a Vision Invest subsidiary focused on utilities in the GCC).
Sola Lawson – AIIM
He has deep experience of deals in the region having been appointed co-managing director at African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) in August 2020.
Sola founded the Nigerian office for AIIM and was responsible for originating, executing and managing more than $500 million of equity invested in the digital infrastructure, power, renewables, midstream and transport space across Africa.
This included the co-development, construction and successful exit of the Azura power project in Nigeria, the first project finance power deal to close in Nigeria in 20 years.
He has served on several portfolio company boards, including Lekki Toll Road, Azura Power, Starsight Power Utilities, Tema LNG, Accugas, Savannah Uquo Gas Limited, and as a board observer at IHS Towers.
Sola serves as a director on the AIIM board and is a member of the executive committee and the business review group of Old Mutual Alternative Investments. He is also a member of the AIIM investment committees, namely AIIF3 and IDEAS.
Previously he was an investment manager in Macquarie’s European infrastructure funds team in London, where he worked on a number of European infra transactions in a principal capacity, and played a key role in portfolio company management.
Prior to joining Macquarie, Sola worked at PwC London, where his focus was on transaction advisory services to a primarily private equity client base.
Sami Neffati – Investcorp
He is managing partner of the Investcorp / Aberdeen Standard Investments joint venture focusing on infrastructure in the GCC and across the wider MENA region.
Prior to stepping across to the other side of the table and relocating to the Middle East, Sami had a long career in the banking sector having prior to his current role held the position of assistant general manager on the energy team at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in London.
Before his stint at SMBC, Sami spent a couple of years at the late-great – some many not entirely agree with that assessment, but it was definitely active – WestLB where he was a manager in the troubled years of 2007 to 2009.
However, he cut his teeth in the early years of the millennium at Arab Banking Corporation where he rose to director level and had a remit to focus across North Africa.
Sami is an emerging markets specialist with long experience in the MENAT region. He headed SMBC’s business development for Africa and led teams working to finance projects in renewables, power generation, transmission and distribution.
He also worked as an adviser on projects in the MENAT region and to Japanese conglomerates on African markets penetration strategy. Sami has focused on energy transition in Europe and worked on acquisitions of infrastructure assets in Western Europe and the Nordics.
Ana Carolina Oliveira – ING Bank
A second judge from ING, and we make no apologies for that. Ana was last on the judging team for the IJGlobal Awards 2021 for the Americas and with the ESG Awards she brings her all-important Americas focus.
Ana heads ING’s sustainable finance team covering the Americas region, based out of New York.
She works with ING clients in providing structuring and advisory of sustainable finance solutions, to support them in accelerating their sustainability transition.
Ana also plays an integral role in supporting ING’s Terra approach, a commitment to steer its €600 billion lending book in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep global warming to well-below 2 degrees.
She has extensive experience in advising clients on capital structure and working capital optimisation and previously served as a director in ING’s healthcare sector group where she covered US large multinationals.
Ana has been at ING in New York since relocating from Amsterdam in 2012, prior to which she was clearly on an ESG trajectory before the term even existed.
From 2008-11, Ana was ING’s Netherlands-based senior transaction, client and policy adviser with a primary focus on environmental and social risk and stainability. She lent support to the chair of the Equator Principles Financial Institutions Association, including revision of the IFC Performance Standards and update and launch of the Equator Principles III.
Her remit also gave her sector specific policy development and consultation within ING worldwide and Ana was responsible for client and transaction coverage in Asia, Brazil, Western Europe and Africa.
Mike Pikiel – Winston & Strawn
Mike is a New York-based partner at Winston & Strawn and he co-chairs the law firm’s energy and infrastructure industry group while also being co-chair of its project finance practice.
He is on the panel to bring an extra focus on North American transactions and was one of the driving forces at last year’s Americas judging panel for the IJGlobal Awards 2021.
A well-known figure around the US infrastructure community, Mike has been at Winston & Strawn since early 2018 having joined the firm from Norton Rose Fulbright where he had been head of infrastructure, mining (ahem) and commodities.
Mike was at Norton Rose Fulbright for almost 12 years having started his career at Bowditch & Dewey.
He represents sponsors, developers, investors, lenders and underwriters in a wide range of projects and complex finance transactions, including project financings and acquisition financings.
Mike has 20 years of experience representing clients in the infrastructure, transportation and energy sectors and significant experience with PPPs.
The judges (in alphabetical order) that were previously announced are:
- Jemima Atkins – assistant VP infrastructure direct investments, Allianz Capital Partners
- Annette Bannister – managing director and head of European infrastructure and project finance, MetLife Investment Management
- Josephine Bush – chair ESG committee NextEnergy Solar and Foresight Sustainable Forestry Company
- Ed Clarke – co-founder and chief investment officer, Infracapital
- Rachel Fleming – sustainability lead for global infrastructure debt, IFM Investors
- Anne Foster – global head of ESG and senior director of investments, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners
- Mark Henderson – chief investment officer, Gridserve
- Tallat Hussain – environment counsel, White & Case
- Ali Miraj – managing director infrastructure finance, ING Bank
- Natalia Poupard – investment director, InfraRed Capital Partners
- Patricia Rodrigues – investment committee member, GLIL Infrastructure
- Lisa Shaw – managing director infrastructure debt, Vantage Infrastructure
- Marianne Zangerl – head of ESG fixed income, abrdn
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