An established stalwart of the European infrastructure community, Mathias Burghardt was a popular choice among the judges to win the Outstanding Individual trophy at the IJGlobal Awards 2023.

Serving chief executive and founder of Ardian, Mathias was lauded by one judge a having “demonstrated vision, innovation, scale and breadth” across the infrastructure community.

One of the judges said: “Mathias demonstrates thought leadership in a number of highly innovative and diverse sectors within energy, applying data analytics to enhance business cases. Hy24 was also a groundbreaking fund to support the hydrogen industry's growth.”

Another judge added: “Ardian has been making some interesting and innovative investments in areas of the transition economy that will become increasingly important in the future – circular economy, hydrogen, hybrid renewables, and so much more. Mathias's contribution to this success is significant.”

The judging comments were rounded off with: “Mathias has guided Ardian through a number of firsts while also creating an impressive track record as a market leader.”

Mathias joined Ardian in 2007 to set up and lead the infrastructure team. Prior to this, he was head of HSBC advisory and project finance in France. He started his career in 1989 with Credit Lyonnais where his primary sector was media telecom.

Under his leadership, the team now has more than $28 billion of assets under management (AUM) and has successfully raised 15 funds, delivering superior returns to its investors driven by a consistent vision of industrial value creation.

According to the submission: “Mathias has developed the infrastructure team to more than 65 investment professionals across Paris, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Luxembourg, New York and Santiago.

“With his 25 years of experience in the infrastructure and energy sectors, he has developed extensive relationships with European infrastructural industrial and financial sponsors, public authorities and regulators.

“As founder of infrastructure at Ardian, Mathias has always advocated an industrial vision of investment and asset management, with both the use of a data-driven strategy and the decarbonisation of portfolio companies as levers for value creation.”

In 2023, the Infrastructure team has celebrated a number of milestones:

• first close of its latest flagship European Fund
• launch of Averrhoa Nature-Based Solutions, a strategy dedicated to large-scale nature-based projects. The platform, in partnership with aDryada, aims to generate a significant impact in favour of the climate, biodiversity and in respect to local communities
• first direct investment in Mexico, with the acquisition of a 50% stake in MXT Holdings
• first circular economy deal, with the acquisition of Netherlands-based Attero. Despite being the first investment in this sector, it is in accordance with the decarbonisation trajectory

Under Mathias’ leadership, infrastructure activity at Ardian is also recognised as a market leader with its usage of data science and AI with development of Ardian’s proprietary data analytics tools – OPTA.

Ardian’s in-house data analytics tool is designed to optimise the management of renewable energy portfolios and monitor market risk for renewable assets. Ardian now tracks more than 2.5GW of renewable assets through OPTA.

The fund manager in June (2023) signed an agreement with Keflavík International Airport in Reykjavik to help the airport measure its Scope 3 emissions, using the proprietary platform Ardian Air Carbon. The platform measures indirect emissions to monitor and project emissions.

The submission identifies the likes of the realisation of a number of key assets, including the sale of ASR Wind which have propelled Ardian into a pioneer role in Spain for developing wind-solar hybrid systems.

Ardian Clean Energy Evergreen Fund (ACEEF) – the manager’s first evergreen fund acquired ICQ Holding – a 200MW diversified renewable energy platform in Italy, as well as a 22MW wind farm in Finland. This strengthens ACEEF’s global renewable energy portfolio and consolidates its presence in Europe.

Ardian also became a pioneer and a leader in hydrogen investment through Hy24. Clean Hydrogen Infrastructure Fund closed in October 2022 at €2 billion. Ardian also led on the creation of a new One Planet Sovereign Wealth Funds report, outlining priority enablers to scale-up investment in clean hydrogen. It launched its Clean Hydrogen Equipment fund, with a fundraising target of €500 million.