The decision was unanimous amongst judges that Bill Green, founder and managing partner at Climate Adaptive Infrastructure (CAI) should win the Outstanding Individual Award.

CAI is an infrastructure investment firm targeting low-carbon real assets in the energy, water, and urban infrastructure sectors. It is dedicated to investing in real assets that support the day-to-day needs of growing populations while addressing the ‘triple threat’ of the climate crisis: physical risk, regulatory risk, and political risk.

One judge said: “Bill seems to have been ahead of the market in the renewables and decarbonisation industries,” while another said: “Bill has had an extraordinary career.”

In his 30+ year career, Green has built companies and made investments in the sustainability and energy transition sectors. He began his career by founding Ecolink, a global market leader in the development and production of alternatives to ozone-depleting solvents and chemicals.

He then joined VantagePoint Partners where he co-founded the CleanTech investment practice.

Following VantagePoint, Bill served as senior managing director at Macquarie and CEO of Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation Renewable Energy, that focused on the financing of utility-scale renewable energy generation assets.

After a decade as a senior executive at Macquarie, Green was inspired to create a new type of infrastructure investment firm, CAI in 2019. During the creation of CAI, Green developed a unique approach to identifying infrastructure investments and screening for the risks and opportunities resulting from the accelerating climate crisis. This approach, shaped by his extensive career investing in real assets and infrastructure, forms the foundation of CAI as it considers project finance investments across a wide range of core infrastructure assets.

As one judge said: “Bill identified the accelerating climate crisis early and decided to leave Macquarie to raise his own climate-focused fund. He was able to virtually raise Circa US$1 billion during the pandemic. Bill was an early mover, and many followed.”

After one of the first 100% virtual pandemic fundraising efforts, CAI announced the final close of its inaugural fund in November 2022, raising US$829 million in equity.

Alongside the Fund, CAI announced an affiliated co-investment programme of more than US$200m, for a total of more than US$1 billion AUM, one of the largest inaugural sector-focused fundraises.

CAI has strategically deployed capital across a portfolio of assets, including Intersect Power, Rye Hydro, Sentinel Energy Centre and Renewably Powered Data centres.

Green is committed to advancing the climate transition through investments that make a measurable impact.