IJInvestor – the M&A and infrastructure fund service of IJGlobal – is pleased to announce the full judging panel that will sit in London to decide the fate of IJInvestor Awards 2024.

This is the sixth time IJInvestor Awards are being held in London and the second year the awards are being celebrated in New York (see NY judges here) to celebrate successes in the Americas, while the London panel tackles the rest of the world.

The awards recognise developments by infrastructure funds, investors and transactions from 1 September 2023 to 31 July 2024 – a transition year to align the judging better with the awards ceremony.

The submissions portal will remain open until 6 September and can be accessed here...

The London panel will convene on 26 September (2024) to judge submissions from the world over, except the Americas.

IJInvestor Awards 2024 – not to be confused with IJGlobal Awards (greenfield) and ESG Awards – will be celebrated on:

• 28 November in London – The Savoy
• 5 December New York – The Metropolitan Club 

IJGlobal prides itself on the peer-review nature of our awards, ensuring a transparent process that (we believe) makes them the most highly valued in the sector – submitted by the industry and reviewed by peers at the highest level.

As always, judges are recused from voting on awards where they have an interest. The London panel assesses all submissions – company and transaction awards.

The newly added judges include:

• Spence Clunie – Ancala
• Richard Evans – A&O Shearman
• Jessamy Gallagher – Paul Hastings
• Andrew Landon Green – Mediobanca
• Manish Gupta – infra fund adviser
• Emma Haight – ex Fidelity International
• Niall Mills – Igneo Infrastructure Partners

IJGlobal previously announced the following judges (in alphabetical order):

• Jean-Francis Dusch – EDRAM
• Martin Ewald – Allianz GI
• Charlotte Madden – Clifford Chance
• Iryna Podoliak – Wren House
• Alexander ‘Stefan’ Rieger – Latham & Watkins
• Katya Romanshkan – Aware Super
• James Sargent – Weil Gotshal & Manges
• Giovanni Terranova – Bluefield Partners 

Spence Clunie

Ancala

Spence Clunie, managing partner at Ancala, joins the judging panel after winning IJInvestor outstanding individual for 2023 in the EMEA region.  

Spence founded Ancala in 2010 with the objective to deliver infrastructure investment differently. Ancala’s strategy focuses on sourcing bilateral investment opportunities, providing downside protection, inflation linkage and delivering value add active asset management. Ancala is trusted by institutional investors around the world to deliver superior returns from traditional infrastructure assets.

Spence is involved in all aspects of Ancala’s business including overall business management, originating and executing investments, asset management, investor relations, operations and on-going business development and strategy. He sits on all of Ancala’s committees including management, investment, valuation and risk.

He has over 30 years’ experience in the infrastructure industry. Prior to founding Ancala Partners, he was a Senior Managing Director at Macquarie.

Richard Evans

A&O Shearman

Richard is energy and infrastructure sector lead at A&O Shearman and has over 25 years’ experience working on some of the most significant deals in the sector.

He specialises in M&A transactions across Europe.

Richard regularly acts on multi-jurisdictional sale processes.

His clients include Canadian pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and specialist infrastructure funds.

Jessamy Gallagher

Paul Hastings

A senior lawyer steeped in M&A, Jessamy is a household name in infrastructure and energy circles and her arrival last year (2023) at Paul Hastings from Linklaters set a cat among the pigeons.

An Australian national, Jessamy joined the US-based law firm as global co-chair of its corporate department and a partner in the energy and infrastructure practice, operating out of the London office.

She focuses her practice on international public and private M&A in the infrastructure, energy, and real assets markets, while also having extensive experience acting on business-critical corporate governance matters.

Jessamy regularly advises a wide range of global pension, infrastructure, and fund manager clients, as well as a number of FTSE listed clients.

Andrew Landon Green

Mediobanca

Andrew is a managing director within the investment banking team at Mediobanca in London, where he is head of infrastructure, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds.

Andrew joined Mediobanca in 2023 from Societe Generale, where he was a senior banker and managing director in London, in charge of coverage of global infrastructure funds.

Previously, Andrew worked in Societe Generale’s New York team as a managing director in strategic and acquisition finance, and started his career in banking at NM Rothschild & Sons in London, focused on corporate finance in the transportation and infrastructure sectors.

Manish Gupta

Infra fund adviser

Manish Gupta is a regular fixture on IJGlobal judging panels thanks to his reputation as one of the best-prepared judges, having analysed every submission he can access.

Manish was most recently a partner at EY, with a focus on infrastructure. In the last 18 months of his long tenure at the “Big 4” firm, he was exclusively focused on infra fund coverage and post deal value creation, but – in reality – he’s been working with funds for the last 16 years of his career in the infrastructure practice.

He has more than 20 years’ experience in infrastructure financing and M&A, having worked on transactions that range from project finance, refinancing and complex restructurings.

Emma Haight

ex Fidelity International

Emma was until recently head of infrastructure debt at Fidelity International, having joined in December and rather famously exited mid-May with the entire team. She is currently involved in impact investing with a heavy slant towards ESG.

Prior to that, she was a partner at Ares Management and her career has spanned an interesting spread of roles that gives her a unique view of the infrastructure and energy sectors.

She was head of infrastructure debt for Europe at AMP Capital and flipped over to Ares in February 2022 to head the team in the organisation that acquired the AMP book of business.

However, her origins in the infra/energy world started at Allen & Overy (now A&O Shearman) when she was working with the famed husband-and-wife team of Graham Vinter and Anne Baldock, and even involved a spell in banking at NIBC.

Niall Mills

Igneo Infrastructure Partners

Niall is an old friend to IJGlobal judging panels. He serves as managing partner and global head of Igneo, operating out of London and has built an impressive team underneath him.

At Igneo – beyond being managing partner – Niall stands as a member of the global and European investment committees and a board member of a number of the portfolio companies.

Niall is one of the most highly-regarded professionals in his space and has had a 35-year long career in the infrastructure sector as an engineer, project manager and investment manager.

He joined First Sentier Investors (Igneo’s parent company) in 2008 as a founding member of the European infrastructure business and became managing partner of the global infrastructure business in 2020… which subsequently rebranded to Igneo Infrastructure Partners in 2022.