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

While the IJInvestor Awards are in its sixth year, this is the second time IJInvestor has hived off the Americas into their own celebration to recognise achievements across the continent.

The awards reflect the best 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 be open until 6 September and can be accessed here...

The Americas panel will convene on 25 September to judge the submissions from across the region. The London panel – which judges the rest of the world – meets the following day.

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 newly added judges include:

• Sonia McMillian – Amber Infrastructure
• Mansi Patel – Principal Asset Management
• Christophe Petit – Tikehau Capital
• Markus Pressdee – Rothschild & Co
• Justin Snyder – Rubicon Capital Advisors

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

• Syed Usman Ahmed – Apterra
• Emilio Andrade – Ardian
• Emily Hashimoto – Goldman Sachs
• Dolly Mirchandani – White & Case
• Charles Parreault – CDPQ
• Steven Sonnenstein – DigitalBridge
• Tim Treharne – Arup

Sonia McMillan

Amber Infrastructure

Sonia is an old friend of IJGlobal, having appeared on other judging panels for awards being hosted in New York.

Sonia joined the Amber Infrastructure North American investment origination team in 2021.

She has in-depth experience in both North American and international infrastructure investments.

Sonia also has extensive infrastructure transaction and legal experience as a former managing director and general counsel for Rubicon Capital Advisors and director of infrastructure at InfraRed Capital Partners.

Mansi Patel

Principal Asset Management

Mansi is a skilled judge that joins us for the second year of judging the IJInvestor Awards Americas.

In May, she took up the position of senior managing director, head of infrastructure debt at Principal Asset Management. She is tasked with the launch and implementation of the strategy.

Principal will primarily invest private infrastructure debt, targeting sectors like globalisation, decarbonisation, and electrification.

Mansi was previously managing director, head of infrastructure debt for the Americas and APAC, at MetLife, a role she held for over a year. She joined MetLife in 2017 as VP for infrastructure and project finance before being promoted to head of US infrastructure and project finance.

Christophe Petit

Tikehau Star Infra

Christophe is a new member of the IJInvestor Awards Americas judging panel. He is co-founder and president of Tikehau Star Infra (TSI), which was previously known as Star America.

Christophe is an equity investor focused on US infrastructure projects. As a member of the investment committee, he is actively involved in all of the due diligence processes and investments.

Christophe has served on the boards of managers of the portfolio companies for the Michigan Freeway Lighting project, the Portsmouth Bypass project and the Digital Crossroads Data Center project, and was an alternate on the Purple Line project.

Prior to co-founding TSI, he was an investment banker at Greenhill & Co, an independent M&A advisory firm, where he specialised in the origination, structuring, negotiation, and closing of infrastructure financing transactions in the Americas.

Before that was a managing director on the infrastructure and structured finance team at Societe Generale.

Markus Pressdee

Rothschild & Co

Markus Pressdee is an old friend of IJGlobal, having judged for previous award ceremonies.

He is a global partner and the head of infrastructure, power & renewables for Rothschild & Co’s Global Advisory business in North America, based in New York.  He is also a member of the Global Advisory Executive Committee for North America and the Global Energy Transition Committee.

Markus is a veteran infrastructure finance professional with 30 years of finance experience. Prior to joining Rothschild & Co in 2019 he was a managing director and global head of infrastructure at Jefferies in London and before that a managing director and global head of infrastructure at Credit Suisse in New York. 

He has been the lead advisor to financial, corporate and government clients on in excess of $250 billion of transactions. He has deep cross-border deal expertise, having been based in both the US and UK, and an expert in large complex transactions.

Justin Snyder

Rubicon Capital Advisors

Justin Snyder is a new friend to the IJInvestor judging panel.

He recently joined Rubicon Capital Advisors as senior director in its New York office where he focuses on advisory opportunities across the North American renewable energy, energy transition and infrastructure sectors.

Justin  has worked in investment banking for more than 10 years in the power, utility, renewable energy, infrastructure and midstream energy sectors across North America. He has advised on M&A transactions with a combined value of $25 billion.

Prior to joining Rubicon, Snyder was part of the RBC Capital Markets M&A team for 5 years within the renewable energy and energy transition practices in New York. He joined first as vice president before being promoted to director.