OUR PEOPLE
Lighthouse Infrastructure's senior management team possesses significant expertise in the management of infrastructure assets and investment in listed and unlisted infrastructure securities.
Mitch King
Director - BBus(Acc), ACA, F Finsia
Mitch is the founder and Managing Director of Lighthouse.
Mitch is a recognised leader in the Global infrastructure investment market and possesses over 20 years experience in infrastructure funds management and investment. Mitch's early corporate career spanned chartered accounting, corporate advisory and merchant banking.
More recently, Mitch gained significant expertise during approximately nine years with Hastings Funds Management, one of Australia's leading infrastructure fund managers.
During his time at Hastings Funds Management, Mitch took on a variety of senior roles (as a director of Hastings Funds Management and as Chief Operating Officer of the ASX-listed Australian Infrastructure Fund (ASX code: AIX).
During this period, Mitch built AIX into one of Australia's leading listed transport infrastructure funds with a market capitalisation of over $1,000 million. Direct responsibilities included managing infrastructure assets , undertaking debt and equity capital raisings from both institutional and retail investor markets, and executing often large and complex transactions, including:
- Hoctief Airport Capital: completing a capital raising in March 2005 for AIX to acquire a 40% interest, leading to AIX holding investments in airports located in Athens, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Sydney.
- Gold Coast Airport: completing a placement in November 2004 to fund AIX's purchase of a 47% stake.
- Australian Pacific Airport Corporation: completing a acquisition of the Melbourne and Launceston airports in December 2003.
- Successful public takeover of Infratil Australia in 2000. This involved the acquisition of 7 assets and delisting of the target and delivery of significant value for the Hastings' Funds subsequently.
Mitch's role required him to serve on the boards of many of AIX's investee companies and as a result, he held multiple directorships on some of Australia's most significant infrastructure assets, including:
- Interlink Roads (M5 motorway in south-western Sydney)
- Statewide Roads (M4 motorway in western Sydney)
- NT Airports (Chairman) (comprising Darwin, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek airports)
- Port of Portland (Chairman) (bulk Port in western Victoria)
- Australia Pacific Airport Corporation (Melbourne and Launceston Airports)
- Southern Hydro (Chairman) (Hydro electricity generator Australia)
- Statewest Power (Independent electricity developer and producer)
- Docklands Stadium (now Etihad Stadium in Melbourne)
Mitch previously was a senior executive in the Melbourne Corporate Finance team at the Commonwealth Bank Institutional Bank leading a number of infrastructure transactions where the bank invested in equity and provided debt including;
Clinton Wood
Director - BE Mining (Hons), MBA
Clinton is a globally recognised leader in the infrastructure market. Clinton headed Australian Infrastructure research for Deutsche Bank for seven years, most recently as a Director. During his time in this role, he was consistently ranked as one of the top 5 infrastructure analysts by his peers, and was voted Number 2 by the Wall Street Survey.
Clinton's infrastructure experience began in his earliest days as a senior executive with some of Australia's leading gold mining groups, where his responsibilities spread across areas including project and production engineering. Later, he worked as a senior executive within the merchant banking sector where he provided advice to various companies on mergers and acquisitions, equity issues, corporate restructuring and valuation. This work included detailed financial modeling and the undertaking of due diligence exercises.
Prior to joining Lighthouse Infrastructure, Clinton worked with Deutsche Bank, initially as a Resources Analyst, where he undertook analysis and research of Australian middle ranking gold stocks, then metal stocks, which included detailed financial modeling and analysis.
Andrew Rayne
Consultant - M Sc (Dist), B Eng (Chem) (First Class Honours), Sloan Fellow (LBS), M I Chem E, Chartered Eng (UK)
Andrew has over 25 years’ experience across a range of business functions, including general management, directorships, corporate finance/M&A, project management, operational, technical and other advisory roles, associated with the global energy industry.
Andrew was the Chief Investment Officer and co-founder of the Viridis Energy Capital, a boutique clean energy company that created and managed ASX-listed investment fund Viridis Clean Energy Group (ASX: VIR). Andrew had responsibility for the direction of all international business and asset acquisitions, encompassing investment strategy and team development, deal origination, technology review, commercial negotiation, deal completion and structuring of operations.
During this period Andrew achieved the following:
• Completed 9 successful acquisition and portfolio expansion transactions in 4 countries, to build an operational clean energy asset portfolio (50 operating sites, including 9 wind farms) with total assets value in excess of AUD 500 million;
• Built extensive origination networks, banking and advisory relationships throughout Europe and North America;
• Directed due diligence, technical review, deal structuring, valuation, commercial negotiation and closure of acquisitions;
• Was responsible for evaluation and screening of a wide range of prospective acquisitions (more than 100), in 14 countries, including wind energy, biomass, hydro, solar, geothermal and natural gas/waste gas technologies;
• Developed and implemented asset management arrangements and monitored technical and financial performance of assets; and
• Acted as Board director for all asset operating entities and joint ventures.
Prior to Viridis, Andrew held senior management positions with Energy Developments Limited (ASX: ENE), an Australian clean and renewable energy company. The company is engaged in the development, management and operation of an international portfolio of more than 60 energy projects. During the period of employment, the company expanded its operations internationally and doubled its electricity generating capacity across 7 countries with main offices in Australia, UK and USA.
Andrew was Head of UK and European business, having the following responsibilities and achievements:
• Was responsible for the establishment, development and operation of a profitable renewable electricity generation business in the United Kingdom and continental Europe;
• Grew the UK business from zero to over 30 MW in 7 projects (and secured a substantial development pipeline) through project acquisition and green-field development;
• Extended the business into continental Europe through initiation, development and management of joint ventures in France and Greece, which subsequently delivered more than 20MW into operation;
• Director of all group companies in the region; and
• Developed UK organisational capabilities, building staff levels up to 72 and creating broad organisational competencies to sustain and grow the business.
Andrew’s earlier career roles covered corporate finance and strategy, project management, energy commodity marketing, engineering design and project feasibility assessment, within the oil and gas industry in 3 countries.
Brett Lazarides
Consultant - BA (Acc), ACA, F Fin, FAICD
Brett’s professional career comprises over 22 years in financial services, spanning chartered accounting, investment banking, funds management, directorships and consulting.
For over a decade Brett has led the establishment, development and growth of investment management businesses for the infrastructure asset class and other alternative investments. Core responsibilities over this period included portfolio construction strategy, implementation and performance, execution of business development and growth strategies, team building and mentoring, and the active management and enhancement of portfolio assets on behalf of superannuation funds and other institutional investors.
Brett has wide-ranging board experience, having been a director for investments established within the airport, airline, toll-road, pipeline, rail, communications, renewable-generation and timberland sectors.
He was also a Director and Executive Committee member for many years on the Australian Council for Infrastructure Development, the private sector’s peak industry body, leading up to its amalgamation with Infrastructure Partnerships Australia. Brett is currently a Trustee on the Board of the Sustainable Melbourne Fund, owned by the City of Melbourne.
Brett has extensive investment management and industry experience, having held senior executive roles within a number of Australia’s major financial services participants:
• UniSuper: Consultant and Head of Infrastructure & Private Equity – Contracted to review private market investment strategies and team capability. Subsequent interim responsibility for the positioning and management of its global $2.4 billion Alternative Investments portfolio.
• Perpetual Limited: Head of Infrastructure – led establishment and growth of new investment management business focused on direct equity investments in unlisted infrastructure and other private markets assets for wholesale clients.
• National Asset Management Limited: Head of Alternative Assets – established its investment management capability in unlisted assets and managed expansion of the business, including portfolio-build of direct infrastructure, timberlands and development capital assets.
Other career roles comprise over eight years transactional & financing experience in global debt markets within the Global Project & Structured Finance division of National Australia Bank Limited. Here Brett structured and arranged large-scale corporate, syndicated, cross-border and tax-based debt funding for wholesale domestic and multi-national customers.
Prior to this, Brett’s professional foundations were laid within the Investigation & Insolvency Division of Ernst & Young, Chartered Accountants, through exposure to chartered disciplines, cash-flow and security-based analysis and a wide range of business assets and operations. Here he was responsible for managing a wide range, by industry and scale, of insolvency-based administrations, including associated financial & investigative analysis, protection and enhancement of assets, control of commercial activities and the management of asset realisations aimed at maximising cash flow and returns to creditor.
Brett is a Chartered Accountant and a Fellow of both the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Financial Services Institute of Australasia.
Christopher Eves
Consultant - B Comm LL.B. (Hons) LL.M.
Christopher Eves has more than 25 years’ experience in major infrastructure and civil engineering projects. He has stepped down as the CEO of Oakajee Port & Rail, the joint venture between Mitsubishi Corporation and Murchison Metals, following the successful bid .as preferred developer for the $1.6 billion Oakajee Port and the successful recruitment of the executive team.
Specialising in the development, regulation and financing of infratsructure projects, Mr Eves has worked with some of the nation’s biggest energy, mining and transport companies.
Prior to his appointment to lead the Oakajee bid, Chris was a director in KPMG Corporate Finance and as lead partner of Blake Dawson Waldron’s Melbourne engineering and infrastructure practice where has advised a range of mining, energy and corporate clients including Shell Australia, Rio Tinto, Duke Energy, Crown Casino, PG&E, Exxon and Edison Mission Energy.
In 1996 Chris was appointed as Special Advisor to the APEC Energy Working Group and delivered in 1997 a major report to APEC Energy Ministers on measurers to facilitate investment in the regional electricity industry. He has served as General Counsel at Alcoa during the successful completion of the Alcoa Portland Smelter and its joint venture with CITIC.
He has extensive experience in the provision of infrastructure to serve mining operations, including rail, harbour and port agreements.
Chris was appointed as a reader in law at Melbourne University to deliver a course in Infrastructure Development in Australia and Overseas in the Master of Laws program.
Chris was Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Melbourne and an independent director of Bio21, the Victorian biotechnology joint venture between Melbourne Health, Walter and Elisa Hall Institute and Melbourne University.