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.
Brett Lazarides
Consultant - BA (Acc), ACA, F Fin, FAICD
Brett’s professional career comprises over 24 years in the financial services industry, including insolvency, investment banking, funds management, directorships and consulting. For over a decade in funds management, Brett 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, investment origination, execution of business growth strategies, team leadership and mentoring, and the active management and enhancement of portfolio assets on behalf of superannuation funds and other institutional investors.
Prior to this Brett gained over eight years transactional & financing experience in Australian and offshore debt markets within the Global Project & Structured Finance division of National Australia Bank Limited. During this time, Brett structured and arranged large-scale corporate, syndicated, cross-border and tax-based debt funding for wholesale domestic and multi-national customers. Brett also has wide-ranging board experience overseeing infrastructure investments acquired on behalf of institutional clients, having been a director within the airport, airline, toll-road, pipeline, rail, communications, renewable-generation and timberland sectors.
During his executive career, Brett has held senior roles within a number of Australia’s major financial services participants, providing extensive investment management and industry experience. Most recently, as Head of Infrastructure & Private Equity for Unisuper, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds with $24 billion of funds under management, Brett was responsible for the management of Unisuper’s global $2.4 billion Alternative Investments portfolio.
Prior to this Brett was Head of Infrastructure at Perpetual Limited and Head of Alternative Assets at the NAB subsidiary, National Asset Management Limited. In both these roles, Brett established and led the growth of new investment management businesses, focusing on direct equity investments in unlisted infrastructure and other private markets assets for wholesale clients. This involved leading the expansion of the business, developing market presence and growing institutional funds under management via a portfolio-build of direct infrastructure, timberlands and other private market investments.
Currently Brett consults to the industry, is a Trustee on the Board of the Sustainable Melbourne Fund (owned by the City of Melbourne) and is an Independent Non-Executive Director for the Combined Fund, a Melbourne-based industry superannuation fund. He is also Chairman of the Combined Fund’s Investment Committee and a member of its Executive Committee.
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.
James Eves
Analyst - BA, M Sc (Bus)
James joins Lighthouse Infrastructure after returning from postgraduate studies in Northern Europe.
Whilst studying overseas, he gained insight into business development processes and innovation creation centered around entrepreneurship.
In line with his coursework, James started an advertising company with two other students and received mentoring from leaders in Sweden's business community, including Sony Ericsson and Tetra Pak.
He enjoyed the challenges presented to him, including competing in business plan competitions such as McKinsey & Company's 'Venture Cup'.