Our Team

JANET TORNEY

Chairman and independent non-executive director

Janet has extensive business and investment experience in superannuation, investment management and professional services. As CEO of Qantas Super, Janet established and implemented industry leading governance frameworks for board, business management and investment functions, as well as rejuvenating relationships with key regulators.

Prior to Qantas Super, Janet was Principal & Practice Leader of Aon Investment Consulting in Australasia. Earlier appointments include Director of Tactical Asset Allocation at Westpac Investment Management, and senior economics roles at UBS, Macquarie Bank, Citibank and the Reserve Bank of Australia. Janet has chaired numerous industry group finance and risk committees throughout her career and champions healthy and sustainable stakeholder relationship management. Most recently she was a director of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, including time as Chairman of its Policy Committee, and continues to serve on its Investment Policy Committee. Janet is Principal of JT Consult, providing strategic governance, business and investment advice.

JÜRGEN GERKE

INDEPENDENT NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Jürgen Gerke is a trained banker and lawyer as well as an alumni at Insead, Harvard and IMD. Throughout his career, he has held various management positions with Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Euler Hermes, the European Commission, as well as CFO roles for different Allianz Group companies in France.

Most recently, he has been the CEO of Allianz Capital Partners (‘ACP’), the private equity firm of Allianz, investing Allianz’ and third-party funds into direct infrastructure and renewable energy, as well as into private equity funds. Having retired from ACP at the end of 2019, he is now founder of two boutique PE and VC investment companies, GML and BlueShell Capital.

JOHN O'KEEFFE

NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

John is Head of Boutique Strategy at Fidante Partners where he is responsible for originating new boutique relationships as well as strategic initiatives.  Prior to Fidante Partners, John worked in the Debt & Alternatives team at the Future Fund, Australia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, that was responsible for third party manager selection and implementing the Future Fund’s fixed income, credit and hedge fund programs.  John has a Masters of Applied Finance and is Chartered Accountant and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

GRAHAM MATTHEWS

CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Graham is a founding shareholder and Chief Executive of Whitehelm Capital.  Graham joined the team in 1998 and started the firm’s infrastructure business at the time when private ownership of public infrastructure originated globally.

Since then Graham has led the development of the firm’s investment philosophy and its world-wide asset acquisitions and disposals.  He has sat on a large number of company boards and has been instrumental in delivering improved operational and financial performance through active asset management.

Prior to joining the firm’s predecessor, Access Capital, Graham held senior roles in the Australian Federal Treasury, including the Treasury’s Chief Forecaster, and represented Australia at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.

ROB ALLIN

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Rob leads the Business Operations Group, which includes investment operations, compliance, finance, IT and HR, across both Australia and the UK.

Prior to joining Whitehelm, he worked for Fidante Partners Ltd a leading multi-boutique fund manager, which is part of Challenger Ltd group. Rob held the role of Head of Business Management & Strategy, where he was responsible for providing business services and strategic support to twelve boutique fund managers. During his eleven years at Challenger, Rob worked in senior roles across finance, analytics and strategy. Prior to this Rob worked as a chartered accountant for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Accenture in London.

SAJI ANANTAKRISHNAN

HEAD OF AUSTRALIA AND ASIA

Saji is responsible for the infrastructure investment team in Australia, Asia, and South America, leading the firm’s infrastructure investment and management activities in the region.

Prior to joining Whitehelm, Saji has worked at Challenger since 2004 and during his time at Challenger he was appointed CEO of EMIF. He has been a member of the Challenger Infrastructure team since its inception and has been involved at a senior level in most of Challenger’s infrastructure acquisitions, particularly whilst he was based in London. Prior to Challenger, Saji worked in corporate finance roles at Deutsche Bank in Sydney and EDS in Asia, and prior to that he was a Management Consultant with Anderson Consulting.

MATTEO ANDREOLETTI

HEAD OF INFRASTRUCTURE EQUITY - EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA

Matteo Andreoletti joined Whitehelm Capital in 2015 and leads the equity investment team in Europe and the Americas.

During his time at Whitehelm, Matteo has been actively involved in a number of investments including the acquisition of SAE, a waste to energy business in Norway and the development of strategic partnerships in digital infrastructure. He is a board member of Saren Infrastructure AS, an investment company for energy related infrastructure focused on renewables and sustainable technologies and Nest Coöperatief U.A., an investment platform for mid-stream oil storage assets.

Prior to joining Whitehelm, Matteo held roles at Macquarie, Societe Generale and Natixis, where he was actively involved in the development of private financing for major infrastructure projects in continental Europe.

Matteo holds an M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from the Ecole Centrale Paris and the Politecnico di Torino, and studied finance and business administration at the Collège des Ingénieurs in Paris.

TOM MAHER

HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Tom leads Whitehelm’s business development and capital raising initiatives globally.  His responsibility covers Whitehelm’s key areas of investment focus including infrastructure equity, high-yield infrastructure debt and listed infrastructure.

Prior to taking on responsibility for Whitehelm’s business development efforts, Tom had over a decade’s experience as a principal infrastructure investor, with expertise in executing and managing investments across Europe, North America and Australia.  This experience included leading Whitehelm’s North American origination, execution and asset management efforts.

Tom currently serves as a Director of Igasamex and has previously served on a number of other investee company boards.

URSULA TONKIN

Head of Listed Strategies

Ursula has extensive portfolio management and analytical experience in Australian and global equities, with 16 years industry experience.

Prior roles include portfolio manager of an international equity fund, and senior analyst responsible for covering energy infrastructure, natural gas and renewable energy.

Ursula was previously an asset consultant and Co-Head of Manager Selection within Whitehelm’s Investment Solutions Group and has a background in ethical/SRI investing.

ALEXANDER WALLER

HEAD OF INFRASTRUCTURE DEBT

Alexander Waller leads the debt investing activities for the business and has experience in debt financing, investment banking and principal investment.

Prior to joining Whitehelm, he was responsible for infrastructure debt investment origination and raising finance for infrastructure equity investments at Challenger across the span of the capital markets, joining the firm in 2007. He has led or been involved in numerous large infrastructure financings as sponsor or investor, including closed transactions for Southern Water, Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, Angel Trains, Aquasure, Coriance, Inexus, Aguas Nuevas and Heathrow Airport. He has also worked in debt financing groups at RBS and Barclays Capital.

JUSTIN WEBB

Head of Investment Solutions Group

Justin leads Whitehelm’s Investment Solutions Group, advising clients on investment strategy, and advising the firm’s Investment Committee on investment markets and risk management.

Justin is a Chartered Accountant, a graduate of the Investment Management Consultants Association and a member of the Institute of Company Directors with extensive experience in infrastructure investment, corporate finance and financial modelling together with performance analysis, reporting and asset management.  Justin is a member of both the investment and management committees.  Justin is a regular speaker on investment markets and alterative investment strategies.

KEN LIOW

Advisory Investment Committee Member

Ken is an investment professional with extensive financial markets experience spanning over 20 years. Most recently, Ken held senior positions at Blackrock, most notably as Chief Investment Officer of Equities where he was instrumental in implementing the insight-based portfolio management approach into the Fundamental Equity team. Ken was also the Head of Strategy (Scientific Active Equities) and Chairman of the Risk Management Committee also serving on Blackrock’s Executive Committee. Prior to these roles, Ken was Head of Quantitative Equities at Blackrock where he led the development of a successful team and business from an asset base of zero to $4 billion under management.

Prior to his 13 years at Blackrock, Ken was Head of Research at Mercer Australia. Ken currently serves as an independent adviser and technical adviser to a range of institutional investors including superannuation funds, charitable institutions and fund managers and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries Australia.

WARWICK MCKIBBIN

Advisory Investment Committee Member

Warwick is a former member of the Reserve Bank of Australia Board and is internationally renowned for his contributions to global economic modelling. He has published more than 200 academic papers as well as being a regular commentator in the popular press. He has been a consultant for many international agencies and a range of governments on issues of macroeconomic policy, international trade and finance, greenhouse policy issues, global demographic change and the economic cost of pandemics.

Warwick holds the Vice Chancellor’s Chair in Public Policy in the ANU Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA). He is also an ANU Public Policy Fellow; a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences; a Distinguished Fellow of the Asia and Pacific Policy Society; a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C (where he is co-Director of the Climate and Energy Economics Project) and President of McKibbin Software Group Inc.

Warwick was foundation Director of the ANU Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis and foundation Director of the ANU Research School of Economics. Warwick received his B.Com (Honours 1) and University Medal from University of NSW (1980) and his AM (1984) and a PhD (1986) from Harvard University.

ROSS BLAKERS

STRATEGIC ADVISER

Ross is a strategic adviser to Whitehelm’s Investment Solutions Group, providing tactical insight on investment strategy.

Ross has extensive experience in investment markets, investment strategy, portfolio construction, risk management and manager selection. Before joining Whitehelm, Ross spent four years in the Risk Management Group of the Australian Office of Financial Management where he focussed on credit and interest rate risk management.