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Meet the team

Get to know our award-winning Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in North America.

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Hans Beekmans

Hans Beekmans

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Hans Beekmans

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Hans joined Investec in 2019 and Co-heads the Power and Infrastructure coverage group in North America. Hans leads origination in the Midstream Oil & Gas and Energy Transition sectors. Hans has over 17 years of experience and has led over $10bn of transactions between senior secured and mezzanine financings across various subsectors.

Valeria Lombardi

Valeria Lombardi

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Valeria Lombardi

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Valeria joined the North American Power & Infrastructure Finance team in 2021 and leads Investec’s syndication efforts. She brings over 11 years of structuring, execution and debt capital markets experience mostly across the energy and infrastructure space. Prior to joining Investec, Valeria was a part of Intesa Sanpaolo’s structured finance Americas team in New York focusing on origination and execution.

Fred Petit

Fred Petit

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Fred Petit

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Fred joined Investec in 2019 and Co-heads the Power and Infrastructure coverage group in North America, with a focus on leading origination in the Power and Energy Transition sectors. Fred brings 15 years of experience in the banking industry having closed over $10 billion of financings in the project finance space during that span. Prior to joining Investec, Fred worked within Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank’s Energy & Infrastructure Group, where he originated and executed structured finance transactions billion in the North American conventional power, renewables, oil & gas, and petrochemical sectors.

Daniel Daza

Daniel Daza

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Daniel Daza

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Daniel joined Investec’s Energy and Investec’s North American Energy & Infrastructure finance team in December 2024. Prior to Investec, Daniel worked in Citigroup’s Power, Utilities and Renewables team, where he supported the execution of various investment-grade and high-yield corporate financing transactions. Daniel holds a B.A. in Economics from Georgetown University.

Vanessa Guillermety

Vanessa Guillermety

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Vanessa Guillermety

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Vanessa is a legal counsel within Investec’s Energy and Infrastructure team, based in New York City. Vanessa joined Investec from Macquarie Capital, where she worked in both the London and New York offices covering primarily energy and infrastructure principal transactions across the Americas, Latin America and EMEA.

She has extensive experience working as in-house counsel and within private practice across the energy sector, conventional power, renewables, oil & gas and transportation infrastructure sectors on a variety of project finance, project development and M&A transaction, covering a wide geographic ambit that includes the US, Latin America and Europe. Prior to working in New York and London, she also spent time working within the energy sector in both Houston, Texas and Mexico City and continues to have strong ties to both regions.

As legal counsel, Vanessa is a strategic business partner, leveraging her broad knowledge of the sector and cross-border experience, on commercial and legal structuring, project management and deal execution and working closely with both internal stakeholders and our clients to ensure transactions are seamlessly and efficiently executed and completed.

Elif Kaya

Elif Kaya

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Elif Kaya

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Elif joined the North American Power & Infrastructure Finance team in October 2023. She was previously with KKR’s renewable energy development platform, Stellar Renewable Power, working across utility-scale and distributed generation solar and storage capital markets. Prior to her transition into energy and infrastructure finance, she was active in asset-liability management. She holds a B.S. in Quantitative Economics from Davidson College.

Sean Kulkarni

Sean Kulkarni

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Sean Kulkarni

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

At Investec we offer bespoke and innovative financing solutions, enviable speed of execution, and world-class service at each stage of the investment cycle. As Legal Counsel, I help develop and optimize our financing products so as to manage and mitigate risk, streamline the closing and eventual portfolio management processes, ensure flexibility where desired in anticipation of new market opportunities, and ultimately enhance our clients’ core business objectives. From the kickoff and initial structuring phase through closing, operation and final maturity or refinancing, I work seamlessly with our global Energy & Infrastructure Finance team across jurisdictions to deliver the highest quality product and service to our clients, with a premium focus on cost efficiency and accelerated timing.

Akhilesh Kumar

Akhilesh Kumar

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Akhilesh Kumar

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Akhilesh joined Investec in 2024, as Portfolio Manager for the Energy & Infrastructure Finance team. Akhilesh has over 12 years of experience in infrastructure and aviation portfolio management. Previously he was with Natixis as Director, Portfolio Management.

Akhilesh holds an MBA from University of Connecticut and IIM Kozhikode India. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Jose Lerma

Jose Lerma

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Jose Lerma

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Jose joined Investec's Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in February 2024. Prior to joining, Jose was part of the Loan Capital Markets – Latin America team at SMBC in New York City, where he contributed to the successful closing of deals exceeding $8.8 billion across Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. He also worked at various companies, such as Amazon, SpaceX, and J.P. Morgan.  Jose graduated from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in May 2022 with a B.B.A. in Finance.

Dayle Malherbe

Dayle Malherbe

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Dayle Malherbe

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Dayle joined Investec in 2017 and has spent time in Investec’s Power & Infrastructure teams in New York and Johannesburg. She has worked on transactions across the capital stack, throughout North America and Africa. Her experience covers a range of technologies including utility scale gas and renewable power generation, as well as midstream O&G and other infrastructure sub-sectors. Dayle is a South African chartered accountant CA(SA).

Phalo Maurice-Mopp

Phalo Maurice-Mopp

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Phalo Maurice-Mopp

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Phalo joined Investec in 2020 in order to complete his South African Chartered Accountancy articles. During this time, he worked across the capital stack and gained exposure to project finance, private equity as well as leverage finance. Before joining Investec’s Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in late 2024, Phalo worked as an investment professional for a private equity fund manager being incubated by Investec which focused on renewable energy investments across Sub-Saharan Africa. Phalo graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting.

Peter Messenger

Peter Messenger

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Peter Messenger

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Peter joined the North American Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in February 2024. He previously held a senior analyst position at Citigroup, covering project finance and PPP transactions for tax advantaged clients across circular economies, transportation, and social infrastructure. Peter holds a B.A. in Psychology from Colby College.

Ellen Mo

Ellen Mo

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Ellen Mo

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Ellen joined the Energy & Infrastructure Finance syndications platform in 2023. Previously, she was a Director with SMBC’s Structured Finance Group focused on the origination, structuring and execution of ABS and CLOs across private credit, aviation, and power. Before SMBC, she held various roles within BNP Paribas’ Power, Infrastructure & Project Finance team as well as the Power & Utilities group. Ellen began her career in 2012 with Imperial Capital’s power and energy high yield research desk. She is a CFA charterholder.

Arundeep Patwalia

Arundeep Patwalia

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Arundeep Patwalia

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Arundeep recently joined Investec as a Portfolio Management Analyst. She specializes in structured finance for renewable energy and infrastructure projects, managing diverse portfolios across the energy sector. Arundeep holds an MBA from Northeastern and a Finance degree from Rutgers University. With a strong background in finance and analytics, she is committed to supporting sustainable investments.

Shashank Reddy

Shashank Reddy

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Shashank Reddy

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Shashank joined Investec’s Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in 2024 and brings over 7 years of experience in the infrastructure space. He was previously with ING's Energy Sector Coverage Group, focused on origination, structuring and execution of transactions ranging from senior secured to mezzanine debt across North America and Latam. Shashank holds a Master's degree in Engineering from Columbia University and is a CAIA charterholder.

Adena Schmidt

Adena Schmidt

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Adena Schmidt

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Adena joined Investec’s North America Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in 2023, following her MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She was previously with Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank’s Energy & Infrastructure Group, where she structured and executed transactions in the North American conventional power, renewables, oil & gas, and transportation infrastructure sectors. Prior to Credit Agricole, she worked within Moody’s Project and Infrastructure Finance team conducting credit ratings and research related to project finance and municipal infrastructure finance.

Nic Tucker

Nic Tucker

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Nic Tucker

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Nic is senior deal originator within Investec’s Energy and Infrastructure Finance team, based in New York City. Nic joined Investec in 2013 and is focused on origination and execution of project finance transactions, primarily in the power sector. Over 15 years banking experience, having worked in New York, London and South Africa. Nic has led over $3bn of transactions across various sub-sectors.

Burr Tweedy

Burr Tweedy

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Burr Tweedy

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Burr joined Investec’s North America Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in 2025. He was previously a Vice President on NY Green Bank's Investment & Portfolio Management team, where he led the origination, evaluation, and execution of scalable clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean transportation project investments across New York State. Burr holds Master in Business Administration and Master of Environmental Management degrees from Yale University.

Hans Beekmans

Hans Beekmans

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Hans Beekmans

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Hans joined Investec in 2019 and Co-heads the Power and Infrastructure coverage group in North America. Hans leads origination in the Midstream Oil & Gas and Energy Transition sectors. Hans has over 17 years of experience and has led over $10bn of transactions between senior secured and mezzanine financings across various subsectors.

Valeria Lombardi

Valeria Lombardi

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Valeria Lombardi

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Valeria joined the North American Power & Infrastructure Finance team in 2021 and leads Investec’s syndication efforts. She brings over 11 years of structuring, execution and debt capital markets experience mostly across the energy and infrastructure space. Prior to joining Investec, Valeria was a part of Intesa Sanpaolo’s structured finance Americas team in New York focusing on origination and execution.

Fred Petit

Fred Petit

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Fred Petit

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Fred joined Investec in 2019 and Co-heads the Power and Infrastructure coverage group in North America, with a focus on leading origination in the Power and Energy Transition sectors. Fred brings 15 years of experience in the banking industry having closed over $10 billion of financings in the project finance space during that span. Prior to joining Investec, Fred worked within Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank’s Energy & Infrastructure Group, where he originated and executed structured finance transactions billion in the North American conventional power, renewables, oil & gas, and petrochemical sectors.

Daniel Daza

Daniel Daza

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Daniel Daza

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Daniel joined Investec’s Energy and Investec’s North American Energy & Infrastructure finance team in December 2024. Prior to Investec, Daniel worked in Citigroup’s Power, Utilities and Renewables team, where he supported the execution of various investment-grade and high-yield corporate financing transactions. Daniel holds a B.A. in Economics from Georgetown University.

Vanessa Guillermety

Vanessa Guillermety

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Vanessa Guillermety

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Vanessa is a legal counsel within Investec’s Energy and Infrastructure team, based in New York City. Vanessa joined Investec from Macquarie Capital, where she worked in both the London and New York offices covering primarily energy and infrastructure principal transactions across the Americas, Latin America and EMEA.

She has extensive experience working as in-house counsel and within private practice across the energy sector, conventional power, renewables, oil & gas and transportation infrastructure sectors on a variety of project finance, project development and M&A transaction, covering a wide geographic ambit that includes the US, Latin America and Europe. Prior to working in New York and London, she also spent time working within the energy sector in both Houston, Texas and Mexico City and continues to have strong ties to both regions.

As legal counsel, Vanessa is a strategic business partner, leveraging her broad knowledge of the sector and cross-border experience, on commercial and legal structuring, project management and deal execution and working closely with both internal stakeholders and our clients to ensure transactions are seamlessly and efficiently executed and completed.

Elif Kaya

Elif Kaya

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Elif Kaya

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Elif joined the North American Power & Infrastructure Finance team in October 2023. She was previously with KKR’s renewable energy development platform, Stellar Renewable Power, working across utility-scale and distributed generation solar and storage capital markets. Prior to her transition into energy and infrastructure finance, she was active in asset-liability management. She holds a B.S. in Quantitative Economics from Davidson College.

Sean Kulkarni

Sean Kulkarni

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Sean Kulkarni

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

At Investec we offer bespoke and innovative financing solutions, enviable speed of execution, and world-class service at each stage of the investment cycle. As Legal Counsel, I help develop and optimize our financing products so as to manage and mitigate risk, streamline the closing and eventual portfolio management processes, ensure flexibility where desired in anticipation of new market opportunities, and ultimately enhance our clients’ core business objectives. From the kickoff and initial structuring phase through closing, operation and final maturity or refinancing, I work seamlessly with our global Energy & Infrastructure Finance team across jurisdictions to deliver the highest quality product and service to our clients, with a premium focus on cost efficiency and accelerated timing.

Akhilesh Kumar

Akhilesh Kumar

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Akhilesh Kumar

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Akhilesh joined Investec in 2024, as Portfolio Manager for the Energy & Infrastructure Finance team. Akhilesh has over 12 years of experience in infrastructure and aviation portfolio management. Previously he was with Natixis as Director, Portfolio Management.

Akhilesh holds an MBA from University of Connecticut and IIM Kozhikode India. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Jose Lerma

Jose Lerma

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Jose Lerma

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Jose joined Investec's Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in February 2024. Prior to joining, Jose was part of the Loan Capital Markets – Latin America team at SMBC in New York City, where he contributed to the successful closing of deals exceeding $8.8 billion across Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. He also worked at various companies, such as Amazon, SpaceX, and J.P. Morgan.  Jose graduated from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in May 2022 with a B.B.A. in Finance.

Dayle Malherbe

Dayle Malherbe

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Dayle Malherbe

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Dayle joined Investec in 2017 and has spent time in Investec’s Power & Infrastructure teams in New York and Johannesburg. She has worked on transactions across the capital stack, throughout North America and Africa. Her experience covers a range of technologies including utility scale gas and renewable power generation, as well as midstream O&G and other infrastructure sub-sectors. Dayle is a South African chartered accountant CA(SA).

Phalo Maurice-Mopp

Phalo Maurice-Mopp

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Phalo Maurice-Mopp

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Phalo joined Investec in 2020 in order to complete his South African Chartered Accountancy articles. During this time, he worked across the capital stack and gained exposure to project finance, private equity as well as leverage finance. Before joining Investec’s Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in late 2024, Phalo worked as an investment professional for a private equity fund manager being incubated by Investec which focused on renewable energy investments across Sub-Saharan Africa. Phalo graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting.

Peter Messenger

Peter Messenger

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Peter Messenger

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Peter joined the North American Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in February 2024. He previously held a senior analyst position at Citigroup, covering project finance and PPP transactions for tax advantaged clients across circular economies, transportation, and social infrastructure. Peter holds a B.A. in Psychology from Colby College.

Ellen Mo

Ellen Mo

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Ellen Mo

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Ellen joined the Energy & Infrastructure Finance syndications platform in 2023. Previously, she was a Director with SMBC’s Structured Finance Group focused on the origination, structuring and execution of ABS and CLOs across private credit, aviation, and power. Before SMBC, she held various roles within BNP Paribas’ Power, Infrastructure & Project Finance team as well as the Power & Utilities group. Ellen began her career in 2012 with Imperial Capital’s power and energy high yield research desk. She is a CFA charterholder.

Arundeep Patwalia

Arundeep Patwalia

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Arundeep Patwalia

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Arundeep recently joined Investec as a Portfolio Management Analyst. She specializes in structured finance for renewable energy and infrastructure projects, managing diverse portfolios across the energy sector. Arundeep holds an MBA from Northeastern and a Finance degree from Rutgers University. With a strong background in finance and analytics, she is committed to supporting sustainable investments.

Shashank Reddy

Shashank Reddy

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Shashank Reddy

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Shashank joined Investec’s Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in 2024 and brings over 7 years of experience in the infrastructure space. He was previously with ING's Energy Sector Coverage Group, focused on origination, structuring and execution of transactions ranging from senior secured to mezzanine debt across North America and Latam. Shashank holds a Master's degree in Engineering from Columbia University and is a CAIA charterholder.

Adena Schmidt

Adena Schmidt

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Adena Schmidt

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Adena joined Investec’s North America Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in 2023, following her MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She was previously with Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank’s Energy & Infrastructure Group, where she structured and executed transactions in the North American conventional power, renewables, oil & gas, and transportation infrastructure sectors. Prior to Credit Agricole, she worked within Moody’s Project and Infrastructure Finance team conducting credit ratings and research related to project finance and municipal infrastructure finance.

Nic Tucker

Nic Tucker

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Nic Tucker

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Nic is senior deal originator within Investec’s Energy and Infrastructure Finance team, based in New York City. Nic joined Investec in 2013 and is focused on origination and execution of project finance transactions, primarily in the power sector. Over 15 years banking experience, having worked in New York, London and South Africa. Nic has led over $3bn of transactions across various sub-sectors.

Burr Tweedy

Burr Tweedy

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Burr Tweedy

Energy & Infrastructure Finance

Burr joined Investec’s North America Energy & Infrastructure Finance team in 2025. He was previously a Vice President on NY Green Bank's Investment & Portfolio Management team, where he led the origination, evaluation, and execution of scalable clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean transportation project investments across New York State. Burr holds Master in Business Administration and Master of Environmental Management degrees from Yale University.

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