Rock Infrastructure has appointed two new partners, Nick English (formerly Babcock & Brown and Amber) and Celia Carlisle (formerly General Counsel to the Olympic Delivery Authority) who bring with them a wealth of experience and creativity
Nick English joined Rock Infrastructure on 1st August. Nick brings with him financial and commercial experience as equity sponsor and financial advisor gained at Hambros Bank, Societe Generale, Babcock & Brown and Amber Infrastructure
His focus has been across a number of sectors and he has most recently been working in the transport sector on amongst others:
- Thameslink – commercial advisor and equity sponsor for the Bombardier consortium
- IEP – equity sponsor and financial advisor for the Siemens/Bombardier consortium
- Gold Coast Light Rail PPP – financial sponsor
- Diabolo Northern Rail infrastructure PPP (first PPP in Belgium) – equity sponsor and financial advisor
Celia Carlisle started work with Rock Infrastructure on 1 August. She has 18 years’ experience advising on projects and infrastructure for both public and private sectors and worked for the last 5 years as General Counsel at the Olympic Delivery Authority
Her experience includes:
- The letting of all contracts by the ODA for the preparation of venues, infrastructure and transport for the London 2012 Olympic Games
- Successful bidding, negotiation and financing of Tubelines PPP and Powerlink Power PFI with London Underground and TfL
- Successful bidding, negotiation, financing and re-financing of numerous PFIs in the schools and hospitals sectors
Celia is a qualified lawyer and has extensive experience of working in the PPP market. She has worked for the private and public sectors and managed in house teams, project teams and external lawyers and consultants, with responsibility for all legal matters, governance and compliance and assurance. She has worked in the Transport, Health, Social and Power sectors
Nick English says “I have known Mark Swindell since we worked together on one of the first PFI deals in the mid-1990s and am very excited by the Rock concept. I am sure that our creativity and determination can add real value. His skills and experience compliment mine and those of the team”
Celia Carlisle says “I am looking forward to working in a dynamic solution driven organisation which combines the best PPP financial, legal and commercial expertise into a team that can come up with the answers to delivering smarter and more efficient public procurements in a challenging political and funding environment”
Rock is currently working as commercial partner with the public sector on Mersey Gateway and with private sector partners on a number of mandates where there is a clear need for Rock’s dynamic approach to creating new mechanisms and structures to deliver major infrastructure
Mark Swindell says “I am delighted that both Nick and Celia have agreed to join Rock with Nick, Matt and myself. Having worked with them both I am convinced that they will help Rock deliver innovative solutions to the public and private sectors in order to meet the demands of a rapidly changing PPP market”
Rock is now working on integrating leading edge ideas such as:
- TIF funding
- EIB 2020 bonds
- Government guarantees
- Open Road Tolling systems
- Local Authority governance
- into current infrastructure PPP projects, to provide faster, better and more efficient procurement of large-scale infrastructure