July 9, 2024
Today Leo Berwick announces the continued build out of its Infrastructure, Renewables and Energy Transition Financial Advisory practice, which will specialize in providing financial due diligence and financial modeling services tailored to infrastructure and energy transition investors. Joining this practice are Kevin Burke, who has been appointed Managing Director and Head of Digital Infrastructure Financial Advisory and Amélie Perron, who has been appointed Managing Director and Head of Transport Infrastructure Financial Advisory.
Colin Schmidt, who was hired last month to lead the development of Leo Berwick’s Financial Advisory practice said “I’m delighted to welcome Amélie and Kevin – two professionals I’ve had the pleasure of working with for almost a decade and regard as the best in their fields – to Leo Berwick’s growing financial advisory team specializing in infrastructure financial due diligence and financial modeling. Amélie and Kevin bring tremendous depth of experience in the transport and digital infrastructure sectors, which is the perfect complement to the renewables, energy transition and energy infrastructure experience of our current financial advisory team. This allows us full coverage across all sectors our clients are most active in today.”
Added Nick Kato, Leo Berwick Managing Partner “Early in our journey as a full service trusted deal advisory firm, we saw a need for dedicated financial due diligence and modeling advice for infrastructure, renewables and energy transition deals. Our financial advisory team will provide the much needed, expert advice to facilitate the energy transition and close the infrastructure gap, and is a perfect complement to our existing market-leading tax team to bring even more depth of expertise to our clients.”
Colin Schmidt – Partner and Head of Infrastructure, Renewables and Energy Transition Financial Advisory
- Colin Schmidt brings over 18 years of experience advising mid-market infrastructure investors, pension funds, GPs and insurers on deals in the infrastructure and energy sector. Prior to joining Leo Berwick, Schmidt was a senior member of the Infrastructure Investments and Infrastructure M&A teams of two Big 4 consulting firms and the National Leader for Infrastructure Funds at one Big 4 firm. Colin has advised on more than 200 transactions including having advised the Infrastructure and Renewable Resource teams of each of the major Canadian pension funds. Colin shared, “Our team is solely focused on understanding the considerations specific to infrastructure and energy investors – that is, the regulatory, contractual and market forces that shape the financial performance and cash flow profile of these long-life investments. I’m thrilled to bring this tailored due diligence and modelling offering to Leo Berwick which is so complimentary to the market leading tax and valuation advice its clients receive”.
Kevin Burke – Managing Director and Head of Digital Infrastructure Financial Advisory
- Kevin Burke brings deep expertise in providing commercially tailored financial due diligence advisory services to infrastructure and energy transition investors. He has advisory experience across the full range of infrastructure sub-sectors; however, he has a particular specialty in digital infrastructure assets, having advised clients on numerous notable fiber, data center, and telecom tower transactions in recent years. Prior to joining Leo Berwick, Kevin was a senior member of a specialized Infrastructure M&A team at a Big 4 firm, where he worked alongside Colin and Amélie to provide investment due diligence, financial modeling, and financial/strategic advisory services tailored to infrastructure private equity funds, institutional infrastructure investors, and infrastructure strategics.
Amélie Perron – Managing Director and Head of Transport Infrastructure Financial Advisory
- Amélie Perron has more than a decade of experience advising institutional and corporate clients on infrastructure asset acquisitions and divestitures throughout North America, the UK and Europe in a financial due diligence, commercial due diligence, modeling and financial advisory role, with a specific focus on the transport sub-sector. She has advised on numerous airport, aviation, rail, roads and transportation logistics transactions throughout her career. She has also advised public and private transport infrastructure asset owners, operators and stakeholders in their strategic and financial investment decision-making. Prior to joining Leo Berwick, Amélie worked in the Infrastructure M&A and Advisory practice at a Big 4 firm, where she focused on advising a broad range of investors on the acquisition, investment and divestiture of greenfield and brownfield infrastructure investments across the transport and logistics, digital, power and utilities, and social infrastructure asset classes. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant, and spent four years working as an auditor in a Big 4 firm.
This new offering complements Leo Berwick’s market-leading team of former Big 4 tax advisers. Dorian Hunt, Renewables & Energy Transition Leader, Kyle Kidd, Infrastructure, Renewables and Energy Transition M&A Tax Leader, Martin Schmidt, Valuation Leader and Joe Zenk, Cost Segregation Leader, have been leading teams that have aided clients with transactions ranging from $10mn tuck-ins to over $10bn take privates, specializing in value-added tax due diligence, tax modeling, tax structuring, renewables tax credits and tax insurance underwriting evaluation across all sectors, with deep expertise in energy transition, renewables and broader infrastructure in the US and Canada for some of the world’s largest investors and renewables developers. The team is at the forefront of helping stakeholders understand the practical implications, challenges and opportunities attendant to building out the diverse energy technologies incentivized under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Canadian Clean Technology Tax Credit and Clean Technology Manufacturing Tax Credit legislation.