Our People

Meet our leaders

Marie Lam-Frendo

CEO

Marie Lam-Frendo

CEO

Marie Lam-Frendo was appointed CEO by the Board of the Global Infrastructure Hub, effective January 28th 2019.

Prior to joining the GI Hub, she was the Head of Asia-Pacific for Acuity, the advisory services business of the SNCL group, helping clients in regard to infrastructure project strategy and finance.

From 2011 to 2014, Marie headed the Infrastructure Initiatives department of the World Economic Forum, where she led their thought leadership activities, publishing thought leadership reports on best practices in the infrastructure sector. She led the dissemination effort of these best practices to governments and advocated to coalitions such as the B20 and the G20.

Before that, Marie worked for European utilities Essent then RWE where she drove their business development activities in the Africa and Central Asia region for various commodities, including their equity investment in LNG and hydro power plants. She started her career in 2001, and worked for various engineering consulting firms holding several technical and commercial positions for energy and transport projects in Africa, Middle East and Europe.

Marie holds an MSc of Civil Engineering from EPF, an MSc of Marketing and Strategy from ESCP-EAP (Paris), and an MSc of Management and Leadership from WEF - in partnership with LBS and INSEAD. She is a Global Leadership Fellow of the World Economic Forum.

Srima McQuillan

Chief Operating Officer

Srima McQuillan

Chief Operating Officer

Srima joined the Global Infrastructure Hub in February 2020 as Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for aligning operations and strategy and for ensuring that support services, resourcing and infrastructure enable the delivery of programs and partnerships.

Prior to joining the GI Hub, Srima worked in senior management within large international infrastructure and property development companies across Strategy, Human Resources, Innovation, Business Transformation and Operations. She also worked as a COO in the not-for-profit sector and was responsible for governance, operations, donor management, marketing and communications.

Srima began her career working as a civil engineer at Montgomery Watson working on water and wastewater projects. She also worked as a technical advisor on PPPs at the International Finance Corporation.

Srima holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from University of California at Berkeley, a Master’s in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford, an M.B.A. from University of California at Los Angeles, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Henri Blas

Chief Content Officer

Henri Blas

Chief Content Officer

Henri joined the Global Infrastructure Hub in July 2020 as Chief Content Officer and leads the strategy and delivery of content initiatives and research, tools and products for the Hub.

Prior to joining the GI Hub, Henri was the Resilience Finance lead and acting COO for the Global Resilient Cities Network - an initiative across 100 cities pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation. He had previously been leading Aecom infrastructure advisory practice in Asia, advising on asset valuations and sale/acquisitions for Macquarie in North America and consulting on transport projects across Europe and APAC for Systra.

Henri holds an MSc of Civil Engineering from ENTPE (France) and an MSc of Science from New York University (USA).

Katharina Surikow

Head of External Relations

Katharina Surikow

Head of External Relations

Katharina brings extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, policy development, political engagement and advocacy to her role at the GI Hub, where she is responsible for corporate governance, strategy and external engagement.

Before joining the GI Hub, Katharina held a number of roles with the leading advocacy body, the Property Council of Australia, most recently as National Policy Manager, Housing and Planning. There she worked with senior industry leaders on thought leadership initiatives, formulating proactive policy and advocating on behalf of the industry to government.

She has also worked in State Government in South Australia, focused on economic development and sustainability policy. During her time with the Property Council, Katharina gained valuable experience in leading negotiations on complex and politically sensitive policy areas. Katharina brings to GI Hub a strong track record and core strength in building and maintaining lasting and productive relationships with a range of diverse public and private sector stakeholders to deliver results.

Katharina holds an Honours Degree in Business and a Bachelor of International Business from the University of South Australia, and a Bachelor of European Business from the Normandy Business School in France.

Monica Bennett

Director of Thought Leadership

Monica Bennett

Director of Thought Leadership

Monica leads the development, delivery and dissemination of the GI Hub’s strategic and innovation-focused programs of work, including our work streams on innovative funding and financing, InfraTech, infrastructure futures and transformative infrastructure post-COVID. She ensures that these programs are developed using customer-centric approaches and that they offer robust evidence to facilitate change and drive impact for G20 governments and industry stakeholders.

Monica brings more than 15 years of experience in technology, innovation and engineering consulting to the GI Hub team. Prior to GI Hub, Monica established and grew Isle Utilities in the APAC region. Isle is a boutique consultancy whose aim is to accelerate the commercialisation of water technology across the globe. She was Managing Director for Isle Australia (between 2011-2015) and most recently led their expansion into South East Asia as Head of Technology and Innovation Consulting. 

Monica is a Chartered Chemical Engineer and holds a BEng (Hons) in Environmental Engineering from the University of Queensland. Prior to Isle, Monica was a wastewater process engineer for leading consultancies in Australia and the UK.  

Cinthya Pastor

Director of Economics

Cinthya Pastor

Director of Economics

Cinthya joined the Global Infrastructure Hub in April 2021 as Director Economics and leads the development, delivery and dissemination of the GI Hub’s economic research and policy recommendations for the global infrastructure landscape.

Cinthya brings 12 years of experience in economics, applied research, public policy analysis and recommendation; and advocacy within the infrastructure sector. She has significant experience across government, private, not-for-profit and multilateral organizations in Latin America, Asia and the United States.

Prior to joining the GI Hub, she worked at the Inter-American Development Bank leading the research on infrastructure for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), including the elaboration of National Infrastructure Plans and the estimation of National Infrastructure Needs. Moreover, she ran INFRALATAM, the first and only database that estimates public investment in infrastructure for 22 LAC countries.

Previously she was Public Policy Chief at the Peruvian Institute of Economics, a think tank founded with a World Bank Grant, where she led the formulation of economic research and policy recommendations to advocate for the still pending economic reforms.

She also worked at Ministry of Economy and Finance of Peru analyzing fiscal policy tools and public finance results, assessing consistency, viability and fiscal impact of legislative bills and tentative policies; and counseling on the preparation of major law proposals, like the PPP bill and the Fiscal Structural Rule bill.

Cinthya holds a Masters in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard University, as well as a Bachelor of Economics from Universidad del Pacífico (Peru).

 

Sam Barr

Director of Knowledge Mobilisation

Sam Barr

Director of Knowledge Mobilisation

As Director of Knowledge Mobilisation, Sam leads the team responsible for maximising the application and impact of the capacity building tools created by the GI Hub.

In 2020, he co-led the convening of the GI Hub’s Infrastructure Bodies Forum, which he continues to help lead. He also represents the GI Hub at the G20 International Financial Architecture Working Group and the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact. He is an Advisory Committee member for the Africa Infrastructure Fellowship Program, and an expert panel member for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Accelerating PPPs for Sustainable Economic Recovery Report.

He also led the delivery of the G20 Quality Infrastructure Investment Case Study Survey, which was endorsed by the Infrastructure Working Group of the G20 in 2021.

Sam has expertise across economics, infrastructure, and public policy. In his more than 15 years of professional experience in government and the private sector, he has held senior roles at Infrastructure New South Wales and the New South Wales Treasury, including as a senior adviser to two New South Wales Treasurers. He also managed government relations at Lion, a major global beverage company.

Sam holds a Bachelor of Commerce with majors in Economics and Asian Studies from Griffith University in Brisbane and is completing a Master of Arts in International Affairs through King’s College, London.

Rory Linehan

Director of Engagement

Rory Linehan

Director of Engagement

Rory joined the GI Hub in July 2022 as Director of Engagement and leads global partnerships and stakeholder engagement at the GI Hub.

Rory brings over ten years of experience in international business and engagement. Before joining the GI Hub, Rory was the Regional Director of International Relations for APAC at Jacobs, where he forged new partnerships to support over a regional portfolio of US$2 billion from India to Japan.

Prior to Jacobs, Rory managed the Australian Government’s Infrastructure Unit in the United States at the Australian Embassy where he oversaw Australia’s infrastructure engagement with the White House, Congress, and US State Governors.

Rory has held senior government and private sector roles in Australia, Canada, and the United States. A former civil servant and diplomat at Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Rory has supported key Australian government priorities across the Indo-Pacific, including on the advocacy for Australia’s Free Trade Agreements with China, Japan, Korea, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in International Business from the Australian National University, Canberra, and a master’s degree in International Relations from Macquarie University, Sydney.

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