AIIB in Luxembourg: Infrastructure as a global asset class

Following the legislative elections of 14 October 2018, Pierre Gramegna was re-appointed Minister of Finance in the coalition government formed by the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the Green Party (déi gréng). Pierre Gramegna first joined the government as Minister of Finance in 2013.

As Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna has initiated major reforms to balance the budget and to align Luxembourg’s tax rules with international transparency standards. Thanks to these efforts, Luxembourg’s AAA rating has been consistently confirmed by all major rating agencies and, in 2015, the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes upgraded Luxembourg to “largely compliant”. Pierre Gramegna is also a promoter of the diversification of Luxembourg’s financial centre, in particular with regard to FinTech and sustainable finance. He is the initiator and president of the LHoFT Foundation, which runs the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology. He has also further developed bilateral relations with China in the financial sector.

Pierre Gramegna puts particular emphasis on Luxembourg’s role in multilateral development banks. In 2014, Luxembourg became a member of the African Development Bank and, in 2015, Luxembourg was the first non-Asian country to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Currently, he is the chairman of the board of Governors of the AIIB. In May 2016, Pierre Gramegna was elected chair of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for a one-year mandate. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the European Investment Bank and on that of the European Stability Mechanism. He is also Luxembourg’s governor to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Pierre Gramegna studied law and economics at the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II), where he was awarded a master’s degree in civil law in 1981 and a degree in economic sciences in 1982. He completed his post-university education with a DEA (postgraduate diploma of advanced studies) in European Union law.

As a career diplomat, Pierre Gramegna joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983. From 1996 to 2002, Pierre Gramegna was Luxembourg’s ambassador to Japan and South Korea. From 2003 to 2013, Pierre Gramegna held the position of Director General of the Chamber of Commerce.

Sir Danny Alexander is responsible for AIIB’s relations with its members, the Board of Governors, the Board of Directors and other aspects of governance, including the admission of new members. As Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Alexander was one of the leaders of the UK coalition government between 2010 and 2015. Alexander was knighted in 2015. He holds a BA in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford and is an honorary fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. Alexander is a national of the UK.

Nicolas Mackel is CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, the Agency for the Development of the Financial Centre, since July 2013.

Nicolas is a career diplomat. He has graduated with a law degree from the University of Aix-en-Provence, and holds two post-graduate diplomas in European law from the Sorbonne University, respectively the College of Europe in Bruges where he then also served as a teaching assistant in the Law Department. He worked as a legal clerk at the European Court of Justice before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999. His assignments focused on the successive EU Treaty negotiations (Amsterdam, Nice, Constitution, Lisbon).

Nicolas was consecutively posted at Luxembourg’s Permanent Representation to the EU (2002-07), as Deputy Chief of Mission at Luxembourg’s Embassy in Washington DC (2007-11) and as Consul General in Shanghai (2011-13) where he was in charge of promoting Luxembourg’s economic interests throughout China as the Executive Director of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office.

Najeeb Haider is Manager Investment Operations Department III at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Prior to joining AIIB in September 2016, Mr. Haider worked for Citicorp International Limited (CIL). He spent most of his 21 years with CIL in the project and infrastructure finance business and his last position held was Managing Director and Asia Pacific Head for the business. He was based out of Hong Kong for 19 years and prior to that in Karachi. Previously he worked in the corporate banking departments of the Chase Manhattan Bank (4 years) and Bank of America (2).

Mr. Haider holds BBA and MBA degrees from the Institute of Business Administration, University of Karachi.

Roman Kräussl is Professor at the Luxembourg School of Finance. He also holds a position as Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, as Visiting Professor at Goizueta Business School at Emory University, and is Research Fellow at the Center for Financial Studies and at the Emory Center for Alternative Investments. Prof. Kräussl studied Economics at the University of Bielefeld and obtained his PhD in Financial Economics at Goethe University Frankfurt. His research focuses on alternative investments and wealth management and has been published in leading academic journals such as The Review of Financial Studies and The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. His work has been prominently featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, and on CNBC. He has taught numerous MBA courses at the Amsterdam School of Finance and Goizueta Business School, among others

Niccolo Polli was appointed Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Luxembourg in December 2018 and is responsible for all of HSBC’s operations covering Private Banking and Wealth Management, Security Services, Corporate Banking and Cash and Liquidity Management.

Niccolo joined HSBC as an International Manager in 2011 and worked in a variety of roles, including Head of Strategy UK and Chief of Staff to the UK CEO, Deputy to the Head of Global Business Banking and most recently Head of Strategy Europe International, with Armenia, Belgium, Czech Republic and Poland CEOs directly reporting to him.

Prior to joining HSBC, Niccolo had a varied career in finance in the USA, UK, France and Italy before becoming CEO Italy for a large London-based alternative investment management firm.

Niccolo holds a BSc from Stanford and an MBA from INSEAD.

Pilar Solana currently heads the Infrastructure Division within the Equity, New Products and Special Transactions Department at the European Investment Bank. Based in Luxembourg, she leads a team responsible for the development of subordinated and quasi equity financial instruments in the infrastructure space. Among the instruments in support of direct financing of infra projects, the team leads investments under the InnovFin Energy Demo Projects (EDP) and co-investments with infrastructure funds.

Before that, Pilar held a number of positions within the EIB (across origination, risk management as well as in portfolio management) across sectors and geographies. Prior to joining the EIB in 2005, she held a number of positions in banking in London, first in Barclays then in Deutsche Bank.

Pilar is a graduate of the Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas (ESADE) in Barcelona, Spain.

Rosa is the head of the Macquarie Luxembourg office. In this role she is responsible for coordinating the strategy of the office, and for managing specific infrastructure transactions such as restructuring, refinancing and reorganization.

As part of her role Rosa is sitting on the boards of Macquarie entities with infrastructure investments. She has a deep understanding across a broad spectrum of diversified industries segregated by geography (Europe, South Africa, Canada, Russia, and Asia) and sector (toll roads, airports, regulated utilities, renewable energy, telecommunications, port, rail).

Rosa has completed a BA in Administration and Management from Barcelona University, an MBA in International Business from ESADE Barcelona, a Master of Science in Banking and Finance from the Luxembourg School of Finance and the INSEAD International Directors Programme (IDP).

She obtained the INSEAD Certificate in Corporate Governance and is a Certified Director of the Luxembourg Institute of Directors.