Octopus Investments (Octopus), an investment manager investing in the people, ideas and industries that will change the world, has today announced the appointment of Sean McLachlan as Senior Investment Director to its Sustainable Infrastructure team.
Sean joins from Aviva Investors, where he was Senior Director for over seven years, with roles including Fund Manager across the infrastructure equity investment mandates. His responsibilities included investment strategy, client engagement and fundraising. Previous roles also included over ten years as Investment Director at Balfour Beatty Investments, where he led investments across a breadth of infrastructure sectors including energy and renewables, utilities, transport, and digital telecommunications.
Reporting to Robert Skinner, Head of Sustainable Infrastructure, Sean will be Co-Head of the Octopus Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (OSIF) alongside Lukasz Michalak. Incorporated last year with cornerstone investment from the UK Infrastructure Bank, OSIF provides growth capital to the next generation of infrastructure companies. It seeks to back businesses with proven technology and transformative potential, that are critical to meeting the scale of the UK’s net zero ambitions.
The fund recently made its first investment, backing the £50m rollout of electric vehicle (EV) charging company, Weev, based in Northern Ireland.
Robert Skinner said: “We are thrilled to be adding Sean to our Sustainable Infrastructure team. His significant experience across the sector aligns incredibly well with the aims of OSIF; one of which is to accelerate the growth of emerging sustainable infrastructure to help reach the UK’s net zero targets. With Sean on board, we are excited about contributing to this effort and helping build the foundations for the next wave of infrastructure across the country.”
Sean McLachlan said: “Octopus Investments is a dynamic business that has a great reputation for investing into innovative, budding markets. The Sustainable Infrastructure team has an impressive track record providing capital to the technologies and companies that make a significant difference to people’s lives. OSIF has been set up to build on this even further and I look forward to upholding Octopus’s reputation and driving the team’s ambitions in the space.
“OSIF brings together the market opportunity and demand for capital to drive the growth and scaling of emerging sustainable UK infrastructure asset classes. Whether its EV charging infrastructure or the other sectors of focus – energy transition, circular economy and digital infrastructure – investors will benefit from the potential for attractive investment returns while helping progressive companies contribute to delivering the UK’s net zero targets and wider societal benefits.”
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