Vauban Infrastructure Partners reinforces its teams globally

Vauban Infrastructure Partners (“Vauban”), Natixis Investment Managers’ affiliate, continues to build strong momentum and announces that it has hired nine experts to bolster its team and support the company’s growing operations. These professionals reinforce Vauban’s set up in Paris, Luxembourg, Munich, and New York.

Vauban recently welcomed Jaime O’Donnell as an Investor Relations Vice President. She will help address the demands of Vauban’s diversified investor base of over 100 institutional investors from 17 countries, and enhance Vauban’s fundraising efforts in Europe, Asia and North America.

Vauban is has added three investment professionals to its offices in Paris and Munich. Soledad de la Cruz will be joining Vauban as a Senior Investment Manager in Paris. In addition, the appointment of Marie Durand as an Investment Manager in Paris strengthens the team dedicated to Vauban Infra Fibre, France’s largest independent national digital infrastructure platform. Vauban has also welcomed Massimiliano Rudiferia as an Investment Manager on Vauban’s Munich Team, which is already comprised of Christoph Stagl, a Vice President at Vauban.

Overseas, Léonie Maruani joins a new US team as Senior Director to support Vauban’s development efforts in North America, alongside Olivier Ta.

Additionally, Vauban is reinforced with the appointment of Ayoub Mouhieddine as Head of IT. Ayoub will enhance data management and internalize key IT functions to increase the security and robustness of Vauban’s operations.

The Middle Office team has been strengthened with the arrival of two experts: Astrid Hopmann as Middle Officer in Paris, and Antoine Cogent as Accounting Manager in Luxembourg.

Aya Koffi has also joined Vauban as an Office Manager to support the growing needs of Vauban’s headquarters in Paris.
Based in Paris, Luxembourg, Munich and New York, Vauban’s team now totals 65 employees managing ~€8bn of assets under management invested in a diversified portfolio of assets across Europe and North America.


Biographies:
Jaime O’Donnell has joined Vauban as a Vice President on the Investor Relations team. Prior to joining Vauban, Jaime worked in Investor Relations for New York-based VC firm Upper90, where she was in charge of fundraising efforts, relationship management, and brand awareness. She also spent 5 years at Goldman Sachs on the Core Franchise Equity Sales & Cross Asset Sales Desks in Dallas & New York City, respectively. Jaime received a BBA in Finance and BA in French from Southern Methodist University in 2016.

Soledad de la Cruz is a Senior Investment Manager at Vauban IP. She will support the management of Vauban’s Spanish portfolio and will also be involved in the origination and execution of projects. Soledad has a wealth of experience in Project Finance in the Infrastructure world, especially in transportation, social/health and digital infrastructure. Prior to Vauban Infrastructure Partners, Soledad worked on the Lender side in London where she executed new transactions as well as managed a portfolio. Prior to that, she was part of the asset management team of Meridiam and Vinci Concession in the UK.

Marie Durand joined Vauban in 2022 as an Investment Manager, after almost 5 years of experience in Project Finance. Prior to joining Vauban, Marie spent 6 years with Credit Agricole CIB, working for a year in corporate & acquisition finance and then joining the Infrastructure team for nearly 5 years. She has been involved in various sectors across the EMEA region including Rail, Airports, Roads, PPP, Social Infrastructures and Energy from Waste. She has worked on acquisitions and greenfield & brownfield projects, both on the financing and advisory sides. Marie holds a Masters degree in Finance and a MSc (Market Finance & Investment Banking) from Paris-Dauphine.

Massimiliano Rudiferia is an Investment Manager at Vauban and is involved in the execution and asset management of infrastructure assets. Prior to joining Vauban, Massimiliano was an analyst at Société Générale where he gained experience in transport, logistics and automotive projects. He also worked at Liberta Partners Private Equity, where he worked on three deals in the automotive, healthcare and telecommunications segments. Massimiliano holds a Bachelor degree from Bocconi University in Milan and a Master from IE Business School in Madrid.

Léonie Maruani has joined Vauban as Senior Director focused on the firm’s expansion into North America, bringing 20+ years of experience across Europe and the Americas. Previously, she served as a Senior Advisor at the Rockefeller Foundation on the Innovation and Global Policy & Advocacy teams. Prior to that, she was the Managing Partner at New York-based Latitude Advisory, a firm she co-founded to provide infrastructure and energy advisory to public and private sector clients, as well as consulting on negotiation, leadership and innovation. Léonie spent 15+ years in Project Finance lending and financial advisory at Natixis and Scotiabank, where she successfully originated, structured, and executed complex transactions and innovative finance solutions for infrastructure assets in Europe, the U.S., and Latin America. She also co-headed and built the higher education and healthcare team at CIFG, a triple-A rated bond insurer in the U.S. Public Finance capital markets. Léonie holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, studied at the Stanford GSB, and is a graduate of the Business School ESCP Europe. She also holds a Masters in History from Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Ayoub Mouhieddine joined Vauban in 2022 as the new head of IT - CTO. Prior to joining Vauban, Ayoub spent 10 years in the IT field for the finance and banking industries (Head of the Rapid Application Development Team, IT Quant, financial engineer, ...). He developed a sound knowledge of the business and clients’ needs. He will help Vauban to implement the highest security, compliance and data availability standards thanks to his prior experiences and a permanent technological watch. Ayoub is a graduate from ISAE-SUPAERO and speaks French, English and Arabic.

Astrid Hopmann has joined Vauban as a middle officer in June 2022. Prior to joining Vauban, Astrid was a Manager in Audit at PwC Luxembourg, where she worked for 4.5 years and specialized in managing audits of Infrastructure and Real Estate funds. Astrid graduated from Skema Business School in 2018, with an MSC in Corporate Financial Management. Astrid is fluent in French, English and possess knowledge of Mandarin/German. She has lived abroad for 17 years (Taipei, Johannesburg, Hong-Kong and Shanghai).
Antoine Cogent joined Vauban Infrastructure Luxembourg in 2022 as an Accounting Manager. Antoine has more than 8 years of experience in Luxembourg, mainly in Debt and Private Equity fund administration with various service providers. Prior to Vauban Infrastructure Luxembourg, he worked at BNP Paribas Securities Services in the Private Capital team for over 2 years. Antoine also spent 4 years with Alter Domus, a leading fund services provider.

Aya Koffi joined Vauban in February 2022 as an Office Manager. She has 9 years of experience in this field in various environments. Prior to joining Vauban, Aya worked in London for 2 years as a bilingual French/English administrative assistant for the Quebec Government office. She also worked in a law firm environment as an executive assistant for 6 years. These previous experiences have prepared Aya to handle confidential information and have also sharpened her interpersonal and communication skills to evolve in a dynamic environment. Aya brings her expertise to provide valuable support to an organization by performing various administrative tasks, thus contributing to its efficiency.

For further reading:

• Vauban InfrastrucVauban Infrastructure Partners Expands its Team to Support its Growth Ambitions
• Vauban reinforces expertise across Central and Eastern Europe with the addition of two experts in the region
• Vauban Infrastructure Partners Strengthens its Team with Three Senior Hires