Other Businesses

ABP Property

Our property division brings together an unrivalled land bank spanning 21 multi-modal locations around the country, with 960 hectares of port-based development land.

ABPmer

Drawing on 60 years of experience, ABP Marine Environmental Research (ABPmer) provides specialist marine environmental research and consultancy services.

UK Dredging

UK Dredging (UKD) operates the largest British-owned dredging fleet and specialises in the provision of reliable and cost effective port maintenance dredging services.

Board Of Directors

Dr Phil Nolan NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

Dr Phil Nolan was appointed Chairman of Associated British Ports Holdings in July 2017. He has a wealth of experience on the boards of many companies, private and public and in both executive and non-executive capacities. He was Chairman of John Laing from 2010-2018, Ulster Bank Limited and Ulster Bank Ireland Limited (a subsidiary of Ulster Bank Limited) between July 2013 and July 2017 and Chairman of Affinity Water from 2013-2018. Phil was also a non-executive director of EnQuest PLC, an oil and gas development and production company from August 2012 to July 2017. He was Chairman of Infinis, a then privately-held, leading renewable energy generator between 2007 and 2010, Chairman of Sepura plc, a listed global supplier of TETRA radios, between 2007 and 2010 and CEO of Eircom, Ireland's national telecommunications supplier from 2002 to 2006. Prior to that, he served as an Executive Director of BG Group plc and CEO of Transco plc from 1998 and in 2000, as CEO, led the demerger of Transco from BG, as the Lattice Group.

Henrik L. Pedersen CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Henrik L. Pedersen was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in August 2018. Henrik joined ABP from APM Terminals, a global ports company owned by the Maersk Group, where he served as Chief Commercial Officer. During his 20-year tenure with the Maersk Group he held a wide range of senior leadership roles based in Denmark, USA, China, Panama, Singapore and the Netherlands. Henrik, a Danish national, holds a finance degree from Copenhagen Business School as well as having completed various executive studies at Columbia, Harvard and IMD business schools.

 

Marina Wyatt CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Marina Wyatt was appointed Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director of the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in March 2019. Marina has more than 20 years of experience in senior finance leadership roles as Chief Financial Officer of UBM Plc, TomTom NV, Colt Telecom Plc and Psion Plc. Marina is currently a non-executive director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Renewi Plc and supervisory board member of Lucas Bols NV. Marina is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and holds a geography degree from Cambridge University.

Non-executive directors

Robbie Barr

Robbie Barr joined the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in March 2019. He is a senior advisor to OMERS Private Equity and Infrastructure in Europe, Chairman of Kemble Ventures Holdings, Senior Independent Director of Celadon Pharmaceuticals plc and a director of VTG Gmbh. Robbie was Chairman of Vue international from 2020-2022, Executive Chairman of Four Seasons Health Care from 2014-2018 and of Odeon & UCI Cinemas from 2012-2016. From 2009 to 2016 he was a Managing Director of the private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners. Prior to joining Terra Firma Robbie had senior finance roles at Vodafone Group plc including Group Financial Controller and Chief Financial Officer of Vodafone’s operations outside Western Europe. He is a Chartered Accountant and has a MA in Mathematics from Oxford University.

James Bryce

James Bryce joined the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in June 2018. He leads the Global Infrastructure Team at CPP Investments, having previously been head of the Portfolio Value Creation group, supporting management teams of individual investments to achieve full value potential.

Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2012, James was a Managing Director at Royal Bank Equity Finance (the private equity arm of RBS), where he spent 10 years focused on infrastructure and private equity transactions. Before that, he was a member of the private equity team at JP Morgan Capital and started his career as a pension fund manager at Hambros Bank.

James holds an MA in Theology from Keble College, Oxford.

He currently also serves on the boards of Anglian Water and Viterra Agriculture.

Kamil Burganov

Kamil Burganov was appointed to the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in March 2022. He is a Senior Vice President with the GIC Infrastructure team and focuses on transport infrastructure investments. Prior to joining GIC in December 2018, Kamil worked in investment banking for more than 10 years, including J.P. Morgan’s Transport infrastructure and Energy teams. Kamil holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Philip Butcher

Philip Butcher joined the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings as a Director in June 2021 and has been an Alternate Director since 2016. He is a Managing Director at CPP Investments and is based in London.

Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2012, Phil worked at Macquarie Capital in Toronto where he started out in the Telecom, Media, Entertainment and Technology advisory team, and subsequently moved to the Infrastructure advisory team working on principal transactions and 3rd party mandates.

Phil holds an MBA from London Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto.

Allard Castelein

Allard Castelein joined the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings on 23 June 2022. Until July 2023 he was Chief Executive Officer of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, a position he had held since 1 January 2014.

He qualified as a doctor before joining Shell in The Netherlands, pursuing an international career and holding a number of positions in Marketing, Strategy, Business Development and General Management for Shell in various countries. In 2009, he was appointed Vice President Environment for Shell.

Allard is also a non-executive director of Renewi plc, SBM Offshore N.V and Heijmans N.V, and chair of the Supervisory Board of Erasmus Trustfonds, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Board of Ronald McDonald Huis Sophia Rotterdam and a member of the Board of the International Architectuur Biennale Rotterdam.

Luca Lupo

Luca Lupo joined the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in January 2023. Luca is a Managing Director in OMERS Infrastructure and is based in London, where he leads the investment in transportation and community infrastructure assets across Europe. Prior to joining OMERS he was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley where he worked in the infrastructure & transportation team.

Luca holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Engineering with a specialisation in Finance from Politecnico di Milano, where he has also been a lecturer of Corporate Finance.

Eric Machiels

Eric Machiels joined the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in October 2017. He has been a Managing Director in the London office of OMERS Infrastructure since October 2017. His main focus is to drive the delivery of value growth within OMERS portfolio companies by advising management teams in a board director position, while drawing on his prior executive background in turning around and growing private equity-owned companies. Prior to his position at OMERS Infrastructure, Eric served for eight years as CEO of Infinis Energy plc, a renewable energy FTSE-250 company. Prior to that he was a Business Director at Terra Firma Capital Partners. Before joining Terra Firma, Eric held executive positions within two portfolio companies held by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private US equity firm. Eric has a Licentiate in Law, magna cum laude, from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Birgit Nørgaard

Birgit Nørgaard joined the board of Associated British Ports Holdings in September 2019. She has significant board experience from both public and private companies as well as from her executive career. Current Directorships include WSP Inc., a leading global consulting engineering company, since 2013, DSV A/S, a leading global freight forwarder, since 2010, IMI Plc. from 2012 and NCC AB, a leading Scandinavian contractor, since 2017. Other positions in privately held companies include, among others, Chairman of Norisol A/S, a provider of technical insulation among other, Vice-Chairman of NNE A/S, a consulting engineering company specializing in pharmaceutical facilities, two funds of funds investing in Private Equity and Venture Capital and vice Chairman of the Danish State’s IT Council. In addition, Birgit has held several Non-Executive positions in companies or institutions with relation to the engineering, construction and energy sectors. Her executive background includes being CEO of The Carl Bro Group A/S, COO of Grontmij NV and prior to that Executive Vice President of Danisco Distillers and consultant with McKinsey. She holds a M.Sc. (Econ) from the Copenhagen Business School and MBA from INSEAD in France.

Henrik Onarheim

Henrik Onarheim was appointed Alternate Director in September 2022.  He is part of the OMERS Infrastructure’s European investment team where, as an Associate Director, he is involved in the evaluation and execution of new investments across a broad range of subsectors. Prior to joining OMERS, Henrik worked in infrastructure investing at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority where he helped lead deals primarily in utilities and digital infrastructure globally. He also previously worked in infrastructure transaction advisory at Macquarie Capital in New York.

Henrik holds a B.A. from Amherst College.

Jean-François Paris

Jean-François was appointed Alternate Director in November 2020. He is a Director at Wren House Infrastructure and mainly focuses on value enhancement opportunities and financing matters throughout the Wren House portfolio

He was involved in the acquisition of the 99 year lease for the TransGrid high voltage electricity transmission network in NSW, Australia and has been an observer on the board and committees since then.  Prior to joining Wren House, he worked in the Investment Banking Division of HSBC in London covering Transport Infrastructure in Europe, Latam and the Middle East. He also worked for Avington Financial Limited and Groupe Casino.

Jean-François holds a Masters in Computer Science and Engineering from INSA Lyon (French Grande Ecole) and a Masters in Finance from ESCP-Europe Business School. Jean-François is a French and British national.

Greg Pestrak

Greg Pestrak joined the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in November 2020, having been an Alternate Director since January 2018. He is an Executive Vice President at Wren House Infrastructure, where his focus is on asset management across the portfolio which, in addition to Associated British Ports, includes other regulated and non-regulated global assets. Prior to joining Wren House, Greg was a partner in KPMG’s Global Strategy Group based in the UK, where he was the Infrastructure lead since 2009. Greg has over 17 years consulting experience, working with investors and corporates to drive performance improvement in response to transactions, changes in the market, customer or regulatory environment or financial pressure, bringing an independent and constructively challenging perspective to business and operating models. Greg’s recent experience includes leading engagements in the UK and Globally in the Water, Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution, Telecoms, Transport and Infrastructure Services sectors. Prior to his career in consulting, Greg worked in finance with Rothschild Asset Management and Jardine Fleming Asset Management in Hong Kong and the UK. Greg holds a Sloan Fellowship Masters in Management from the London Business School and a bachelor's degree from The University of King’s College, Canada.

Rhys Phillip

Rhys Phillip joined the Board of ABP as an Alternate Director on 28 April 2023. He is a Senior Portfolio Director with GIC, focussed on Asset Management of infrastructure investments. Prior to joining GIC, Rhys was the CEO of Cornerstone Telecommuncations Infrastructure Limited, the leading mobile network towerco in the UK (2018 - 2022) and CCO of IHS Towers, the leading towerco in MENA (2013 - 2017}. Earlier in his career, Rhys was an investment banker and a Senior Partner with Ernst & Young in its transaction advisory business. Rhys is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MA in law from Cambridge University.

Steven Pugh

Steven Pugh joined the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in June 2021 and is currently an Alternate Director. He is a Managing Director at Federated Hermes Infrastructure and has over 20 years of experience of advising on infrastructure projects and transactions. He holds a number of board positions across the Federated Hermes portfolio and is also responsible for leading their origination and execution activities.

Prior to joining Federated Hermes he previously worked as a Director within the Infrastructure team at RBC Capital Markets, where he advised private and corporate clients on numerous large-scale infrastructure acquisitions and disposals across the UK and Europe.

Steven holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Bristol.

Tony Quinlan

Tony Quinlan joined the Board of Associated British Ports Holdings in September 2019.

He was previously at Laird PLC as Chief Financial Officer from July 2015 and was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer in September 2016.  After delivering a significant turnaround, he led the sale of the Group to Advent International in June 2018, providing a substantial premium to shareholders.

In addition to ABP, he now serves on the Boards of Hill and Smith PLC (from 2019), where he is the Senior Independent Director and chairs the Remuneration Committee;  Costain PLC (from 2021), where he is also Senior Independent Director and chairs the Audit Committee; and Laird Thermal Systems GmbH (2021), where he is Chairman of the advisory Board.

Prior to joining Laird, Tony worked as Group Finance Director at Drax PLC, a FTSE 250 electricity generation business then supplying circa 7% of UK electricity, embarking on a major transformation from coal fired electricity generation to sustainable biomass. As well as Finance, Tony also held several other roles, including Communications and IT, spending a total of six years at the Group.  Before Drax, Tony worked for a long period at major UK retailer Marks & Spencer PLC, where he held a number of senior positions, including Head of Investor Relations, before being appointed Director of Financial Control, the deputy to the Finance Director, in 2005.

Between 2012 and 2018 Tony was also on the Board of the Port of London Authority (PLA), the organisation responsible for the commercial activities on the river Thames, as a Non-Executive Director and was appointed Vice Chairman in 2014. He also chaired the Audit Committee.  

Chris Williams

Chris Williams was appointed Alternate Director in September 2022.  He is a Principal at CPP Investments and is based in London.  Before joining CPPIB in 2016, Chris worked at Nomura in London in the Natural Resources advisory team. Prior to that he worked in the Strategy team of Teneo, a consulting firm.

Chris holds an MSc in Metals and Energy Finance from Imperial College London and a BSc in Economics from Queen’s University Belfast.