Meet the team

Tony Poulter

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 5814, Email Tony Poulter

Tony leads PwC’s UK Capital Projects & Infrastructure group. He is also head of PwC's global consulting network and the relationship partner for the Ministry of Defence.

Tony was a UK Civil Servant under the Thatcher government in the 1980s, when he was involved in a number of large privatisations particularly in Transport. After joining PwC he set up the team which became the leading adviser globally on project finance and public private partnerships. He was one of the people who helped to shape the UK's PFI programme and the early private financings of roads, hospitals and water; was the lead adviser to the government on the PPP for the London tube, and also structured large infrastructure financings in Canada and Australia.

Alastair Drake

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 3925 , Email Alastair Drake

Alastair Drake specialises in complex accounting and structuring services for infrastructure projects, particularly those in the PFI/PPP sector. His structuring specialism is focussed on the efficient return of cash to shareholders across a broad range of transactions including acquisitions and disposals, joint venture arrangements, refinancings and returns of value. He has advised a number of infrastructure investors including Barclays, Semperian, IFM, 3i Infrastructure and Innisfree.

Anthony Morgan

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 4178 , Email Antony Morgan

Anthony Morgan is a chartered civil engineer who has specialised in capital project management and issues relating to the quantification of delay and disruption on a wide range of capital projects.

He leads the Construction disputes practice in EMEA. He has acted as a delay / planning expert on more than 40 occasions and given evidence in international arbitrations. He has also acted as a jointly appointed expert in the High Court.

He has advised on a broad range of projects including power stations, offshore platforms, process plant, vessels, road and rail infrastructure, ports, airports, office buildings, opencast and deep mines, and IT systems.

Andrew McCrosson

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 5334, Email Andrew McCrosson

Andrew leads the UK firm's infrastructure funds practice. He has many years of experience leading due diligence assignments in the infrastructure sector. He has worked on large scale, multi-jurisdictional transactions in most of the core infrastructure sectors.

Chris Venables

Tel: +44 (0)20 7212 1135, Email Chris Venables

Chris leads a team in the PwC HR Services business that specialises in providing actuarial advice to infrastructure funds, regulated utilities and contractors. He has a detailed working knowledge of the regulatory environment governing pensions laid down by a range of economic regulators. Within this context he has experience advising companies in relation to the pensions aspects of:

• Efficient pension scheme funding and risk management
• Strategy for business plan submissions for the price control review process
• Engagement with economic regulators in relation to pensions
• Pension benefit re-design and implementation
• Outsourcing of services for the operation and maintenance of monopoly assets
• Sales and acquisitions of monopoly assets
• Working within the framework of the provisions of privatisation

Chris has provided advice in a range of sectors including water, electricity, gas, telecoms and rail.

Colin Smith

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 9991, Email Colin Smith

Colin is an infrastructure specialist in our Transaction Services practice. Since re-joining PwC in 2004 he has worked on assets across the key infrastructure sectors, including ports, airports, utilities and energy, recent transactions including EDF's electricity networks, Thames Water, Gatwick Airport and High Speed One. He has worked for many of the largest infrastructure investors during that time, including Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, UBS Global Asset Management, Eiser Infrastructure, Babcock & Brown, DP World, Borealis, ADIA and the Qatar Investment Authority.

Conrad Williams

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 5653, Email Conrad Williams

Conrad leads our Infrastructure Finance business. He has significant experience of advising clients on PPP related asset and portfolio sales, fund set-ups, listings, valuation, investor due diligence, vendor assistance and value enhancements such as portfolio and project level refinancing. Specifically he led the disposal of Serco’s PPP portfolio disposal and also led the day to day disposal of the Global Solutions Limited disposal. On wider secondary market transactions he led our valuation and due diligence work for Babcock and Brown on the establishment of their infrastructure fund and subsequent share listing. He led the valuation work of the recent HBOS transaction and also provided valuation advice to a number of holders of equity including LST, Trillium Partners, Innisfree, HICL and several other private owners.

Duncan Michie

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 7394, Email Duncan Michie

Duncan has provided a range of consultancy services to clients in regulated industries such as electricity, water and gas. He has specialised in analysis of regulatory issues and how they impact gas, water and electricity companies. He has advised a number of buyers in the water and electricity sector on regulatory aspects of acquisitions, including recent transactions for Wessex Water, Cambridge Water and Southern Water. Before joining PwC, Duncan worked as a regulatory economist with London Economics and Arthur Andersen.

Gareth Oakland

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 2840, Email Gareth Oakland

Gareth leads our Capital Projects group. He has worked for PwC for 30 years and leads the work on some of our major UK central government accounts - the Department for Transport, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Ministry of Defence (MOD) the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) as well as regulators Ofcom and Monitor. He has been a UK government adviser on many capital projects - including the upgrade of the London Underground, The Manchester Commonwealth Games and London 2012 Olympics.

Jonty Palmer

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 5074, Email Jonty Palmer

Jonty is a partner working in the UK Nuclear Sector and is currently working with a major energy company to improve operational effectiveness within the existing nuclear fleet. He has led large scale restructuring programmes at board level, driven M&A from objective setting to exit strategy, headed a start up growth business and rationalised a failing business group.

Julian Smith

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 5940, Email Julian Smith

Julian leads PwC’s corporate finance transport sector team, specialising in the rail sector and has been full time in the sector since the privatisation of British Rail, most recently advising Eurotunnel on the acquisition of GBRF. Julian has been with PwC for 22 years. Julian is currently advising DfT on the major procurement of Thameslink and Cross Rail rolling stock. He was part of the team which advised on the original London Underground PPP. He was also involved in advising LCR on access charges for HS1 and has advised on many rail franchises including South Eastern.

Neil Fletcher

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 5202, Email Neil Fletcher

Neil is the lead tax partner in the PwC PPP practice and a leading member of the Infrastructure Fund Group with over 15 years experience in providing tax services on M&A transactions. Neil’s experience includes tax input into numerous PFI/PPP projects, including assisting government departments and local authorities in respect of bid evaluation and model reviews, structuring investments and divestments and refinancing transactions. Recent projects include M25 and Greater Manchester Waste, Nottingham Trams and Croydon Trams.

Paul Nash

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 4040, Email Paul Nash

Paul is Head of the tax practice for PwC’s Capital Projects and Infrastructure Group and is the Head of the Asset Finance and Leasing Group. He advises multi-national companies involved in asset finance on how to structure their corporate and funding arrangements in an efficient manner, corporate acquisitions, disposals, structured finance and leasing, as well as general corporate tax matters. Paul has advised a number of infrastructure groups on investing in projects and acquiring other businesses, ranging from the ROSCOs, wind farms, water companies and other regulated companies.

Qadir Marikar

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 2165 , Email Qadir Marikar

Qadir leads our Commercial Assurance practice in the UK. He developed PwC's proprietary approach to reviewing major commercial arrangements with a view to recovering and preventing loss of value to clients. He has over 14 years experience in advising clients on complex contractual arrangements. His clients have included BP, Shell, WS Atkins, Honeywell, Acergy, Kenana Sugar and the Ministry of Defence.

Richard Abadie

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 3225, Email Richard Abadie

Richard leads the PwC global PPP network. He has over 14 years experience working on privately financed infrastructure projects across Europe, North America and South Africa. Richard previously led private sector bidders on transport infrastructure projects and leading the PwC global PPP group. Richard previously led a specialist PFI/PPP team of 10 people in the UK Treasury, on secondment from PwC. In this role he was the lead spokesman for the Treasury on PPP matters. His role involves managing the team, troubleshooting on complex projects, advising senior officials and ministers on PPP policy matters, interacting with the PPP market (contractors, lenders, advisers, and foreign governments), speaking to the press when necessary and generally representing the Treasury in PPP matters in the market.

Richard Lobley

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7212 2729, Email Richard Lobley

Richard is a Director specialising in the operational performance and programme management of nuclear build and operation.

He has over 10 years consulting experience in a wide range of industries, including the nuclear sector. He has worked on large scale transformations as well as for a cross section of other commercial organisations. He has qualifications in nuclear reactor engineering and has been qualified to supervise the operations and maintenance of nuclear plant.

Roland Sonnenberg

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 5162, Email Roland Sonnenberg

Roland has over 18 years experience of working on complex capital projects across a number of industries. As a chartered engineer, Roland joined PwC from industry in 2001, having led teams in the delivery of high profile major projects including the Jubilee Line extension, the Singapore MRT and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Roland specialises in delay/disruption analyses, for formal dispute resolution procedures, and in the provision of independent reviews and value for money reviews of capital projects and programmes. In addition, he provides strategic advice to our clients on programmes, risks and controls for the successful delivery of their major capital projects.

Experienced in both the public and private sectors, Roland has led large assignments across a broad range of industries including: engineering & construction, IT, nuclear, shipbuilding, aerospace & defence, oil & gas, telecoms, retail, transportation and accommodation.

Thomas Romberg

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7804 0860, Email Thomas Romberg

Thomas is a Director in the Valuations practice and leads the energy, utilities & infrastructure valuations group.

Thomas has more than 10 years experience in providing energy sector specific valuation advice for mergers and acquisitions, financial reporting, expert opinions, corporate restructuring, and refinancing purposes.

His valuation experience includes purchase price allocations under IFRS and US GAAP, acting as independent valuer of portfolio investments for infrastructure funds, valuation of commodity contracts and other intangible assets, advising on impairment issues and other fair value exercises for clients across the energy and infrastructure sectors.