TORONTO, CANADA (August 4, 2021) – Northleaf Capital Partners (Northleaf) is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris O’Connor as Managing Director, Business Development, Australia and New Zealand. In this new role, Chris will lead Northleaf’s business development and investor relations activities and further develop relationships with institutional investors, consultants and advisors in the region. Chris joins Northleaf’s existing Melbourne-based investment team, extending the firm’s ongoing commitment to private markets activities in Australia and New Zealand.
“We are thrilled to welcome Chris to the Northleaf team as our first Australia-based business development executive,” said Jeff Pentland, Managing Director and Head of Business Development at Northleaf. “Chris brings expertise in both relationship building and consultative fundraising, enhancing our capabilities to provide investors with access to highly differentiated mid-market infrastructure, private equity and private credit investments globally.”
Prior to joining Northleaf, Chris was Managing Director, Business Development at Queensland Investment Corporation where he managed client and prospect relationships with institutional investors and asset consultants, covering the fund’s alternative asset class offerings. Previously, Chris was Head of Sales, Asia Pacific at Eze Software (now part of SS&C) in Sydney where he progressed from Vice President, Head of European Sales in London to launch the firm’s first Australian office and build out the Australian client base.
“I am excited to continue to develop Northleaf’s presence in Australia, and to execute the firm’s focused client servicing strategy,” said Chris. “This is a unique opportunity to join a leading institutional asset manager with a compelling growth strategy and to enhance Northleaf’s position worldwide.”
Northleaf recently announced the final closing for its third OECD-focused infrastructure fund at US$1.4 billion, exceeding its original target fund size. Northleaf also held the final closing for its second closed-end private credit fund and a separately managed account, raising more than US$900 million to invest in performing loans to global mid-market companies. With recent fundraising across its three core private markets strategies (infrastructure, private credit and private equity), Northleaf has now raised more than US$17 billion in capital commitments and serves more than 150 institutional investors globally. Northleaf is currently raising capital for the next generation of its global private equity and certain of its private credit funds.