Palisade Investment Partners, a specialist manager of Australian unlisted infrastructure, has announced that David Bennett has joined Palisade as an independent member of Palisade’s Investment Committee.

David retired from Macquarie Group Limited in 2013 where he held the position of Group Treasurer and Executive Director, after almost 36 years in Investment Banking. David spent 13 years as Macquarie’s Global Head of Debt Capital Markets Group where he managed a team of up to 80 professionals based in Europe, the United States of America, Canada, South East Asia, Japan and Australia. During his leadership, the business underwrote or arranged in excess of US$500 billion of debt financing across all major global markets.

David continues to be a board member of the Macquarie Group Foundation.

Prior to Macquarie’s acquisition of Bankers Trust Australia in 1999, David worked for more than 21 years in Bankers Trust’s Accounting, Funds Management and Fixed Income businesses.

David has a number of other roles in both the Not For Profit and For Profit sectors including being a director of AquaSure Holdings Pty. Ltd.

The appointment comes as Palisade continues to assess a strong pipeline of investment opportunities in the Australian infrastructure mid-market, a single focus since its establishment.

David’s appointment strengthens the independence of the Palisade Investment Committee, joining Ross Barry, David Howell and John Hughes as independent members of the Investment Committee, alongside Palisade’s founding directors, Ian Mitchell and Ian Macoun.

Roger Lloyd, Managing Director & CEO of Palisade said:

“David is a highly experienced investment professional who provides a deep understanding of and insight into  global debt capital markets, which complements and underscores Palisade’s credit approach to investing in infrastructure. Palisade has intentionally sought to build out an investment committee comprised of diverse, independent thinkers to ensure that risk is being assessed from multiple perspectives.”