Behind GCP Infrastructure Investments Limited (GCP) sits a small investment advisory team with a long record of getting into UK infrastructure sectors early. This team is overseen by an independent board. Here's a closer look at both.

Phil Kent joined Gravis in 2015 and is now CEO. He's actively involved in managing Gravis's direct infrastructure and real asset investments, and has led investments across energy, renewables and social infrastructure. Phil is lead adviser to GCP Infrastructure Investments. He brings 20 years of experience in the energy and environmental sectors, having joined Gravis from Foresight Group, with earlier experience across a number of energy and commodity markets.

Gravis itself is majority owned by ORIX Corporation, a Japan-based global financial services group with around ¥81 trillion in assets under management worldwide.

Robyn MacHugh is an Associate Director at Gravis and has been an investment adviser on GCP since 2019. Before joining Gravis, she worked at EY in the Transaction Advisory Services team, advising clients on both buy-side and sell-side transactions with a focus on financial modelling. She is also a CFA Charterholder.

Phil and Robyn, who are supported by a wider investment team at Gravis, invest in line with the Gravis philosophy: get into a sector before it's crowded, and refinance once it matures. GCP's own history is the clearest evidence of this.

GCP made its first renewable energy investment in 2011, becoming the first significant backer of domestic and commercial rooftop solar projects in the UK, at a time when the country had just 1,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity nationwide. GCP provided a £15 million senior-secured loan at an interest rate of 9-9.2% to fund 1,500 domestic rooftop solar panels.

By the time GCP refinanced the portfolio in 2016–17 and brought in Aviva and BlackRock as co-lenders, capacity in the sector had grown more than tenfold, and GCP had funded around 50,000 installations (equivalent to powering 53,000 homes).

That pattern repeats across GCP's 15-year history:

• 2011 — first mover into domestic rooftop solar
• 2013 — broke new ground in anaerobic digestion, invested in onshore wind and became a pioneer investor in UK waste wood power stations
• 2014 — among the first senior lenders to supported living accommodation
• 2018 — an early financial backer of offshore wind

Phil and Robyn advise the Company, but GCP is governed by an independent board, based in Jersey where the Company is incorporated. All six directors are non-executive and independent of the investment adviser.

A UK resident and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, Andrew Didham spent 16 years as group finance director of the Rothschild banking group, sitting on the group management team spanning investment banking, wealth management, asset management and merchant banking. He remains an executive vice chairman of Rothschild & Co and serves as a non-executive director and audit committee chairman of IG Group Holdings Plc and Shawbrook Group Plc, having formerly served on the boards of Charles Stanley Group Plc and Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Plc. He was previously a partner in KPMG's London office, auditing global financial institutions.

A Jersey resident, Heather Bestwick is an English solicitor with over 30 years’ experience in the financial services sector. She has acted as an independent non-executive director of a number of investment funds and corporate services providers since 2014 and is currently a non-executive director on the boards of EPE Special Opportunities Limited and Rathbones Investment Management International Limited. She qualified as a solicitor with Norton Rose in London, and worked in their London and Greek offices for 8 years, specialising in shipping finance. She subsequently joined global offshore law firm Walkers in the Cayman Islands, qualifying as a Cayman Islands attorney and notary public, and became a partner in 2003. Heather moved to Jersey in 2007 to become managing partner of the Walkers Jersey office, following which she served for 3 years as deputy chief executive and technical director of Jersey Finance Limited.

Ian Brown joined the board in February 2025, bringing over 35 years of banking and investment experience. He is currently the Chief Investment Officer at the National Wealth Fund, responsible for origination and execution of its lending and investing activity. He was previously Head of Private Markets at LGPS Central, where he established a number of infrastructure, private equity and private credit funds of funds, and spent 14 years on Lloyds Banking Group's credit committee in senior leadership roles. He joined Lloyds from UBS, where he was a Managing Director in leveraged and acquisition finance.

A Jersey resident and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, Dawn Crichard has over 25 years' experience in senior CFO and finance director roles. Dawn also held the senior financial position for a substantial multinational family office business, including establishing and overseeing high value private expert funds. She qualified with Deloitte, spent 12 years as CFO of a large private construction group, worked with hedge fund clients at State Street, and was CFO of Bathroom Brands Plc. She is currently a non-executive director and chair of the audit committee for funds of a Northern European private equity firm.

A Jersey resident and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales, Steven Wilderspin has acted as an independent director on public and private investment funds and companies since 2007. He retired as chair of the audit and risk committee of 3i Infrastructure Plc in 2017 after 10 years' service, and currently chairs the risk committee of Blackstone Loan Financing Limited, chairs the audit and risk committee of HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited, and sits as a non-executive director of Phoenix Spree Deutschland Limited. He began his career at PwC in London in 1990.

A UK resident with over 25 years' experience as a lawyer, banker and investor, Alex Yew is a qualified solicitor in Singapore, England and Wales. He spent more than 14 years at John Laing, an international infrastructure and energy investor, where he held leadership roles across project finance, new markets and strategy, and was regional head of the European and Latin American businesses. Before John Laing, he was a director in the infrastructure advisory team at CIBC World Markets in London, and worked earlier as a banker and lawyer in Southeast Asia.

While GCP doesn't have an explicit ESG objective, every asset it finances delivers a service with a clear environmental or social benefit, from renewable power generation to supported housing and school infrastructure. That philosophy has been recognised externally: GCP was awarded the London Stock Exchange's Green Economy Mark in 2020, a badge highlighting companies contributing to the global green economy, which it continues to hold today.

In practice, that shows up in the numbers behind the portfolio. For the year ended 30 September 2025, GCP's renewables portfolio exported 1,434 GWh of green energy (enough to power around 531,000 homes) while the rest of the portfolio provided 1,579 hospital beds, 28,333 school places and 905 supported living units for people with learning, physical or mental disabilities.

As at 31 March 2026, 57% of the portfolio by value contributed to the green economy and 43% benefited end users within society, and the board itself reflects that same diversity focus: 50% of directors are from a gender or ethnic minority group (one director from a minority ethnic group, two female directors).

Long-term sustainability of the portfolio has been part of GCP's philosophy since IPO.

Important Information

This article has been prepared by Gravis Capital Management Limited (the "Investment Adviser” or “Gravis”) and is for information purposes only. It is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation. Any recipients of this article outside the UK should inform themselves of and observe any applicable legal or regulatory requirements in their jurisdiction and are treated as having represented that they are able to receive this article without contravention of any law or regulation in the jurisdiction in which they reside or conduct business.

This article should not be considered as a recommendation, invitation or inducement that any investor should subscribe for, dispose of or purchase any such securities or enter into any other transaction in the GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd (the “Company”) or any other fund affiliated with Gravis.  The merits and suitability of any investment action in relation to securities should be considered carefully and involve, among other things, an assessment of the legal, tax, accounting, regulatory, financial, credit and other related aspects of such securities.

No undertaking, representation, warranty or other assurance, express or implied, is made or given by or on behalf of the Company, the Investment Adviser or any of their respective directors, officers, partners, employees, agents or advisers or any other person as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained in this article and no responsibility or liability is accepted by any of them for any such information or opinions or for any errors, omissions, misstatements, negligence or otherwise for any other communication written or otherwise. In addition, neither the Company or the Investment Adviser undertake any obligation to update or to correct any inaccuracies which may become apparent. The information in this article is subject to updating, completion, revision, further verification and amendment without notice.

Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.

Gravis Capital Management Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority; registered in England and Wales No: 10471852 and its principal place of business is 24 Savile Row, London W1S 2ES.