The Fortescue Capital Team

Robert Tichio

Chief Executive Officer

Previously, Robert was a Partner and Managing Director at Riverstone Holdings, a leading private markets asset management firm dedicated to real assets investing in energy, power, and infrastructure. Prior to joining Riverstone in 2006, Robert was in the Principal Investment Area of Goldman Sachs, which manages the firm's private corporate equity investments.

He began his career at J.P. Morgan in the Mergers & Acquisition group, where he concentrated on assignments that included public company combinations, asset sales, takeover defenses, and leveraged buyouts. Robert received his BA from Dartmouth College as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate and later received his MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School.

Divyata Ashiya

Managing Director & Head of Growth

Divyata has more than two decades of experience in investment management across developed and developing markets. She was a founder of Just Transition Capital, a private investment firm focused on innovation in energy and decarbonization, with a mission towards building an equitable global energy transition.

Divyata was previously the Chief Operating Officer of the Merchant Banking Division International at Goldman Sachs, based in London. Prior to this, she was based in Singapore, where she led the regional franchise for Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Divyata is a Trustee and Founder of Plaksha University, a newly established university that aims to reimagine higher education in science and engineering. Divyata sits on the Investment Committee for the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is also a Trustee of the Royal United Services Institute, the leading geopolitics and security think tank.

Divyata has a BA from Amherst College and an MBA from INSEAD. She is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute.

Nathan Craig

Managing Director

Nathan brings 25 years of international energy investment banking experience from J.P. Morgan. His global and broad tenure spans the entire energy value chain, having served as a Managing Director and leading the firm’s North American Midstream and Downstream verticals.

While at J.P. Morgan, Nathan’s clients included some of the largest and most highly regarded global energy companies and private equity firms where he provided strategic advice to C- Suites and Boards. He has raised billions of dollars of debt and equity capital in private and public markets and at the asset and corporate levels. Additionally, during Nathan’s tenure at J.P. Morgan, he successfully executed a broad range of corporate and asset level M&A transactions, issued Fairness and Valuation Opinions, and led Carve-out and Spin-off transactions.

Nathan holds a BA in economics, graduating with departmental honors, from the University of Chicago.

Hussein Khalifa

Managing Director & Global Head of Capital Formation

Before joining Fortescue, Hussein spent 22 years as a Founding Partner of MVision Private Equity Advisers, one of the largest independent private equity capital raising firms, where he worked on over 180 fundraising mandates, which raised over US$175 billion from institutional investors across private equity, infrastructure, venture capital, real assets, private credit, and real estate.

He was previously Chief Executive of Archstone Capital, a UK corporate finance advisory boutique, supervising a private equity portfolio comprising both fund and direct investments globally on behalf of a European family office.

He obtained his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College and has completed studies at the London Business School and Peking University and is an alumnus of the Georgetown Leadership Seminar. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a former Advisory Board member of the RAND Corporation’s Center for Global Risk and Security, and a former board member of the Arab Bankers Association of North America.

Rael McNally

Managing Director

Rael brings almost 20 years of principal investing and corporate finance experience in sustainable infrastructure across developed, and developing, markets globally. A founding member of BlackRock’s Infrastructure platform, Rael focused on illiquid climate and clean energy strategies, served as Co-Portfolio Manager of BlackRock’s innovative emerging markets Climate Finance Partnership (CFP) strategy, and helped launch their investment grade infrastructure debt business.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Rael worked in NTR Plc., an international private equity infrastructure investor operating across renewable energy, sustainable waste, and wastewater management, as well as the transportation, and telecom segments. He began his career at KPMG in the Corporate Finance group focusing on Mergers & Acquisitions and Valuations.

Rael holds a BA and MA in Management Science and Information Systems, graduating with first class honors, from Trinity College (Dublin) as well as a Masters in Accounting from the UCD Smurfit Business School (Dublin). He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Accountants Institute.

Katherine Mogg

Managing Director & General Counsel

Katherine brings almost 25 years of experience in sustainable infrastructure finance, renewable energy project finance, and climate change policy.

Prior to joining Fortescue, Katherine served as Managing Director and Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at the New York Green Bank, a division of NYSERDA, where she was responsible for managing the external law firm panel and internal legal team and was a member of the investment committee.

Before the New York Green Bank, Katherine was a Managing Director and Legal Counsel at Macquarie Capital, where she provided legal advice across US and Latin America transactions. She started her career as an Associate at Milbank LLP.

Katherine graduated with a BA/LLB (JD-equivalent) from the University of New South Wales as well as an LLM from New York University School of Law.

John Staudinger

Managing Director

John brings over 18 years of principal investing experience in the global energy and infrastructure markets. Prior to joining Fortescue, John was a Managing Director at Riverstone Holdings LLC, a leading private markets asset management firm dedicated to real assets investing in energy, power, and infrastructure.

At Riverstone, John was responsible for sourcing, structuring, and managing investments.

He began his career as an Analyst in the Global Energy Group at Citigroup where he focused on M&A and capital markets transactions.

John graduated summa cum laude from Boston College with BS degrees in Finance and Economics and received his MBA from The Wharton School, where he graduated with honors.

Jenny Zarrilli

Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer

Jennifer is an experienced financial professional with over 30 years of experience as a Chief Financial Officer or Controller in the alternative assets industry. She has overseen all aspects of the operations of an alternative asset manager, ranging in size from US$500 million to over US$25 billion. In her previous role at First Reserve, a leading global private equity investment firm exclusively focused on energy, she served as their Chief Financial Officer, Managing Director, Chairman of the Valuation Committee, and was a member of the Board of Directors.

Before her time at First Reserve, she was a controller at Quadrant Management and started her career as an auditor at Ernst & Young. 

Jennifer is a graduate of Colgate University and holds a Masters in Accounting from NYU Stern School of Business.

Pierre Lapeyre III

Principal

Prior to joining Fortescue, Pierre spent over 6 years at Riverstone Holdings focused on both the firm’s credit and equity investments across energy, infrastructure, and decarbonization. He started his career in investment banking in the Industrials Group at Goldman Sachs, where he focused on evaluating and executing M&A transactions and capital markets financing across the industrials sector.

Pierre graduated cum laude from Georgetown University with BS degrees in Finance and Accounting from the McDonough School of Business.

Olivia Distefano

Associate, Capital Formation

Previously, Olivia was an Associate at Aviditi Advisors, an alternative investment advisory firm. At Aviditi, she worked on fundraising mandates for private equity and private credit clients. Prior to joining Aviditi, Olivia was an Investment Banking Analyst at Natixis CIB where she worked on project finance transactions across infrastructure and energy sectors.

Olivia graduated magna cum laude from Fordham University with a BS degree in Business Administration.

Monica Mallick

Associate

Previously, Monica served as an Associate in the Energy Investment Banking practice at Guggenheim Securities, where she provided advisory and financing services to clients across traditional and clean energy sectors. Prior to joining Guggenheim, Monica was an Analyst in the Middle Market Investment Banking practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance.

Monica graduated magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University with a BBA in Finance and a BA in French.