Abu Bakar Chowdhury

Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Growth Catalyst

Speaker

Mr. Abu Chowdhury serves as Chief Investment Officer, Board Member, and Investment Committee member at Growth Catalyst. He has been a Management Committee member and Managing Director of the $750millionIDB Infrastructure Fund II and he oversees the investment decision-making processes and maintains executive oversight of the finance function.

His governance experience spans numerous board seats across several portfolio companies such as Brooge Energy Limited, United Arab Emirates (UAE) (NASDAQ: BROG), Saudi Tabreed District Cooling Company CJSC, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), EMA Power Investment Limited (UAE), Andalusia Arabia for Medical Services Company CJSC (KSA and Egypt),and United Water L.L.C (UAE).

From 2006 to 2013, Mr. Chowdhury was a Managing Partner at EMP Bahrain, where he successfully managed the predecessor IDB Infrastructure Fund, delivering over US$1.2billion in distributions to the investors. During his tenure, heinstrumentally led high-profile investments across global markets including several prominent public listed entities: TAV Airports Holding, Turkey (IST: TAVHL) a subsidiary of Aéroports de Paris Group (EPA: ADP); Air Asia, Malaysia(KLSE: AIRASIA); Sahara International Petrochemical Company, KSA (TADAWUL: 2310); Turk Telekom, Turkey (IST:TTKOM); AES Oasis, UAE (a subsidiary of AES Corporation (NYSE: AES)); Advanced Petrochemical Company, KSA(TADAWUL: 2330); The Resource Group, Pakistan (PSX: TRG); SDE Berhad (Malaysia); and Globeleq Ltd (Asia and Africa).

Mr. Chowdhury's foundational career includes senior roles at tier-one financial institutions such as Westpac Banking Corporation, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. He holds post graduate degrees in Finance and Economics (M.Sc.), is a graduate of FINSIA, and holds advanced professional certifications, including Advanced Valuation from New York University. A recognized thought leader, Mr Chowdhury is a frequent keynote speaker at global industry conferences and co-authored research initiatives with Stanford University published in The Journal of Structured Finance and TheJournal of Private Equity.