AQUARRII CAPITAL - Key Persons
Manisha has over 25 years of public and private sector experience in business, finance and trade. She currently serves on the board of advisors for The American Foreign Policy Council, while also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University.
While in public service, Manisha served as Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. State Department, as well as Acting Undersecretary of State. She was also nominated to be U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Prior to this, Deputy Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In addition to government, she was a senior executive at J.P. Morgan Chase. A qualified attorney, practicing corporate law at Reed Smith and Squire Patton Boggs.
Manisha has a B.A. from the University of Miami and a J.D. from the University of Florida College of Law. She studied international law at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands and has an LL.M in International Legal Studies from the American University Washington College of Law. She has bar admissions in in Florida, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.
Manisha speaks fluent Hindi and conversant Spanish.
Louis has spent the last 12 years sitting within the pocket between alternative credit and commodities. Louis started his career in physical metals before moving into asset management. He was the first employee at Kimura Capital, a private credit investment manager based out of London, where he first assumed the role of originator for the Portfolio. During the back end of his tenure at the firm, Louis lead the companies' asset raising efforts, where he travelled the world raising capital from institutional investors. During this period Kimura partnered with Global Asset Management ("GAM") where Louis also assumed the role of relationship lead between the two firms. Prior to establishing Aquarrii Capital, Louis worked at Hartree Partners (an Oaktree Capital joint venture) where he assumed the role as head of business development for energy and emissions, during his time at Hartree he was tasked with the roll out of various products focused on physical emissions abatement and also played an integral role in the build out of a fully integrated trade finance business.
Peter Abaya served 18 years in the Philippine Government. He was an Undersecretary of Official Development Assistance under the office of the President and an Undersecretary of Energy in charge of Renewable Energy, the oil Industry and downstream natural gas development. He was then CEO of state-owned Philippine national oil company (petrochemical, alternative fuels, real estate development and management). He was also CEO of the Philippine reclamation authority/public estates authority and the public estates authority toll ways corporation. He led the development of Entertainment City, the Philippines' gaming capital, and multiple toll roads and expressways in Mega-Manila.
Earlier, he was the Director of the Environmental Management Bureau and a Board Member of State-Owned National Development Company.
He has transitioned back to the private sector and is involved in real estate (AYALA Evo City, AYALA Baypointe, etc), infrastructure, electric vehicle ecosystems (Global Electric Transport), education (MINT Colleges), food (Santis / Euro-Swiss), technology growth funds, technology ventures (AI and Fintech), and a coastal sustainability program (Independent Director).
Peter has Bachelor's Degrees in both Civil Engineering and Economics from the University of California-Irvine, Master's Degrees in both Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University, and a Post-Graduate diploma in climate change and sustainability from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Strategic Advisor - Real Estate
Rick is a real estate veteran, having spent the last 40 years within the UK real estate sector, participating as principal in projects in every part of the value chain. Rick began his extensive career within property development at Woodlow Investments constructing industrial estates. In 1992 he independently established Marden Homes initially focusing on residential and commercial developments. Today, Marden is a mid‑tier developer with multiple sites throughout the south-east of England, specialising in land acquisition and property development.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Strategic Advisor - Real Estate
Shaun started his career in 1983 when he joined the family bookmaking business. Alongside his father, mother and sister, Shaun helped to scale the business from a single shop, into a highly successful operation of 20 units with annual turnover in excess of £60m. The family business was sold in 2005 and a new business with 15 branches was quickly established and then eventually sold to Paddy Power.
Having a keen interest in property development, Shaun invested into Marden Homes with his partner Rick Tappenden. Today, Marden homes is principal to multiple mid-tier development and land projects across the south-east of England.
Shaun has an extensive, detailed knowledge of real estate development, land purchasing as well as a proven track record of scaling small businesses.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder, Head of Strategy
Steve's background in Financial Markets began in 1987, working at Elders Finance and Midland Montague. He ran the rates division at Cargill in the early 90's before being hired by ABN AMRO to set up their derivatives unit in 1997. Following the sale of this operation in 2006, Steve oversaw the European business integration into UBS. In 2008, Steve started his own brokerage firm with two partners. This business is on-going and has offices in London, New York, Dubai and Houston, Texas, covering rates, bonds, commodities and equities with circa 110 employees. His expertise within this field extend to: Interest Rates, Equity derivatives, foreign exchange, Fixed Income and structuring options. Specific structuring to required gearing, risk parameters, expiry plays and hedge against high delta underlying positions.