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As managing director of investments at Canadian-based Brookfield Asset Management, Fred Day led six major infrastructure deals last year with a combined dollar value of more than $55 billion, including a $5 billion take-private transaction of British home repair services company HomeServ and the acquisition of a majority ownership in Deutsche Telekom’s tower portfolio in Germany and Austria for more than $19 billion.
Mark Curriden, founder of The Texas Lawbook, asked Day about the role of diversity in his rarefied world of dealmaking.
For Mark Curriden’s full-length profile of Fred Day Click Here.
Texas Lawbook: How important is diversity within your legal department in in determining your outside counsel?
Fred Day: As a diverse lawyer myself, I think it is very important for young diverse lawyers to have the opportunity to work on complex, rewarding transactions early in their careers, so I always encourage the partners to ensure that they provide these opportunities through the deals that I’m able to engage my law firms on.
Lawbook: Are you working on any pro bono or public service matters that you want to highlight?
Day: I currently serve on the advisory board of Lift Fund, which is a Texas-based nonprofit organization that focuses on supporting small businesses through microloans, small business loans and other related resources
Lawbook: What am I not asking that I should be asking?
Day: In addition to my role as a transactional attorney, my role later came to include asset-management and sponsor-level responsibilities. On the asset-management side, I have joined the boards of several companies following substantial Brookfield investments and have also participated in a number of our portfolio companies’ critical strategic initiatives.
My sponsor-level work includes supporting the growth of Brookfield’s global fund for infrastructure credit investments, primarily serving as fund counsel for this investment vehicle as well as participating in the fundraising of three funds. I also chair the limited partner advisory committee (typically made up of a fund’s largest investors) for one fund and co-chair another.
Recently, I’m turning my attention to understanding the key value drivers to the asset-management business, which focuses on developing investment products that cater to institutional investor needs and how this coincides (1) with the variety of investment opportunities in the market and (2) the ability to execute on those investment opportunities.