David Russell

David Russell attended Brighton Grammar from 1982 to 1987, and was the Captain of Rugby in his final year.

He studied Law/Economics at Monash University and worked as an energy and utilities lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington and with Minter Ellison in Melbourne.

In 1998, David joined Macquarie Group, where he spent 12 years. In 2004–5, he was Head of Macquarie’s Principal Transactions Group before becoming a Senior Managing Director, Head of Asian Private Equity and Head of Greater China.

As CEO, David has raised and invested seven infrastructure private equity funds comprising over US$5 billion of equity for some of Asia-Pacific’s largest independent and institutional infrastructure funds.

In 2005-2010, based in Seoul and Hong Kong, David established three infrastructure private equity funds, including one of the first and largest South Korean private funds.

In 2010, David founded Equis Funds Group, Asia-Pacific’s largest independent infrastructure private equity manager.

In 2011, David established Equis Energy. As the CEO and Chairman, David grew Equis Energy to become Asia-Pacific’s largest renewable energy generator.

In October 2017, Equis sold Equis Energy to a Global Infrastructure Partners led consortium for US$5 billion, the largest renewable energy transaction in history at the time.

Equis Energy had a clear strategy of developing and constructing renewable energy generation assets in Asian rural areas, and David mandated that each investment support the health, education and infrastructure of the communities in which each asset was located, changing the lives of thousands of vulnerable parents and children.

David is Chairman of the Che Sara Sara Foundation, a not-for-profit that supports vulnerable parents and children in crisis in Russia, Uzbekistan and the Philippines.

David currently resides in Singapore and was on Singapore Tatler’s list of Most Influential People in 2016 and 2018.