Day 1
10:30-12:00 – Can Water Fill America’s Public Pension Deficit?
1:30-3:00 – Consolidation Part 1
R. Ray Kljajic is co-founder of American Public Infrastructure (API), an independent fund sponsor specializing in acquisition, operations and investment management of public infrastructure assets. API’s mission is to transform public assets into high performance driven enterprises. The founders have developed “super tax-exempt” approaches to foster such transformation through public pension fund ownership and investment in U.S. public infrastructure. API aims to increase new investment in
America’s infrastructure and to improve the performance and funding of U.S. public pension plans by keeping public assets under public stewardship for public benefit.
He joined Smith Barney (Citigroup) as Public Finance Regional Head. As a member of the department’s operating committee and senior infrastructure banker, he practiced in over half the states and senior managed over $30B in debt largely for infrastructure, including water and sewer utilities, airports, public power, public facilities and venues, universities, and toll roads, highways, and transit. Mr. Kljajic has a strong expertise across the full range of ownership, management and control in public partnerships – from the government, not-forprofit and cooperative model to public-public partnerships (P2Ps) and public-private partnerships (P3s). His P3 experience includes representing the winning concessionaires for Chicago Skyway ($1.8B) and Indiana Toll Road ($3.8B), and he brought industry leadership to P2Ps with the sale of Indianapolis Water & Sewer sale to Citizens Energy ($1.9B). And, most recently, his team qualified as a leading candidate to take over Santee Cooper, the State of South Carolina’s $9B electric utility.
Mr. Kljajic’s also pioneered P2Ps like Chicago McCormick Place’s Hyatt Regency and Marriott Marquis Hotels ($575MM), which laid the foundation for the ever-growing not-for-profit student housing financing model. He served as liaison to Governors’ associations and industry groups. Mr. Kljajic earned his BA from Wabash College majoring in Economics and his MBA from the University of Chicago where he specialized in Finance. He is a member of the Wabash College Board of Trustees.