James Berner

James C. Berner, Managing Director, is a Senior Investment Professional dedicated to the Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Fund (GEPIF) team at BlackRock, which currently manages about $3.7 billion for investment in the power, midstream, utility and other areas in the energy sector across two 15-year funds.  The team has created over 20 portfolio companies for the Funds and is actively investing globally.  BlackRock acquired the Funds in 2017, which were created and built at First Reserve, a private equity firm that has been investing in exclusively in the energy sector since 1983.  At GEPIF, Mr. Berner is responsible for investment origination, execution and exit strategy, focusing on the contracted power, shipping and liquefied natural gas sectors. He is a member of the Fund investment, valuation and ESG committees.

Mr. Berner has over 19 years of experience in energy investing and lending.  Prior to joining BlackRock in 2017, Mr. Berner was a Managing Director on the Energy Infrastructure team at First Reserve where he executed over $700 million of equity investments. Prior to joining First Reserve in 2011, Mr. Berner was a Managing Director at General Electric Capital Corporation in the Energy Financial Services division focused on energy investing and lending, and worked in the USA, UK and Singapore. Prior to General Electric Capital Corporation, he was a Vice President, Project and Structured Finance, at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. focused on US and Latin American project finance and advisory.

Mr. Berner earned a B.A., cum laude, from Cornell University in 1990, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies in 1996 and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business in 1998.