Infrastructure Investor Adi Blum ’96 Uses Grit and a Global Perspective to Build International Businesses

Entering George School as a boarding student from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Adi Blum ’96 wasn’t worried about keeping up in Math. “I was a year ahead in Math at my South Carolina public school,” he remembered. “I thought it would be easy to jump right in.”

But in Paul Machemer’s ’65 Pre-calc Math class, he struggled, being one of the notorious dots at the bottom of Paul’s chalkboard grade distribution. Should he drop back to an easier class? Paul, who was also his soccer and tennis coach, served as a mentor to Adi, and encouraged him to stick with it. He worked hard—really hard—and ended up with an A. “It was painful, but it instilled a lot of self-confidence in me that I could accomplish what I set my mind to,” he said.

Adi is Managing Director and Investment Committee member of the Global Infrastructure team at BlackRock, one of the world’s preeminent asset management firms. His team invests in global infrastructure companies, and he frequently interacts with CEOs, government ministers and even Presidents to discuss investment opportunities. He’s also a frequent speaker at industry forums; for example, he presented to government officials on infrastructure policy at the G20 in Argentina. He’s invested in Bulgaria, Italy, Mexico, Trinidad, and Canada in addition to the US. He has also explored investment opportunities in Brazil, Vietnam, India, Japan, Chile, Colombia, and Panama. Day to day, he originates and executes investment opportunities and serves on the Boards of the Fund’s portfolio companies. Investments have included wind farms, solar plants, power plants, natural gas pipelines, environmental/waste management companies and ports.

“It’s been fascinating to spend so much time internationally to generate investment opportunities and dig deep to understand key trends (like energy transition, nearshoring, security of supply, etc.), risks and regulatory regimes around the world,” he said.

At George School, Adi immediately appreciated the diversity of the community, and pursued an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma. He was interested in international economic development and went on to study at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. There, he had several internships with the US Congress, US Commerce Department, and with a venture capital firm, and studied abroad in India, France, and Holland.

After graduating, however, Adi remembered, “I encountered the same adversity in my early career as I had in Paul’s math class.” Having had that experience, he knew that hard work would eventually pay off. Out of college, he first worked at a start-up in “Silicon Alley” in NYC that went bust soon after he started. He moved to a similar job in the mobile and wireless space, but his group was shut down before he completed his first year, a few days before 9/11, after which he was unemployed for several months given the economic contraction. Through persistent networking, he was hired by a management consulting firm, where he worked with state governments. One of these, exploring privatization opportunities for the state of Virginia, “opened my eyes to the world of infrastructure investing,” he said.

That experience led him to pursue an MBA at New York University’s Stern School of Business. From there, he knew that investment banking experience was a critical prerequisite for the career he envisioned. After two years working in mergers and acquisitions with Citigroup, he moved into private equity.

“Infrastructure investment is investing in infrastructure–both assets and companies,” Adi explained. “It’s the confluence of my interest in government, investing, and international development. I have worked on building solar and wind farms around the world, which means partnering with a developer or investing in a company and executing a partnership. An important part of my work is interacting with people from all over the world, something for which George School prepared me well.”

Adi’s advice to George School students interested in an investing career? Pursue a business, finance or accounting degree in college and then pursue internships and post-college work with investment banks, and M&A in particular. “Doing this early in your career,” Adi explained, “you learn how to create financial models and learn the language of investments. It’s long hours and hard and tedious work, but it gives you the experience you need to do almost anything after those initial two years, whether in private equity, corporate development at a Fortune 500 company or a start-up company.” Adi laughed, “this is the advice that I didn’t receive, so I took a circuitous path, but learned a lot along the way!”

“Apply the same determination you use now at George School and forge strong relationships with people from all backgrounds, and you can make your own luck!” Adi said.