Gerard A. Gil

Gerard is currently serving as a company-side advisor in the utility transformation and debt restructuring for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the sole provider of electricity in Puerto Rico with over $3.5 billion in annual revenues. Gerard led the development of the business plan for the company’s in-court (U.S. federal jurisdiction) bankruptcy proceeding since 2017, setting forth the company’s ongoing transformation through the disaggregation of PREPA’s vertically integrated utility operations. He also supports liquidity management and oversight, as well as PREPA’s bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and negotiations with creditors led by court-appointed mediators. Additionally, Gerard has also advised PREPA on privatization and transformation efforts, including the procurement and execution of two P3s — (1) a 15-year operations and maintenance (O&M) agreement with a private operator for PREPA’s transmission and distribution and customer facing operations, and (2) a 10-year O&M agreement with a private operator for PREPA’s thermal generation fleet, comprised of approximately 4,850 MW in installed capacity.

During his tenure at Ankura, Gerard has also successfully advised a U.S.-based infrastructure fund on an approximately $1 billion investment in a multinational energy company based in the Dominican Republic, with operations in Panama, Jamaica, Chile, and Uruguay. Additionally, Gerard provided mergers and acquisitions advisory services to a Dominican Republic conglomerate regarding the evaluation of a potential $200 million energy investment.

Prior to joining Ankura, Gerard served as Senior Vice President of the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico (GDB), financial advisor, and fiscal agent to the government of Puerto Rico and its public corporations. In that capacity, he worked on a variety of strategic matters related to the development of infrastructure, public-private partnerships, and debt and operational restructurings. During his time at GDB, Gerard supported the Government of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Treasury Department on efforts to establish a restructuring framework to manage Puerto Rico’s approximately $70 billion in unsustainable debt, which led to the enactment of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act  into law on June 30, 2016.

From 2009 to 2013, Gerard served as Chief Legal Officer of the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnership Authority, a newly created Government Development Bank affiliate, with the mission of establishing public-private partnerships. Gerard led multidisciplinary teams of government officials and private sector advisors in executing the following landmark transactions:

• Highways: Concession to finance, repair, operate, and maintain highways PR-22 and PR-5, a transaction valued at more than $1.4 billion, including a lump-sum payment at closing of $1.136 billion.
• Airports: Long-term lease to finance, operate, maintain, and improve the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, a transaction valued at approximately $2.6 billion, including a lump-sum payment at closing of $615 million, and the first privatization under the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Privatization Pilot Program.
• Education: Deployment of a project known as “Schools for the 21st Century,” which allowed for the investment of approximately $756 million in the construction and modernization of approximately 100 public schools.

Several of these projects were recognized internationally as Infrastructure Investor’s Global Infrastructure Deal of the Year, Global PPP Transaction of the Year, North American PPP Transaction of the Year, and the Project Finance International Deal of the Year.

Prior to joining the public sector, Gerard worked in private law practice advising clients on matters pertaining to corporate transactions, land-use permitting, energy law and power purchase agreements, government affairs, public finance, and real estate development.