Institutional investors are as focused as ever on putting money to work. But increasingly, there is an effort to view the asset classes less as totally separate parts of the portfolio. Rather, there is an attempt to manage them more holistically across traditional boundaries. This is especially relevant for infrastructure investments, which can run the gamut from very core to very opportunistic, and can fall in-between traditional asset classes such as real estate, real assets and private equity. To better capitalize on opportunities and increase flexibility, some investors are working to minimize silos. Sometimes this means breaking down the barriers between investment personnel by creating cross-departmental teams.

Even though he has a dedicated infrastructure group, Leo de Bever, CEO of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo), isn’t big on silos and takes a total portfolio approach. “We