Jack Colbourne

Jack Colbourne is a co-founder and former Partner of Arcus Infrastructure Partners, an independent London-based infrastructure fund manager focused on the European mid-market. He was a member of the team that founded Arcus in 2009 and spent his career investing in and actively managing infrastructure assets, with over 20 years of sector experience spanning wireless towers, rail rolling stock, fixed and mobile telecom operators, PFI/PPP projects, and utilities-related real estate. He retired from the firm in December 2023.

Colbourne's most prominent single body of work was Shere Group, a UK and Netherlands mobile-tower business. Arcus personnel were involved from Shere's inception in 2004, and Colbourne served as lead asset manager and board member, guiding the company through its growth (including the 2011 acquisition and integration of the KPN tower portfolio, which roughly doubled the group) until its sale to Cellnex Telecom in late 2016. Over its life the business grew more than tenfold in revenue and cashflow.

Prior to Arcus, Colbourne spent seven years at Babcock & Brown (2002–2009), holding positions across its European Infrastructure Team, European Real Estate Team, and Principal Investments Group in London. Earlier roles included Resolution Property, WorldTel Limited, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD), and Monitor Company Europe. He holds an AB from Harvard College, an MBA from INSEAD, and an MA from the University of Melbourne.

• Invests in European mid-market infrastructure — controlling or significant-influence positions in operating businesses, not early-stage venture or angel deals.
• Core sectors: digital/telecoms (towers and fibre), transport, energy, and logistics & industrials.
• Value-creation approach centres on hands-on, long-term active asset management — buying platforms and building them over many years (the Shere playbook: same management team supported from 2004 to 2016 while the business grew 10x).
• Comfortable with buy-and-build / consolidation strategies (e.g., integrating the KPN tower portfolio into Shere).
• Firm-level positioning: Arcus targets assets "where it has the presence, experience and relationship to uncover attractive investment opportunities and drive significant additional value over the lifetime of the investment."