Brookfield CEO Connor Teskey on How to Invest With Less Risk and Better Returns

Key Takeaways

• Capitalizing on the Backbone of the Economy: Brookfield focuses on high-quality, essential infrastructure and services—such as power, data, and transportation—that drive global productivity.
• The Power of Downside Protection: The firm’s investment strategy prioritizes rigorous downside analysis; if the worst-case scenario is protected, the expected returns often follow naturally.
• Decentralized Autonomy, Centralized Oversight: By empowering local teams to source and operate assets while maintaining centralized control over capital deployment, Brookfield balances agility with institutional discipline.
• Culture as a Competitive Advantage: A culture of intellectual curiosity, meritocracy, and putting team success above individual ego creates a sustainable environment for long-term growth.
• The Rise of AI Infrastructure: Brookfield views AI as a significant investment theme, focusing on the essential infrastructure—data centers and energy supply—that supports this technology’s growth.

A Global Strategy Built on Consistency

Brookfield manages a vast portfolio exceeding one trillion dollars, spanning more than 60 countries. While the scale is immense, the philosophy remains remarkably consistent. The firm acts as a bridge between the world's largest pools of capital and the most essential investment themes that drive global growth. According to CEO Connor Teskey, the key is maintaining a disciplined focus on assets that form the backbone of the global economy.

The nature of these "backbone" assets evolves constantly. Two decades ago, that meant prioritizing hydroelectric dams, ports, and railroads. Today, those categories have expanded to include solar energy, nuclear power, battery storage, and the digital infrastructure of the 21st century. By remaining consistent in their approach while adapting to changing technological landscapes, Brookfield has grown its product offering from just four core strategies to over 60, catering to an increasingly diverse spectrum of institutional and private clients.

The Art of De-Risking Investments

At the heart of Brookfield’s success is a repeatable framework for de-risking deals. Rather than avoiding risk entirely, the firm distinguishes between risks they can manage and those they must avoid. Teskey explains that they are comfortable with execution, operating, and development risks, but they strictly avoid market risk.

Structuring for Certainty

To insulate investments from volatility, the firm often locks in key variables—such as construction costs, power offtake agreements, and long-term financing—at the moment of project inception. This strategy ensures that interest rate fluctuations or shifts in commodity prices do not derail the profitability of a project. By targeting high-credit-quality counterparties, such as sovereign entities or global tech giants, Brookfield secures long-term, inflation-linked cash flows that remain stable regardless of broader market cycles.

We are very comfortable taking execution risk, operating risk, development risk. We don't like to take market risk and we work very, very hard to structure our deals in such a way that we're not taking market risk.

Cultivating Talent and Culture

In a business where the most valuable assets "go up and down an elevator every day," human capital is the ultimate differentiator. Brookfield fosters a meritocratic environment that prizes intellectual curiosity over specific credentials. Teskey notes that the firm seeks "nerdy" individuals—those obsessed with solving complex problems—who also possess the emotional intelligence to work effectively within a team.

The Role of Mentorship

Mentorship is ingrained in the firm's structure. By pairing experienced leaders with young, high-potential talent, Brookfield transfers institutional knowledge across generations. Teskey emphasizes that this culture discourages ego; the goal is always to put colleagues in a position to succeed rather than seeking individual accolades. This focus on "we" over "I" ensures that the firm remains agile, collaborative, and forward-looking.

The AI Frontier and Future Growth

Rather than speculating on the development of AI models, Brookfield focuses on the physical infrastructure required to power them. This includes the massive expansion of data centers and the energy grids necessary to sustain them. Teskey views this as one of the largest and fastest-growing investment themes in the firm's history.

Operational Efficiency Through Technology

Beyond capital deployment, the firm actively uses AI to improve the performance of its existing portfolio of 500 companies. This includes utilizing pattern recognition for preventative maintenance on machinery and employing data analytics to improve safety protocols for 300,000 workers. By forcing the sharing of successful AI implementations across their global network, Brookfield ensures that a lesson learned in an Australian infrastructure project benefits operations in every other region.

We see that AI will happen slower than people expect, but have a bigger impact than people expect. We very much see that dynamic playing out in the use of robotics.

Maintaining an Underdog Mentality

Despite managing a trillion dollars, Brookfield leaders strive to avoid complacency by maintaining an "underdog" mindset. Even when a strategy is performing well, the focus remains on the next opportunity rather than the last victory. This forward-looking perspective, combined with a commitment to liquidity and non-recourse, asset-level financing, allows the firm to remain resilient during market panics.

Looking toward the future, the firm sees a massive untapped opportunity in the individual investor market. As retirement savings, insurance policies, and private wealth begin to seek the same institutional-grade alternative investments that defined the last twenty years, Brookfield is positioned to capture this growth. By maintaining the same rigorous, consistent approach that built their institutional success, they intend to bring access to high-quality, essential assets to a much broader audience.

Success at this scale is rarely the result of a single brilliant move; it is the accumulation of thousands of disciplined, de-risked decisions. By prioritizing the preservation of capital while aggressively seeking operational improvements, Brookfield continues to define the standard for global alternative asset management.