Isela Bahena is the managing director of infrastructure investments at Nuveen, a TIAA Company.
Bahena brings over 20 years of investment and portfolio management experience across a variety of sectors and asset classes. She leads deal teams that originate, structure, and invest across the infrastructure spectrum, including renewable, digital infrastructure, transportation, and energy transition assets. She led the infrastructure portfolio’s largest transportation asset on behalf of TIAA and a consortium of international institutional investors. Bahena serves on several boards for investments in Europe and North America, including toll roads, digital communications, and energy infrastructure sectors, and she holds several LP advisory roles.
Bahena’s previous experience includes investing across the capital structure and through various structures, which include private equity funds, co-investments, mezzanine, and private placement debt. Before joining TIAA-CREF in 2004, Bahena was responsible for public finance and general middle-market lending and underwriting at Bank of America. Bahena holds a B.S. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Bahena, her husband, Michael, and their rescue dog Raisin love to hike, travel, and enjoy the cultural venues of New York City. They enjoy working with entrepreneurs, startups, and nonprofits in their spare time.