Complex transactions.
Difficult negotiations.
Clear outcomes.

Tom Teerlynck

Negotiation & transaction leadership
25+ years · US$50bn+ transactions · 30+ countries

I am brought in to lead critical negotiations, strengthen decision-making and help drive complex infrastructure transactions through to close, working directly with client management and the wider team.

Experience

More than 25 years of international experience, including infrastructure transactions exceeding US$50 billion across 30+ countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Senior leadership roles with ACWA Power, TAQA, ENGIE and DataVolt, spanning project development, business development, strategy, investment and complex negotiations.

Experience across major infrastructure and capital projects, including:
Power & Renewables · Water · PPPs & concessions · Airports & Transport Infrastructure · Digital infrastructure · Energy and Strategic Infrastructure Investments.

Extensive work across the full stakeholder landscape, including:
governments, investors, boards, lenders, contractors, operators and joint-venture partners.

Trained at Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation and IMI-qualified and IMC-certified mediator.

Selected organisations I have worked with:

When to bring me in

When a matter is complex, strategically important and difficult to resolve through the ordinary project process alone.

A critical transaction needs experienced negotiation leadership

The project is strategically important, involves multiple stakeholders, or requires alignment and negotiation across senior decision-makers.

A deal or project is becoming difficult to close

Positions have hardened, interests are diverging, progress has slowed or the existing approach is no longer producing results.

A dispute or critical commercial issue puts value at risk

The priority is to regain control of the situation, reshape the negotiation and drive the parties toward a commercially sustainable resolution.

A complex project needs executive leadership

In selected situations, I take broader responsibility for steering a strategically important project or transaction, working alongside an experienced development and project team.

What I bring

Executive judgement

More than 25 years spent developing, negotiating, restructuring and closing major infrastructure transactions from inside leading international organisations.

Deep understanding of what drives decisions across boards, shareholders, governments, lenders, contractors and project teams — and how those interests interact.

Negotiation leadership

Leadership of critical negotiations through to agreement.

Comfortable operating at ministerial, board and CEO level, while equally engaging deeply with the commercial, financial, legal, technical and project teams where the substance of the transaction is developed.

Cross-disciplinary understanding

The ability to understand, connect and challenge the commercial, financial, technical, legal and strategic dimensions of a transaction, and translate them into a coherent negotiating strategy.

Specialist expertise is not replaced; it is brought together around the decisions that matter.

Independence with internal ownership

Being external allows me to look at the situation without the organizational history, internal positioning or assumptions that can constrain an existing team.

Once engaged, however, I work as part of the client team.

I do not arrive with a consulting team or create another layer of advisers. I work directly with management and the existing project, legal, financial and technical teams, bringing additional senior capacity where it has the greatest impact.

How I work

Depending on the situation, I act as:

Lead negotiator

Taking direct responsibility for critical negotiations and driving them towards close.

Executive transaction adviser

Working alongside the CEO, project lead, investment team or board on strategy, positioning and the most difficult decisions and negotiations.

Project or transaction lead

Taking broader leadership of a particularly complex project or transaction where experienced executive leadership is required, supported by the client's development and specialist teams.

Negotiated dispute resolution

Leading the commercial resolution of disputes, claims and difficult contractual situations before or alongside formal proceedings.

Neutral mediator

Where independence between the parties offers the most effective route to resolution.

Selected mandates

Central Asia | Major international airport PPP

Key negotiations alongside the project leadership through commercial close of a major international airport PPP.

The role involved working across government, consortium, EPC, operator and lender interfaces on critical contractual, commercial and strategic issues through to execution of the principal project agreements.

Central Asia | Major power-sector dispute

Leading the negotiation and settlement strategy for significant contractual and commercial claims arising under a large power project.

The mandate includes negotiation positioning and engagement with senior government and counterparty stakeholders, with the objective of achieving a commercially robust negotiated resolution.

Uzbekistan | US$10bn+ power platform

Led senior government negotiations supporting the establishment and growth of a major new infrastructure investment platform, including first-of-their-kind projects, investment frameworks and long-term government arrangements.

Türkiye | Strategic restructuring

Led negotiations with lenders and shareholders under a highly compressed timetable to restructure a major power investment, stabilise its financing position and enable the shareholder's wider strategic objectives.

Morocco | Private wind project

Led key commercial and financing negotiations for a pioneering privately owned wind project involving multiple industrial offtakers and non-recourse financing.

Broader transaction track record

My wider experience spans major transactions and projects across more than 30 countries.

Direct involvement

I accept only a limited number of assignments, allowing for direct, hands-on involvement where my experience and judgement can have the greatest impact.

I work closely with the client’s management, team and advisers, focused on the decisions, negotiations and outcomes that matter most.

Contact

If you are facing a major transaction, a difficult negotiation or a complex situation where additional executive leadership could change the outcome, contact me directly.