John

John Garay is a Senior Vice President in the Infrastructure department in the New York Office. His primary focus is on the digital infrastructure space where he targets opportunities in the data center, wireless tower, and fiber sectors. He also spends a portion of his time exploring new verticals, such as semiconductors, and assisting other areas within the strategy, such as Infrastructure Credit.  

Outside of work, John has a small farm upstate where he enjoys woodworking.  

Why did you decide to join GIC?

I was convinced by a former employee that GIC offered me the ability to focus on the aspects of my job I liked the most, which was identifying trends early and making a judgement as to which businesses were long-term winners and losers. After joining GIC, I started to appreciate how unique the place was. Some people try to make comparisons to the other sovereign funds, but they always fall short. There is no one quite like GIC from a client, scale, and long-term outlook perspective.  

What does your typical workday look like?

I enjoy taking the bus with my daughter to her school before heading into the office. My first hour is spent responding to emails and I devote my next hour to reading industry blogs, press releases, research notes, Bridgewater’s daily observations, and anything put out by our Economics & Investment Strategy Department. The rest of the day is spent in a flurry of meetings and calls with various partners and internal working groups. Fridays are typically reserved as drafting days where I close my outlook, mute my phone, and focus on Investment Committee materials.  

What do you like most about working here?

I enjoy the autonomy and ability to pursue interesting concepts. A necessity of having GIC’s scale is to always be exploring new investable areas. It might end up not being the right fit for my strategy or cost of capital, but since everyone in GIC serves the same client and maintains regular inter-strategy dialogue it allows us to invest time testing innovative ideas knowing we will be able to find the right home for it within GIC.  A recent example of this was focused on generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) and GPU-as-a-Service. I quickly concluded it did not meet our risk-based definition of infrastructure but was able to quickly route it to other teams for their consideration as well. 

How would you describe the learning & development culture at GIC?

GIC provides unparalleled access to training and resources. Not only that, the constant exposure to a wide range of highly intelligent and accomplished individuals from across our ecosystem of companies and partners has been the greatest source of learning for me.  

What you should know before joining GIC

GIC is a wonderful place for the intellectual and someone with great ambition, but it has little tolerance for big egos. You will be humbled quickly if you lose sight of the fact that the sum is greater than the parts.