First Reserve Corp., the world's leading private investment firm in the energy industry, has expanded its energy-infrastructure team with the appointment of three professionals effective immediately. James Berner joins the team as director. Adi Blum and Mark Saxe join as vice presidents.

Berner has more than 17 years of energy-related debt and equity-finance experience including principal energy investing, deal sourcing, execution and governance in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Berner's responsibilities will include deal origination, structuring, execution, monitoring and exit strategy, with particular emphasis on the worldwide energy infrastructure sector. He comes to First Reserve from General Electric Capital Energy Financial Services (EFS), where he was a managing director and led coverage of the U.S. utility sector. He previously led principal investment activities in GE EFS's Singapore office and project finance in London. Prior to that, he was in project and trade finance at Deutsche Bank, Siemens and the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

Saxe joins First Reserve from Loews Corp., where he was a director. Saxe was at Loews for six and half years, where he gained broad energy infrastructure experience. He was instrumental in the structuring and execution of significant investments, including Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, a major provider of interstate transportation and storage of natural gas in the U.S. Prior to Loews, Saxe was an analyst in the Investment Banking Division at Lehman Brothers.

Blum joins from High Road Capital Partners, a middle market private equity firm where he was a vice president. At High Road Capital Partners, Blum managed structuring and diligence for transactions, was engaged in portfolio company oversight and served on the board of portfolio companies. Prior to High Road, he was an associate in Citigroup's Mergers & Acquisitions group, where he focused on several transactions in the energy, transportation and infrastructure sectors. He was also an associate at Silver Oak Partners, where he worked on consulting assignments focused on creating greater efficiencies for state governments.

Saxe's and Blum's responsibilities will include investment origination, structuring, due diligence, and execution and monitoring for the infrastructure team.