Michael Dorrell (Stonepeak)

Michael Dorrell
Born	14 August 1973 (Forbes)
Nationality	Australian (Forbes lists citizenship)
Residence	New York (Forbes)
Occupation	Investor
Known for	Chairman, chief executive and co-founder of Stonepeak
Education	University of New South Wales (LLB, BCom)

Australian-born infrastructure investor; co-founder and chief executive of Stonepeak

Michael Dorrell (born 14 August 1973) is an Australian-born infrastructure investor based in New York. He is chairman, chief executive and co-founder of Stonepeak, an infrastructure investment firm that he set up in 2011.^[1]^[2] On 11 November 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Dorrell 285th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$11.7 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as investing.^[2]^[3] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Dorrell 415th, at US$8.5 billion.^[4]

Early life and education

Dorrell's career began in Griffith, a country town in New South Wales. He graduated from UNSW Sydney with degrees in law and commerce.^[5]^[1]

Career

Dorrell spent more than a decade at Macquarie, first in Australia and then in New York, where he joined the bank's infrastructure team in 2001. He was then a senior managing director in private equity and co-head of the infrastructure investment group at Blackstone.^[1]^[5] He founded Stonepeak in 2011 with Trent Vichie, another former Macquarie banker.^[5] The sources give different figures for Stonepeak's size. UNSW BusinessThink gives assets under management of about US$88 billion at December 2025, while Forbes gives US$93 billion.^[5]^[2] Forbes says the firm invests in logistics, energy and digital infrastructure, from water desalination plants to gas pipelines and data centre companies. It also says Blue Owl Capital paid US$2 billion for a minority stake in 2023, valuing Stonepeak at around US$15 billion.^[2]

Move to New York

Speaking at a UNSW Business School event hosted by David Gonski, Dorrell said that at Macquarie Bank in Sydney he first worked in the mergers and acquisitions group. When the bank offered him a transfer abroad, the choice was Toronto or New York, and New York meant joining the infrastructure group. He was 25 when he first flew into New York, and he joined the infrastructure team there in 2001.^[5]

Stonepeak transactions

UNSW BusinessThink says Stonepeak has a staff of 360 and more than 100 investments in 60 countries, made for more than 330 institutional investors.^[5]

In April 2025 Stonepeak completed its all-cash purchase of Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), a lessor of medium widebody freighter aircraft, at an enterprise value of about US$3.1 billion. ATSG shareholders received US$22.50 a share and the company's stock was delisted from Nasdaq.^[6] In May 2025 Stonepeak and The Arab Energy Fund, a multilateral lender set up in 1974 by ten Arab oil-exporting states, announced a US$1 billion partnership to invest in energy infrastructure in the Middle East. Dorrell said in the announcement that the region had made energy diversification a key priority.^[7] In December 2025 Stonepeak agreed to buy a majority controlling interest in the lubricants business Castrol from BP, valuing it at an enterprise value of about US$10.1 billion. BP was to keep a 35% stake, and CPP Investments was to invest up to US$1.05 billion in support of the deal.^[8]

Views on infrastructure and energy

At the UNSW event Dorrell said that forecasts for data centre growth had consistently turned out to be too low, and that US electricity consumption, flat for two decades, was growing at 5–7% a year. He described "massive bipartisan support" in the US for building data centres. He also said the telecoms sector worried him because it changes quickly and its companies are well-capitalised competitors. He noted that Stonepeak owns one of the largest regional fuel distribution businesses in Australia.^[5]

Political activity

FEC records for the 2022–2026 cycles show itemised federal contributions filed under Dorrell's name with Stonepeak as employer. Recipients included the Harris Action Fund, Cornyn Lonestar, the Johnson Leadership Fund, the NRSC and the DSCC.^[9]

Across the 37 non-memo records retrieved for the 2022–2026 cycles, the filtered total is US$668,741 (a lower bound). The largest recipient committees, as named in the filings, were HARRIS ACTION FUND (US$150,000), CORNYN LONESTAR VICTORY FUND (US$100,000), JOHNSON LEADERSHIP FUND (US$75,000), NRSC (US$75,000), DSCC (US$44,300).^[9]

Federal contributions (FEC Schedule A, itemised; lower bound)
Cycle	Total (US$, lower bound)	Records	Largest recipient committees (as filed with the FEC)
2024	$266,341	23	HARRIS ACTION FUND ($150,000); SFA FUND, INC ($25,000); MANCHIN LEADERSHIP FUND ($11,600); TEAM HAGERTY ($6,871)
2026	$402,400	14	CORNYN LONESTAR VICTORY FUND ($100,000); JOHNSON LEADERSHIP FUND ($75,000); NRSC ($75,000); DSCC ($44,300)

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 2 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2025. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list, and, where applicable, the rank and estimate in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.^[4]^[2]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)	Forbes 400 rank	Forbes 400 net worth (US$ bn)
2025	353	8.5	158	8.5
2026	415	8.5	124	11.7

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."