MEDIA COVERAGE
2026 SPEAKERS
Veronica is a Managing Director on the Private Credit team and has over 21 years of industry experience working with private capital managers. She is involved in all aspects of the investment process including sourcing, screening and evaluating private credit primary, secondary, co-investment and SMA investments. Veronica also works global investors, directing strategic portfolio construction, management, and providing customized investment decisions.
Prior to joining Aksia in 2022, Veronica provided specialist structuring, debt placement and restructuring advice to private equity funds, portfolio companies and corporate clients across Europe. Veronica joined Aksia from Talbot Leyborne Partners LLP, where she was a Managing Partner. Prior to that, she was a Managing Director at Capital Markets Initiative LLP and previously worked for several years in European Financial Sponsor Coverage and Leveraged Finance at both Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, based in London.
Aysha Gilmore is a History graduate with a postgraduate degree in journalism and an NCTJ diploma. Before joining Alternative Credit Investor, she worked for trade publications in the financial sector, including Net Zero Investor and Room151. Prior to that, she gained experience at various local newspapers. Aysha writes the news, features and profile interviews at Alternative Credit Investor, with particular interests in investor allocations, portfolio movements and partnerships.
Timothée Bloch is the Founder and CEO of Altima Capital and a co-founder of Alpha Credit, a European structured private credit platform focused on direct lending and working-capital solutions for SMEs. Over the past decade, he has been actively involved in originating, structuring, and managing cross-border private credit transactions globally.
His approach to direct lending is rooted in transactional and trade-finance techniques, using asset-backed, self-liquidating structures to finance the broader real economy beyond traditional trade flows. Timothée specialises in designing tailored financing solutions that align institutional investor requirements with the operational realities of SMEs, while managing legal, regulatory, and execution complexity across jurisdictions. Through Altima, he focuses on delivering scalable, transparent, and efficient private credit strategies that support SME growth while meeting institutional standards in governance, risk management, and reporting.
Education
B. Comm, University College Dublin MBS, University College Dublin
Professional Experience
J.P. Morgan, 1999-2014 Bain Capital Credit, 2014-present
Tom Maughan is a Partner at Bain Capital Credit and leads the European Private Credit business. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Tom was a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan responsible for leading the European team of J.P. Morgan Mezzanine (a private credit investment business of J.P. Morgan).
Dave has been Vice President of Bayshore Mortgage Funding LLC for the last 6 years. Bayshore is a privately held residential mortgage banker based in Maryland USA, originating on average over $500 million annually in residential mortgage production. He is a seasoned mortgage finance professional well-versed in all Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA & Non-QM guidelines. Over this career Dave has run a mortgage platform for a US based bank, overseen Secondary Marketing and has been a Top 200 Mortgage Originator in the United States multiple times throughout his career. With over three decades of residential mortgage origination experience, Dave has originated well over $1 billion of personal residential mortgage production throughout his career. He has been interviewed by USA Today, Associated Press, and National Mortgage Professional. Dave resides with his wife, kids and multiple dogs in New Jersey.
Dominic Ashcroft is a Managing Director and the European Head of Private Credit Origination for Blackstone Credit and Insurance (BXCI) based in London. Mr. Ashcroft is involved in the origination, researching, structuring, and advising on investments.
Prior to joining Blackstone in 2025, Mr. Ashcroft worked at Goldman Sachs for over two decades, most recently running the EMEA Leveraged Finance business where he was also a member of the Firmwide Capital Committee. He serves as a Trustee for Street Child, an educational charity, and Radius, which helps forge community engagement in West London.
Mr. Ashcroft graduated with a Double First in Economics from Cambridge University, where he was a Foundation Scholar and recipient of the Patrick Cross Prize for Economics.
Cinzia Chiriac is Head of UK Government & Regulatory Affairs at Bloomberg, where she leads the company’s engagement with policymakers and regulators across the UK and Ireland. In this role, she oversees Bloomberg’s public policy strategy on a wide range of UK regulatory issues that impact the firm and its clients, including market structure reforms, operational resilience, benchmarks, the digital agenda (including artificial intelligence), and sustainable finance. She also provides strategic oversight of Bloomberg’s government affairs priorities across the UK and Ireland, ensuring alignment between policy engagement and the company’s broader business and regulatory objectives.
Before assuming her current role, Cinzia worked within Bloomberg’s Regulatory Affairs team as a subject-matter expert on post-Brexit financial services reform, focusing on initiatives such as the UK’s Wholesale Markets Review and the LIBOR transition. She also developed, and continues to lead, Bloomberg’s international sustainability policy and regulatory affairs strategy, which now forms part of her broader remit. Her work in this area spans international developments on sustainable finance frameworks, including emerging ESG ratings regulation and sustainability-related disclosure regimes.
Cinzia has represented Bloomberg on several industry and regulatory working groups, including the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) Task Force on Sustainable Finance, Singapore’s Green Finance Industry Taskforce (GFIT), and the Future of Sustainable Data Alliance (FoSDA) Policy Working Group.
She holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Delaware.
BMO Sponsor Finance (SF) is a leading North America private credit originator & manager, focused on lending to core middle market companies backed by private equity firms. We invest for our own balance sheet + for partners in investment programs that we control. These programs can take a variety of forms & we are flexible to meet our partner’s requirements.
Mr. Landis joined BMO SF in 2017 and leads its Investor Business Development efforts. Prior to joining BMO, Mr. Landis acted in a similar capacity at Deerpath Capital Management. And prior to Deerpath, Mr. Landis spent 16 years in the Institutional Fixed Income market at Bear Stearns, J.P. Morgan, UBS and others, focusing on structured products to financial institutions. Responsibilities included sales & trading, research, portfolio analytics, and strategy. Mr. Landis earned a B.S. in Business from Cornell University and an MBA from Boston University. He holds Series 7 and 63 licenses.
Felix is a Partner at Bright Capital and heads the Frankfurt based Private Credit Investment Team. He joined Bright Capital in 2018 and is responsible for originating, underwriting, and executing sponsor-backed and predominantly sponsor-less investment opportunities with a strong buy-and-build angle in the DACH lower-mid-market. Felix has >10 years of industry experience and, prior to joining Bright Capital, worked in Leveraged Finance at HSBC, where he focused on structuring and executing mid and large cap sponsor-backed LBO transactions. Felix started his career in Investment Banking, holds a Master of Science in Finance and studied in Germany, the US and France.
Rebecca (Becca) Davis is an Investment Managing Director at Cambridge Associates is part of the firm’s Credit Investment Group.
Becca joined the firm in 2017 and works with institutional investors globally to build bespoke private credit portfolios. Her role incorporates manager underwriting and portfolio construction. She oversees investment portfolios both in an advisory capacity and as an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO). She is a voting member of CA’s Research Investment Committee and is based in London.
Prior to joining CA, Becca was a member of the discretionary investment services team at Willis Towers Watson where she helped manage total and alternative asset portfolios on behalf of UK defined benefit pension funds.
Becca is a CFA® charterholder and holds an MChem (Hons) from the University of Oxford.
Vijay Padmanabhan is a Managing Director at Cambridge Associates.
Vijay is based in our London office and has over 15 years of experience as a credit investor. He leads manager research for European private credit and helps steer the firm’s private credit efforts in Europe. He also performs due diligence on investment opportunities in credit, special situations, and distressed markets.
Prior to joining CA in 2022, Vijay spent most of his career in London with a few years in Mumbai and Hong Kong investing in the credit markets in the Asian region. During his career, he worked on credit teams at Citigroup, Post Advisory, Fidelity, and KKR, and has deployed over $5 billion across various types of credit—both public and private—and across credit cycles. He has also held several senior roles on credit committees, including overseeing restructuring situations across different jurisdictions. Previously, Vijay was a Partner at PwC, leading restructuring efforts in India where he managed one of the largest insolvencies in the country.
Vijay received his MBA from the London Business School, UK. He received his MS from Virginia Tech, USA and his Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Madras, India.
Roxana is an international investor and strategic advisor, with a career encompassing senior roles in banking, commodities, geopolitics and tech across the UK, Europe, and MENA.
Based in London, Roxana is a Chief Strategy Officer of digital real estate lending platform Blend, which is backed by several high-profile family offices and institutional investors.
She is a member of the Advisory Board of Women In Finance and has been recognized as a senior leader in the Innovate Finance Women In FinTech powerlist.
Prior to her current roles, Roxana was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley and Barclays, where she held various senior roles across commodities trading, strategy and research.
Danny is the Co-Founder of Colesco and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. He also chairs both the Managing Board and the Investment Committee.
Within Colesco, Danny’s primary deal focus lies with the UK based PE sponsor community and at a firm level investment management oversight, executive HR, general management, compliance, legal, and risk management.
Danny has over 25 years of experience in debt origination and execution. Prior to establishing Colesco, he was Global Head of Leveraged Finance and Sponsor Origination at Rabobank. He held several other notable positions at Rabobank such as Head of Sponsor Origination, Head of Leveraged Finance Origination (Europe), and executive director positions involving execution of leveraged finance transactions and coverage of large cap companies. Danny started his career as a strategy consultant in the Rabobank Group Strategy and E-commerce teams.
Danny holds an Executive MBA from IMD and a MSc in International Finance from the University of Amsterdam.
Ms. Kutner is a Director on the Investor Relations team focused on fundraising and distribution within Europe. Tania joined Deerpath in 2021 and has 11 years of industry experience. She previously worked as an Associate Director at Aerius Associates, a London based placement agent. Prior to Aerius Associates, she worked at BNP Paribas in their Financing and Advisory team and began her career at Lloyds Banking Group, in the Leveraged Finance team. Ms. Kutner is a graduate of the University of Birmingham (B.Eng).
Alexandre is a Private Credit professional and Bootstrap Europe’s first alumni, with a track record exceeding $1.6bn across multiple jurisdictions and stages. He is now launching GPI, Europe’s first solo-GP Growth Lender dedicated to the underserved lower mid-market.
Where others see small tickets, GPI sees asymmetric returns.
At GPI, the strategy combines senior secured loans with warrant upside, effectively bridging the worlds of venture and private credit. The fund is designed to deliver quarterly distributions to LPs, targeting full capital payback within five years while preserving meaningful equity upside.
In short, GPI helps founders keep their ownership and LPs keep their sleep.
High Yield Capital Markets. In 2001 he was appointed Head of Leveraged Finance Credit
Analysis at Legal and General, and as a Portfolio Manager, managed more than $5bn in
assets. In 2008 he returned to JPMorgan and currently is responsible for the Direct Lending
franchise in Europe, where he works closely with partners from Financial Sponsors, other
Direct Lending businesses as well as JPMorgan Banking, Leveraged Finance and Credit
Trading to build JPMorgan’s Direct Lending business.
Tony Chung is Managing Director of Private Equity & Credit at Juniper Square, where he leads go-to-market strategy. Previously, he was Co-Founder and CEO of Tenor, an AI-enabled platform that automates post-close loan operations (acquired by Juniper Square in 2025), and General Manager of the FIS Private Equity Business – Investran. With over 20 years of experience in private markets technology, Tony focuses on how data, automation, and operational discipline drive sustainable growth across private equity and credit.
Scott Duggal is a Senior Director in the Funds Group at KBRA. Scott joined KBRA in 2024 and has over 20 years of experience in credit, with a core focus on CLOs, RMBS, and ABS.
Prior to joining KBRA, Scott was lead ABS/CLO portfolio manager and head of European consumer ABS, RMBS, and CLO research at abrdn. Scott joined abrdn in 2014 following the acquisition of Ignis Asset Management, where he started in 2009 and was responsible for investments in ABS, RMBS, and CLOs.
Previously, Scott was a director in Fitch’s Structured Credit Ratings team, responsible for ratings and criteria development on a broad range of structured products including CLOs. Prior to that, Scott spent three years at Shell Asset Management Company, where he was responsible for the CLO portfolio invested in U.S. CLO equity, CLO mezzanine debt, and other performing and distressed structured credit.
Scott holds a BSc. (First Class Honours) in computer science with management from King’s College London and an MSc. in investment management from Bayes Business School (City Business School, University of London).
Rachel McGovern is a Managing Director at KBRA DLD—a division of KBRA Analytics—based in Dublin, where she leads the news and data publication efforts in Europe. With over a decade of experience covering the private debt market, Rachel has built a reputation for uncovering critical developments and enhancing data transparency in this traditionally opaque sector.
Rachel joined the company in 2022 and developed KBRA’s European database of private terms. She is responsible for breaking news, conducting in-depth analyses for a quarterly report on new issuance pricing and terms, and producing a quarterly default radar for the direct lending market.
Prior to joining KBRA, Rachel held roles at leading financial publications including Bloomberg and LCD.
Rachel holds a master’s degree in journalism from London City University and a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College Dublin.
Sanjeev Jeyakumar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lenkie Technologies, a cash-flow management and lending platform serving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. Since 2021, he has led Lenkie through rapid growth - supporting hundreds of SMEs and delivering £100M+ in funding through technology-led lending solutions.
Previously, Sanjeev served as Vice President of Sales at Diginex, where he played a key role in driving commercial growth ahead of the company’s listing on Nasdaq. He began his career at Citigroup in emerging markets credit trading, where he structured more than £2 billion in credit transactions and ran a £500M bond and credit derivative trading book across the Middle East and North Africa region.
Sanjeev holds a Master’s in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.
Antonello Aquino is Managing Director, global co-head for Insurance, Funds and Asset Management, and EMEA Private Credit at Moody’s Ratings. He leads Moody’s analytical team responsible for maintaining credit ratings on insurers, funds, and asset managers, as well as private credit entities across EMEA.
Antonello joined Moody’s in 2008 as a Senior Insurance Analyst, covering major European (re)insurers. Prior to Moody’s, he led the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) rating advisory practice at Credit Suisse in Europe. His earlier experience includes roles as a Senior Analyst in Standard & Poor’s insurance sector, and positions within the FIG M&A teams at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) and ABN AMRO.
He holds an MBA from HEC Paris and is an alumnus of London Business School. He graduated cum laude in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Italy. Antonello is fluent in English, Italian, and French.
Nikhil leads OMERS’ European credit platform out of London. His team’s primary focus is the origination, execution and management of broadly syndicated leveraged loans, private credit, high yield, and structured credit across a broad range of sectors. He joined OMERS in February 2022.
Nikhil joined OMERS from Aviva Investors, where he sat on the Senior Leadership Team for Private Debt. Prior to this, Nikhil worked for a London-based family office, where he was responsible for direct investments in public and private equity, real estate, and credit investments across the capital structure. Nikhil was previously a senior investment professional at a special situations hedge fund, with a focus on turnaround, distressed, and event-driven opportunities. He began his career at McKinsey & Co and Deutsche Bank’s Distressed Products Group.
Nikhil holds an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College, an MBA from Wharton School of Business, and an M.Phil. in Linguistics from Cambridge University
Bernard is a Managing Director in Pantheon’s Global Private Credit team. Prior to joining Pantheon Bernard worked as a Director in Muzinich and Co’s European Direct Lending team, before which he was a member of Lincoln International’s Debt Advisory team having started his career at KPMG. Bernard holds a LL.M in International Business Law from the University of London, is a qualified accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Sourav Srimal is Chief Growth Officer at SOLVE, where he helps shape the firm’s strategic product roadmap and growth initiatives, with a focus on private credit. He joined SOLVE through the AdvantageData acquisition and has deep credit market expertise, having built award-winning products across leveraged loans, BDCs, middle-market loans, and private bonds. Sourav previously worked at Wellington Management and holds a BS in Finance from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Marta Stojanova is a Director in the Leveraged Finance team within S&P Corporate Ratings. She joined S&P Global Ratings’ London office in 2019 and is responsible for leveraged transactions involving private equity sponsors, complex transactions and restructurings, private credit estimates, structured finance (CLOs) and speculativegrade recovery analysis. She publishes regularly on themes covering European leveraged finance, recovery and European CLOs.
Prior to joining S&P, Marta spent nearly two decades in various investment banking and debt capital markets roles prior to joining S&P. She has vast transactional experience in originating and structuring debt-financed acquisitions for corporates and private
equity sponsors. In addition, Marta was an investment manager at Citi Private Equity deploying over $11 billion in private company equity co-investments, mezzanine and fund-of-funds investments, across Europe and North America. She also has experience in buyside structuring and negotiating rescue finance for challenged credits.
Marta holds a MSc degree from Reading University and a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Management from Royal Holloway,
University of London.
Mr. McGovern has over 25 years of investment and advisory experience with much of that time spent managing private credit funds and working with private credit fund investors around the world. At Star Mountain, Mr. McGovern is involved in all aspects of the firm’s investment and portfolio management activities in addition to business development and investor relations efforts. Mr. McGovern joined Star Mountain from the specialist private debt advisory firm Avebury Capital Partners (now known as Arbour Partners) where he established and ran its North American operations helping to build, advise and raise capital for mezzanine and other private credit investment funds as well as sourcing secondary investment opportunities.
Mr. McGovern was previously a partner at Ember Capital (formerly known as Nomura Mezzanine), an alternative investment fund manager which managed a ~$350 million mezzanine fund sponsored by Nomura in addition to approximately ~$200 million in other pools of capital for senior and mezzanine debt investments. For nearly a decade at Ember/Nomura, Mr. McGovern was responsible for originating, executing and managing senior debt and mezzanine investments. During his time at Ember/Nomura, Mr. McGovern was instrumental in making more than 25 private credit investments. Mr. McGovern also played a key role in structuring and raising the firm’s funds as well as with investor relations on a global basis.
Before joining Nomura in early 2005 to help launch its mezzanine debt investment business, Mr. McGovern was an investment professional at AIG-MezzVest, a ~$750 million mezzanine fund sponsored by the global insurance company AIG. Earlier in his career, Mr. McGovern was an investment banking associate at HSBC and an investment banking analyst at Stephens Inc. Mr. McGovern began his career as an associate portfolio manager in the asset management division of Dominick & Dominick in New York.
Mr. McGovern completed his MBA at HEC Paris and London Business School and holds a BA from Vanderbilt University. Mr. McGovern holds active FINRA broker dealer licenses and is currently a board member of ACG Cleveland.
Dagmara is Co-Chief Investment Officer for Tetragon Credit Partners. She joined the group in early 2007 and prior to that was an Associate in Morgan Stanley’s Securitized Products Group working on the structuring desks in New York and London. At Morgan Stanley, she was involved in the structuring and execution of CDO and CLO transactions across multiple underlying asset classes and structural types. Dagmara holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. She is based in New York.
Cécile Mayer Lévi joined Tikehau Capital in 2013 as Head of Private Debt activity. She has built a talented team to become one of the leading players in Europe in private debt, in particular in direct lending and is actively involved with a very hands-on role in closing transactions, chasing opportunities and monitoring investments. To date, she has arranged over 150 financing transactions and was one of the pioneers of the private debt strategy.
Cécile previously worked at Ardian (formerly AXA Private Equity) where she notably broadened the investment scope to include unitranche debt, with a strong focus on forming partnerships with portfolio companies and Private Equity shareholders. She began her career in 1988 at Merrill Lynch (Corporate Finance and M&A) in Paris and then in New York. In 1991, she joined Elig, one of the pioneering private equity funds in France. In 2001, Cécile's focus pivoted to mezzanine debt investments, and she was appointed Investment Director at Omnes (formerly CAPE -Mezzanis).
Cécile sits as observer on the board of over 20 companies, where she contributes her 360° view to their management teams across a diversified range of industries. She is also board member and chair of the audit committee of the listed company FL Entertaiment. She is also chair of the Private Debt Commission of the trade association France Invest and is
leading the initiative to implement ESG ratchets and an impact margin grid in deal documentation. In addition she has been appointed as a board member of France Invest since July 2023.
Cecile is a member of the investment committee of the endowment Alma Mater HEC, a leading European business school, and also Board member of the ACC- Alternative Credit Council in connection with AIMA to cover Private Debt related regulatory and legal evolutions in Europe and worldwide.
Prior to TresVista, Raluca spent eight years at GLG supporting credit, private equity, and special situations investors, and six years at Mergermarket working across their private equity and credit portfolios, helping clients leverage proprietary deal intelligence and covenant analysis.
In her current role, Raluca partners with CFOs, COOs, and senior leaders across private credit and broader private markets to streamline investment diligence, portfolio monitoring, valuation, fund administration, and data analytics. She works with firms ranging from emerging managers to global institutions, helping them drive operational leverage, unlock capacity for deal teams, and support scalable growth.
How to deploy in European private credit in 2026
Our expert panel explored how private credit navigated challenges around pricing, covenant-lite terms, geopolitical uncertainty, and rising dry powder competing in a healthier exit environment.
Featured Speakers:
- Cécile Mayer Lévi, Head of Private Debt, Tikehau Capital
- Tom Maughan, Partner, Bain Capital
- Gregory Rosenvinge (moderator), Private Credit Reporter, 9fin
In Partnership with

Navigating CLO Arbitrage and Tail Risk in 2026
Host Kerstin Kubanek sat down with Dagmara Michalczuk to discuss the CLO market outlook for 2026, covering spread compression, refinancing activity, market volatility, AI-driven sector disruption, CLO equity positioning, and liability management trends across US and European markets.
Featured Speakers:
- Kerstin Kubanek, Senior Reporter, LevFin Insights
- Dagmara Michalczuk, Co-Chief Investment Officer, Tetragon Credit Partners
In Partnership with

Phoenix’s Jack Edwards on opportunities in European private credit
Ahead of DealCatalyst’s European Private Credit Conference on Direct Lending, Jack Edwards (pictured), head of structured credit and alternatives at Phoenix, discusses the key areas of interest in private credit for one of the UK’s largest insurers, as well as the current macroeconomic backdrop for the asset class. Read the full interview.

In Partnership with


