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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.

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.

Ricky Varaden is Head of Structuring at Legal & General Institutional Retirement, where he leads credit and infrastructure investment strategies. With over 20 years of experience in financial markets, Ricky began his career on the rates structuring desk at the Royal Bank of Scotland before spending eight years trading inflation bonds and derivatives. He later joined Morgan Stanley’s fixed income quantitative team and subsequently managed LDI portfolios at Aviva Investors. Since joining Legal & General more than five years ago, Ricky has successfully executed numerous private credit transactions for the insurance balance sheet. He holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Mathematical Finance, both from Imperial College London.

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. 

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.

Claire Hedley is Head of ESG at 17Capital where she is responsible for all aspects of ESG strategy and implementation. Prior to joining 17Capital in 2022, Claire spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) in their Alternative Investments & Manager Selection (AIMS) Group in both London and New York. Prior to leaving GS, Claire led the ESG & Impact Client Strategy Group in London, where she was responsible for driving GSAM’s client facing and commercial ESG efforts in EMEA. Claire has a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Leeds (UK). Claire is a member of the Board of Trustees for the CCMI UK, a charity focused on ocean conservation, research, and education. 

Simon is a Managing Director on the Hedge Funds and Private Credit teams and has over 21 years of experience in alternative investments. Simon is responsible for the management and oversight of Hedge Funds and Private credit investment programs in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia and focuses on portfolio construction and manager selection, providing customized investment recommendations. Simon is an instructor for ILPA’s “Private Credit for the Limited Partner”, a one-day, deep-dive seminar offered to ILPA members.

Prior to joining Aksia in 2016, Simon spent twelve years at HSBC. There, Simon held several roles in alternative investments research and portfolio management and most recently was Head of Portfolio Management at HSBC Alternative Investments Limited.

Simon graduated with first-class honors from the University of Oxford with a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from The London School of Economics. He is a CFA charterholder.

Veronica is a Managing Director on the Private Credit team and has over 20 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.

Veronica graduated with distinction from ITBA – Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires with a BS and an MSc in Industrial Engineering and holds an MBA with distinction from London Business School.

Alexander Schmitt is a senior portfolio manager in the Global Private Debt team at Allianz Global Investors. Prior to that, he has been involved in various roles managing Allianz Group’s investments since 2011. Most recently, he was responsible for the development, execution and oversight of Allianz’s investment strategies in infrastructure and real estate private debt. Previous work experience includes a role as an investment manager for a fixed income insurance portfolio at Allianz as well as postings with PIMCO’s emerging markets portfolio management team in the US and with AllianzGI’s Asia Private Credit team in Singapore. Alexander is a CFA Charterholder and graduated with a Master in Finance & Economics from Goethe University, Frankfurt.

Ricardo Cavilliotti is a Senior Portfolio Manager in the Allianz Impact Private Credit strategy. He joined Allianz Global Investors in 2020 as a portfolio manager initially in the Impact Investments team focusing on private credit investments in Europe. He then moved to the Development Finance and Impact Credit team to continue helping grow AllianzGI’s impact private debt capabilities in Europe. Prior to joining AllianzGI, he worked for 8 years at J.P. Morgan’s Corporate Credit team where he focused on the underwriting and monitoring of credits first in New York, then moving to JPM’s London office. Ricardo started his career as a Credit Ratings Analyst at S&P’s Sovereign ratings team before moving to Moody’s Corporate and Infrastructure ratings team.

Suzie Neuwirth, founder and editor-in-chief of Alternative Credit Investor. 

Suzie Neuwirth is the founder of Alternative Credit Investor magazine, having seen a gap in the market for good quality, focused coverage of the fast-growing alternative credit sector. She is an experienced journalist who has edited the business sections of two national newspapers and worked at London freesheet City AM. She has been interviewed on various broadcasting outlets including Sky News and Share Radio. Earlier in her career, she worked for a number of trade magazines and edited a Middle East-focused insurance publication for two years. 

Natalia Tsitoura is Partner, Capital Solutions and Head of Europe Origination in the European Private Debt team at Apollo. Prior to joining in 2020, Natalia was Managing Director at Alcentra in London where she was responsible for originating, structuring and underwriting senior and junior financings for companies across Europe for Alcentra’s specialist direct ending and mezzanine team.

Natalia graduated from Loughborough University in Business Studies.

Oliver Harker-Smith is a portfolio manager for Barings’ European High Yield Investments Group, with responsibility for both CLO and total return funds. Oliver also serves as a member of the European High Yield Investment Committee. Previously, he worked in leveraged finance syndicate and high yield sales and distribution. Oliver has worked in the industry since 2005. Prior to joining the firm in 2010, he was at Barclays Capital, working on syndicating private equity buyouts in Europe, before concentrating on an investor coverage role, predominantly facilitating the primary distribution and secondary trading of loans and high yield bonds. Oliver holds a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College.

Stuart is the Head of Europe and APAC Private Credit and Capital Solutions. He currently chairs the Capital Solutions investment committee and is a member of several firm investment committees including Europe Private Credit, North America Private Credit, APAC Private Credit, European High Yield and MassMutual Ventures Europe & Asia fund. Stuart joined Barings in 2002 and has extensive investment experience encompassing the sub-investment grade public and private credit markets, restructuring and special situations investments. Prior to joining Barings, he worked in the Business Recovery Services team in London at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is currently a board member of Trafalgar Entertainment and has extensive experience of working closely with a number of businesses whilst at Barings. Stuart holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Keble College, Oxford and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

Catherine Baulamon is an investment manager with experience in convertible bonds and credit. Catherine previously served as a portfolio manager/analyst at Man Group and CQS and as an investment banker in leveraged & corporate finance with Barclays Plc and Commerzbank AG, assisting companies with their equity and debt capital needs. She worked in Portland (Oregon), New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt-am-Main, and Geneva. 

Nakul Sarin is a Managing Director and Co-Head of UK Origination and Sponsor Coverage for Blackstone Credit and Insurance (BXCI) based in London.
Mr. Sarin previously worked for Bridgepoint Credit as a Partner. Prior to his time at Bridgepoint, he was a Partner with EQT Credit.  He also served as an Investment Director with Permira Credit. Prior to Permira, Mr. Sarin was a member of the M&A and Financial Advisory group at Blackstone.  He also has held roles with Merrill Lynch and CIBC.
Mr. Sarin graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and received a Master of Science from the University of Warwick.

BMO Sponsor Finance is a leading U.S. private credit originator & manager, focused on lending to 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 Sponsor Finance 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.

Michael is an investor/structurer with more than 20 years securitisation experience. Most recently he has built out the British Business Bank’s capital relief, private securitisation and speciality finance capabilities. In doing so he has supported close to £5bn lending to the UK’s SMEs using innovative guarantee techniques to both increase lenders’ capacity and/or improve their costs of financing.
 
Prior to this Michael has worked in both the private and public sector at institutions including EIF and S&P working on asset classes ranging from mortgages to the more esoteric and across multiple jurisdictions.

Becca is a Managing Director at Cambridge Associates.

Becca joined the firm in 2017 and has over 13yrs investment experience. Becca works in the European Pension Practice 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 OCIO. Becca has been a voting member of CA's Credit Research Investment Committee since 2023 and is based in London.

Prior to joining Cambridge, 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 pension benefit funds.

Becca is a CFA® Charterholder and holds an MChem (Hons) from the University of Oxford.

Based in London, Luis Mayans is Partner and Deputy Head, Private Debt for Europe. In collaboration with CDPQ’s investment teams, he develops high-quality strategic partnerships with key market participants to support the implementation of the organization’s European corporate credit strategy.  
Mr. Mayans has over 20 years of experience in the European financial sector. He joined CDPQ in September 2017 as Partner, Private Debt – Europe. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Avenue Capital Group in London, where he played a key role in the firm’s direct lending strategy, including portfolio construction and monitoring. Prior to that, he worked for over a decade in the leveraged finance unit of GE Capital, building his international expertise through senior roles held in its London, Paris and Madrid offices. 
He holds a Master’s in Economics and Business Administration from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and is a Certified European Financial Analyst (CEFA).

Stuart Fiertz is the Co-Founder, President and Director of Research of Cheyne Capital. From 1991 to June 2000, and prior to establishing Cheyne Capital, Stuart worked for Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for the development and implementation of customised portfolio strategies and for credit research in the convertible bond management practice. 
 
Stuart is a CFA® charterholder and a CAIA designee. He is a Founder & Trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI) and the past chairman of the Alternative Credit Council (ACC). From 2014 until 2020, Stuart was also a council director of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) board.
 
Stuart was educated at the International School of Geneva and at Dartmouth College where he was awarded a BA degree in Political Science and Economics.

Danny is the Co-founder of Colesco and will act as Chief Investment Officer of the Fund. He is the chairman of 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 University of Amsterdam.

Mark Wilton is Head of European Investments at Corinthia Global Management. 

Mark leads the origination, execution and portfolio management functions in Europe. As a senior leader in the Corinthia business, he is also a member of the European Investment Committee and a Portfolio Manager. Prior to joining Corinthia, Mark spent 18 years in a senior management role leading Barings' European private credit business. Through this time, Mark was instrumental in the platform's development into a leading European private credit business and a consistent top 3 manager in the European league tables over the last 5 years. At Barings, Mark managed a team of 26 professionals responsible for the origination, management and underwriting of the European middle market loans. Previous roles include working in corporate finance advisory at Catalyst Corporate Finance (now Alantra) and leverage finance at RBS. Mark qualified as Chartered Accountant (ACA) in 1996 at PwC and holds a first class B.Sc. (Honours) degree in Management Sciences from Loughborough University of Technology.

François Lacoste is Managing Partner in charge of the Debt activity.
Prior to joining the Group in 2008, he worked in the Acquisition & Leverage Finance business at Fortis Bank, in France and Belgium, after having launched the Acquisition Finance department in France. He began his career in the Acquisition Finance department of Banque Worms (Deutsche Bank group). François holds a degree from Paris-Dauphine University (Master II degree in Banking and Finance).

Stefano Bertolotto is a Senior Vice President in GIC's Private Credit Group. He joined GIC in 2013. He leads investments across the capital structure (senior debt, junior debt and preferred equity) in Europe and the US with a focus on software, healthcare and business services. Prior to GIC, Stefano worked in M&A at Evercore. He graduated in Finance in 2007 from Bocconi University and holds an MSc in Finance and Accounting from the London School of Economics

Olya Klueppel is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Global Growth Capital, a European credit investment firm focused on software, financial technology and tech-enabled sectors.

Between 2022 and until rejoining GGC in early 2024, Olya was Partner and Head of Credit and Risk at GP Bullhound, a global technology investment and advisory firm. Between 2010 and 2017, Olya was a partner at ESO Capital, a special situations investment manager providing debt solutions to European SMEs. She managed ESO’s Zurich office. From 2006 till 2010, Olya was a portfolio manager for fixed income strategies at Harcourt, a diversified FoF now part of Vontobel.

Olya began her career in 1997 in the Leverage Finance Group at Salomon Smith Barney in New York and has executed public and private debt offerings for corporate and sovereign clients in the US, Europe (London) and Asia (Tokyo).

Olya received an MBA, Harvard Business School and a BA (Honors) Economics / Government & Law, Lafayette College. She is fluent in German, English and Ukrainian.

Florian Hofer is responsible for the identification, review and selection of investments in the area of Private Credit, in addition to associated portfolio management activities.

Before joining Golding Capital Partners in 2018, Florian worked in the Credit team at EQT Partners in London (now Bridgepoint), where he was responsible for the selection and execution of new financings and opportunistic private credit transactions. Previously, he was part of the Leveraged Finance team at the London office of Jefferies, where he was tasked with originating, structuring and arranging the financing of leveraged buyouts and corporates. His career began in 2010, when he joined the Jefferies M&A team based in Frankfurt.

Florian completed a degree in Law and Economics with a focus on finance at the University of Augsburg, in addition to holding a Master in Law with honours (LL.M.) from the Chicago-Kent College of Law, the law school of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Amit Bahri serves as the co-head of the European Direct Lending platform for Goldman Sachs’ Asset and Wealth Management. The Direct Lending business is the flagship senior loan and mezzanine investing platform within the Private Credit business of Goldman Sachs. Amit joined Goldman Sachs in 2006 within the Investment Banking Division and joined the Private Credit investing business in 2008.

Rhita joined Hayfin in 2022 as Head of Asset Financing, focusing on the origination, structuring and management of efficient leverage products across all Hayfin funds. Prior to joining Hayfin, she worked in the Solutions Sales team at MUFG, offering leverage solutions to European asset managers, at Citigroup where she held various structuring roles within European Fixed Income, notably in the fund financing space and at Société Générale in Debt Capital Markets. She holds a Master’s in Finance from ESCP-EAP Paris. 

Dan Clesham is Co-Head of Credit Financing Solutions at JPMorgan. His team is responsible for managing the origination, structuring and execution of credit fund financing transactions in North America, Europe and Australia. Dan joined JPMorgan in London in 2005 and held several prior roles in credit trading and credit risk management. From 2011 to 2020 Dan was responsible for a Credit Solutions trading business in New York. Dan graduated from the University of Bristol with First Class Honours in Physics.

Marco Prono is a Managing Director and co-Head of J.P. Morgan Direct Lending practice. In this capacity Marco is focused on establishing and developing the firm’s direct lending platform globally. 

Prior to his current role, Marco was a senior member in the Leveraged Finance Capital Markets team at J.P. Morgan in London. His primary sectors of focus included Industrials, Consumer & Retail, Transportation, Lodging and Leisure, where he was responsible for the underwriting and syndication of Euro and Sterling debt financings for European and cross-border clients. In addition, Marco had been leading the firm’s efforts in EMEA distressed, special situations and restructuring financing projects. Marco’s breadth of experience spans across North and South America, and Europe.

Prior to moving to London, Marco was a senior member of the J.P. Morgan Restructuring team in New York. Marco focused on raising capital for (di)stressed companies and has led several high-profile DIP and Exit financings, exchange offers and prepackaged plans of reorganization in a variety of industries, including automotive, media, paper & packaging, real estate, financial services and building materials. 

Marco joined J.P. Morgan in 2003 in London holding positions in the Credit Derivatives and Equity Derivatives groups, focusing on valuation control and market risk.

Marco earned a M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University in 2008, a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2001 and a Laurea Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy in 2002.

Eric Neglia is a Senior Managing Director and leads KBRA’s Funds Ratings business. Eric joined the company in 2015 and was previously Global Head of ABS, where he was responsible for KBRA’s ABS analytical effort including credit rating methodologies, rating assignment processes, and surveillance. He was named Global Head of ABS in May 2023 and previously served as KBRA’s Head of Consumer and Commercial ABS, and prior to that led the organization’s Consumer ABS effort. Over his nine-year tenure with the firm, Eric has made significant contributions to enhancing KBRA’s ABS analytical efforts in regard to traditional and esoteric asset classes.   

Prior to joining KBRA, Eric was head of operational risk management at MasterCard Worldwide. Before that, he spent 15 years at MBIA Insurance Corporation underwriting consumer ABS transactions. 

Eric holds an MBA in finance from New York University.

Sven Gralla is a dedicated private debt specialist with significant expertise in manager selection, LP advisory and portfolio construction. As a fund manager at LBBW Asset Management, he focuses on building fund-of-funds and delivering tailored advisory solutions to institutional investors, leveraging his strong track record in identifying and partnering with top-performing private debt managers.Previously, he played a key role in establishing a private debt fund-of-funds targeting the lower mid-market at Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe. He also brings a solid research foundation from his work at the Bundesverband Alternative Investments (BAI).

Sven is a founding member of the BAI NextGen Council, where he actively contributes to the development of emerging talent and innovation in the private markets industry. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of PDI Europe and PDI Germany, helping shape industry discourse

Gemma Lawrence-Pardew, Head of Sustainability, Loan Market Association 

With over 11 years of experience at the Loan Market Association (LMA), Gemma currently serves as Head of Sustainability, where she leads the Association’s efforts in sustainable lending. Gemma is responsible for overseeing LMA's work on sustainable finance, including supporting documentation, education, and regulatory initiatives. 

Gemma played a pivotal role in developing and publishing, alongside the dedicated Sustainability Committee, the Green, Social, and Sustainability-Linked Loan Principles and Model Provisions. These documents have set the standards and best practices for sustainable lending across various loan products, as well as providing essential guidance for the industry. 

Most recently, Gemma has focused on a transition project, exploring asset/activity-based transition strategies to enable the shift toward sustainability for all entities, not just those with extensive financial resources or expertise. 

Additionally, Gemma has expanded the LMA's thought leadership and regulatory influence through her role as Editor of Horizons, the LMA’s quarterly publication. She is also an active contributor to written media and frequently shares her insights as a speaker at industry conferences on sustainable finance topics. 

Antonello Aquino is the Managing Director for EMEA Private Credit & Insurance and MEA banking at Moody’s Ratings. In this role, he is responsible for Moody’s analytic team maintaining Moody’s ratings on EMEA Private Credit, insurers and MEA banks.   
Antonello joined Moody’s in 2008 as a senior insurance analyst covering some of the major European (re)insurers. Prior to Moody’s, Antonello was responsible for the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) rating advisory practise at Credit Suisse in Europe. His prior experience includes roles as a senior analyst at Standard & Poor's and positions in the FIG M&A teams at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) and ABN AMRO.
Antonello holds an MBA from HEC Paris and is alumnus of the London Business School. He graduated in business administration cum laude from Bocconi University in Italy. Antonello is fluent in English, Italian and French.

Arun joined Morgan Stanley’s London office in 2023 as a Managing Director heading the Global Corporate Asset Finance business. Prior to that, he spent 14 years at Credit Suisse where he ran the Corporate Asset Finance business globally. Arun spent the early part of his career at Merrill Lynch where he worked in the Structured Credit business. Arun holds an undergraduate degree in Russian and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Law from the College of Law.

Raphael joined MUFG PE Sponsor Coverage and Direct Lending as Head of Mid-Market Direct Lending in 2024.

Prior to joining MUFG, he was Head of Direct Lending Origination at Fidelity, and previously Deputy Global Head of LAF and CEO France at Bank of Ireland.

He also held Senior Origination, Leveraged Capital Markets and Sponsor Coverage roles at RBS and HSBC

Rafael is Head of Private Debt, Iberia. Before joining Muzinich, Rafael was a partner at Hutton Collins Partners LLP, a primary subordinated debt/preferred equity investment firm. Previously, Rafael held a number of positions in middle-market investing, lending and credit. He spent two years at Mercapital, a middle-market private equity firm and five years at Merrill Lynch in their credit team and later in leveraged finance, originating and executing senior and subordinated debt investments. He started his career at Chemical Bank/Chase Manhattan Bank in Madrid. Rafael graduated from ICADE in Spain and Groupe ESC Reims in France with a B.A. (Hons) in European Business Administration.

Joined in 2000 and is CEO, Co-Founder, and a Managing Partner. Frédéric built the origination capabilities of the firm and led more than 100 subordinated debt investments over the last 23 years. Frederic oversees the management of the firm and its strategy. He is a member of the Management Committee and Investment Committee and Chairman of the ESG Committee. Prior to MV Credit, Frédéric worked at Intermediate Capital Group, Lone Star and PwC. Frédéric holds a Master (Honours) in Strategy and a B.A. from University Paris-Dauphine.

Slade is responsible for leading and managing GP relationships. Slade has over 17 years of private equity and banking experience.
Prior to co-founding NLC, Slade was Co-Head of Capital Call Financing and the Head of GP Financing at Investec’s Funds Solutions team. Slade was one of the original members to join Investec’s Fund Solutions team and during his time ran and executed over €5.5bn of fund finance transactions globally across 30 fund managers and 45 funds including capital call, secondaries, GP led, NAV, and GP financing.
Slade formed part of the Fund Solution’s investment committee and was instrumental in originating and developing deep client relationships which drove turnover growth by more than 8 times and saw the team increase from 4 to over 20.
Slade started his career in South Africa and moved to the UK in 2008 as part of Investec's treasury team to build out the institutional deposit base.
Slade holds a Bachelor of Information Systems from Bond University and is a Chartered Management Accountant.

Oscar is a senior debt origination reporter focussing on private credit. He has previously worked at other industry publications including Debtwire, Creditflux and GlobalCapital covering various aspects of leveraged finance. He has an M.A in Political Theory from the University of Kent.

Adelene Lee is Senior Vice President and Managing Editor of the Americas. She oversees and directs news content and strategy for Octus Americas, and heads Global CLO coverage at Octus, overseeing the organisation's expansion in this specialised area. Prior to joining Octus (formerly Reorg), Adelene was at Debtwire for 16 years, where she held various senior leadership roles and led successful teams covering leveraged finance and debt restructurings across North America, Europe, and Asia. She holds an MA in Communication from Stanford University and a BA from the School of Oriental & African Studies.

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 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 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.

Marno joined Pension Insurance Corporation’s (PIC) Private Debt Origination team in 2017, where the team focusses on sourcing investment grade debt across various sectors, jurisdictions and currencies. Marno now focuses on investment grade structured credit, financials, fund finance and real estate. Prior to joining PIC, Marno worked at a boutique debt arranger and advisory business where he was advising clients in the social housing, real estate and infrastructure sectors on hedging, corporate finance and arranging various forms of financing. Marno qualified as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG in South Africa where he focused on valuations for asset managers, hedge funds and pensions funds.

Toni is a Partner in Pantheon’s Global Private Credit Investment and European Investment Teams. He previously worked in the private markets team at Cambridge Associates, where he advised institutional investors on their private market investment programs and conducted research and due diligence on private market funds, managers, and markets. Toni has an MPhil in economics from the University of Oxford and a BEng in engineering with business finance, which was jointly taught at University College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is fluent in Finnish, Spanish and English.

Andrew is a Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Park Square Capital, LLP, and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Investment Committee. Amongst Andrew’s responsibilities is fund finance, where Park Square have raised over $8bn through asset backed, subscription and hybrid facilities and typically trades over $1bn of principal FX risk per annum.

Prior to joining Park Square in 2015, Andrew spent over 16 years at 3i Group plc in a number of financial, operational and strategy roles. This included establishing 3i’s Infrastructure and Debt Management businesses and latterly as 3i’s Group Financial Controller. Andrew holds a degree from Liverpool University and is a qualified accountant.

Cedric heads the Private Credit team at Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business. His team is involved in all aspects of the investment process in relation to corporate and financial exposures, with both direct and partner lead deployment. Prior to joining Phoenix Group in 2023, he spent three years as an Investment Director at abrdn where he led the development of the euro private debt franchise. He also spent more than a decade in investment banking at BNP Paribas and Barclays, focusing on the origination and structuring of debt financing both in the investment grade and high yield spaces.

He graduated with a Master of Science in Management from HEC Paris and a Master 2 (DEA) in Quantitative Finance from Ecole Polytechnique and Dauphine/ENSAE.

Steve Cook is a Director and the Head of Portfolio Management at Sequoia Investment Management Company. He also has primary responsibility for the structuring of Sequoia’s investment funds. He has 17 years of infrastructure debt experience.

Marta Stojanova is the Managing Director and Head of the EMEA Leveraged Finance and Private Corporate Debt team at S&P Global Ratings, having joined the London office in 2019. She oversees public and private leveraged buyout transactions ratings, including managing relationships with private equity sponsors, distressed exchanges and recovery analysis. In addition, she oversees the EMEA activities assigning private credit ratings and credit estimates, particularly for mid-market CLOs. With 19 years of experience in originating and structuring debt-financed acquisitions, Marta has worked at Citi, Credit Agricole CIB, and ING in leveraged finance and high-yield capital markets.

Additionally, she spent three years at Citi Private Equity, investing over $11 billion in private company equity, mezzanine financing, and fund-of-funds across Europe and North America.

Mr. Root is a member of the private debt team.

Prior to joining StepStone, Mr. Root was an investment banking credit analyst at J. P. Morgan covering hedge funds. Before that he was in a rotational analyst program at JP Morgan Chase.

Mr. Root received a BS in business administration with specialization in finance from The Ohio State University.

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.