Melissa Wollis Counsel DECHERT

Melissa Wollis is a counsel in Dechert’s global finance practice. Ms. Wollis represents various financial institutions in their capacity as issuers, arrangers and investment managers in connection with various securitization and structured finance transactions. Ms. Wollis’ practice is primarily focused on representing investment managers in connection with collateralized loan obligation transactions. She routinely negotiates related warehouse financing arrangements and refinancing and “reset” transactions. She also has experience representing financial institutions and investment banks as underwriters in collateralized loan obligation transactions and in connection with a variety of other loan financing transactions.

Jon Burke Partner DECHERT

Jon Burke is a partner in Dechert’s global finance practice, advising asset managers, issuers, banks, underwriters and investors on a broad range of collateralized loan obligation transactions (CLOs) and other structured credit financing arrangements secured by broadly syndicated and middle-market loans.

Mr. Burke advises managers and borrowers in a variety of fund financing structures, including NAV facilities, collateralized fund obligations and rated feeders. He also has extensive experience representing investors in various esoteric asset classes, including life settlements, structured settlements, brokerage commissions, wage advances, and medical receivables.

Ryan Dembinsky Senior Research Analyst RUSSELL INVESTMENTS

Ryan is a Senior Fixed Income Research Analyst at Russell Investments with a differentiating expertise in all segments of securitized assets (RMBS, CMBS, ABS, CLOs, agency MBS, and prepayment derivatives) markets. He serves as the firm’s subject matter expert and leads the research effort with respect to securitized credit market themes/opportunities and manager rankings, whereby he makes both strategic and tactical structured credit allocation recommendations as well as tactical trade ideas to multi-asset/OCIO portfolios, Russell funds, and advisory fixed income clients.

Ryan joined Russell Investments in December 2011 as a Senior Research Analyst focusing on fixed income manager due diligence.  Prior to Russell, Ryan worked at Rogers Casey where he served as Associate Director of Fixed Income Research for over five years. Ryan has a broad range of experience researching fixed income managers across all areas of the asset class, including core/core plus, LDI , high yield, global fixed income, emerging markets debt, structured securities, bank loans, inflation-linked bonds, and credit-related alternatives. Prior to Rogers Casey, Ryan worked in fixed income relationship management at Weiss, Peck & Greer-Robeco USA. He received a B.A., Organizational Studies from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A in Finance from Baruch College, the Zicklin School of Business.

Mike Minnich President and Chief Investment Officer MIDWEST HOLDING

• 25 years of experience in insurance, technology and asset management
• Managing member of insurance advisory firm Rendezvous Capital LLC
• Former Managing Director at Swiss Re, managing a multibillion-dollar portfolio
• B.S. Electrical Engineering from MIT and MBA from MIT Sloan

Tom Stack Senior Investment Director CAMBRIDGE ASSOCIATES

Tom Stack joined Cambridge Associates in May 2022 as a Senior Investment Director focused on Private Credit. He is based in the Arlington, VA office. Tom has spent most of his career in the Outsourced-CIO space, focused on both Credit manager selection and portfolio management for endowment and foundation clients. He started his career at Investure in Charlottesville, VA, and worked there from 2007-2014. Most recently, he worked for Global Endowment Management, an OCIO based in Charlotte, NC. Tom has a B.A. in Mathematics from University of Virginia (2007) and an MBA from Columbia Business School (2016). He is also a CFA Charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of North Carolina.

Melissa Tan Managing Director FOSUN ASSET MANAGEMENT

Melissa Tan joined Fosun in 2016. She is Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income investment at Fosun Asset Management. She leads developed markets’ fixed income investments including High Yield, Investment Grade, Structured Credit, Loans/CLO, and Private Credit. She has 16 years of credit research and investing experience.

Prior to joining Fosun, she was the Managing Director at RW Pressprich in New York City where she focused on High Yield/Distressed and Structured Credit research, covering sectors including general industrials, homebuilding, and metals and mining.

She holds an MBA degree from New York University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Riverside. She is a CFA charterholder.

Tim Ruxton Managing Director ALTER DOMUS

Tim joined Alter Domus, then Cortland Capital Market Services, in 2013, co-managing the Credit & Structured Products teams. He now acquires new business and manages existing client relationships within the business development group.

Prior to joining Alter Domus, Tim was a vice president in corporate trust for Bank of America and US Bank (via acquisition of LaSalle Bank) where he managed multiple teams that worked with CDO, CLO, CRE, CMBS, as well as RMBS products and clients.

Tim has also worked in the European market and is considered a subject matter expert on Securitization and other credit services including Credit Funds, CLO Administration, Trade Closing and Data Analytics. He has made several presentations and spoken on numerous industry panels in the US and Europe.

Tim attended the University of Iowa and has his MBA from Iowa State University.

Lauren Basmadjian Senior Portfolio Manager Carlyle Global Credit

Lauren Basmadjian is a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager for Carlyle Global Credit where she is focused on Leveraged Loans and Structured Credit. She is based in New York and sits on the Investment Committees for all of Carlyle's US Loan and CLO investing activities.

Ms. Basmadjian joined the Carlyle Group in 2020 after 19 years at Octagon Credit Investors, where she was a Senior Portfolio Manager and member of the Investment Committee. Prior to becoming a Portfolio Manager, Ms. Basmadjian managed Octagon's workout efforts and also oversaw the leisure & entertainment, retail, consumer products, business services, food & beverage and technology industries. Before joining Octagon, Ms. Basmadjian worked in the Acquisition Finance Group at Chase Securities, Inc.

She graduated Cum Laude from the Stern School of Business at New York University with a B.S. in Finance and Economics.

Lyuba Petrova Senior Director FITCH RATINGS

Lyuba Petrova joined Fitch in October 2016 as Director in the Leveraged Finance team. Her focus falls on identifying trends in the Leveraged Finance market, studying corporate structures, and analyzing deal documentation.

Prior to joining the team, Lyuba was at JPMorgan, where she spent the first 10 years of her career. Joining as a full-time analyst in 2007, she worked on Leveraged Finance transactions in New York and London. From 2008-2016 she was a member of the Risk Management team, progressing through the ranks from Analyst to Vice President. In this capacity, she was tasked with maintaining a portfolio of $3.2 billion of primary exposure across a variety of industries.

Lyuba received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Statistics from Mount Holyoke College in 2007.

Bob Post Managing Director BLACKSTONE

Mr. Post is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of the US leveraged loan and high yield strategies in Blackstone Credit’s Liquid Credit Strategies (“LCS”) unit. He sits on LCS's U.S. Syndicated Credit Investment Committee.

Richard Reilly Partner DLA PIPER

Rich Reilly has a broad securities practice with an emphasis on CLOs and other structured finance transactions, securitizations and investment fund formations in the United States and Europe.

Rich has over twenty years of experience acting as counsel to arrangers, collateral managers and investors on US and European CLOs and other securitizations. His experience includes structuring CLOs and securitizations to comply with a variety of regulatory requirements including those imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act and the EU Securitisation Regulation.

In addition, he regularly represents investment advisors on the formation of private investment funds for the purpose of raising capital for investment in structured credit products including, among others, captive and non-captive CLO equity funds.

Rich has substantial CLO manager M&A experience having represented buyers and sellers in several transactions in the US and Europe.

In addition to his experience in the US CLO and securitization markets, Rich spent several years in London where he led the most active legal practice in the European CLO market from 2003 - 2011.

In the asset securitization area, Rich has represented issuers, arrangers, credit enhancement providers and servicers in a broad range of asset classes including solar, market-based lending, CMBS, RMBS, credit cards, trade receivables and asset-backed commercial paper.

Sean M. Solis Partner MILBANK

A distinguished finance and securitization attorney, author and speaker, Sean M. Solis is a partner in the New York office of Milbank and a member of the firm’s Alternative Investments Practice.

Mr. Solis has counseled US and international asset managers and hedge funds in connection with tens of billions of dollars of transactions across a wide variety of collateralized loan obligation transactions (“CLOs”) as well as other complex structured credit financing arrangements. Moreover, Mr. Solis is an expert in the various regulatory regimes applicable in the securitization space including the US and EU Risk Retention Rules and the Volcker Rule. In addition, Mr. Solis has significant experience with secured and unsecured lending transactions and he has advised asset managers and institutional buyers in connection with strategic investments in private investment firms and on structuring complex transactions in preparation for liquidity events.
Mr. Solis is widely recognized as one of the country’s leading attorneys in the representation of CLO collateral managers and CLO equity investors. Clients describe him as “very intelligent, commercial and always willing to go above and beyond to satisfy client needs and demands.” Mr. Solis is recognized by Chambers USA (2018), where peers note that he is “a young but very seasoned partner in the CLO space,” and clients praise his work ethic and creativity noting that he “works tirelessly for his clients and is consistently at the forefront of new market developments.” Mr. Solis is a frequent speaker at securitization industry conferences and is regularly quoted on industry matters by Creditflux, Reuters, Bloomberg and other leading financial media outlets.

Roger MK Li Managing Director, Co-Head of GP Advisory BRIARCLIFFE CREDIT PARTNERS

Roger Li’s asset management experience spans 25 years, of which 15 encompass product strategy, fund formation, and capital raising in traded and private credit. He co-leads the project management team at Briarcliffe Credit Partners, overseeing the firm’s offerings on a day-to-day basis.

In response to the rapid growth in private credit, now exceeding $1.5 trillion, Briarcliffe was founded in 2021 to meet the institutional investor demand for a highly specialized approach to fundraising. In less than a year since its founding, Briarcliffe has grown to a 14-person team and is widely recognized as the leading private credit placement agency.

Prior to joining Briarcliffe, Roger oversaw product management of KKR Credit’s asset-based finance and direct lending strategies helping to deliver commingled, separately managed account and registered fund solutions to institutional, insurance, and individual investors globally. Previously, he led product management at Alcentra, Onex Credit Partners, and Highland Capital Management. Earlier in his career, Roger worked at global private banks in asset allocation and portfolio strategy. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and received a BA in Economics from Vassar College.

Danielle Gilbert Managing Director PANAGRAM

Danielle Gilbert is a Managing Director leading Business Development at Panagram. Danielle joined Panagram with 18 years of experience on the sell-side in senior fixed-income distribution roles. Most recently, Danielle was a Director at RBC Capital Markets in securitized products, supporting global institutional clients. Before RBC, she was a Managing Director and Partner at RW Pressprich, focused on fixed-income sales and origination of asset-based lending facilities. Danielle launched her finance career at UBS Securities LLC, and prior to her departure was a Director in structured product sales. Before joining UBS, she was a global client representative with IBM. Danielle holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Michael Herzig Senior Managing Director, Head of Business Development FIRST EAGLE ALTERNATIVE CREDIT

Michael Herzig is a senior managing director and head of business development at First Eagle Alternative Credit, where his responsibilities include marketing and client service. Mike also directs the product development and strategy committee, which is charged with developing new fund products for the institutional market, and serves on the investment committee of the firm’s Tradable Credit platform. Mike became part of First Eagle in 2020 upon the firm’s acquisition of THL Credit, which he had joined in 2008. Previously, he was head of product strategy in the alternative credit strategies group at McDonnell Investment Management. Before that, Mike was co-head of Deutsche Bank’s CDO business in the Americas, overseeing CLO underwriting and product placement, as well as hedging and risk management of the leveraged loan warehouse lines; he also served as the bank’s representative on the board of the Loan Securities Trading Association. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Mike was a senior marketer of structured credit and interest rate derivative products to US institutional investors for Merrill Lynch. Mike earned a BA in international business and French from Lehigh University.

Derek Fin Client Portfolio Manager INVESCO PRIVATE CREDIT

Derek is a Client Portfolio Manager for Invesco’s global private credit group. He is focused on supporting business development efforts and is responsible for client communication for leveraged loans, CLOs, and alternative credit products.

Derek joined Invesco Private Credit in 2022. Prior to his current role, Derek was a vice president and client portfolio manager at Seix Investment Advisors responsible for leveraged loans, CLOs, and high yield bonds. Previously, Derek was vice president at JP Morgan on the multi-asset portfolio management team focused on equities, fixed income, and alternatives. Prior to JP Morgan, Derek was a fixed income product specialist at Goldman Sachs within the investment management division. Derek began his career in 2010 at the LSTA (Loan Syndications and Trading Association) as a market analyst providing research to institutional clients on the leveraged loan market.

 Derek graduated with a BBA in Finance from Lehman College and is a CAIA charterholder.

Mark Hanslin Managing Director PARTNERS GROUP

Mark Hanslin is part of the Liquid Loans business unit, based in New York. He is a member of the Global Liquid Loans Investment Committee. He has 36 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Partners Group, Mark spent 15 years with Mizuho Bank (formerly Fuji Bank) in New York, where he served as co-founder and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Mountain Capital U.S. CLO management platform and was also a Senior Team Leader in Fuji Bank's U.S. Leveraged Finance Originations Group. Mark has also been engaged in senior investment advisory roles for Mountain Bridge Advisors and Nebula Capital, where he focused on liquid debt investment and U.S. CLO management and investment strategies. He began his career as a corporate credit analyst, and also served as a lending officer and a high yield investment portfolio manager for Union Bank of Finland (now Nordea Bank) in New York for a ten year period. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Boston University, Massachusetts, USA and a MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business, USA.

Kevin Lin Assistant Director MOODY'S ANALYTICS

Kevin Lin is an Assistant Director – Senior Financial Engineer on the CLO Customer Success team at Moody’s Analytics. He began his career as a CMBS analyst for Moody’s Investors Service, where he spent 5 years modeling and rating conduit transactions. In his 3 years at Moody’s Analytics, he has worked in both the CMBS and CLO teams, where he mainly focuses on Customer Engagement, creating financial models, and improving the Structured Finance Portal.

Kevin has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Princeton University.

Nithin Johnson US Head of Business Development and Structured Private Solutions TIKEHAU CAPITAL

Nithin is the US Head of Business Development and Structured Private Solutions at Tikehau Capital, a $40 billion publicly traded alternative asset manager headquartered in Paris with US headquarters in New York. He is responsible for developing and growing the firm’s partnership with institutional investor relationships and expanding access to private markets through structured solutions. Nithin led the structuring and placement of the firm’s inaugural collateralized fund obligation (CFO), among the industry’s first private credit-focused CFOs.

Nithin was formerly Head of Americas for International Fund Distribution (IFD) at Citigroup, where he worked from 2010 to 2019. The track record of Citi’s fund placement business cumulatively raised over $70 billion. With his background across private markets and structuring, Nithin also served as a member of the Citi solutions team that helped bring to market structured offerings like KKR REIGN and he has advised a number of private equity and private debt firms on product and investor strategy.

Nithin holds an MBA from the University of Oxford in England and a Bachelor of Science from The Ohio State University. He resides in New York City and is active in the Oxford University Alumni Association.

Al Remeza Associate Managing Director MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE

Al Remeza is an Associate Managing Director and head of the US CLO and Structured Credit new ratings team with Moody's Investors Service.

Prior to joining Moody’s, he was a Senior Consultant at one of Mercer’s financial advisory consulting groups. His clients were financial institutions such as major investment banks, reinsurance and insurance companies, energy and commodities trading firms, quasi-government agencies, and numerous other Fortune 500 firms. His other experiences include working for Credit Suisse First Boston and Alliance Capital. He earned an MA in Economics, a BS in Economics, and a BS in Engineering and did his doctoral work in finance while at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Batur Bicer Managing Director NAPIER PARK

Batur Bicer is a Portfolio Manager focusing on investment strategies related to structured credit products in both cash and synthetic markets at Napier Park Global Capital (“Napier Park”). Napier Park separated from Citigroup’s alternative investment arm, Citi Capital Advisors (“CCA”), in February 2013. Prior to CCA, Batur served two years as Vice President at Goldman Sachs as a Credit Strategist covering primarily credit derivative products where he was responsible for recommending trade ideas and providing quantitative solutions for both internal and external clients. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Batur worked as a Credit Strategy Research Analyst for five years at Barclays Capital where he published weekly reports on the structured credit market. Batur has also been involved in various industry forums and networks, including the investor roundtables for different ratings agencies. He frequently appears as a speaker at multiple industry conferences and panels. Batur has a PhD degree in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University and a BS from Bogazici University.

Shawn Lim Vice President VIBRANT CAPITAL PARTNERS

Mr. Lim is responsible for analyzing investment opportunities and assisting in driving investment decisions for the Structured Credit Investment Team. He has 11 years of experience analyzing and conducting research on structured credit investments including CLOs. Previously, Mr. Lim worked in the Structured Products Group at Oak Hill Advisors for almost two years, as part of a team that managed $2bn+ in CLO debt and equity investments. Prior to Oak Hill, he worked on the Securitized Products Research Team at Nomura Securities for six years, publishing research on CLOs and non-agency RMBS. Mr. Lim has an M.A. in Mathematics of Finance from Columbia University and a B.S. in Economics from Singapore Management University.

Som Mukherjee Senior Partner & Head of Investments LAKEMORE PARTNERS

Som is the Head of Investments and a member of the Investment Committee at Lakemore. His responsibilities include investment selection, structuring and portfolio management of the firm’s various credit platforms. He has 20 years of experience in investment management during which he managed asset classes that included Specialist Credit and other Alternative Investments including Real estate and Private equity as part of large institutional portfolios. Som started his career with GE Capital in 2002 as a member of the risk management team for their long-term pensions and insurance portfolios investing in leveraged loans and structured credit. In 2005, he joined Lehman Brothers as part of their structured credit team focusing on credit hedging and CLO tranche strategies. In 2007, he joined NCB Capital as a senior portfolio manager for the structured credit portfolio managing around US$ 1 bn in US CLO tranche investments. He subsequently joined Safanad with the senior Lakemore team and managed the firm’s principal investment portfolio investing in Credit and Equity strategies, Private Equity and Real Estate. Som has a Bachelors in Statistics (Hons) from Indian Statistical Institute.

Chris Saltaformaggio Senior Director NYL INVESTORS

Mr. Saltaformaggio is a Senior Director responsible for CLO tranche investing throughout the capital stack on behalf of Institutional and Separately Managed Accounts. He also has experience investing in Asset Backed Securities as well as Short Term Interest Rate Securities. Mr. Saltaformaggio joined New York Life Investments in 2004 as an Assistant Trader and Portfolio Analyst in the High Yield Credit Group. Prior to joining New York Life Investments, Mr. Saltaformaggio was an Associate at New York Life Insurance Company in the Variable Annuity business. Mr. Saltaformaggio received a B.A. in Economics from Seton Hall University and an M.B.A from Fordham University.

Vitaliy Kozak Chief Product Officer OCTAURA

Vitaliy Kozak is Octaura’s Chief Product Officer, leading product development for the syndicated loan electronic trading platform.   As the platform’s co-creator, he played a central role in the design, development and build-out of what was then known as Project Octopus (now Octaura).  Vitaliy was formerly at Citi as a Managing Director and Global Co-head of CLO, ABS, TRUPS and CDO trading desk.  His work on CLO Citi Velocity was recognized by CreditFlux’s annual CLO Census as the best Secondary CLO Analytics in 2021 and 2022. 

He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Imperial College London and currently resides in New York with his family.

Joseph Squeri Partner, CIO/COO EXOS FINANCIAL

Joseph is a partner, CIO/COO at Exos Financial, and architect of CLO investment technology solutions at top-tier institutions. He is also a senior advisor to two fintechs developing innovative technologies chartered to advance CLO investing. Joe was formerly a Senior Executive In Residence at Google and Global CIO/CTO at Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays Bank. Joe has received numerous industry awards, including a two-time winner of Institutional Investor’s Tech Top 50, Wall Street’s Elite 8, and the Technology Gold Standard Award for Innovation in Finance.

Philip Raciti Head of Performing Credit and Portfolio Manager BARDIN HILL

Philip Raciti is Head of Performing Credit and a Portfolio Manager at Bardin Hill. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Raciti was a Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of CVC Credit Partners’ U.S. Performing Credit business. Mr. Raciti’s responsibilities included managing the U.S. Performing Credit Business across research, trading and technology initiatives. Mr.  Raciti joined Apidos Capital, a predecessor to CVC Credit Partners, as a Credit Analyst and Trader. Prior to CVC, Mr. Raciti was a Credit Analyst and Technology Specialist for INVESCO. Mr. Raciti received a B.A. from Binghamton University.

Tapan Jain Portfolio Manager HILDENE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

Mr. Jain is a Portfolio Manager at Hildene and joined in June 2020. Prior to joining Hildene, Mr. Jain was Head of Global Structured Credit at Hayfin Capital Management, a $16B private credit asset manager with strategies across Direct Lending, Special Situations, Structured Credit, Leveraged Loans & HY and Private Equity.  Before Hayfin, Mr. Jain was Co-Head of Global Structured Corporate Credit & Head of European ABS at Prosiris Capital Management, a long/short credit hedge fund.  Prior to Prosiris, Mr. Jain headed European CLO trading for Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London and made markets in US CLOs, TRUPs and ABS CDOs out of Bank of America’s New York office prior to his time in London.  Mr. Jain started his career in New York at Merrill Lynch on a Principal Finance desk investing across aircraft, Latin America project finance, future flow securitizations, and structured products including CLOs, ABS CDOs, Credit Card ABS, and TRUPs.  Mr. Jain graduated from University of Pennsylvania with a BSc in Computers and Telecommunications Engineering. 

Michael Kurinets Chief Investment Officer & Portfolio Manager CAPRA IBEX ADVISORS

Michael has worked for nearly 30 years in the fixed-income business focusing predominantly on CLO and ABS CDO products. While at Credit Suisse, he was a Managing Director and Head of the CLO/CDO Secondary Trading Desk within the Fixed Income Division. During this time, Michael successfully guided his desk through the 2007-2009 economic crisis, where his focus was on proprietary trading opportunities. Michael has particular strength in trading CLO mezzanine and equity tranches. Michael is currently CIO and Portfolio Manager at Capra Ibex Advisors.

Peter Polanskyj Head of Structured Credit OBRA CAPITAL

Mr. Polanskyj is a Senior Managing Director & Head of Structured Credit for Obra Capital. Prior to joining Obra Capital in 2022, Mr. Polanskyj was Managing Director and Head of U.S. CLO Management at Sculptor Capital Management (formerly known as Och-Ziff). In this role, Mr. Polanskyj oversaw the various aspects of creating, securitizing, and managing CLOs and similarly structured products as an issuer as part of ICS. This business grew from inception in 2012 to approximately $15 billion in assets in 2022. Previously, Mr. Polanskyj held various positions at Morgan Stanley, including roles as a strategist focused on credit, structured credit, equity derivatives, and capital structure arbitrage. He also worked as an independent consultant focused on employee stock option valuation and as a Supervising Actuary for Reliance National Insurance Company. Mr. Polanskyj holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Mathematics from Rutgers University, where he was named a Henry Rutgers scholar, and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School.