Creditflux CLO Symposium 2024
Our flagship event returns in May 2024
The Landmark, London
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Rizwan Akhter joined Kennedy Lewis in 2021 as part of the Kennedy Lewis controlled strategicpartnership (“Generate Advisors”) with York Capital Management Global Advisors, LLC (“York”).He is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager responsible for the CLOs managed byGenerate Advisors. Prior to joining York in 2014, Mr. Akhter was a Portfolio Manager at DiMaioAhmad Capital where he managed a number of funds and investment portfolios specializing inleveraged loans, high yield bonds and structured credit, and at Credit Suisse in fixed incomeand investment banking primarily as a Structured Trader within the credit derivativesbusiness. Prior to that, Mr. Akhter worked at General Re Financial Products in fixed incomederivatives structuring and at Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. as an investment banker.Mr. Akhter earned a BA in Economics from Columbia College and an MBA from ColumbiaBusiness School.
Jeff Bakalar served for over two decades as group head and chief investment officer of the senior loan and the leveraged credit groups at Voya Investment Management. During his tenure at Voya, Jeff also completed multiple terms as a member of the board of directors of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA), including a term as Co-Chair. Earlier in his career, Jeff worked in various large corporate banking roles, including the structuring and monitoring of highly leveraged credit and asset-backed transactions. Jeff earned a BS in finance from University of Illinois at Chicago, and an MBA from DePaul University.
Steve is a seasoned structured credit banking professional and has been in the business for more than 25 years. He is presently responsible for running J.P. Morgan’s Primary CLO business in Europe. Previously with Apollo Global Management, Steve specialized in investing in CLOs and capital relief/SRT transactions as well as the issuance of Apollo’s managed CLOs. Steve also held positions with the U.K. Financial Services Authority and at Standard Chartered Bank. Prior to London Steve was in New York, where he was responsible for co-managing the CLO Banking Group at Lehman Brothers and was a senior member of the structured credit team at Natixis. Steve holds a BASc with First Class Honours in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, an MBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University in Ontario, and is a CFA charter holder.
Shiloh Bates is a Managing Director at Flat Rock Global. Prior to joining Flat Rock Global in 2018, Mr. Bates was a Managing Director at Benefit Street Partners, where he worked on corporate acquisitions. Prior to joining Benefit Street Partners in 2016, Mr. Bates was the Head of Structured Products at BDCA Adviser, where he was responsible for investments in collateralized loan obligations (“CLOs”) and publicly traded business development companies (“BDCs”) as well as structuring the firm’s credit facilities. He has worked at several CLO managers including Canaras Capital Management, Four Corners Capital Management and ING Capital Advisors. Mr. Bates began his career as an investment banker at First Union Securities.
Mr. Bates has invested over $1 billion in CLO securities and has been a frequent panelist at CLO industry conferences.
Mr. Bates received a Master of Statistics from Columbia University, a Master of Financial Mathematics from the University of Chicago, a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Science from Virginia Tech. He also served in the U.S. Army Reserves Special Operations Command as a specialist for six years.
Andrew Chung is a Partner and Senior Portfolio Manager at AS Birch Grove. He manages various investment vehicles and leads the Performing and Opportunistic Credit Strategies across the firm.
Previously, Andrew was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Covenant Credit Partners, where he helped build a $1 billion CLO platform. His activities included the development and execution of the investment process as a member of the Investment Committee, as well as conducting deep fundamental analysis across industry verticals. Prior to Covenant Credit Partners, Andrew was a Vice President at Oak Hill Advisors and a Senior Analyst at Stone Tower Capital.
He received a BBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
John is part of the Sales Engineering team in EMEA focused on the S&P Global Market Intelligence credit software offering. As a product specialist, John provides deep subject matter and product expertise, and works closely with clients, offering strategic business and infrastructure advice.
Prior to joining S&P Global in 2021, John held various operations roles at Ironshield and Hayfin following his time at Deutsche Bank in the Corporate Trust team.
John holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Financial Accounting from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Justin Driscoll is Partner and Chairman of Aquarian Credit Partners ("ACP"), a syndicated high-yield credit investment manager which was formed in 2021 when Aquarian Holdings and Gallatin Loan Management ("GLM") created ACP. From 2017 to 2021, Mr. Driscoll served as Chief Executive Officer of GLM, which he co-founded in 2017 and which Creditflux named Boutique CLO Manager of the Year in 2020, in 2022 ACP also received this award. In 2009, he founded UrsaMine Credit Advisors LLC as a spin-out of the Bear Stearns Asset Management bank loan business and served as CEO. In 2012, when UrsaMine rebranded as MP Senior Credit Partners, LP, Mr. Driscoll then served as CEO and Portfolio Manager of the leveraged loan business. From 2000 to 2009, Mr. Driscoll was a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns Asset Management and founder of the senior loan team, serving as Portfolio Manager. Prior to that, he worked in high-yield credit at Trust Company of the West following its acquisition of Crescent Capital Group and in acquisition finance at Chemical Bank following its acquisition of Manufacturers Hanover Trust.
Mr. Driscoll earned his BA in Economics from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA in Accounting and Finance from the Columbia Business School.
Mr. George joined Golub Capital in 2008 and is a Managing Director and the Head of Structured Products. He is responsible for structuring and executing collateralized loan obligations, lines of credit and other structured debt financings for the Firm. He also helps oversee Golub Capital’s investment portfolio of third party securitization liabilities. Prior to joining Golub Capital, Mr. George worked at LaSalle Bank, where he specialized in real estate-focused collateralized debt obligations. Mr. George earned his BS degree in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Gozlan is the Portfolio Manager of Crystal Fund since 2006. He is responsible for monitoring positions, identifying new opportunities, presenting trade ideas to the investment committee and trading. Mr. Gozlan is a member of Crystal Fund Investment Committee.
Prior to joining Crystal, Mr. Gozlan spent 3 years at JPMorgan as a CDO structurer, responsible for various aspects from origination to execution of new CDO transactions, as well as restructuring seasoned transactions. Prior to joining JPMorgan, Mr. Gozlan worked for a year in the R&D team at Calyon where he designed and developed pricing and risk management tools for the Fixed Income trading floor. Mr. Gozlan was particularly involved in incorporating a stochastic volatility model into the pricing library.
Mr. Gozlan holds a Master of Engineering degree (Honors) in Financial Mathematics from the National Engineering School of Applied Mathematics of Grenoble (“ENSIMAG”), France, and a post graduate degree (High Honors) in Finance, from the Doctoral School of Management, University of Grenoble. He achieved his Master thesis in conjunction with Société Générale, where he spent 6 months working on CDO quantitative analysis.
Mr. Gozlan is a guest lecturer in Finance (Fixed Income and Derivatives) at the Royal Holloway University in London since 2014.
In 2012 and again in 2019, Mr. Gozlan received the CreditFlux award of Best ABS/CDO Hedge Fund Manager.
Mr. Gozlan is also involved in various charitable projects (as manager or trustee), which finance schools, educational programs and fight poverty.
Gabriele Gramazio is a Senior Director at Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited (KBRA), based in our London office, where he focuses on European structured finance transactions.
Prior to joining KBRA, Gabriele was a primary and surveillance analyst for 12 years in the European Structured Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service, with a particular focus on Italy and the UK. While at Moody’s, he acted as lead analyst for a wide range of securitizations including CLOs, ABS SME, RMBS, ABS, and NPLs.
Gabriele holds an MSc in banking and international finance from the Business School (formerly Cass) in London and an MSc in economics and business management from LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome.
Tracey Jackson is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager on First Eagle Alternative Credit’s Tradable Credit team, focusing on CLOs, Funds/SMAs, and CLO debt and equity investing. Tracey became part of First Eagle in 2020 upon the firm’s acquisition of THL Credit, which she had joined in 2012 via acquisition. Previously, Tracey was a quantitative analyst for McDonnell Investment Management from 2006-2012, where she focused on risk management, market and portfolio research, and performance analysis for new business initiatives, roles in which she continues to be involved. Tracey earned a BA in mathematics and secondary education from Washington University in St. Louis.
Philippe Jodin is a Partner with Alegra Capital, which he co-founded in 2003. Philippe’s responsibilities include Investment Decisions, Portfolio Management and Risk Management. Alegra Capital is a European asset manager solely dedicated to the management of Asset Backed Securities, mostly CLOs. Alegra's investment strategy is focused on Mezzanine and Subordinated Notes of CLOs.
Ms. Jones joined Oaktree’s London office in 2003 and serves as portfolio manager for the European High Yield Bond and European Senior Loan strategies, and co-portfolio manager for the Global High Yield Bond strategy. Before joining Oaktree, Ms. Jones spent more than three years at Deutsche Bank AG in London as a senior associate in the Leveraged Debt Origination Group specializing in loan, mezzanine and high yield bond financings to support European leveraged buyouts. Prior thereto, she spent two years in the Acquisition Finance Group at Natwest Group plc. Ms. Jones received a B.A. degree in economics from the University of Durham, England. She is a CFA charterholder.
Matthew has 20 years’ experience of buy-side credit experience in CLOs and leveraged finance. Matthew joined Pearl Diver in 2009, he heads Pearl Diver’s EMEA business, is a voting member of the investment committee and is co-head of the credit division. Prior to joining Pearl Diver, Matthew was a Credit Analyst with Alcentra where he covered Publishing, Media, Leisure and Gaming, Restaurants and Environmental Services. His experience covers analysing and investing in CLOs, investment origination, fundamental company level credit analysis and corporate restructurings. Matthew holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Wales, Swansea.
Andrew joined Federated Hermes in April 2018. He has 20 years’ experience working in financial services, of which 15 years has been in managing structured finance as a portfolio manager. In his role, he is responsible for structured credit investments across multi-asset credit portfolios. Since joining, he has built an investment process for structured credit that integrates an ESG focus in every investment decision and has worked with external parties on furthering ESG in the asset class. Prior to joining, Andrew was the lead portfolio manager for European ABS at BlackRock managing investment-grade and sub investment-grade assets across portfolios, including multi-asset fixed income products, for a wide range of institutional clients, including global insurance companies and pension funds. Prior to BlackRock, Andrew was the lead portfolio manager for ABS at ECM (European Credit Management, now part of Wells Fargo Asset Management) where he managed a team of specialists managing dedicated structured credit funds and allocations within wider multi-asset credit funds. Andrew started his career in financial services at Goldman Sachs in London where he worked alongside the European and emerging markets equities trading desks. He holds an MA in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge University.
Adrian has 23 years of industry experience. Prior to founding Elmwood Adrian served as the co-head of BlackRock’s US managed CLO business and lead portfolio manager for BlackRock’s US leveraged loan platform. While acting in this capacity Mr. Marshall oversaw a team managing over $18 bn in assets held across CLO, retail and separate account investment vehicles. Adrian transitioned into the lead portfolio management role for BlackRock’s US CLOs in 2009. Adrian spent his entire career at BlackRock prior to joining Elmwood.
Sushila Nayak is co-head of the firm’s Structured Finance Group, based in London. Dual-qualified in New York and England, Sushila represents arrangers, borrowers, collateral managers, and investors in a broad range of securitisation, structured finance, and corporate finance transactions. Her experience includes CLOs, whole business securitisations, financings backed by a variety of asset classes (including aircraft, trade receivables and esoteric assets), as well as corporate bonds, syndicated loans, and private debt transactions.
Mr. Nechamkin is a member of Octagon’s Investment Committee and the Firm's Chief Investment Officer. He serves as a Portfolio Manager across CLOs, Separately Managed Accounts and Commingled Funds. Prior to joining Octagon as Portfolio Manager in 1999, Mr. Nechamkin was a Vice President in the High Yield Research Group at Bankers Trust. Prior to that, he served as a Convertible Securities Analyst at Mabon Securities and a Financial Consultant at Merrill Lynch. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Baltimore.
Matthias Neugebauer currently manages the Structured Credit Team within Fitch Ratings’ European Structured Finance group. Prior to this, he worked with the European quantitative research team focusing on model and criteria development.
Matthias joined Fitch Ratings in November 2000 as a member of the residential mortgage-backed securities team (RMBS). In that role he was responsible for rating German, Dutch, and UK RMBS transactions and was involved in criteria development especially for cash flow modeling and structural analysis.
Matthias holds a masters degree in finance and economics from Durham University and an engineering degree from Cottbus University. He recently completed a MS in mathematical finance at Oxford University.
Chris is Head of Private Equity, Loan & CLO Business Development for EMEA at S&P Global Ratings, looking after ratings throughout the region, for corporate and leverage loans plus CLOs. He is also responsible for the coverage of Private Equity houses.
Prior to S&P Global Ratings he spend over 20 years in the syndicated loan market, working across many of its’ different asset classes. His career started in NatWest on the project group that subsequently transformed into Europe’s first dedicated secondary loan sales team. His next role was on the primary sales desk, distributing corporate, structured and financial institution loans to European investors. After primary sales, Chris was posted to Hong Kong, where he was responsible for the pricing, structuring and origination of syndicated debt in South and South East Asia. The main focus of this role was to bring debut issuers from Thailand and India to the international loan market.
On his return to Europe he became the Head of European Loan Trading for NatWest, taking the team through the integration with The Royal Bank of Scotland, transforming the desk from a back-to-back operation into a full trading book, working mainly in the leverage and corporate markets. At the same time he joined the Board of the LMA, a post he was to hold for ten years. During his time on the Board he co-chaired the Valuation & Trading Practices Committee and chaired a number of working parties, as well as writing the first set of Transferability Guidelines for the LMA. He also held the post of Vice-Chairman of the LMA for two years.
After RBS, Chris moved to Bank of Scotland, where he created and headed the Loan Sales and Trading Team.
Claire Puddicombe is a partner in Cadwalader’s Capital Markets Group, resident in the firm’s London office. Her practice is concentrated on securitisation, with particular focus on CLOs. Claire represents banks, arrangers, collateral managers and warehouse finance providers in connection with a variety of European CLO 2.0 transactions and loan warehouse facilities, including advising MUFG Securities (as placement agent) in respect of the NIBC-managed €400 million North Westerly VI European cash flow CLO transaction, the first CLO to consider ESG (environmental, social and governance) factors across all its investments.
Claire is recognised in Chambers UK (Capital Markets: CLOs) and Legal 500 UK (Finance: Securitisation and Finance: Derivatives and Structured Products). Chambers describes Claire as "very timely, calm, patient and thoughtful in the way she goes about things." Clients described Claire as "very detail-oriented and diligent, which ensures that transactions run smoothly and nothing is missed." The Legal 500 UK refers to Claire as a “pre-eminent expert in the field” as well as having “a deep knowledge of complex regulation.”
Claire holds a Bachelor of Laws with Honours in Law (European) from Exeter University and a Maîtrise en Droit (Droit Communautaire) from the Université de Rennes 1. Claire is admitted to practice in England and Wales.
Dushy Puvan joined BNP Paribas in May 2014 to build the EMEA CLO business and is a CLO specialist with over 19 years experience of structured finance across asset classes. He has a focus on SME, corporate loan and leveraged loan assets, arranging cash and synthetic structures for banks and FIs. He was part of the first wave of CLO 2.0s in Europe. Dushy worked previously for Lloyds Bank (formerly Lloyds TSB) executing a range of balance sheet management solutions transactions for both regulatory capital relief and funding.
Dushy holds a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Cambridge.
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.
Mikkel joined Capital Four from Saxo Bank in 2013. While at Saxo Bank Mikkel was initially responsible for the bank’s corporate finance and debt advisory business and subsequently for its loan origination.
Prior to Saxo Bank Mikkel spent 8 years with Citibank, primarily based in London, where he as a Director and Senior Credit Officer held responsibility for a portfolio of the bank’s leveraged loan and stressed/distressed private debt in EMEA.
Mikkel holds a MS in Finance & Economics from Warwick Business School & University of Warwick and a MS in Economics from University of Copenhagen.
Aaron Scott advises on structured finance and securitization matters, with a particular focus on collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Based in Dechert’s London office, Mr. Scott represents leading arrangers and managers on European CLO transactions. In addition, he advises on the EU regulatory aspects of U.S. CLOs, including risk retention and transparency requirements.
Mr. Scott trained and worked as a lawyer in New Zealand before moving to London where, prior to joining Dechert, he worked in the structured finance practice of another international law firm.
Seif is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Lakemore, a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and Chair of the Investment Committee. He is responsible for building and setting the firm’s CLO equity investment strategy, as well as overseeing all investment processes. Seif has over 40 years of investment management experience and has managed more than US$30 billion across conventional and alternative asset classes throughout his career. Prior to co-founding Lakemore, Seif was Chief Investment Officer at a global principal investment firm focused on Private Equity, Real Estate, and Liquid Strategies. He spent 17 years with NCB as Head of Asset Management, overseeing more than US$26 billion in conventional and alternative asset classes. He previously served as Head of Risk for the Middle East region at CSFB, where he was a member of the emerging markets team, and in the investor services group at Citibank in London. Seif holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a minor in Psychology from the American University in Cairo.
Adeel Shafiqullah is an Executive Managing Director and Head of European CLO Management for Sculptor Capital. In this role, Mr. Shafiqullah oversees Sculptor Capital’s European performing credit investments, with a focus on leveraged loans and high yield bonds.
Prior to joining Sculptor Capital in 2015, Mr. Shafiqullah spent 13 years at Pinebridge Investments, most recently as Managing Director and Head of European Leveraged Finance
Prior to that, he was an Investment Banking Analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette/Credit Suisse First Boston and at Chanin Capital Partners.
Mr. Shafiqullah holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business.
Himani is head of structured credit and responsible for structured product strategies.
Prior to joining the firm in 2004, Himani was in the Corporate Market Risk Management Group at Washington Mutual Bank and an assistant manager at ICICI Bank in India.
Himani graduated with a B.S. in Engineering and an M.B.A. in Finance from Gujarat University, India, and a Masters in Financial Engineering (MFE) from the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley.
Edwin Wilches, CFA, is a Managing Director and Co-Head of PGIM Fixed Income’s Securitized Products team. Mr. Wilches is also a portfolio manager for dedicated CLO Tranche portfolios as well other dedicated securitized products funds. Mr. Wilches oversees securitized product security selection across the firm’s multi-sector, investment grade, high yield, LDI, money market and general account strategies. He plays an active leadership role in PGIM’s Racial Equity Initiative via participation in multiple workstreams, and is a member of the Latinx Executive Leadership Team for both PGIM and PGIM Fixed Income.
Mr. Wilches is an active member in multiple trade associations across the US and European markets seeking to represent our client’s best interests and to help promote a functioning market structure. Prior to assuming his current responsibilities, Mr. Wilches was responsible for managing and trading the Firm's investments in CLO tranches, supporting the Dryden CLO platform's business development and investor relations efforts, and analyzing off-the-run alternative fixed income opportunities. Earlier, Mr. Wilches was a member of PGIM Fixed Income’s CDO analyst team, Business and Product Development Team and Fixed Income Operations team. Mr. Wilches joined the Firm in 2003. He received a BA in Economics from Rutgers University and an MBA from New York University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation