Luis Mayans Partner and Deputy Head, Private Debt CDPQ London

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 Hawkins Head of Private Credit UK & Managing Director Ardian

Stuart has over 14 years of experience in the European leverage buyout market. He began his career working in the leveraged finance team at UBS, and then spent 9 years in the European mezzanine and private debt group at Barings investing in European middle market credit. Prior to joining Ardian he worked at TSSP, TPG's credit platform, as a Director helping develop its European private debt business. He is based in the London office.

Michael Dennis Partner, Co-Head of European Credit Ares Asset Management

Mr. Dennis is a Partner and Co-Head of European Credit, in the Ares Credit Group. Mr. Dennis serves on the Ares Executive Management Committee. Additionally, Mr. Dennis serves as a member of the Ares Credit Group's European Direct Lending and European Liquid Credit Investment Committees, and the Ares SSG Direct Lending (Australia) Investment Committee. Prior to joining Ares in 2007, Mr. Dennis was Head of the London Financial Sponsor Group at Barclays Bank, where he focused on originating middle market financing opportunities. Mr. Dennis holds a B.Sc. from the University of Nottingham and University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and an M.B.A., with high honors, from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Roxana Mirica Partner and Head of Capital Markets APAX PARTNERS

Roxana Mirica is a Partner and head of Capital Markets in Europe. She is responsible for leading acquisition financing and ongoing debt and equity capital markets transactions for Apax’s portfolio companies.  Additionally, Roxana manages day-to-day relationships with banks and institutional debt and equity investors.

Roxana joined Apax Partners in 2017.  Prior to joining Apax Partners, Roxana spent 9 years at Barclays, most recently as Director in Leveraged Finance.

Roxana holds a BA in Economics and Chemistry cum laude from Dartmouth College.

Alexander Griffith Partner Proskauer

Alex Griffith is a partner in the Corporate Department and a member of The Private Credit and Finance Groups.

Alex’s practice focuses on leveraged finance and general debt finance work, advising senior, mezzanine, second lien, unitranche and other private capital providers.

His extensive experience covers a wide range of transactions, including corporate refinancings, management buyouts and buy-ins, recapitalizations, institutional acquisitions, restructurings, public-to-private takeovers (both domestic and international), and other innovative, first-in-kind transactions involving private sources of capital.

In addition, Alex advises financial sponsors, corporates and management teams on the raising of debt finance in the European Markets.

Recognized by Chambers UK, one client comments, “Alex is an excellent lawyer – I very much trust him and can talk through what I’m trying to achieve and he’ll make it work.” He has also been recognized as a notable banking lawyer by IFLR 1000.

Paolo Morrone Director, Private Debt Tikehau Capital

Paolo Morrone joined Tikehau Capital’s Private Debt team in London in 2016. Today, he leads the Group’s direct lending business in the UK and is responsible for originating, executing and monitoring UK based investments. Prior to joining Tikehau Capital, he spent one year in the Leveraged Finance team at Mediobanca, working in London and Milan. Paolo holds a masters degree in Finance from Cass Business School.

Sonia Rocher Head of Research for European Middle Market Private Debt BlackRock

Sonia Rocher is a Managing Director in BlackRock Private Credit Strategies. She joined BlackRock in 2015 as a senior investment professional and is a founding member of BlackRock Middle Market Private Debt in Europe within BlackRock Alternative Investors (BAI). Based in London, Sonia is the Head of the Research team and responsible for leading the underwriting and monitoring of Private Debt investments in Europe. She has also been leading ESG engagement and integration for Private Credit globally.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Sonia was part of RBS' Corporate & Institutional Banking Division where she spent 10 years in roles of increasing responsibility in leveraged finance. Her last role was in their Financial Sponsor Group focusing on sourcing and aligning capital and risk appetite for new leveraged finance transactions. Prior to RBS, she was a Senior Auditor in audit and transaction services at KPMG in Paris. She started her career at Societe Generale in Leveraged Finance Mid Cap and M&A teams in Paris and London.

Johan Hultner Founder and Partner & CEO Arcos Capital

Johan is a founder and Managing Partner of ARCOS Capital, a private debt fund focusing on senior secured lending to the mid-cap corporate market in Northern Europe (DACH, Benelux, UK and the Nordic Region). Johan has over 25 years of experience in leveraged finance and corporate finance. Prior to joining ARCOS, Johan worked first with UBS for 12 years in London in corporate finance where he led teams advising corporates and private equity firms on M&A, equity and debt related transactions. He then joined RBS for 13 years as Managing Director and was responsible for originating, structuring and managing new issue loans in the European Leveraged Finance market. Johan also served as Board member of RBS’ Leveraged Finance Division and as Chairman of the bank’s Leveraged Finance Credit Committee.

Fabrizio Negri CEO Cerved Ratings Agency

Fabrizio Negri has been the Chief Executive Officer of Cerved Rating Agency since December 2019 and has been responsible for Cerved Group ESG business since December 2022.

Fabrizio joined the Cerved Group in October 2014 as Head of Business Development at Cerved Rating Agency. In 2018 and 2019, he oversaw the design, planning and launch of the fintech platform Cerved Money&GO as Cerved Group’s Head of Digital Lending.

Through managerial roles both in Italy and abroad in banking, capital markets and private equity, Fabrizio has more than two decades of experience in financial services. More specifically, from 2005 to 2012 Fabrizio was the Head of Securitisation and Structured Bonds for Southern Europe & North Africa for HSBC and from 2001 to 2005 he was a Securitisation Director for Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank. During his career, Fabrizio has also worked at Unicredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, Whysol Investments and KraftHeinz.

Fabrizio holds a degree in Business Economics from Bocconi University and contributed to the development of the Italian regulatory and legal frameworks of Covered Bond and Project Bonds working with the European Commission, Bank of Italy and the Italian Government.

Diala Minott Partner Paul Hastings

Diala Minott is a private funds lawyer in the credit funds practice in the London office of Paul Hastings.

She advises on a wide range of fund-related work including private equity, private debt, real estate, mezzanine, venture, credit, infrastructure, funds of funds, distressed and special situations, and activist funds, as well as on the structuring of carried interest, co-investment and other incentive schemes, secondary transactions, and fund restructurings . She also specializes in direct lending funds, having set up the first regulated direct lending fund in Luxembourg in 2009 for ICG. She acts for investors for solvency II planning and also lobbies the regulators for improvements in the banking monopoly regimes around Europe on behalf of her clients. She also acts for governments, improving their funds legislations. Mrs. Minott also specializes in credit funds structured finance transactions, including acting on numerous CLOs and CDOs—both pre- and post-crisis—as well as acting on bespoke hybrid mid-market CLO-type funds.

Her clients include the following: Pemberton, Cheyne, Apollo, Blackrock, Monroe, Idinvest, ICG, Aviva Investors, Pantheon, Insight Management, PGIM, Ostrum, and BNP, amongst others.

William Needham Managing Director KKR

William Needham (London) joined KKR in 2014 and is a Managing Director of KKR Credit. He leads KKR's corporate restructuring and governance efforts across the European Private Credit and Special Situations strategies. Mr Needham currently sits on the boards of various portfolio companies including Petainer, Pillarstone and Tekfor. Prior to joining KKR, he was at Weil, Gotshal & Manges where he helped build the European restructuring and distressed investing business. Prior to this, Mr. Needham started his career at Jones Day in the business restructuring and refinancing group. Mr. Needham holds an L.L.B. from the University of Nottingham and a Distinction from Nottingham Law School.

Mark Wilton Managing Director Barings

Mark Wilton is a senior member of Barings’ Global Private Finance Group and a member of the European Private Finance Investment Committee. He is responsible for originating, executing and monitoring European private finance investments with management responsibilities. Mark has worked in the industry since 1996. Prior to joining the firm in 2005, Mark was with the Royal Bank of Scotland ("RBS") where he worked in the Corporate and Structured Finance ("CSF") business. During his time at RBS, Mark was influential in the successful growth of the London CSF team, which more than doubled its income within this period. Mark led a number of high profile transactions, structuring and arranging both senior debt and mezzanine finance in support of private equity sponsored deals. Prior to RBS, Mark was a Corporate Finance Adviser for Catalyst Corporate Finance, an independent boutique, and PricewaterhouseCoopers ("PwC"). Mark qualified as an ACA in 1996 at PwC and holds a B.Sc. (Honors) in Management Sciences from Loughborough University.

Frédéric Nadal CEO and Managing Partner MV Credit

Frédéric Nadal co-founded MV Credit in 2000 and is CEO and Managing Partner. Frédéric built the origination capabilities of the firm and led more than 100 subordinated debt investments over the last 23 years. He is also Chairman of the Manager Board 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.

Tim Watson Partner Allen & Overy

Tim is a restructuring partner based in London and is part of our global restructuring group. 

Tim specialises in advising funds and alternative asset managers on distressed investments and restructurings and has worked on a variety of high profile restructuring transactions.

Natalia Tsitsoura Partner and Head of European Origination Apollo Capital Solutions

Natalia Tsitoura is Partner, Credit 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.

Paulo Eapen Senior Managing Director Blackstone Credit

Mr. Paulo Eapen is a Senior Managing Director with Blackstone Credit, formerly GSO Capital Partners focuses on the origination and management of private credit investments, spanning distressed, rescue capital, refinancing and LBO acquisition financings. These investments span a wide variety of industries and geographies, primarily headquartered in Europe.

Before joining GSO Capital in 2007, Mr. Eapen was with Citigroup Private Equity focused on private equity and mezzanine debt principal investments, and was a founding member of the Citigroup Private Equity London office. Prior to Citigroup Private Equity, he worked in investment banking with Salomon Smith Barney, primarily in the M&A and Utilities practice.

Mr. Eapen has a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and is an Infantry Officer in the Singapore Armed Forces. Mr. Eapen is on the boards (as a director or observer) of EMI Music Publishing, Welcome Break Ltd., Ring International / Helios, and Morson Group plc. Additionally, Mr. Eapen is on the board of directors for the Ubuntu Education Fund, a charitable organization.

Ed Michel Senior Consultant CVC Credit Partners

Senior Consultant for the Private Credit team, focusing on the Benelux region. Prior to working with CVC, Edward was an associate in the leveraged finance team at GE Capital, where he worked on a variety of financings across Europe and the Middle East, including senior and unitranche facilities. Edward holds a commercial engineering degree from KU Leuven and Louvain School of Management.

Patrick Ordynans Managing Director, Co-Head European Direct Lending Goldman Sachs

Patrick is a managing director in the Merchant Banking Division (MBD), responsible for investment activities of the Specialty Lending Group (SLG) in Europe within MBD. He serves on the SLG Investment Committee. Patrick joined the firm in 2019 as a managing director. 

Prior to joining the firm, he was a managing director and one of the founding members of the European Direct Lending and Private Debt strategies at Alcentra.

Earlier in his career, Patrick worked at Beechbrook Capital and Citi Private Equity. He began his career as an investment banking analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston in 2004. 

Patrick earned a BSc in Business Studies from Cass Business School in 2004.

Alonso Torre de Silva Managing Director, Madrid Ares Asset Management

Managing Director

Madrid

Mr. Torre de Silva is a Managing Director in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on European direct lending. Prior to joining Ares in 2019, Mr. Torre de Silva was Head of structured acquisition finance and technology, media and telecommunications for Iberia at ING, where he focused on managing the Madrid Leveraged Finance and Technology, Media and Telecommunications Team. Previously, Mr. Torre de Silva was Founding Partner of Mercurio Credit Partners, Investment Director at European Capital and Leveraged Finance Director at Societe Generale. Mr. Torre de Silva holds a B.A. from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Business Administration and an M.B.A. from IESE Business School.

Leticia Ruenes Managing Director, Head of Spain Pemberton Asset Management

Managing Director, Head of Spain

Leticia Ruenes is Head of Spain, responsible for developing Pemberton’s growing presence in the Spanish market and opening the office in Madrid.

Leticia joined Pemberton in 2020. Before that she spent 17 years at RBS / Natwest Bank where she held several roles including latterly Head of the European Structured Finance Portfolio, overseeing LBOs, infra and project finance assets in Europe. Prior to this she had been Global Head of project finance portfolio and distribution, and Director in the leveraged finance origination team in Spain. Before joining RBS in 2003, she was part of the M&A team at ING.

Leticia has over 20 years’ experience in investment banking, leveraged loans and European corporate and credit markets. She is a CFA Charterholder and graduated from ICADE University in Spain with a double degree in Law and Business Administration. 

Antonio Sánchez-Valles Managing Director- Financial Sponsors Coverage BBVA

Antonio has 18 years of experience in Leveraged and Structured Finance (Securitisation and Asset backed Lending). Before joining BBVA in 2011, Antonio spent 7 years at The Royal Bank of Scotland, working in the Leveraged Finance team and prior to that, 4 years at Société Générale in the Structured Finance team. At RBS, Antonio was Senior Director of the Leveraged Finance team for Spain & Portugal. Within BBVA’s Financial Sponsors group, Antonio is in charge of Private Equity Funds coverage.

Luis Felipe Castellanos Managing Partner Alantra Private Debt

Luis Felipe Castellanos, holds more than 30 years of international experience in structured credit & asset management. Prior to joining Alantra, Luis Felipe was Partner at PwC, in charge of the debt advisory practice in Spain. In the past, he has also been Managing Director at European Capital, a €2.8bn European mezzanine debt fund, Head of Leveraged Finance at BNP Paribas Spain, and a Director of Project Finance at BNP Paribas in New York and Paris offices.

Andrew Benson Executive Director, Senior Loan Pemberton Asset Management

Andrew is a Portfolio Manager on the Senior Loan Strategy, where his responsibilities include the selection, due diligence and structuring of new investments and the management of the strategy. He also looks after third-party sell-downs and co-investments across the Pemberton strategies.

Prior to joining Pemberton in 2016, he was at Goldman Sachs from 2010 to 2016, working in both the Market Solutions Group and Leveraged Finance teams.
Andrew has 15 years’ experience in corporate credit markets, including buy-side experience at KBC AIM, where he started his career.

He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Masters in Engineering and is a CFA Charterholder.

Pierre-Antoine de Selancy Managing Partner 17Capital

Pierre–Antoine founded 17Capital in 2008 and previously held positions at Idinvest Partners, Fondinvest Capital, Coller Capital, Setup Informatique and PAI Partners in Paris, Hong Kong and London. Pierre-Antoine studied at EM Lyon ESLSCA.

Eli Appelbaum Partner, Head of Europe, Alternative Credit Ares Asset Management

Mr. Appelbaum is a Partner and Head of Europe, Alternative Credit in the Ares Credit Group. He also serves as a member of the Ares Credit Group's Pathfinder Core Investment Committee. Prior to joining Ares in 2020, Mr. Appelbaum was a Partner at Hayfin Capital Management, where he focused on asset backed investments for direct lending and special opportunities strategies. Previously, Mr. Appelbaum was a Managing Director at Gordon Brothers, where he led the European investment and finance practice focusing on asset backed debt and structured equity investments, led the firm's expansion into Australia and served on the board of Gordon Brothers Japan. In addition, he was a Vice President for Gordon Brothers Japan, where he focused on distressed assets. Mr. Appelbaum holds a B.A. from Brandeis University in Economics and an M.A. from the International Business School at Brandeis University in International Economics and Finance.

John Stake Co-Head of Fund Investments Hamilton Lane

John is based in the firm’s London office and is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Hamilton Lane’s Fund Investment Team. John is an Investment Committee member and oversees globally the recommendation of all primary fund investments. He also serves as a senior member of the firm’s Portfolio Management Group overseeing the allocation and portfolio construction across all client portfolios.   

Previously John was based in the firm’s headquarters outside of Philadelphia serving in the same role before relocating in 2022.   

Since joining Hamilton Lane in 2009, John has worked across several teams and functions including the Research Team where he helped to develop a number of the firm’s proprietary tools such as the Horizon Model or Public Market Equivalent II (“PME II”). John also spent time as a member of the Allocation Team, overseeing the firm’s allocation process across all investment decisions reporting directly to the Allocation Committee. 

John received a B.S in Mathematics with distinction from Drexel University. 

Alexis Drouillot Head of Senior Debt Mid Cap CIC Private Debt

Alexis Drouillot joined CIC Private Debt in 2013 to create and manage the senior debt funds business. He previously spent 15 years in CIC's specialised financing teams, including 10 years in the acquisition financing front office team as a Senior Manager. Alexis holds a DESS in Corporate and Market Finance and a DESCF degree.