Matthew Michelini CEO, Asia-Pacific APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT

Matthew Michelini is Partner, CEO of Asia-Pacific at Apollo and a member of the Firm’s Leadership Team. Matt joined Apollo in 2006 in Private Equity and has played a pivotal role in the creation and success of many of Apollo’s largest growth initiatives, including Athene, Hybrid Value, Apollo Dedicated Insurance Program, Natural Resources, and the development of the Financials Group. Matt serves as Investment Chair for Apollo’s Hybrid Value business and on the board of directors of Athene Holding Ltd. and Venerable Holdings, and previously served on the boards of Aleris Corporation, Metals USA, Noranda Aluminum, One Main Financial, and Warrior Met Coal. Previously, Matt was a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions group at Lazard Frères & Co.

Kathleen Aka Partner WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES

Kathleen Aka leads Weil’s Asia Restructuring practice. Based in Hong Kong, she has over 20 years of experience advising both debtors and creditors in relation to contentious and non-contentious restructuring and insolvency matters in the Asia-Pacific region. Dually qualified in Hong Kong and New South Wales, Australia, Kathleen is skilled in guiding clients through the most challenging and complex processes of financial restructuring, creditor enforcement, formal insolvency, insolvency litigation, distressed M&A, and distressed secondary debt trading.

Kathleen’s diverse experience and comprehensive skillset straddling both contentious and non-contentious work have earned her recognition as one of the top restructuring lawyers in Asia. Kathleen was named a “Growth Driver” in the 2023-2024 A-List Lawyers by China Business Law Journal, an “Asia Future Leader” by IFLR in 2021, and a “Next Generation Partner” by Legal 500 Asia-Pacific from 2020 to 2024, amongst the others. Kathleen has a reputation for her unique capability in advising a wide range of clients across the full gamut of distressed situations, including bondholders, credit and distressed investment funds, banks, insolvency practitioners, shareholders, and distressed corporations. Her industry experience covers banking and financial services, insurance and reinsurance, health, infrastructure, energy, mining and agriculture, shipping and transportation, retail, and property.

Pradeep Mohinani Partner ARES

Mr. Mohinani is a Partner in Ares Asia, where he focuses on credit. Additionally, Mr. Mohinani is a member of the Secured Lending Funds Investment Committee. Prior to joining Ares in 2020, Mr. Mohinani was the Managing Director of the SSG Group since 2015 and was instrumental in growing the firm's Asia business, including identifying opportunities, structuring investments and asset management. Previously, Mr. Mohinani was responsible for Nomura's Asia credit desk analysis, overseeing high grade, high yield, illiquids and distressed across sovereigns, banks and corporates. In addition, Mr. Mohinani was at Lehman Brothers from May 2005, where he also headed the bank's Asia Pacific credit research effort. Mr. Mohinani began his career in research roles at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. At JP Morgan, he followed the Asian distressed credit market and, subsequently became responsible for the bank's Asia high grade credit research. Mr. Mohinani holds a degree from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School in Economics. Mr. Mohinani is a CFA® charterholder.

Yingying Tan Managing Director GOLDMAN SACHS ASSET MANAGEMENT

Yingying is a managing director in Alternatives Capital Formation within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. She leads product strategy, investor relations and capital raising for private credit in Asia. Prior to her current role, Yingying worked in the Investment Banking Group in New York. Yingying joined Goldman Sachs in 2013 as an analyst in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group

in Asia Pacific Ex-Japan. She relocated to New York in 2018 and was named managing director in 2021. Prior to joining the firm, Yingying worked at JP Morgan in Hong Kong. Yingying earned a BS in Economics, Statistics and Mathematics from the University of Michigan in 2010.

Desmond How Chief Investment Officer-Fixed income GAOTENG GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT

Desmond How has over 28 years of investment experience. At GaoTeng, he has won Outstanding Manager (Emerging Markets Fixed Income) by BENCHMARK and Star Manager (Hedge Fund, Hong Kong) of the Year by Insights & Mandate in 2021. His flagship Long/Short Credit Strategy has been awarded as Best in Class (Credit Focus in Alternatives) by BENCHMARK consecutively in 2021 and 2022 Fund of Year Awards. The strategy has also won Best Credit Hedge Fund by Bloomberg Businessweek and Best Performing Fund in 2020 (Emerging Market Long/Short Fixed Income) by Hedge Fund Journal over the course of 2021.

He has also won the Most Astute Investors by the Asset for Asian G3 Bonds 15 times from 2006 through to 2022, 8 of which were ranked No.1. Prior to joining GaoTeng, he was Managing Director, Head of Global Capital Management (GCM) at Nomura International (Hong Kong) Limited, a proprietary investment desk that was ranked No.1 Top Investment House (Hedge Fund) in Asian G3 Bonds by The Asset in 2015 and 2016. Served as Senior Portfolio Manager for Prudential Investment Fixed Income-Emerging Markets Sector team at PGIM, Mr. How won the Best Asia Fixed Income Fund (3-Year Risk Adjusted) from Asian Investor in 2007. He holds a Master of Science (Financial Engineering) degree, a Bachelor of Business Administration (Second Upper Honor) from the National University of Singapore.

Dengzhao Pan Managing Director & Head of Asia Liquid Credit KKR

Dengzhao Pan (Hong Kong) joined KKR in 2022 and is a Managing Director and Head of Asia Liquid Credit. Mr. Pan joins KKR from Taconic Capital Advisors, where he spent ten years and was the portfolio manager in Asia. Prior to Taconic, he worked in Morgan Stanley’s special situations group and on Citigroup’s technology investment banking team. Mr. Pan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics & Business from Lafayette College.

James Hogan CEO ASIA PACIFIC LOAN MARKET ASSOCIATION

James Hogan was appointed as the CEO of the APLMA with effect from January 2024. He is a seasoned international banker and strategic adviser with more than three decades of experience in the financial services sector across 9 different countries. During a 32-year career at HSBC, James held senior executive roles in Hong Kong, London, New York and Sydney – as well as in several other markets, predominantly in Asia. He has held leadership positions across multiple wholesale banking business lines, including client coverage and product roles. James served as Asia Pacific Regional Chief Operating Officer for HSBC’s Commercial Banking business and, before that, was Country Head of Corporate and Commercial Banking at HSBC Australia.

Outside of the APLMA, James is a board director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and a member of Cyberport’s Entrepreneurship Committee Advisory Group. He graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree, and attended London Business School where he completed the Senior Executive Programme.

Tim Tse Head, Special Credit Unit, Greater China HSBC

Tim is the Head of Special Credit Unit, Greater China, with responsibility for the work out and restructuring (incl. debt sales) of stressed, distressed and defaulted exposures held by HSBC as principal.  Coverage includes Global & Commercial Banking, Wealth & Private Banking and Markets, and includes management of borrowers outside this region given HSBC Hong Kong’s role as an offshore loan booking center.

Tim has worked in Finance for over 25 years and with HSBC since 2014.  Prior to HSBC, Tim worked in special situations space on both sellside and buyside.

Tim is an Economics graduate from the University of Cambridge and has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Sophia Xia Managing Director, Co-head of China Restructuring HOULIHAN LOKEY

Ms. Xia joined Houlihan Lokey in 2012 and is currently the Co-head of China Restructuring, responsible for deal sourcing, execution and staff management. She has extensive experience advising clients in Asia on restructuring situations, M&A and capital raising across different industries. Her recent transactions include company-side mandates for China Evergrande, Kaisa, Fantasia, Modern Land, Sunac, Tahoe and Luckin Coffee; and creditor-side mandates for Shimao Group, Yestar Healthcare, Sichuan Languang, GCL Energy, Hilong Group, Huachen Energy, China Shanshui Cement, Winsway Enterprises, Bumi Resources, Paladin Energy and Oro Negro. Before joining HL, Ms. Xia was at J.P. Morgan’s investment banking division where she focused on M&A and capital raising. Ms. Xia started her career as an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York.

 Ms. Xia graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a B.S. in Mathematics and Economics, and a Certificate in Markets and Management Studies. She is a native speaker of Mandarin and Cantonese and fluent in English.

Howard Lam Partner LATHAM & WATKINS

Howard Lam, a partner in Latham & Watkins’ Hong Kong office, advises clients across Asia on restructuring, special situations, private credit, and banking finance transactions.

In his restructuring practice, Howard draws on more than two decades of experience to guide all types of parties to a transaction, including creditors, particularly banks and credit funds, debtors, insolvency practitioners and bondholders.

He regularly helps clients resolve a full range of difficult matters, including restructuring, bankruptcy, as well as distressed and other special situations. As a Mandarin and Cantonese speaker, trained in Hong Kong, UK, and Australian law, he brings a multicultural, multijurisdictional perspective to his matters. Familiar with the internal motivations and sensitivities of parties on all sides of a matter, he can help clients choose the best jurisdictions and legal regimes for implementing restructurings.

Most recently, Howard has led a number of high-profile restructuring and leveraged financing transactions, and is recognized as a leading practitioner in this area by Chambers and The Legal 500.

Tim Tu Managing Director, Head of APAC Corporate Book UBS

Tim Tu is the Head of APAC Corporate Book in the Global Lending Unit at UBS. He was previously the Co-Head of the Asia Pacific Financing Group (AFG) and the Head of AFG, Greater China at Credit Suisse. Mr. Tu held the position as the CEO of Credit Suisse Securities (China) Limited (CSS), the bank’s majority-owned securities joint venture in China, until April 2022. As CEO of the securities joint venture, he was responsible for leading and managing the joint venture's overall strategy and business operations, in alignment with Credit Suisse’s broader Greater China strategy.

Ping Zhou Co-Managing Editor, APAC DEBTWIRE

Ping Zhou leads a China journalists team writing distressed and event-driven corporate credits for Asia high yield fix income investors and restructuring advisories, covering both onshore and offshore Chinese restructuring and liquidation situations for Debtwire APAC since 2013. She started her journalist career with Financial Times in 2011 and won SOPA 2012 award in Hong Kong for breaking news on Wukan Guangdong protests. She has Korean literature background and lived in Pyongyang, Seoul, before moving to Hong Kong.

Ron Thompson Managing Director ALVAREZ & MARSAL

Ron Thompson is a Managing Director of Alvarez & Marsal Asia and leads Asia’s Restructuring Practice. Mr. Thompson is based in Hong Kong.

With close to 30 years of experience in China and Asia, Mr. Thompson brings expertise in finance, credit and restructuring in Asia. Mr. Thompson’s primary expertise lies in financial restructuring and has significant experience acting in the capacity as a creditor, investor and advisor related with in court restructurings and liquidations as well as out of court processes or government influenced restructurings. Mr. Thompson has extensive experience as an investor in sourcing, valuing, acquiring and managing NPL portfolios in addition to having managed the sale process of individual credits as well as non-performing loan portfolios. Mr. Thompson, in the capacity as an investor and as a board member, has participated in multiple operational turnaround situations. Mr. Thompson’s has broad industry expertise including fast moving consumer goods, power generation, metals and mining, construction, manufacturing, telecom and technology and financial institutions.

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Thompson was at Standard Chartered where he headed the workout team in Taiwan, worked in the Mezzanine and Alternative Solutions Team for Principle Finance and most recently was the Chief Credit Officer for China. Prior to Standard Chartered, Mr. Thompson worked in corporate finance at Bear Stearns and Bank of China International and oversaw the China business for Clearwater Capital.

Mr. Thompson graduated Magna Cum Laude from Colby College, studied Chinese literature at Peking University and holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. Mr. Thompson is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Sharad Bajpai Partner ARES

Mr. Bajpai has been in the finance industry for over 30 years with wide ranging investment experience in Debt and Equity Markets across sectors and geographies. His spectrum of responsibilities have included senior roles in origination, execution, syndication, risk management, recoveries and proprietary trading of high grade, leveraged finance and distressed credits through multiple global and regional financial crises.

Mr. Bajpai is currently a Partner and Chief Operating Officer in Ares Asia. Additionally, Mr. Bajpai serves as an investment committee member for various Ares Asia funds primarily focused on credit. Mr. Bajpai also sits in the board of various companies in the region as part of portfolio management activities within Ares Asia.

Before joining Ares Asia in June 2016, Mr. Bajpai was with Bank of America Merrill Lynch for over 15 years, with various roles in Hong Kong and Singapore. At Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Ares Asia, Mr. Bajpai has successfully led complex recoveries and restructurings, many of which involved intense negotiations, judicial proceedings, and arbitrations across multiple jurisdictions. Mr. Bajpai is passionately involved with various charity efforts within Ares as well as independently. He holds a Bachelor (Honors) Degree in Civil Engineering from the National Institute of Technology and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Kurkye Wong Executive Director ARGYLE STREET MANAGEMENT LIMITED

Mr Wong is an Executive Director in Argyle Street Management Limited. Mr Wong is specialize in distress and private credit investment in Asia. He previously worked at KPMG and FTI Consulting in Hong Kong. Mr Wong is a Fellow member of the HKICPA. He holds a Bachelor of Business from the Queensland University of Technology, a Juris Doctor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a Master course in Financial Engineering from Stanford University.

Vimla Luk Executive Director MOELIS

Vimla Luk is an Executive Director at Moelis & Company where she specializes in advising clients on restructurings, and capital market transactions. Vimla has over 15 years of experience and has been involved in some of the largest and complex consensual restructuring transactions in Asia. Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Vimla was a Director of Adamas Private Credit investment team. She also previously worked as an Associate Director at KPMG where she advised on restructuring, disposal of NPLs and special situation transactions in China.

Vimla holds a LLM (Corporate and Finance Law) from University of Hong Kong and a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from University of New South Wales.

Dominic Emmett Principal EMMETT LAW

Emmett Law focuses on early and discrete intervention, transparency amongst stakeholders and achieving a consensual outcome. Formal processes such as creditors schemes of arrangement, receiverships and administrations are seen as processes that “encourage” consensual outcomes or as tools to facilitate them.

Having seen many a cycle come and go, for over 30 years Dominic Emmett (Emmett Law’s founder) has been at the forefront of providing innovative solutions for those with, and for those looking to invest in, restructuring opportunities. Further, as hedge and credit funds have entered, and continue to operate in, the Australian market, Dominic has been able to devise structures that provide certainty of legal outcome along with solutions analogous to those available in other jurisdictions around the globe.

Dominic has worked with, or for, most major institutional lenders, onshore and offshore hedge and credit funds, restructuring advisors and lawyers, and insolvency practitioners. He spent the first decade of his career in the City of London before heading back to Sydney to work with major Australian law firms. The network Dominic can bring to bear in Australia and internationally is second to none, spanning investors and restructuring professionals alike. He is asked regularly to speak at conferences across the globe.

www.emmettlaw.com.au 

Johan Krynauw Managing Director ALLEGRO FUNDS

Johan has 14 years’ experience in private equity, turnaround, distressed and special situation investing in Australia. Johan is a Managing Director at Allegro Funds and is responsible for the management of the various portfolio companies including decisions regarding company strategy, M&A, operational improvement and optimising capital structure.

Johan currently serves on the board of Perth Radiological Clinic (PRC), Discovery Parks and Everest Ice Cream and previously has served on the boards of McColl’s Transport, Great Southern Rail (GSR) and CH2 Holdings Pty Ltd. Johan is a member of the Turnaround Management of Australia (TMA) and served on the NSW TMA Committee for a number of years.

Johan holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Oxford and Bachelor degrees in Applied Finance and Economics from Macquarie University in Sydney. Johan has completed his Graduate Certificate of Applied Finance & Investment through Kaplan Education (formally known as Finsia). Johan also studied strategic management and financial statement analysis at Harvard University in 2010.

Rod Sutton Founding Partner FORTUNE ARK RESTRUCTURING

Rod brings with him an impressive tenure of over 37 years in the field of financial advisory. His extensive and varied experience encompasses numerous pivotal roles including CEO, member of the Executive Committees, Advisor, Director, and Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO).

Throughout the course of his career, Rod has played integral roles as a major restructuring advisory and an IP in formal insolvencies across the Asia Pacific region. His expertise and unwavering commitment to delivering prompt and efficacious results have established him as a highly sought-after advisor in the industry.

Prior to assuming his current position, Rod was one of Asia’ most respected insolvency practitioners, with a track record of delivering returns to creditors on average of 60 cents to the dollar on his assignments. Following market demand for his services, Rod no longer takes formal insolvency appointments but is involved earlier on in taking Board Roles or other Special Advisory roles to avoid a formal appointment and achieve a consensual outcome. Rod is always focused on a greater return than a formal appointment.

Rod’s career is marked by his strategic vision and ability to navigate complex financial landscapes, making significant contributions to the field of financial advisory. He is characterised by a steadfast dedication to excellence and a relentless pursuit of innovative solutions.

Ryan Eagle Partner, Asia Pacific Head of Private Credit KPMG

As Asia Pacific private credit leader, I am focussed on connecting clients to KPMG’s breadth of services to assist with fund structuring, deal sourcing, fund performance and the growth of our clients.

I regularly advise on a range of assignments across private credit including direct lending, distressed and special situations, asset backed lending, restructurings (including debt to equity transactions) and various business turnaround & value creations assignments.

Our deal team are uniquely placed to provide transaction services, debt advisory, tax structuring, turnaround and restructuring services, deal strategy, value creation, M&A, reporting and monitoring, options analysis and compliance services. 

Ashley Bell Legal Analyst - Asia Pacific DEBTWIRE

Prior to joining Debtwire, Ashley was a Partner at DLA Piper in Hong Kong with a practice focused on contentious cross-border restructuring and insolvency matters. Ashley regularly advised financial institutions, investors, debtors and insolvency practitioners in connection with a range of high-profile restructuring matters in Asia involving schemes of arrangement, contested winding-up proceedings, light-touch offshore proceedings, debtor-in-possession matters and cross-border recognition applications.

Mark Fairbairn Founder FAIRBAIRN & CO

Mark is a Restructuring and Insolvency lawyer who has accomplished over three decades of experience leading some of the most pivotal engagements in China and elsewhere in Asia. Mark has been a partner at leading Hong Kong and International law firms and is recognised as one of the leading practitioners in the region. Mark has been a pioneer in the development of law and practice especially in relation to cross-border assignments and the compromise of public securities through schemes of arrangement. He is recognised as a Senior Statesman by Chambers and was previously ranked in Band 1 by both Chambers and The Legal 500.

Since 2022, Mark has been a sole practitioner and has continued to advise on high profile matters. From November 2024, Mark will join the Restructuring & Insolvency team of Linklaters in Hong Kong. Described by some as a “titan” of the profession, his ability to continue to lead prominent transactions is a testament to his reputation and his delivery of high-quality, technically strong legal services.

Over his career, Mark has advised the liquidators of Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong on novel schemes of arrangement to resolve complicated “waterfall” controversies; the managers and provisional liquidators of HIH Insurance; the main creditor of Legend International Resorts; the foreign bank creditors in the restructuring of SK Global in South Korea; the main creditor and officeholders of Jinro in Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan; the provisional liquidators in the restructuring of FuJi Foods in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands, the Noteholders in the Blue Ocean scheme in Singapore; the officeholders in the restructuring of Luckin Coffee in China and the USA; the bank creditors in the restructuring and Chapter 11 of China Fisheries and most recently the creditors and liquidators of China Properties Group; the receivers of Shandong Ruyi (Lycra); certain Noteholders in the restructuring of Logan Property Group; and the holders of Bonds issued by Kaisa Group in China and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Mark’s extensive track record and technical innovation enables him to navigate complex financial restructurings and insolvency proceedings, providing clients with strategic leverage in challenging situations.

Jason Lam joined Arkkan Capital in 2014 and is a Managing Director with over 15 years’ experience in Asian credit. Mr. Lam was previously with ADM Capital.

James Wood Barrister DENIS CHANG'S CHAMBERS

James Wood is an experienced barrister whose legal career in Hong Kong spans almost three decades. His association with Denis Chang’s Chambers goes back to 1993, when he served as a summer pupil in the chambers. Prior to switching to the Bar, James practised as solicitor at Freshfields, Goldman Sachs, O’Melveny & Myers and Lipman Karas (now in association with Mischon de Raya). He completed his pupillage with Russell Coleman SC (now Mr Justice Coleman) to transfer to the Bar. James specializes in restructuring and insolvency cases and related civil cases. In the past 12 months, he has been instructed in some of the largest, highest profile and most complex insolvency and restructuring cases in the market including China Evergrande Group, China Properties Group Limited, Goldin Financial Holdings Limited, Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd, Jiayuan International Group Limited and Logan Group Company Limited. James is a longstanding legal adviser to Government of Indonesia for public international law issues and cross-border asset recovery cases.  James is recommended in both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500.

Meiyen Tan APAC Co-Head, Restructuring NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT

Meiyen Tan is a restructuring and insolvency lawyer based in Singapore, where she leads the practice. She is also a director at Ascendant Legal, a Singapore law firm in Formal Law Alliance with Norton Rose Fulbright. Meiyen has more than 20 years' experience specialising in restructuring and insolvency matters with particular emphasis on complex cross-border matters. She is also a leading fraud and asset tracing lawyer and regularly represents insolvency practitioners and other clients in claims involving fraud, breaches of directors and other fiduciary duties, and asset tracing.

Meiyen is a member of the Board of INSOL International being the first Singapore representative on the board in the 40 year history of INSOL International. She is also the Vice President of the Singapore chapter of the Turnaround Management Association.

Meiyen is ranked by the leading legal directories including Chambers and Partners, Benchmark Litigation, Asia Law Profiles, Who's Who Legal and Global Restructuring Review.”

Luc Mongeon Co-Managing Editor, Asia Pacific DEBTWIRE

Luc has over 20 years of experience as a financial journalist in Asia covering fixed income, credit derivatives and distressed debt markets. He joined Debtwire in 2006 as Managing Editor for the Asia-Pacific region and now is responsible for a team of 14 journalists and five analysts that cover primarily the stressed/distressed debt, high yield and primary debt markets. Luc first started covering distressed debt markets in 1989 as a reporter for IFR in Japan. In 1998 he initiated and developed coverage of the Asian distressed debt markets for IFR Asia.

Lakshmi Iyer Chief Executive Officer – Investment & Strategy KOTAK ALTERNATE ASSET MANAGERS

Lakshmi Iyer is the CEO - Investment & Strategy at Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Limited (Formerly known as Kotak Investment Advisors Limited).  She has been with the Kotak Group for over 22 years.

As part of KAAML, she is responsible for investment advisory, product solutions spanning across fixed income, equities, real estate and alternates. In KMAMC she was CIO Fixed Income & Head – Products. In this role she was responsible for credit research, deal execution, managing fund performance across all debt funds and assisting sales in client interaction. In addition to that, she has been a portfolio specialist, and managed product related initiatives such as product pricing and coordination with the funds management and sales team in that role

Prior to joining Kotak, Lakshmi worked with Credence Analytics Pvt Ltd, as a research analyst where she was tracking corporate bond markets in India and generating research reports. She was also instrumental in conceiving various financial software tools in collaboration with software and technical teams.

Lakshmi holds an MBA degree in finance from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

She has been recognised as one of the Top 25 most influential women in asset management in Asia by Asian Investor. She also features in the Forbes W-Power list 2022 and Forbes India self-made W-Power in 2024. She has been awarded India’s Impactful CEOs 2023 by Times Now. She has been recognized as one of the ‘Most Promising Business Leaders of Asia’ 2024 by ET Edge.

She loves exploring new places for travelling, is a big food lover, and is an ardent movie buff.

Kapil Singhal Managing Partner, Private Credit TRUE NORTH

Kapil joined True North in 2021. He is responsible for establishing a best-in-class Credit platform for investing in private credit for True North. He has 25 years of investing experience in Credit in a variety of roles encompassing origination, structuring, trading, and fund management.

Prior to joining True North, he was the Head of India Credit at KKR. In his recent roles, he also co-headed the Edelweiss Special Opportunities Fund and ran the India trading desk at Goldman Sachs. In the early part of his career, he was also associated with ICICI Bank as VP, Corporate Credit, with GE Capital as the Regional Head and with Deutsche Bank as Director, Credit Trading.

He holds an Electrical Engineering degree from IIT Delhi and an MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.

In his free time, Kapil enjoys singing and playing guitar and is a wildlife enthusiast. 

Vikas Upadhyaya Managing Director CERBERUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

Mr. Upadhyaya is a Managing Director in Cerberus Capital Management’s India advisory office. He has 16 years of experience in a broad range of investing strategies in India, including private credit, special situations, distressed debt and private equity.

Prior to joining Cerberus in 2019, Mr. Upadhyaya was at Apollo Global Management’s India business (AION) for three years, where he pursued investments in high-yield and distressed credit as well as value-oriented buyouts. He previously worked at ADV Partners, an Asian private equity firm, and began his career in 2008 in the Special Situations Group at ICICI Bank.

Mr. Upadhyaya graduated from Delhi University with a Bachelor of Engineering and received an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT Delhi).

Graham Price Counsel WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES

Graham Price is a counsel in Weil’s Banking & Finance practice and based in Hong Kong. Dually qualified in England & Wales and Hong Kong, Graham focuses on both finance and restructuring matters across the Asia-Pacific region. He represents private equity sponsors, private credit funds, major institutional lenders and asset managers on a wide range of finance transactions, including cross-border leveraged financings, restructurings, special situations, direct lending, margin loans, real estate finance and corporate facilities.

Prior to joining Weil, Graham worked at leading international law firms in Hong Kong and London where he also undertook a secondment to Barclays Capital.

Graham’s wide-ranging experience includes representing consortium members and financial sponsors in the financing aspects of the largest landmark take-privates of US-listed Chinese companies in recent years, including 51job.com, 58.com and CAR Inc.. Graham also acted for the ad hoc group of bondholders in relation to the successful restructuring of more than US$7 billion of offshore debt of China Aoyuan Group Limited and its subsidiary, Add Hero, including over $3 billion of offshore bond debt, Noble Group in relation to its restructuring in Hong Kong, Singapore and London, TPG on the multi-jurisdictional restructuring of financial indebtedness and the provision of new money for its investment in Dream Cruises Holding Limited and is currently working on a number of high profile restructuring matters in the Chinese real estate space.

Nitish Agarwal CEO and CIO ORION CAPITAL ASIA

Mr. Nitish Agarwal, CEO & CIO at Orion Capital Asia, has 30 years of experience in private debt markets across Asia. After 18 years of banking experience spanning Mumbai, Hongkong, and Singapore, Mr. Agarwal set up Orion in Singapore in 2013 to focus on performing credit to middle market companies in  Asia Pacific. Orion is currently investing from its third fund. Since inception, Orion has invested more than US$1 billion from its fund vehicles and more than US$1.6 billion including its co-investors.

Mr. Agarwal holds a degree in electronics engineering and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

Yue Lu Managing Director, APAC Private Credit BLACKROCK

Ms. Lu is a Managing Director and Head of Execution and Portfolio Monitoring for APAC Private Credit at BlackRock. Ms. Lu has ~23 years of experience in private credit investing, corporate finance and investment banking.

Andrew Ashman Managing Director, Head of Loan Syndicate – APAC BARCLAYS

Andrew is an active member of the APLMA Singapore Branch, having been Chair/Co-Chair since 2015 and part of the branch management committee since 2013.

Andrew has been a member of the Barclays loan syndications team for over ten years, covering the origination and distribution of investment grade, LBO and structured finance loans in the Asian and European loan markets.

In his current role, Andrew heads the APAC Loan Syndicate team at Barclays, based in Singapore, with a focus on the underwriting and distribution of loans from across Asia and Australia.

Prior to Barclays, Andrew has held positions at Citigroup in London and Frankfurt, AMP in Sydney and Capco in London.

Andrew holds an M.Eng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London and a MBA in Finance from London Business School.