Debtwire Private Credit Forum Europe
The must-attend event for Europe's Private Credit community!
The Dorchester, London
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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.
Amit Bahri serves as the co-head of the European Direct Lending platform for Goldman Sachs’ Asset and Wealth Management. The Direct Lending business is the flagship senior loan and mezzanine investing platform within the Private Credit business of Goldman Sachs. Amit joined Goldman Sachs in 2006 within the Investment Banking Division and joined the Private Credit investing business in 2008.
Founder of Ver Capital. Before establishing Ver Capital, Andrea earned 15 years of experience in fixed income and capital markets at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Hill Samuel and Finprogetti. Andrea holds an MBA from SDA Bocconi University in Milan and graduated, magna cum laude, in Economics from La Sapienza University in Rome.
Andrew is a Partner within Bridgepoint Credit and joined the Firm in 2020 from EQT Credit which was acquired by Bridgepoint in 2020.
Prior to joining EQT in 2014, he worked for DC Advisory in their European Restructuring and Debt Advisory Group, during which he spent three years based in Frankfurt office, where he advised a large number of stakeholders on special situations (balance sheet restructurings) and healthy refinancing transactions across numerous jurisdictions. Prior to this Andrew, worked for Houlihan Lokey in their Financial Restructuring Group in London.
Andrew has a BA with honours in Economics and Politics from Newcastle University.
Augustin co-founded 17Capital in 2008. 17Capital is a leading global private equity specialist based in London and New York. The firm pioneered a dedicated strategy offering bespoke financing for private equity investors and has raised €2.0bn across 4 funds to-date.
Before founding 17Capital, Augustin was a Director at Deloitte Finance in Paris, where he advised investors and management on stressed and distressed investments. Augustin’s previous experience includes A.T.Kearney in Paris and Paribas in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Augustin Duhamel holds a Master’s Degree in Management from E.S.C.P Europe Business School and Undergraduate Degree in Economics from Paris IX Dauphine University.
Aurélie heads the EMEA Client Portfolio Management Team, helping MetLife Investment Management’s (MIM’s) clients invest in infrastructure and corporate private debt strategies. She is also ESG Team Lead for the Corporate and Infrastructure Private Placements teams and a member of the MIM ESG Integration Council. Aurélie joined MIM in 2015, to originate and execute corporate private placement transactions in the UK, Ireland and continental Europe.
Prior to MIM, Aurélie spent five years as a Director at rating agency S&P, where she was a Lead Analyst and chaired credit committees, and prior to that she was a VP in the Investment Banking division of Macquarie Capital, where she originated and executed investments in the infrastructure and transport sectors. Earlier in her career Aurélie worked in the Structured Finance business of GE Capital and at economic consultancy Oxera.
Aurélie obtained Masters in Regulation from the London School of Economics (UK) and in Industrial Organisation from Université Paris Dauphine (France). She completed a law undergraduate degree at the Université of Lyon (France).
Barbara Ellero is a Partner and Head of Private Debt at Anthilia Capital Partners. She is also a board member of Anthilia Holding s.rl.l.
Barbara has extensive experience in advisory and private capital. She built deep relationships with a broad base of private equity sponsors, banks, advisors and management teams. In Anthilia since 2013, she pioneered the private debt market in Italy and placed over €1.3 billion in volume and 90+ deals, with direct lending portfolios healthy balanced between sponsored and non-sponsored deals.
Prior to joining Anthilia, Barbara spent nearly 18 years in corporate finance in leading investment banks, where she was responsible for the structuring and execution of a wide range of structured finance and M&A transactions.
Barbara graduated summa cum laude from Bocconi University, Milan.
She is a regular participant in industry panels and contributor to various financial and other news outlets.
I joined Investec in 2010 and lead the Direct Lending franchise at Investec and is a member of the Bank’s Executive Committee. I have direct responsibilities for the Direct Lending business with responsibilities for sponsor coverage, origination and structuring of private debt solutions for mid-market European corporates and PE clients. The team have a flexible lending mandate that spans underwriting, unitranche and club/bilateral financing solutions and is a market leader across their target markets.
I have over 20 years of investment banking, strategy consulting and leveraged finance experience in Europe. Prior to joining Investec, I was a Director and in the Leveraged Finance team at the Royal Bank of Scotland. I hold a Chemical Engineering degree (Hons) from the University of Auckland (NZ), a Bachelor of Business from Massey University (NZ) and an MBA from Cambridge University (UK).
As Head of EMEA Leveraged Finance, Dan is responsible for overseeing SMBC’s leveraged finance and private credit strategies across Europe.
Prior to joining SMBC in 2015, Dan was a Managing Director in GE Capital’s European leveraged finance business and has 25 years of experience lending to private equity owned companies.
Dan graduated from the University of Bristol with a BSc in Economics.
David rejoined Debtwire earlier this year as a journalist on the European restructuring beat. Previously, David focused on special situations in Emerging Markets, having been a reporter and editor with Debtwire from 2014, before launching REDD Intelligence's coverage of the CEEMEA region as managing editor in 2020. He has an undergraduate degree in Medieval History from the University of St Andrews and a masters degree in Multimedia Journalism from Glasgow Caledonian.
David Witkin is a Managing Director of Principal Debt and Credit Investments at PSP Investments. PSP Credit Investments currently has $14.5 Billion in assets under management, a global presence in London, New York, and Montréal, and investments in more than 100 transactions since its inception in 2015.
Mr. Witkin began his career working as a corporate lawyer at SJ Berwin, an international law firm headquartered in London. He then spent a decade at Goldman Sachs, becoming Executive Director, before joining the team at PSP.
Mr. Witkin graduated from the University of Birmingham with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and received his MBA from Columbia Business School.
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.
Doug is a Director within Bridgepoint’s Capital Markets team and joined the Firm in 2017.
Prior to Bridgepoint, Doug worked in the Acquisition & Leveraged Finance team at J.P. Morgan.
Doug has a degree in Economics from the University of St Andrews.
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.
Giovanni Patricelli has more than 15 years of experience in high-risk situations through senior appointments in corporate and investment banking in Asia and Europe.
Mr. Patricelli has been involved in a vast range of mid- and large-cap transactions encompassing developed and emerging markets, distressed debt and high-yield finance, including ESG constructs.
Mr. Patricelli’s track record includes prominent financial restructurings across a broad range of industries like shipping, aviation/aerospace, food and beverage, transportation and infrastructure, entertainment and real estate. He has experience with in-court and off-court negotiations, business plan and capital structure reviews, debt/equity conversions, debt haircuts, cash sweep modelling, distressed financing and exit strategies via secondary market sales and M&A.
Mr. Patricelli has additional experience in leveraged finance. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, he was a director at the investment banking department at UniCredit, where he was in charge of origination and execution of high-yield bonds and private debt solutions for private equity, credit funds and corporates. Some of Mr. Patricelli’s most notable high yield bond engagements include International Design Group (luxury/design) €720 million, Engineering SpA (IT/digital) €605 million, Gamenet Group (Entertainment) €640 million and Doc Generici (Pharmaceuticals) €470 million.
Mr. Patricelli’s expertise also includes sustainable finance and he led the first-ever ESG rating-linked high yield bond in the Italian market.
Joe has over 11 years of experience in the European leveraged finance market. He began his career at RBS before joining the GE Capital team in 2012, focussing on the execution of mid-market leveraged finance transactions. Joe was part of the acquisition of the GE Capital platform by SMBC in 2015, and worked for a further 6 years within SMBC as a Director responsible for originating and executing a wide range of leveraged finance transactions in Western Europe. He is based in the London office.
Prior to joining Muzinich, Kirsten worked for six years as a Managing Director in the principal debt investing team at Macquarie, responsible for sourcing and executing transactions ranging from leveraged senior, unitranche and mezzanine debt to equity in the U.K., Germany and Benelux. Previously, she worked for Silver Point Capital, a U.S. based credit/distressed fund, in the private debt team in Europe. Kirsten started her career at Morgan Stanley in 1999, working in the generalist M&A and Leveraged Finance teams in Germany and London. Kirsten graduated from ESB Reutlingen and Middlesex University London with a B.A. Honors in European Business Administration.
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).
Madalena Godinho Ramos is a Managing Director in Blackstone Credit and Insurance (BXCI) based in London. She is focused on the origination, analysis and management of investments across the capital structure, with a focus on the European technology sector and the UK region.
Prior to joining Blackstone in 2015, Ms. Godinho Ramos worked in the Investment Banking division for Morgan Stanley and for McKinsey & Company.
Ms. Godinho Ramos received a BSc in Economics from NOVA School of Business and Economics, Portugal, and a MSc in Finance from Imperial College, UK.
Prior to joining Ture Invest in 2015, Martin worked as Director at Nordea Leverage Finance in Stockholm and before that in various roles at SEB in Oslo for five years. Prior to SEB, Martin co-founded the M&A and debt advisor Astrup & Partners in Oslo which subsequently was acquired by SEB. Before moving to Norway, Martin worked at the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and Goldman Sachs in London where he started his career in 2004.
Martin holds a M.Sc. in Industrial Economics from The Faculty of Engineering, Lund University.
He speaks Swedish, Norwegian, English and German.
As Head of Coller Credit Secondaries, Michael is responsible for the growth and development of Coller Credit Secondaries, beyond his day-to-day origination activity. He is based in the firm’s London office.
Prior to joining Coller Capital in 2005, Michael worked in the investment banking divisions of Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston in London.
Michael has a BA (Hons) in International Business Studies from the European Business School, London and an MSc in Finance from the London Business School.
Miguel joins Oquendo in 2019 contributing with over 15 years of experience in corporate lending, acquisition finance and transaction services.
Prior to joining Oquendo, Miguel has been working for c. 10 years in Senior roles within the Structured Finance team of Caixabank where he led coverage for companies in regions of Central (including Madrid) and Northern Spain. He has been directly involved in the origination and execution of more than 200 deals in the Spanish Middle Market. Prior to this, Miguel worked from 2005 to 2008 in the Corporate Finance department of CEMEX being involved in the financing of the Group.
Mr. Dennis is a Partner in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on the group’s European activities. Additionally, Mr. Dennis serves as a member of the Management Committee of Ares, the Ares Credit Group’s European Direct Lending Investment Committee and other select Ares Credit Group investment committees. 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.
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.
Nicolas Nedelec is a Partner. He sources, analyzes and executes investments in Private Debt.
Prior to joining the Group in 2007, Nicolas worked at Natixis in the Structured Finance team.
Nicolas graduated from ESSEC (Paris / Singapore).
Oliver Gill (London) joined KKR in 2020 and is a Director in Credit focusing on restructuring across KKR’s Credit strategies in Europe. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Gill was part of the restructuring team at Rothschild & Co., where he provided corporate finance advice to shareholders, creditors and boards of distressed companies. Previously, he worked in the global restructuring group at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Mr. Gill holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from Durham University.
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.
Pavol is a Portfolio Manager in the NAV Financing team where his responsibilities include selection, structuring and risk management of investments for NAV Financing strategies.
Pavol joined Pemberton in November 2022. He has over 23 years of experience in finance and banking, establishing and managing diverse businesses across secured financing, structured credit & financial derivatives structuring and asset & liability management.
Prior to joining Pemberton, Pavol was a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan, where he established their EMEA structured financing business and was a Global Co-Head of the Financing Solutions team with a direct responsibility for all structured lending business outside of the US & Canada. The lending portfolio included fund, bank and corporate borrowers with collateral spanning corporate & private credit, macro, local currency, commodity, equity and private equity markets. Pavol spent 19 years at J.P. Morgan in various other leadership roles during that time, including Head of EMEA Structuring & Financing Solutions.
Pavol holds a Masters Degree in Finance from London Business School and MA in International Business from University of Economics, Bratislava.
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.
Tom's clients include funds, investment banks and corporates involved in domestic and multi-jurisdictional restructurings. Tom has 19 years of experience in stressed and distressed situations. These include liabilities management exercises, refinancings, extensions, capital raises and injections and general stakeholder management. The majority have been implemented with successful negotiation of a consensual solvent solution, although he has regularly used Restructuring Plans, pre-packaged administration, CVA and/or a Schemes of Arrangement, to deliver his clients' preferred solution.
Vjerana Burleigh is a Managing Director on the Secondary and Portfolio Finance team focusing on the Portfolio Finance strategy. Vjerana rejoined AlpInvest in 2019 from 17Capital, a London-based credit manager, where she was an Investment Director.
She first joined the AlpInvest team in 2012 as an Investment Analyst pursuing equity and credit secondary investments in Europe and globally. Vjerana received a BSc in Economics summa cum laude from the University of Zagreb, an MSc in International Finance from the Amsterdam Business School and an executive diploma from the Said Business School.