Speakers

Victoria Chant is a Senior Managing Director in Blackstone Credit & Insurance (BXCI). Ms. Chant is involved in the financing efforts within the Capital Formation team which creates structured solutions for Blackstone Credit.  

Before joining Blackstone in 2022, Ms. Chant was a Managing Director at Citi in the Financing & Securitization group, responsible for the Credit Financing business. Ms. Chant spent 17 years at Citi, having started on the TRS desk.

Ms. Chant graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.Math in Pure Mathematics / Finance and is a CFA Charterholder.

Alex is Americas co-head of Private Credit within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and also co-chief executive officer and co-president of Goldman Sachs BDC, Inc. He is a member of the Asset Management Private Credit Investment Committee and BDC Investment Committee. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs Asset Management, he worked in the Financial and Strategic Investors Group (FSIG), Leveraged Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance and Debt Capital Markets Groups within the Investment Banking Division in New York and Hong Kong. Alex joined Goldman Sachs in 1994, was named managing director in 2006 and partner in 2012. Alex earned a BS from MIT.

Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing, and other financial products and services to institutions, financial intermediaries, and individuals.

In this role, Mr. Gaito co-manages the Fidelity Private Credit Fund (the Fund), and leads Fidelity's direct lending business, which is focused on making credit investments to middle market companies predominately owned by private equity firms.

Prior to joining Fidelity, Mr. Gaito held several senior roles during a distinguished career at PNC Corporate and Institutional Banking. He was most recently an executive vice president and division executive for PNC's middle market senior secured lending platform, with responsibility for managing the daily operations of a division that included the Boston, Chicago, New York, and Toronto hubs. In this capacity, he was responsible for all aspects of the division's credit management and new business origination. David has an extensive track record in leading divisions, acquiring talent, and mentoring employees to grow assets under management. He brings over 20 years of expertise to the role and has been in the financial industry since 1999.

Mr. Gaito earned his bachelor of science degree in economics from St. Vincent's College. He is also a CFA® charterholder.

David Golub is the President of Golub Capital, a market-leading, award-winning direct lender and experienced credit asset manager. As of January 1, 2024, Golub Capital had over $65 billion of capital under management, a gross measure of invested capital including leverage. Golub Capital partners with institutional investors and family offices offering tailored solutions for investors’ credit asset strategies. Mr. Golub was previously Managing Director of Centre Partners, a leading private equity firm, and Managing Director of Corporate Partners, a $1.5 billion private equity fund affiliated with Lazard. Mr. Golub is a member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council. He is a member of the Founder’s Council of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, where he was the first board Chairman and a long-time director. Mr. Golub is a member of the Director’s Circle of the Association of Marshall Scholars, on the board of directors of Burton Snowboards and has served on the boards of numerous public and private companies. Mr. Golub earned his AB degree in Government from Harvard College. He received an MPhil from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Mr. Hobbs leads Oaktree’s Sourcing and Origination (S&O) group, which focuses on private credit sourcing and deal origination for the firm’s Direct Lending, Special Situations and Opportunities investment teams. He also serves on the investment committee for Oaktree’s Direct Lending strategy. Prior to joining the firm in 2013, Mr. Hobbs was an executive director at Natixis Securities focused on building the high yield sales and trading franchise. Prior thereto, he spent five years at Goldman Sachs as a vice president in leveraged finance origination and sales. Before joining Goldman Sachs in 2007, Mr. Hobbs was a director in Leveraged Finance at Deutsche Bank Securities, which he joined in 2000. Additional experience includes regional account management focused on fleet financing at GE Capital Corporation and controller for Leveraged Finance at Bank of America. Mr. Hobbs received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.S. degree in accounting from Rutgers University.

Brent Humphries joined AB in 2014 as a founding member and President of AB Private Credit Investors, where he has primary responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the business, including chairing the investment committee, fundraising, investor relations, investment originations, structuring and underwriting, as well as ongoing portfolio management and compliance. He previously held the same position with Barclays Private Credit Partners. Prior to joining Barclays, Humphries served as group head, generalist financial sponsor coverage for Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group, and later led its structured private equity initiative. Before that, he served as a partner and managing director of the Texas Growth Fund, a middle market private equity firm. Humphries previously worked in leveraged finance with NationsBank and J.P. Morgan, and as a financial analyst with Exxon. He holds a BBA in finance with an emphasis in accounting from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Location: Austin

Mr. Hunt joined Apollo Global Management, Inc. in 2021 in Credit and serves as Chairman and CEO of Apollo Debt Solutions. Prior to joining Apollo, Mr. Hunt was a Partner in the Global Markets division at Goldman Sachs where he was responsible for strategic client coverage. He also served as a member of the Goldman Sachs's Partnership committee and Global Markets Operating Committee. Previously, Mr. Hunt was co-head of U.S Distressed and Par Loan sales at Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 2015, Mr. Hunt worked at Citi for 11 years, where he was a director in Leveraged Finance sales. Mr. Hunt is a member of the Board of Trustees of Brown University. Mr. Hunt earned a BA in Economics from Brown University.

Avi Korn (New York) joined KKR in 2018 and co-heads the Asset Based Finance group within the firm’s Credit business. The Asset-Based Finance group focuses on non-corporate, private credit investments which are backed by financial or hard assets. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Korn was a portfolio manager at BlueMountain Capital Management where he focused on debt and equity investments within asset-based finance.

Previously, Mr. Korn was a vice president at J.P. Morgan on the asset-backed security principal investment management team. Mr. Korn holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Steve is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Lord Abbett where he serves as the Head of Private Credit. Previously, he was a Partner at Blackstone where he served as a Portfolio Manager of BCRED, Global Head of Capital Formation for Blackstone Credit, and Chief Financial Officer of BCRED and BXSL. He also served as a member of the Investment Committee for Blackstone’s private credit funds. Prior to Blackstone, Steve was a Senior Managing Director at Stifel where he was Head of Principal Investments and Debt Capital Markets. Earlier in his career, Steve was founder and CEO of FSI Capital, an alternative credit firm that served as an asset manager for US Treasury in connection with certain TARP related programs. Prior to FSI, he was Head of CLOs and structured funds for Merrill Lynch.

Bret Leas is a Partner and Co-Head of Asset Backed Finance at Apollo. Prior to joining in 2009, Bret was Director in the Credit Structuring Group at Barclays Capital. Previously, he was an associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, primarily focusing on asset-backed securities, CDOs and credit derivatives.

Bret graduated cum laude from the University of Maryland with a BA in History and received his JD cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Redding Ridge Asset Management, Atlas SP Partners, and Cadma Capital Partners.

Jeff Levin is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and is the Co-Head of Morgan Stanley’s North America Private Credit team, where he serves on the Investment Committee and is the Portfolio Manager and the Head of Direct Lending. Mr. Levin rejoined Morgan Stanley in 2019 and has over 20 years of relevant industry experience.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Levin was a Partner and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group where he served as President of The Carlyle Group’s BDCs, and was a member of the investment committee for the Direct Lending platform. Mr. Levin graduated from Emory University in 2002.

Mr. Lyne was one of the founding partners of Antares Capital Corporation, which was acquired by GE Capital in 2005. GE Capital is predecessor in interest to Antares Capital. Mr. Lyne is the chief executive officer of Antares Capital and a member of the Antares Capital Advisers Investment Committee and a vice president of Antares Capital Advisers. Mr. Lyne also is a member of the Antares Capital Executive Committee. Previously, Mr. Lyne served as Antares’ chief operating officer from April 2020 to December 2021 and was head of the firm’s Asset Management business and president of Antares Capital Advisers from August 2015 to August 2018. Prior to joining Antares Capital, Mr. Lyne was a senior managing director at GE Antares, where he was the commercial leader for two joint ventures, including the Senior Secured Loan Program and the Middle Market Growth Program, and was a member of the GE Antares Investment Committee. Prior to forming Antares Capital Corporation, Mr. Lyne held roles at the merchant banking group at GE Capital as well as the Corporate Finance Group at Heller Financial, Inc. Mr. Lyne received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He has 36 years of industry experience, including 27 years with Antares Capital and its predecessors in interest. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Executives’ Club of Chicago and on the Dean's Business Council at Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Aimee Means is a Managing Director at HPS Investment Partners responsible for strategic financing across the platform. Prior to joining HPS in 2016, Ms. Means was a Managing Director and Partner at GreensLedge Capital Markets, a boutique Investment Banking firm focused on the Global Structured Credit and Alternative Investment marketplace, where she led the firm’s Liability Management Advisory business. Previously she held various roles at Natixis, CIBC and Arthur Andersen. Ms. Means holds a BS from Rutgers College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Nick Meserve is a Managing Director at Main Street Capital and runs the Private Credit investment team. Since joining Main Street in 2012, Mr. Meserve’s responsibilities include managing a portfolio of private credit investments while also being responsible for sourcing, originating and executing on new investments.

Mr. Patel is a Partner at Ares, where he focuses on alternative credit strategies. Prior to joining Ares in 2019, Mr. Patel was a Director at Fortress Investment Group, where he focused on opportunistic credit investments across a range of industries including financial services, retail, real estate, media and entertainment and energy. Previously, Mr. Patel was a Vice President in Truist’s Financial Institutions Group, where he focused on M&A, leveraged finance and equity capital markets. Mr. Patel holds a B.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from the UVA’s Darden School of Business. He is a CFA® charterholder.

Arthur H. Penn founded PennantPark Investment Advisers in 2007 and serves as Managing Partner. He is Chairman and CEO of PennantPark Investment Corporation and PennantPark Floating Rate Capital, Ltd. Penn has over 30 years of experience in middle market direct lending, mezzanine lending, leveraged finance, distressed debt, and private equity. Penn co-founded Apollo Investment Management, was formerly a Managing Partner of Apollo Value Fund L.P. and held senior positions at CDC-IXIS Capital Markets, BT Securities and BT Alex. Brown Inc., UBS Warburg LLC, and Lehman Brothers. He holds a BS and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Daniel Pietrzak joined KKR in 2016 and is a Partner and Global Head of Private Credit. Mr. Pietrzak is also the Co-President and CIO for FS KKR Capital Corp. (FSK) and serves on the board of directors of several KKR Credit portfolio companies. Prior to KKR, Mr. Pietrzak was a managing director and the co-head of Deutsche Bank’s structured finance business. Previously, he held various roles at Societe Generale and CIBC and he started his career at Price Waterhouse. Mr. Pietrzak holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. from Lehigh University.

Darren Schlissel joined TMRS in 2023 and helps lead TMRS’s fixed income mandate, primarily focusing on private credit allocations to direct lending, opportunistic, and asset-backed private credit strategies. TMRS’s private debt target allocation was recently raised from 11% to 13% of the portfolio.

TMRS is a statewide retirement system with more than 930 participating cities and approximately $40bn in plan assets based in Austin, Texas.

Prior to joining TMRS, Darren spent more than 15 years in a variety of fixed income roles at PayPal, Ares, Guggenheim and Deutsche Bank. Mr. Schlissel earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from Cornell University and is a CFA charter holder.

Oliver Thym is a Partner on the Credit team at Thoma Bravo. Based in New York, he joined the firm in 2020 to lead the Thoma Bravo Credit platform and oversee the firm’s credit funds and strategic debt investments. Previously, Oliver spent his entire career at Goldman Sachs, where he was a Partner and Head of Private Credit in the Americas for the Merchant Banking Division. Oliver served on various divisional and firmwide committees, including the Merchant Banking Credit and Corporate Investment Committees and Firmwide New Activity and Credit Policy Committees. He earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business after receiving a BS in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering and a BA in Economics from Cornell University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Jay R. Alicandri is co-chair of Dechert’s corporate and securities practice and one of the leaders of the firm’s permanent capital and private credit practice. He represents asset managers, banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions in the private credit space, including Apollo, Bain, Barings, BC Partners, Blackstone, Blue Owl, Blue Torch, FS Investments, Golub Capital, Hercules, HPS, ING Capital, KKR, Main Street Capital, OFS Capital, Thoma Bravo and Varagon.

Mr. Alicandri is recognized as a leading lawyer for Banking & Finance by Chambers USA, a legal directory based on the opinions of clients and peers. In Chambers’ most recent edition, Mr. Alicandri was described as "a great resource for unique challenges" who “is extremely well respected and a great thought partner." Clients have previously noted him as “a standout partner” who “understands the underlying business [which] informs his advice regarding the credit facilities he works on behalf of asset manager/fund borrowers.” He is also consistently recommended for Commercial Lending in The Legal 500 (U.S.), where clients say he is “fantastic; very knowledgeable, commercial and easy to work with,” and “a very facile leveraged finance lawyer who is appreciated by clients for his outstanding work ethic and strong command of legal as well as business facts.” In addition, he is regularly named a "Notable Practitioner" by IFLR1000 for banking in the United States and New York.

Thomas J. Friedmann, co-head of Dechert’s Permanent Capital Practice and a member of the firm’s Policy Committee, represents domestic and non-U.S. issuers and investment banks in public and private securities transactions. Mr. Friedmann regularly advises alternative asset managers in their efforts to access permanent capital through Business Development Companies (BDCs), closed-end funds and other vehicles. Having represented both issuers and underwriters on the organization and listings of numerous BDCs, Mr. Friedmann assists companies in navigating securities laws and sensitive disclosure matters under the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Company Act of 1940. He is a frequent speaker and has been quoted in various media outlets regarding developments and trends affecting BDCs and other alternative investment vehicles, an area in which Dechert has been identified as a leader by The Legal 500, a leading legal directory.

Patrick Frisch is a managing director and head of financial institutions at ING in the Americas, where he oversees ING’s global relationship management of U.S.-based financial institutions, including banks, insurance companies and asset managers, including financial sponsors and direct lenders.

Mr. Frisch’s transaction experience ranges from leveraged finance and corporate valuation to capital call (subscription) financing for private funds, and structured asset backed transactions for public and private investment vehicles.

Mr. Frisch is a CFA Charterholder. He received his B.S. in Economics and his M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Al Laufenberg advises public and privately-owned depository and business development companies on a wide range of alternatives. Mr. Laufenberg has represented numerous depository institutions in whole bank mergers (buy side and sell side) as well as working for special committees.

With over 25 years of investment banking experience, he has advised clients on over 300 transactions exceeding US$70 billion in value.

He is also a member of the firm’s fairness opinion committee.

Prior to joining KBW/Stifel, Mr. Laufenberg was a vice president in the financial institutions group at First Union Securities (now Wells Fargo).

John M. Timperio, co-chair of Dechert’s global finance practice and real estate practice group, and a member of the firm’s Policy Committee, has more than 25 years of experience working with some of the world's largest asset managers and investment banks on various types of structured finance solutions, including CLOs and structured loan facilities. Mr. Timperio is also a leader of the Structured Credit and CLO team, which has not only been ranked one of the most active in the CLO market since it restarted, but also one of the most distinguished in terms of industry awards for best CLO law firm. He is also actively involved in creating permanent capital solutions for various of the firm's 50 plus asset manager clients who currently manage CLOs, including US and EU risk retention compliant structures. Mr. Timperio also advises managers and borrowers in a variety of fund financing structures, including NAV facilities, collateralized fund obligations and rated feeders.