Fran Beyers, Managing Director, is the Head of Capital Markets at Cliffwater, an investment advisory and asset management firm specializing in alternative investments, including private equity, private debt, hedge funds, real assets, and real estate.

Fran is responsible for sourcing middle market lending opportunities and maintaining manager relationships to support Cliffwater’s rapidly growing multi-manager private debt asset management business, including their $12.0 billion flagship interval fund, the Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund (CCFLX).

Prior to joining Cliffwater, Fran served as the Head of Analysis for Middle Market Loans at Refinitiv LPC. While in this role, she provided data and analytics on the direct lending market, while also developing innovative web-based products such as Refinitiv’s BDC Collateral, a comprehensive resource for analyzing BDC holdings and performance. Prior to that, she held positions at Churchill Asset Management focused on middle market leveraged financings for private equity portfolio companies. She began her career at J.P. Morgan, with roles including Ratings and Capital Structure Advisory and Credit Portfolio Management.

Fran has been acknowledged as a thought leader for her research, commentary, analysis and data collection for the direct lending and middle market asset class for over a decade and is frequently cited by media outlets.

Fran received her B.S.B.A. from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis

Jim is head of GTCR’s Capital Markets Group. In this role, Jim leads the firm’s capital markets activities as part of the transaction teams and manages key financing and banking relationships.

Jim joined GTCR in 2017 and is currently a Managing Director of the firm. Prior to joining GTCR, Jim was a Managing Director and Co-Head of the North American Leveraged & Acquisition Finance Group at Morgan Stanley. Jim also functioned as the Head of the North American Syndicate Desk. Prior to Morgan Stanley, he was an analyst in the Equity Capital Markets and Asset Management Groups at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Jim holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Business Administration summa cum laude from Northeastern University.

Heather Waters Borthwick is a partner in the firm’s Bank Finance group in New York. Heather’s experience includes advising leading financial institutions, commercial and investment banks, direct lenders, private equity firms and corporate borrowers on a broad range of financing matters. These include syndicated and direct lending leveraged acquisition financings (both domestic and cross-border), asset-based financings and investment grade lending transactions, debtor in possession financings and exit financings.

Before joining Shearman & Sterling, Heather was a partner at White & Case LLP and she also previously served as assistant general counsel for an international media corporation.

Ralph demonstrates a strong work ethic and passion for New York City communities, customers, and colleagues. Through a successful banking career and the embodiment of the TD Bank Ready Commitment, his focus on building key community partnerships provides ongoing support of the well-being of many citizens throughout New York. Ralph serves on several non-profit boards as a board trustee that includes the Frederick Foundation, Boys and Girls Club of Metro Queens, Business Initiative Corp of NYC, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Carroll Gardens Association, and Rockville Centre Little League. Ralph represents TD as the United Way of New York City Ambassador and a member of the United Way Tocqueville Society Cabinet. Ralph is a native New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn.

Ralph Bumbaca joined TD Bank in January 2010 and has held various Commercial Lending positions of increasing responsibility. He is currently New York City Market President. Ralph has more than 30 years of experience in the banking industry, including thirteen years with TD Bank. He has served as Senior Vice President in three key Markets since joining TD, first as the Regional Vice President of Brooklyn and Staten Island, followed by Manhattan, where he has developed the regions into the largest market within TD's Commercial Bank.

Beata Caranci is the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for TD Bank Group. She leads an economics team with a wide focus across the U.S., Canada, and global landscapes. The team delivers forecasts, presentations, and research publications for TD clients, alongside economic regulatory deliverables, while also plugging into TDs ESG research and thought leadership strategy.

Beata serves on several committees, including the C.D Howe's Monetary Policy Council and the American Bankers Economic Advisory Council.

Beata is a passionate supporter of TD’s diversity initiatives and has dedicated more than a decade to researching and driving awareness on labour market frictions. Her research report, “Get on Board Corporate Canada,” helped influence the Ontario Securities Commission’s rule amendments on disclosure of women on boards. A separate report detailing the obstacles faced by women in STEM fields led to an invitation to appear at the Senate Open Caucus to discuss policy prescriptions to counter systemic biases.

Beata's distinguished evidenced-based research combined with the breadth of her role as Chief Economist for TD Bank also earned the Professional category award by WXN's Canada's Most Powerful Women in 2019.

Fanny Charrier is a Director in Crédit Agricole CIB’s Corporate and Leverage Finance (“CLF”) group, primarily covering the loan originations and syndication of the telecom and chicago portfolios including U.S. automotive, healthcare, agricultural, semi-conductor, engineering & construction.

As Sustainable Finance Coordinator, she manages the origination and syndication of sustainable financings within the U.S., liaising with the global sustainable banking team to facilitate the structuring and placement of ESG-related loans & HY instruments including Ford’s US$15.5bn sustainability-linked revolving credit facility that was named “2021 North America Loan” by the International Financing Review (“IFR”) and “2022 Americas Loan” by the Banker. She is also the primary point of contact for the integration of the Net Zero and energy transition strategy within the CLF team.

Fanny joined CA-CIB NY in 2012 as part of the Portfolio and Balance Sheet Management team and prior to that worked for Dexia NY in the Project Finance group focused on renewables. She was previously located in Paris, France, where she held various roles in export and structured finance.

Fanny holds a Masters in finance from ESSCA (Ecole Supérieur des Sciences Commerciales d’Angers) and a Masters in project and structured finance from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

Byung focuses his practice on leveraged finance transactions, including syndicated credit facilities, high yield bond offerings, asset-based financings, junior capital facilities and bridge facilities. Byung has extensive experience representing private equity firms and their portfolio companies, debt investment funds and public companies.

Byung has represented Bain Capital, Silver Lake Partners, Summit Partners, TPG Capital, and Advent International. He’s been recognized in Boston Magazine “Top Lawyers” (2021), Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2016-2022), IFLR 1000 Leading Lawyer (2014-2017); Highly Regarded (2018-2023), The Best Lawyers in America (2006-2017, 2019-2023), Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2009-2022), and Legal 500 (2013-2020). He’s been published multiple times in The Wall Street Journal and in The Deal .

Byung received a BA, cum laude from Williams College in 1992 and his JD, summa cum laude from Boston University School of Law in 1995.

John Cokinos is the Co-Head of Leveraged Finance and Capital Markets at RBC. He joined the US leveraged finance and capital market team at RBC Capital Markets in March 2014. He and Mr. Charles Smith oversee all origination and distribution activities under the leveraged finance business. Mr. Cokinos focuses on acquisition finance and private equity transactions with specific industry expertise in Technology, Healthcare, Financial Services and Industrials. Prior to joining RBC, he spent the last 7 years at Bank America Merrill Lynch, where his last role was head of leverage finance capital markets.

Before joining BAML, Mr. Cokinos worked at Lehman Brothers from 1998 until 2007.

He is a graduate of Cornell University with a BS in Business Administration, class of 1995. He resides in Manhattan with his wife and three children. Mr. Cokinos is board member of the Fiver Children’s Foundation, a non-profit organization that help youths in New York City.

Ms. Davidson is a Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets of Monroe Capital. She is responsible for buy side club originations, relationship management, and marketing as well as sell side syndications. She joined the firm in 2015 and is a member of Monroe’s Investment Committee. Ms. Davidson has over 20 years of experience in middle market investing.

Prior to Monroe, Ms. Davidson was a senior deal professional at The Carlyle Group’s middle market private debt platform, Carlyle GMS Finance, where she focused on originating, structuring, negotiating, executing and managing middle market loans. Prior to Carlyle, Ms. Davidson was a founding professional and Senior Vice President at Churchill Financial and an Assistant Vice President at GE Antares Capital. Ms. Davidson was recognized by Mergers & Acquisitions as one of 2017 and 2018’s Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A.

Ms. Davidson earned her M.B.A. from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and her B.A. in Communications with a Certificate in Business from The University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth, the Women’s Association of Venture & Equity, serves on the National Young Leadership Cabinet of the Jewish Federations of North America and serves on the Board of Directors of The Jewish United Fund.

Mr. Dirscherl is a Managing Director in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on U.S. direct lending. Prior to joining Ares in 2015, Mr. Dirscherl was an Associate at The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland, where he focused on middle market leveraged finance capital markets.

Mr. Dirscherl holds a B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in Finance, where he won the Bernoulli Award in Economics, Second Prize.

Diana Diquez has been a senior market analyst at Refinitiv LPC in New York since 1997. She writes on the state of the middle market, more specifically in the non-sponsored end of the market. She is also responsible for LPC’s middle market weekly and middle market quarterly reviews. Diana pulls together our leveraged loan yield analysis and leads Refinitiv LPC’s industry and LatAm coverage.

Prior to joining Refinitiv LPC, Diana worked in private banking in Venezuela, providing analyses and recommendations on investment opportunities for private banking customers.

Ms. Diquez has a BSBA from Boston University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She also studied four years of economics in the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela, where she developed her thesis research titled: Proposal for the Development of the Small & Medium Industry in Venezuela and Analysis of its Financial Problems.

CJ Doherty has been involved in debt capital market analysis for over twenty years.

He is Director of Market Analysis at Refinitiv LPC, covering the private debt, middle and large corporate loan markets. CJ produces and publishes regular commentary, research and trend analysis across various loan market segments. He also tracks and analyzes the performance of BDCs and CLOs for the fund side of the market. In addition to serving as a regular contributor to Refinitiv LPC’s flagship publications, Gold Sheets and Gold Sheets Middle Market, CJ is a host and contributor to LPC’s new Lending Lowdown podcast and frequently serves as a speaker and/or moderator at various industry roundtables and conferences.

Prior to his current role with Refinitiv LPC, CJ was Global Head of Primary Market Analysis at Debtwire where he led the production of market analysis and reports focused on the leveraged loan and high yield bond markets.

Colm has a BA in Economics & Legal Science from National University of Ireland Galway and an MSc. in Accounting & Finance from Ulster University.David Puchowski, Director of Market Analysis - Refinitiv LPC

Ian Dorrington is the Co-Head of the US Leveraged Finance business at Deutsche Bank.

Previously he was Co-Head of US Loan Capital Markets with responsibility for the Media, Telecom, Technology and Financial sectors. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2011 from Bank of America and has held various positions in leveraged finance over a 20 year career, originally starting out with Merrill Lynch in London.

Ian holds an M.A. in Neuroscience from Cambridge University, UK.

Andrew Earls is a Managing Director and Sole Head of North American Leveraged Finance. The longest tenured member of the Group, Andrew has more than 26 years of experience at Morgan Stanley, nearly all of it in Leveraged Finance. He has covered every industry over his career.

Andrew began his career in Leveraged Finance and spent a year in M&A and Corporate Finance followed by a year and a half in Firm Management, reporting to then Co-President Vikram Pandit (later CEO of Citigroup).

Andrew heads the Technology vertical in Leveraged Finance and his Lead Left clients include some of the most important companies and sponsors including Netflix, Uber, Airbnb, Seagate, Vista Equity, and Clearlake, to name a few. Many of his very best clients have migrated to the Investment Grade market including Crown Castle, NXP, and CDW.

Andrew has been the leading voice and innovator in Technology Leveraged Finance including inventing the Loan Direct Placement and the Investment Grade covenant package for Technology companies, now achieved by nearly every Technology issuer. A number of his financings have been IFR High Yield Deal of the Year recipients.

Andrew graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1996 with a degree in Economics. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children.

Bill serves as Executive Vice President, Head of US Middle Market Banking. In this role, Bill directs a $20 billion loan portfolio consisting of Asset Based, Supply Chain and Middle Market relationships for private equity sponsors, publicly-held corporations and family-owned businesses with revenues from $75 million to $1 billion. Responsibilities include strategy formulation, business development, client fulfillment, revenue growth and asset quality maintenance.

Previously, Bill served as Head of Credit Management for TD Bank's Commercial Bank where he supervised the structuring and underwriting, ongoing monitoring and control of the Bank's Commercial, Wealth, Specialty and Small Business loan portfolios. Bill has 30 years of financial services experience, beginning his career at Continental Bank in Philadelphia, and has held senior lending, credit risk and senior management positions in Business Banking, Middle Market and Corporate Lending. In addition, he previously directed the business consulting practice of a regional CPA firm where he provided advisory services on corporate development, business reorganizations and benchmarking.

Bill earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration, with concentrations in finance and management, and a bachelor of science degree in marketing from St. Joseph's University. He completed the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School's Advanced Finance Program, continuing education in the Master of Taxation Program at Villanova University School of Law, the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business' Executive Leadership Certificate Program and is a graduate of the Enterprise Risk Management Program at Stanford University.

Bill is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Global Management Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Turnaround Management Association. He also serves as a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School on private equity and teaches four continuing professional education programs for attorneys and CPAs at Penn State University – Abington Campus. Bill provides community leadership and is a board member of the Advancement Committee for Mercy Vocational High School and is a member of the Executive Education Board of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Bill was previously Treasurer of the Penn Mezzanine Fund and was a member of its Board of Directors and Investment Committee. He also served as a lecturer and student advisor on business planning and financing in the Entrepreneurial Training Institute sponsored by the New Jersey Development Authority for Small Business, Minorities and Women Enterprises, The Entrepreneur's Forum of Philadelphia, and the Women's President's Organization of Philadelphia.

Grady Frank is a Partner and Head of Private Credit Origination at GoldenTree Asset Management. Mr. Frank is a member of the Private Credit Committee and leads GoldenTree’s coverage for private equity sponsors and other sources of private credit opportunities.

Prior to joining GoldenTree, Mr. Frank spent 22 years in investment banking. Mr. Frank spent 15 years at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Most recently, Mr. Frank was responsible for managing relationships with many of Goldman’s largest private equity clients to provide advisory services and financing solutions. Mr. Frank also spent ten years in Goldman’s Leveraged Finance Debt Capital Markets group where he was Head of Healthcare, Consumer Retail, and Middle Market Industry verticals responsible for structuring debt financing solutions for sponsors and corporate issuers.

Mr. Frank received a B.S. in Business Administration from Washington & Lee University.

John George is a Director and member of the Responsible Investing (RI) Team at Nuveen, the investment management arm of TIAA. John’s responsibilities include developing Nuveen’s strategic foresight on issues related to ESG integration, engagement, stewardship, and investment.

Prior to joining Nuveen in 2021, John worked at BlackRock as a Strategist within the Sustainable Products group. He joined BlackRock after spending four-and-a-half years at Lord Abbett, an asset management firm primarily focused on fixed income markets. At Lord Abbett, John was responsible for establishing the firm’s ESG strategy, authoring the RI policy, training investment professionals and client-facing teams on ESG issues, and developing and fundraising for new products such as the Climate Focused Bond Fund. In addition to this experience, John has worked in roles across equity research and investment banking, covering renewable energy companies, utilities, and independent power producers.

John is currently pursuing a Master’s of Science in Sustainability Management at Columbia University’s Climate School. He is also a Fellow at ClimateBase and holds a Bachelor’s in Finance from Rutgers University.

Gary recently relocated to London to become Head of the Corporate and Leveraged Finance team for the UK, and member of London Management Committee. Prior to that, Gary was the Head of the Corporate and Leveraged Finance team for the Americas and managed the distribution team for loans and high yield securities. Gary led teams responsible for the origination, structuring and distribution of loans and high yield bonds and secondary trading of loans for the US, Latin America and Canadian markets. In addition, Gary and his team are also responsible for the monitoring of the corporate and leveraged loan portfolio. Gary joined as Head of Loan Syndications for the Americas in March 2007.

Gary joined from BNY Securities, Inc. where he was Co-Head of Syndicated Finance and Head of Sponsor Leveraged Lending and a member of the Board of Directors. At BNY, he held a number of increasingly important executive assignments, including Head of New York Investment Banking and Co-Head of Structured Finance where he directed groups responsible for global origination and distribution of syndicated loans and private placements, as well as origination of fixed income securities. Previously, Gary worked in the financial institutions practice at McKinsey & Company, Inc. where he provided strategy advice to multi-national financial firms.

Gary has a BA in economics and an MBA with distinction in finance from the University of Michigan.

Johan Hylander, Head of US Capital Markets, joined EQT Partners in September 2015. Initially working as an investment professional in the Special Situations fund, he joined the Infrastructure fund in October 2020.

Prior to joining EQT, he worked for Citigroup in London within the leveraged finance.

Johan holds a Master’s Degree in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School.

Sarah Kannan is a member of the TPG Capital Markets team based in San Francisco, where she works across TPG Capital, Growth, and Rise/Climate funds focused on debt capital markets. Prior to joining TPG in 2021, Sarah worked at Bank of America in Financial Sponsors Coverage and at JP Morgan in Leveraged Finance.

Sarah graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Hotel Administration.

Jay is a corporate partner in New York and former co-head of the global Finance Group. Jay focuses on leveraged finance, cross-border financings and other complex structured transactions, including acquisition financing commitments, syndicated loan financings, high yield bond offerings, junior capital and structured transactions. Jay regularly represents Advent, Blackstone, CCMP, TPG and other leading private equity sponsors as well as public and private corporate issuers in a variety of industries with their financing needs.

Jay is recognized by Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business as a leading attorney in Banking and Finance who “thinks five steps ahead of the deal” and is recognized as “very creative, smart and tenacious” by Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business.

Jay has been honored in The Best Lawyers in America (2023), IFLR 1000 (2019-2023), Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2012-2022), Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2008-2022), Leading Lawyer, IFLR1000 (2014-2018), The Legal 500 (2013-2018) and New York Super Lawyers (2013-2014, 2018-2019).

Jay received a BS from Northwestern University in 1985 and his JD from Boston University School of Law in 1989. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association.

Bob Kricheff joined Shenkman Capital in 2013. He has 35 years of investment research and strategy experience in leveraged finance.

Prior to joining Shenkman Capital, Mr. Kricheff was Managing Director and Head of the Americas High Yield Sector Strategy for Credit Suisse. During his distinguished tenure at Credit Suisse, he oversaw U.S., European and Emerging Market credit research as well as high yield sector and portfolio strategy. He also worked as a high yield analyst where he covered the media, cable, satellite, telecom, gaming, and entertainment sectors. His work covered bonds, loans and CDS

Additionally, Mr. Kricheff has published two textbooks and two e-books on topics related to leveraged finance and its analysis and has most recently published a book on technology’s impact on investment economics. He has been invited to speak to graduate students at University of London SOAS, Columbia University and New York University.

Mr. Kricheff received a BA degree in Economics from New York University and a MS in Financial Economics from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Bob is also on the Board of Directors of Symphony Space, a non-profit committed to improving literacy and education through the arts. He is also a volunteer at Center for Food Action, a non-profit dedicated to preventing hunger and homelessness.

Dan is a Partner and serves as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and the Investment Committee for Comvest’s direct lending strategy. He is responsible for originating, structuring, and managing investments.

Prior to joining Comvest, Dan was a Senior Director with Dymas Capital Management, where he served on the Investment Committee and was instrumental in the formation and growth of the firm from its start-up phase to an established middle-market finance company. Prior to getting his MBA, Dan began his career with Arthur Andersen and Heller Financial’s Corporate Finance Group.

Dan received an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

Mr. Liggitt is a Partner in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on Direct Lending in the US. Prior to joining Ares in 2016, Mr. Liggitt was a Managing Director at Barclays in leveraged finance and financial sponsor origination in both public and private markets.

Previously, Mr. Liggitt also worked at Bank of America and Lehman Brothers, where he focused on origination, structuring and underwriting leveraged finance transactions.

Mr. Liggitt holds a BBA from Southern Methodist University in Finance.

Mr. Meagher joined Golub Capital in 2014 and is a Managing Director on the Direct Lending team. He is responsible for originating, underwriting, executing and monitoring investments for the Firm. Prior to joining Golub Capital, Mr. Meagher was a Director in the Financial Sponsors group at Deutsche Bank, where he was a Coverage Officer for large-cap and middle market private equity clients. He was responsible for transaction origination and execution, with a significant focus on leveraged finance products.

Prior to that, Mr. Meagher worked in Deutsche Bank’s Workout group, where he managed the restructuring of distressed portfolio exposures across the Bank’s leveraged loan and commercial real estate books.

Mr. Meagher earned his BA degree cum laude in English from Dickinson College.

Jake is a partner in our New York office and acts as the head of our U.S. Leveraged Finance group. He represents major commercial and investment banks as well as private credit funds and corporations in a wide range of leveraged and corporate finance transactions, including domestic and cross-border acquisition finance, investment-grade facilities, asset-based lending facilities, bridge facilities, DIP financings and restructurings.

Jake has deep experience in all aspects of the leveraged lending market and is on top of current market terms given his extensive activity acting for clients in both syndicated and non-syndicated private credit financings, with clients praising him for his proactivity, commerciality and being 'fantastically consistent'.

Clients commend Jake for his ability and skill in navigating different financing structures and products as well as his extensive experience in the negotiation of intercreditor relationships and his knowledge of relevant tax structuring considerations across a number of jurisdictions. Jake is recognized as a Leading Individual and is ranked Band 3 by Chambers USA, Banking & Finance, where clients state that he "is a strong lawyer who handles complicated deals" and that "he's great and has great experience handling international issues." Jake is also recognized as a Leading Lawyer, Finance – Commercial Lending in Legal 500 USA 2021 and an IFLR 1000 Leading Lawyer.

Jake was based in London from 2010-2014, where he structured and closed many of the first "Yankee Loan" structured financings of the era and gained extensive experience with LMA and English-law documented cross-border financings. This unique cross-border experience lends itself to providing clients with valuable insight into the differences between the U.S. and European markets and knowledge to maximize cross-border financing structures, which Jake applies to assist clients in executing cross-border and European syndicated and non-syndicated private credit financings in the current market.

Prior to joining Allen & Overy, Jake was the regional section head of the Americas Banking Section at White & Case LLP.

Joseph Nemia is Head of Asset Based Lending (ABL) at TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank. As Head of ABL, Joe is a key member of the Commercial Banking leadership team. He oversees a team of ABL lenders with experience in developing strong customer relationships by delivering solutions to meet our customers' financial needs. ABL offers clients a flexible cost-effective financing solution by leveraging assets and maximizing liquidity.

Joe has more than 40 years of experience in Corporate Finance. He joined the bank in 2011 from RBS Citizens Financial Group where he served as President of RBS Commercial Finance. Prior to RBS, Joe was at CIT where he served as President, Commercial and Industrial. He was also a Senior Managing Director at GE Commercial Finance where he held a number of leadership positions during his 14 years with the company. He was a founding member of GE Commercial Finance and was instrumental in the middle market build out of the ABL business. He completed GE Company’s Global Business Management training in Tokyo and received Black Belt certification in Six Sigma.

Joe is on the Board of Trustees of Loyola School in New York City and a member of Loyola School’s Finance and Audit Committees. He is a Trustee of National Jewish Medical and Research Center and has served on the Board of Director’s for Junior Achievement in Stamford/Greenwich CT. He is a former Commercial Finance Association Chairman and President and currently serves as a Director for the Secured Finance Network. Joe serves as the Chairman of the Audit Committee of Audax Credit BDC Inc.

He is a graduate from Pace University – Lubin School of Business, BBA, MBA.

As the Head of Debt Capital Markets, Howard manages all debt financings for Garnett’s portfolio of middle market, consumer driven companies and also provides junior debt/capital solutions to 3rd party borrowers. Howard joined Garnett in 2018 as Partner.

Howard has over 25 years of experience working with highly levered, stressed and distressed credits. Prior to joining Garnett, Howard was founder and principal of HN Consulting where he served as a consultant and board member for companies going through operational and/or capital structure realignment. Prior to HN Consulting, Howard was a Partner and founding member of Stone Lion Capital where he focused on investments in highly levered, distressed and special situations. Prior to Stone Lion, Howard focused on proprietary distressed debt and equity investments as a Managing Director at Bear Stearns and led a restructuring group at GE Capital. Howard began his finance career as a member of Citibank’s Institutional Recovery Management Group.

Howard received an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Ms. Parekh is a Managing Director at HPS Investment Partners and Co-Head of North American Core Senior Lending. Prior to joining HPS in 2020, Ms. Parekh spent over twelve years as a Partner and Managing Director at The Carlyle Group. During her tenure at The Carlyle Group, Ms. Parekh was a founding member of the Direct Lending platform, served as Head of Origination for Illiquid Credit, and was a member of the Investment Committee for the Direct Lending business.

Prior to joining The Carlyle Group in 2007, Ms. Parekh was an Investment Banking Associate at JPMorgan where she was responsible for originating, structuring and executing high yield bond and leveraged loan transactions.

Ms. Parekh holds a BS in Finance and Information Systems from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Prior to joining Advent, Ken was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs in the Leverage Finance Group, where he covered the Natural Resources and Industrial sectors for both corporate and private equity transactions. He previously worked at Bank of America, focusing on high yield exchange offers, restructuring and refinancing transactions across a variety of sectors.

Ken graduated from The University of Virginia, with a BS in Commerce from The McIntire School of Commerce and a BA in Economics from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Ken Prince joined Advent in 2016. In his role, he helps lead the firm’s capital markets activities, including new acquisition financings, for Advent’s portfolio companies. He is also responsible for managing and helping to grow the firm’s relationships with investment banks, direct lenders, and investors.

As Director of Market Analysis, David speaks, researches, and produces analysis across various segments of the loan market. David tracks the middle market, including the direct lending space, and co-produces the Middle Market Connect report. David also researches the high-grade loan market and produces the Investment Grade Monthly stats pack. In addition to longer length feature stories, David also puts together leverage levels analysis for LBO deals, while managing the analytical content provided via Refinitiv LPC’s platform, LoanConnector.com.

David has been a part of Refinitiv LPC since 2005. Prior to joining the Market Analysis team, he worked for the data production team, helping to manage the accuracy of incoming loans data. He was instrumental in building LPC’s current loans database.

Prior to Refinitiv LPC, David worked for M&A advisor Acquest International. David earned a BA in economics from Rowan University.

Kevin Sofield joined Vista Equity Partners in 2013. Mr. Sofield is responsible for managing all portfolio company financing activities, from original buyout to recapitalization, and including acquisition and refinancing activities. Additionally, Mr. Sofield serves as a member of Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee, the firm’s governing and decision-making body for the overall management of Vista’s private equity platform.

Prior to joining Vista, Mr. Sofield spent over a decade in the Leveraged Finance group at Goldman, Sachs & Co., culminating in his role as Managing Director and Head of West Region Leveraged Finance. In this role, he advised corporate and sponsor clients on all manners of financing, including asset-based loans, traditional bank loans, institutional loans, high yield bonds and hybrid structures. Mr. Sofield began his career as an Officer in the United States Navy.

In addition to his work at Vista, Mr. Sofield serves as a Board Member of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation of Tampa, Florida.

Education: B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, United States Naval Academy, with Distinction; M.B.A., Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Robin is a partner in the Restructuring practice of Allen & Overy’s New York office. She has extensive experience representing companies, buyers and sellers and other major creditors in chapter 11 and out-of-court restructurings in a variety of industries, including, upstream oil & gas, oilfield services, electric power, pharmaceutical, media, trucking, logistics, and manufacturing.

Robin also represents acquirers, creditors, landlords and professionals in various distressed company transactions.

Robin is a member of the New York City Bar Association Committee on Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization and the American Bar Institute. Robin is also a contributing author of Collier on Bankruptcy.

Chris Sullivan is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Financial Sponsor Coverage at Blackstone Credit. He focuses on developing and deepening our overall relationships with private equity firms, as well as originating and executing credit investments across a diverse range of industries for the various funds at Blackstone Credit.

Prior to joining Blackstone Credit in 2021, Mr. Sullivan spent over 20 years at Barclays/Lehman Brothers, most recently as the Global Head of Financial Sponsor Coverage and a member of the Investment Banking Operating Committee. He led the business responsible for all the firm's activities with private equity clients, including the origination, structuring and execution of transactions across leveraged finance, M&A and equity.

Mr. Sullivan graduated with a B.A. in Economics & Accounting from the College of the Holy Cross, and earned his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Cade Thompson (New York) joined KKR in 2011 and is a Partner, Head of US Debt Capital Markets and Co-Head of US Credit Solutions. Mr. Thompson sits on the Firm’s Capital Committee which evaluates and manages risk for all global Debt Capital Markets opportunities. He has more than 20 years of experience in the leveraged finance markets, nearly half of which has been spent at KKR.

Prior to joining KKR he was a member of the Americas Financing group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he focused on Leveraged Finance Capital Markets, more specifically originating, structuring, pricing and distributing non-investment grade credit products. Previously, Mr. Thompson held positions in the High Yield Capital Markets group at Bank of America Securities and in the Defense, Aerospace and Technologies investment banking group at Wachovia Securities.

He received a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Georgia.

Rich has a banking career spanning nearly 20 years and was most recently at Brightwood, serving as Managing Director providing debt and equity capital solutions to companies with EBITDA of 5 million to 75 million.

Prior to joining Brightwood in 2015 Rich led the Western U.S. originations and structuring of Citibank’s asset based loans for middle market companies.

Rich also spent time at General Electric Capital Corporation directly sourcing middle market asset based loans and leveraged cash flow loans from middle market companies Rich started his career attending Comerica Bank’s Credit College.

Rich graduated with a BS from Saint Mary’s College of California while playing as a NCAA Division I Athlete (Tennis).

Rich resides in Manhattan Beach with his wife and three kids

John Toronto serves as an investment professional focused on private credit transactions. Prior to joining OHA, Mr. Toronto was Managing Director & Head of Corporate Lending for the Americas at Credit Suisse.

Previously, he served as Vice President & Co-Head of the Loan Execution Team at Goldman Sachs & Co. and as an Associate at Ropes & Gray LLP in the private equity and debt financing groups.

Mr. Toronto began his career as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps and currently serves as a board member for the Children of Fallen Patriots. He is a founder of Veterans on Wall Street and was previously a board member for Worldwide Orphans.

Mr. Toronto earned a B.A. in American Studies & English from Cornell University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Douglas is a Managing Director with Stonepeak in the Capital Markets group.

Before joining Stonepeak, Douglas worked at Blackstone, focusing on its debt capital markets activities. Prior to Blackstone, Douglas worked at Kirkland & Ellis as an Associate concentrating his practice on debt finance and private equity.

Douglas received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from New York University. He also received a Juris Doctorate from Fordham University School of Law.

Eric is a nationally recognized partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ Debt Finance Practice Group. Eric’s practice focuses on acquisition financings for top-tier private equity sponsors and their portfolio company borrowers. His representative clients include Warburg Pincus, KKR, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital, BC Partners, Stone Point Capital, MSD and Hg Capital among others.

Eric is recognized by numerous industry publications as a leading lawyer for Banking & Finance,including the 2020–2022 editions of Chambers Global and the 2018–2022 editions of Chambers USA, with clients noting that “Eric is known to be one of the best sponsors’ counsels on the street.” and ‘an absolute all-star and has done an outstanding job for us.’" Eric was further recommended in the 2020–2022 editions of The Legal 500 U.S. in the area of Commercial Lending and selected as a “Notable Practitioner” in the 2019–2021 editions of IFLR1000. Since 2016, Eric has also been recognized by Super Lawyers.

Eric is a frequent guest speaker and panelist, including at Refinitiv’s annual leveraged finance & loan market conferences, Columbia Business School and Wharton Business School’s private equity conferences and at the University of Arizona Law School.