Speaker Profiles

Casey Alexander is a Senior Vice President – Research Analyst with Compass Point Research & Trading, LLC covering business development companies, which he has been following since 2009. He has also covered the golf equipment industry since 1996. Prior to joining Compass Point in 2016, he was the Director of Research, a special situations analyst and a member of the Gilford Securities board of directors. Prior to joining Gilford Securities Inc., Mr. Alexander spent eight years with PaineWebber Inc. During his tenure at PaineWebber, Mr. Alexander filled multiple roles including Head of Over-the-Counter Marketing, Divisional Sales Manager and Branch Manager. Mr. Alexander successfully completed the PaineWebber Equity Institute portfolio management program. Mr. Alexander has also been employed by Prudential Securities and E.F. Hutton during his 39-year career in the securities business. Mr. Alexander is a tournament golfer and has been ranked as one of the top amateur tournament golfers during his career.

Brett Hickey has been structuring, analyzing and managing private equity, mezzanine and U.S. Government sponsored investment funds for over a decade. Prior to launching Star Mountain Capital, Mr. Hickey was the Co-Founder and President of a multi-manager platform including 4 U.S. state sponsored small business investment funds. Mr. Hickey has extensive experience performing due diligence on, selecting and building small business fund managers and has helped structure over a dozen larger funds representing a few billion dollars in assets.

Mr. Hickey formerly worked as an Investment Banker at Citigroup Global Markets in New York City (fka Salomon Smith Barney) where he covered global Asset Managers and Financial Institutions. In that role he worked on over $8 billion in completed debt and equity capital raising and restructuring transactions for leading financial institutions including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Neuberger-Berman, Nuveen Investments and Eaton Vance. He also served as Senior Analyst on the $16.1 billion public merger of the St. Paul Companies, Inc. and Travelers Property Casualty Corp.

Mr. Hickey attended Mount Royal College in Calgary, Canada, where he studied business and entrepreneurship while training on the national speed skating team. He graduated with Distinction from McGill University in Montreal, Canada with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Owner, President / Manager CEO training and management program for distinguished business owners with a proven track record of successfully building and managing companies. Mr. Hickey is a former Canadian national gold medalist and North American medalist in speed skating. He has completed numerous other business programs including Building Your Business Through Transformational Leadership & Innovation at the Innovatrium on the University of Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is a frequent guest lecturer on industry panels and at academic institutions. A selection of interviews can be found on The Lead Left.

Mr. Marron is the Chief Executive Officer of Sheridan Asset Management, LLC, which Mr. Marron founded in May 2002. Mr. Marron is responsible for asset management and all investment related activities. Prior to founding Sheridan, Mr. Marron was a Director at Wasserstein Perella’s Alternative Asset Management Group. Before Wasserstein, he was a Vice-President at Nomura Securities International where he was responsible for originating, financing and distributing $1 billion of specialty finance and real estate related assets. Previously, Mr. Marron was an assistant football coach at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Mr. Marron obtained a B.A. in Communications from Michigan State University in 1986.

Alex is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of CrowdOut Capital, an Austin-based marketplace lending firm focusing on helping middle market companies raise debt. He has over a dozen years of experience consulting and raising capital for companies of all industries, including Austin favorite Chuy’s. In addition to his family, Alex is an avid cook, traveler and fan of the San Antonio Spurs.

Mr. Bolandian has 25 years of investment management experience across a broad range of asset classes, including private equity, hedge funds, long/short equity, real estate, fixed income and mergers and acquisitions. Rob helped structure and build a de novo multi-billion dollar family office in order to deploy capital on behalf of a single family. He held several C-Level positions and his responsibilities included developing investment initiatives targeting growth, capital preservation and/or income maximization, depending on the individual family member’s risk/return profile. Rob also helped oversee and manage direct principal investments in the Transportation, Energy and Financial sectors.

Prior to the single family office, Mr. Bolandian was a Senior Executive Vice President at MBNA, a $35 billion mono line credit card institution. Mr. Bolandian reported to the Chairman, and provided him with personalized analytics on the financial services industry, macroeconomic environment and competitive landscape. Mr. Bolandian worked on the company’s Merger & Acquisitions deal team and was responsible for executing on company acquisitions. Rob was also a member of the Senior Operating Committee, which was formed to continually implement best practices across the organization.

Rob also has experience trading and managing equity portfolios, S&P futures portfolios, fixed income and merger arbitrage portfolios. Mr. Bolandian’s stock picking was based on deep bottoms-up fundamental research. His portfolios are built to reflect a blend of deep value and GARP and were geared for absolute return.

Mr. Bolandian has his Series 79 & 63 licenses and resides in Westport, Connecticut.

Brian Gerson is Co-President of FS KKR Capital Corp. and Head of Private Credit at FS Investments. Mr. Gerson has more than 25 years of experience in credit investing and corporate lending, with specific expertise in lending through BDCs.

Previously, Mr. Gerson was Group Head and Managing Director at LStar Capital, the credit affiliate of Lone Star Funds. Prior to this, he was a founding member and partner of Solar Capital Partners and held various credit, origination, management and business development roles. Before this, he was a Managing Director in the Leveraged Finance and Financial Sponsors Group at CIBC World Markets, which purchased the Argosy Group, a boutique he joined after beginning his career at Merrill Lynch & Co.

Mr. Gerson graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Tufts University where he earned a BA in Mathematics.

Mr. Rosen is a Partner in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on U.S. direct lending. Additionally, Mr. Rosen plays an important role on the alternative credit team in sourcing new investment opportunities and facilitating collaboration of resources across the Ares Credit Group. Prior to joining Ares in 2019, Mr. Rosen was a Partner at Solar Capital Partners where he was the Head of Lender Finance and was also responsible for managing the firm's commercial finance control equity investments. Previously, he was a Senior Associate at Wellspring Capital Management, where he focused on U.S. middle market private equity investments. In addition, Mr. Rosen was an Analyst in the Sponsor Coverage/Leveraged Finance Group of CIBC World Markets. Mr. Rosen holds a B.A. from Cornell University in Government.

Sajal Srivastava is the Co-Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of TriplePoint Capital. He oversees TriplePoint’s investment analysis, operations, account servicing, portfolio monitoring, and documentation groups.

Mr. Srivastava brings strong investment and operating leadership experience along with a venture lending, leasing and technology finance background having been involved in the industry for more than 18 years. Mr. Srivastava has served as a voting member of TriplePoint’s Investment Committee and has led and overseen TriplePoint’s day to day operations, credit and investment analysis, account servicing, portfolio monitoring, legal and finance groups since co-founding TriplePoint Capital with Mr. Labe. Prior to co-founding TPC, Mr. Srivastava worked with Mr. Labe at Comdisco Ventures where he, as head of their Investment and Credit Analyst team, structured, negotiated and managed over venture lending and leasing transactions and also managed the diligence and credit analysis team.

Prior to Comdisco Ventures, Mr. Srivastava was a financial analyst in the technology investment banking group at Prudential Securities working on debt and equity financings, as well as mergers and acquisitions advisory services. Mr. Srivastava was part of the team that structured Prudential Securities’ partnership with a leading venture-focused commercial bank.

Mr. Srivastava holds a M.S. in Engineering Economic Systems & Operations Research and a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.

Mr. Srivastava serves as the President and Chief Investment Officer of TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp.

CJ participates in the origination, evaluation and monitoring of Northleaf’s private credit investments in North America.

Prior to joining Northleaf in 2019, CJ was a Vice President at Fundamental Advisors where he evaluated and executed on investment opportunities across the capital structure and various sectors.  Previously, CJ was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Restructuring & Recapitalization group at Jefferies. CJ began his career as an Investment Analyst at Man Group. 

CJ received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mr. Arnold is a Managing Director at Pathlight Capital, a Boston based private credit fund. His 25+ years of experience have been focused on middle market private credit across multiple strategies. Prior to joining Pathlight in mid-2022, he spent 11 years at SLR Credit Solutions (f/k/a Crystal Financial) where he was heavily involved in providing capital to commercial and consumer specialty finance businesses.  His prior experience also includes senior investment roles at CIT, CapitalSource and GE Capital.

Mr. Arnold earned his degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University.

Rohit Arora is the CEO and co-founder of Biz2Credit and is responsible for driving Biz2Credit to its leadership position. Rohit is often quoted on small business lending by major news media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Entrepreneurs, American Banker, CNNMoney, MSNBC, Inc., and the Washington Post.

Rohit was named Crain's NY Business "Entrepreneur of the Year 2011". He holds a Masters in International Business from Columbia University and an Engineering degree from India.

Global Private Finance Group. Prior to joining Barings in July 2018, Mr. Bock was a Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities specializing in Business Development Companies (BDCs). He has actively followed the BDC space since 2006 and was the chief author of a leading BDC quarterly research publication: the BDC Scorecard. His research is often cited by The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and other prominent financial publications.

Prior to Wells Fargo, Jonathan followed the specialty finance space at Stifel Nicolaus & Company and A.G. Edwards Inc. Prior to entering sell-side research in 2006, Jonathan was an equity portfolio manager/analyst at Busey Wealth Management in Champaign, Illinois.

Jonathan holds a BS in finance from the University of Illinois College of Business and is a CFA charterholder.

reviously, he was a managing director in the investment banking group of Sandler O’Neill + Partners, L.P. where he specialized in strategic advice and capital raising for specialty finance companies, including equipment and commercial finance, small business lending, BDCs, consumer finance, mortgage, credit card and a range of other non-bank financial services companies. Donohoe has over 20 years of experience as an advisor to the specialty finance industry.

Prior to joining Sandler O’Neill in 2012, Donohoe was a managing director and the head of specialty finance investment banking at BMO Capital Markets. Prior to that, he was a managing director at Bank of America, where he advised specialty finance companies on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and other key strategic and financial initiatives. Before Bank of America, Donohoe was a managing director at J.P. Morgan, where he focused on specialty finance companies.

Donohoe’s recent transaction experience includes advising Ascentium Capital on its sale to Regions Bank, THL Credit on its sale to First Eagle, Gibraltar Business Capital on its sale to Hercules, Regency Finance Company on its sale to Mariner Finance, and Springstone Financial on its sale to Lending Club. Donohoe has also been a key contributor on a number of landmark specialty finance transactions including the multi-billion dollar sales of KKR Financial, CIT and Heller Financial and the IPOs of Capital One, PennantPark, Esquire Financial and Santander Consumer.

Donohoe holds a Master of Business Administration degree with high honors from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Duke University.

Mitch is a Partner and Head of SLR's Lender Finance vertical. Mitch joined SLR in 2009, and focuses on originating, underwriting and structuring both debt and equity transactions in SLR's specialty finance businesses as well as managing existing investments in the space. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of SLR Credit Solutions, SLR Business Credit, SLR Equipment Finance and SLR Healthcare ABL. In addition, he was a founding member of SLR's Aircraft Leasing strategy and currently sits on the Board of Managers for SLR's aviation platform. Prior to joining SLR, Mitch worked in Deutsche Bank’s Industrials Investment Banking Group from 2007 to 2009, focusing on automotive companies. During his time there, he helped execute leveraged finance, equity and M&A transactions. Mitch began his career as an Analyst in Goldman Sachs’ Investment Management division.

Mitch graduated from Northwestern University’s College of Arts & Sciences with a B.S. in Economics, as well as a minor in Business Institutions.

For more than 35 years, Barry has been involved in providing corporate debt advisory services to specialty finance companies and middle market borrowers nationwide  He has arranged financing transactions with a value in excess of a billion dollars over his career, with a particular focus on arranging senior secured debt facilities for specialty finance companies.  Barry has served on the board of directors of several private specialty finance and middle market companies.  Prior to founding Tarkus, Barry was a Managing Partner at Glick Morganstern Capital Group, LLC from 1986 to 2006 where he was responsible for structuring and negotiating asset-based lending facilities for middle market borrowers.

Barry received an B.S. degree in Business Administration from California State University Northridge where he graduated cum laude.  Barry is also a licensed (non-practicing) CPA.

Away from the office, Barry enjoys traveling and spending time with his family, studying classical piano and collecting wine.

Alan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Shinnecock Partners. Alan was the Founder, CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of Answer Financial Inc. and Insurance Answer Center, CEO of Aurora National Life Assurance, President/COO of First Executive Corporation and Executive Vice President and Board Member at Dean Witter Financial Services Group (predecessor to Morgan Stanley), where he formulated the launch of the Discover Card as a member of a three-person team. He is also the former Chairman, President and Board Member of the Western Los Angeles Boy Scout Council. Alan is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Joyce Frost is co-founder of Riverside Risk Advisors and has over 25 years of experience in the interest rate, currency and credit derivatives markets. She is an industry leader in the LIBOR Transition and an active member of the ARRC’s Bilateral Business Loan Working Group, Accounting and Tax Working Group and Conforming Changes, Tax and Term SOFR sub-committees... ↓

Prior to founding Riverside, Joyce was a Senior Vice President of Cournot Capital Inc, a highly successful seller of credit protection sponsored by Morgan Stanley. In her capacity, Joyce assisted in ramping up a portfolio of over $25 billion in swap notional, securing triple AAA credit ratings from three agencies, issuing $250 million of Senior Debt, and facilitating the successful sale of Cournot to an affiliate of Magnetar Capital in 2008.

Prior to Morgan Stanley and before a six year retirement, Joyce was Head of Marketing for Chase's newly-formed Credit Derivatives Group. Between 1995 and 2001, Joyce contributed to the development and execution of the bank's first credit derivatives transactions, including total return swaps, credit default swaps, off balance sheet financing vehicles and the market's first synthetic CLO. Her clients ranged from banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and corporations. During her tenure, Chase's Credit Derivatives group was rated "Best in Credit Derivatives" by Global Finance Magazine and "Best in Credit Derivatives" by Derivatives Strategies Magazine, in addition to other premier industry recognitions.

Between 1985 and 1995, Joyce was responsible for marketing fixed income derivatives to corporate, project finance, real estate and other end users. Joyce successfully concluded hundreds of transactions ranging from plain vanilla swaps to the most complex cross-border project finance transactions in Latin America. She started her fixed income career at The Northern Trust Company, continued at Chase and spent five years at Sumitomo Bank Capital Markets.

Joyce is Co-Editor of the Handbook of Credit Derivatives (McGraw Hill, 1999) and author of many articles published on the use of derivatives by corporations and other end-users. She has spoken at dozens of industry conferences throughout North and South America and Europe.

Joyce earned a B.S. in Finance from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and completed MIT Sloan School of Management's Executive Program: Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy.

Joyce was honored to receive the Legacy Award for the 2019 Market Choice Award: Women in Finance in New York City.

She currently is Board Chair of Excellence Community Schools, a network of charter schools in New York City and Stamford CT, Founding Chair and current VP, Board of Trustees of the Bronx Charter School for Excellence, one of the top rated charter schools in New York State, and a thirty-year member of the Board of Directors of New York Cares, New York City’s premier volunteer organization.

Alex is responsible for originating primarily specialty finance investments for Comvest’s direct lending strategy. Prior to joining Comvest, Alex worked at Encina Capital Partners, where he oversaw sourcing, structuring, and executing specialty finance transactions for the firm’s lender finance strategy. Before Encina, Alex ran the capital markets division at LendingPoint, a consumer specialty finance platform, where he led numerous securitizations. Prior to that, Alex worked as a structurer at Credigy Solutions, an asset manager focused on investments in consumer specialty finance platforms. Alex began his career at J.P. Morgan in the firm’s Structured Products Group.

Alex earned his B.S. in Finance from the University of Louisville.

Ed is a Vice President of Flexpoint focused on identifying, valuing, and executing investments in the Asset Opportunities investment strategy. Prior to joining Flexpoint in 2021, Ed was a Senior Associate at 777 Partners where he focused on executing investments in financial services companies. Prior to 777 Partners, Ed was an investment banking analyst at Jefferies.

Ed received a B.S.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from Georgetown University.

Miguel is a former banker and fintech podcast host. He hosts the Fintech Leaders Podcast and previously co-hosted the Wharton Fintech Podcast, which he grew 13x to a monthly audience of 130k. In a prior life, he was a banker for Citi and MUFG in their structured finance and infrastructure teams. He holds an MBA from Wharton and an MA from the Lauder Institute and has lived in several countries, including Bolivia, China, Russia, Ireland, Uruguay, Italy, and USA. He is fluent in Russian, Spanish, and English.

Tara is Director of Financial Operations at Nuveen Green Capital. Prior to Nuveen Green Capital, Tara worked at BlackRock, structuring and implementing alternative assets including CLOs and other opportunistic funds. She was also a product specialist, which included monitoring performance, covenants, and compliance matters, of a $30 billion re-structured Canadian securitization where BlackRock was hired as the asset manager and administrator.

Prior to BlackRock, she was a member of the structured finance group of Standard and Poor’s (S&P) where she reviewed and analyzed the credit, structure, and cash flows of various types of CDO securities in accordance with S&P’s criteria. Prior to S&P, she was a trustee at Deutsche Bank, administrating the cash flows, compliance, and investments of municipal bonds and asset backed securities. Tara received her undergraduate degree in Finance from Seton Hall University.

Julie Gillespie, a partner in Mayer Brown’s Chicago Office, is co-head of the Structured Finance practice and a member of the firm’s Partnership Board. She has extensive experience representing commercial banks, ABCP conduits, originators, sponsors and investors in structuring, negotiating and documenting asset-backed and other structured finance transactions. Her experience has involved the securitization of credit card receivables, personal loans, solar loans, auto loans and leases, fleet leases, student loans, and auto and equipment dealer floorplan receivables, as well as synthetic risk transfers. Julie’s areas of expertise include master trust and other revolving structures for the financing of both traditional revolving assets, including credit card and dealer floorplan accounts, as well non-revolving assets, such as fleet leases. 

Julie co-chairs the Structured Finance Association’s Legal Counsel Committee. She is also former co-chair of the Structured Finance Association’s Credit Card Committee and led the Structured Finance Association risk retention industry guide working group. 

Kevin Moyer joined Sax in 2022 as Partner and Leader of the firm’s Transaction Advisory & Corporate Restructuring Practice. He brings over a decade of experience and is responsible for the overall strategy and the delivery of client related services. His robust transaction knowledge allows him to advise his clients on financial and operational diligence, capital structure optimization and corporate restructuring mandates.  Prior to joining Sax, Kevin was a member of the Transaction Strategy & Execution Group at EY Parthenon (“EYP”), a top 5 global strategy consulting firm. While at EYP, Kevin focused on the execution of Sell & Separate mandates, which included operational and financial diligence for carveouts, spins and divestitures for leading private equity firms and Fortune 100 companies.  Kevin also served as the CFO of a private equity backed manufacturer during a large-scale turnaround and restructuring effort.  His efforts led to the receipt of both the Small Market Turnaround of the Year award from the Global M&A Network and the Restructuring Community Impact award from The M&A Advisor, having previously served as the Director of M&A Strategy for the firm.

Stacey J. Schacter as President and Chief Legal Officer of VION Investments manages the acquisition and collection of consumer and commercial debt. Since 1990, Stacey has focused on receivable buying, servicing and collections in the financial services industry, serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of Briannaco Investments; President of OSI Portfolio Services; President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Legal Officer of EMCC, Inc.; and attorney and advisor to several debt and receivable purchasing firms.

Mr. Schacter was a practicing attorney from 1988 to 1999 concentrating in Corporate, Securities, Securities Litigation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Specialized Asset Acquisition, International Business Transactions, Technology, Real Estate, Business Reorganization, Workouts, Bankruptcy (Chapter 11), Commercial, Banking and Restructuring. Mr. Schacter is a member of the Ohio and Massachusetts Bar; is authorized to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court; and has passed the CPA Exam.

Mr. Schacter has had several publications and speaking engagements on the economy and its effects on the receivables industry, collection practices, and bankruptcy. He is a former member of the Debt Buyer's Association Board of Directors and most recently was Chair of its Certification Task Force to create standards for the debt purchasing industry resulting in the first published standards for debt buying in the United States. He is currently a member of the American Bar Association Business and Securities Committee.

Jeff Taft is partner in Mayer Brown’s Financial Services Regulatory & Enforcement group and the Consumer Financial Services practice and based in the Washington DC office. His practice focuses primarily on bank regulation, bank receivership and insolvency issues, consumer financial services and cybersecurity/privacy issues. He has extensive experience providing bank regulatory and consumer financial services advice in connection with complex structured finance and capital markets transactions and regularly counsels financial institutions, merchants, fintechs and other entities on various federal and state banking and consumer credit issues and compliance with the Consumer Financial Protection Act, Truth-in-Lending Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, state unfair or deceptive acts or practices statutes and the CFPB's UDAAP authority. He also counsels clients on structuring and operating bank partner and BaaS programs and ensuring compliance with third party vendor risk management and vendor oversight responsibilities.