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Speaker
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Bio
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Hosted by:
Michael Dance
Chairman |
Michael Dance is a highly experienced finance professional with over 30 years of expertise spanning investment banking, debt advisory, and corporate finance across global markets.Michael currently serves as a Senior Advisor to KPMG Finland and as a Senior Consultant to Grant Thornton UK (Debt Advisory). For a decade, he was a Senior Advisor to DebtExplained prior to its acquisition by Reorg (now Octus).
Michael brings a unique perspective to debt markets, having operated from multiple angles throughout his career as senior executive in Corporate & Investment Banking, qualified Chartered Accountant and lawyer. His international experience includes speaking at numerous debt conferences across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. He was a member of the advisory panel for the IIR Mezzanine Conference in 2005 and 2006.
Michael was also involved in the EU Phare programme, during which he advised the Estonian Government on the formation of its stock exchange and capital markets development.
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Chris Hawes
Managing Director Debt & Capital Advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC)
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Chris has around 30 years experience in the Trade and Receivables and Asset Based Lending Markets. Commencing with GE Capital and then moving on to lead, develop and grow the RBS Asset Based Lending Business in the UK.Moving on to HSBC, Chris was Head of Transaction Risk Management in Europe for Global Trade and Receivables Finance. This role gave Chris experience outside the UK, including assignments to Hong Kong ans South Korea.
In 2012 Chris joined PwC to work in their Debt and Capital Advisory business, and to lead the ABL channel.
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Alex Griffith
Private Credit Partner at Proskauer
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Alex Griffith is a Private Credit partner at Proskauer and a member of the Global Finance practice.
Alex’s practice focuses on the private credit markets, advising senior, second lien, unitranche, Holdco PIK and other private capital providers.
Alex’s extensive experience covers a wide range of transactions, including corporate refinancings, management buyouts and but-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.
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Stuart Hawkins
Head of Private Credit UK and Managing Director at Ardian
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Stuart Hawkins, joined Ardian in 2018 and has over 20 years of experience in the European leverage buyout market. He began his career working in the leveraged finance team at UBS, and then spent 9 years in the European mezzanine and private debt group at Barings investing in European middle market credit. Prior to joining Ardian he worked at TSSP, TPG's credit platform, as a Director helping develop its European private debt business.
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Louise Harvey
Partner, Debt Advisory at Deloitte LLP
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Louise Harvey advises financial sponsers on funding packages to support their portfolio companies, at the point of investment, during ownership and upon exit. She has worked with numerous sponsers and borrowers across the full spectrum of debt products, across multiple geographies and sectors with a particular focus on TMT, healthcare, financial and business services.
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Salil Shah
Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey
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Mr. Shah is a Managing Director in Houlihan Lokey’s EMEA Restructuring Group and advises debtor and creditor clients in Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, and India. He has nearly two decades of experience advising clients on financial restructurings and capital markets transactions across a wide range of sectors and geographies. Mr. Shah is based in the firm’s London office.
Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Shah had a 12-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he held a number of roles within the debt restructuring, leveraged finance, and credit risk management groups. Before that, he held strategy and business development positions at Jaico Securities and Citigroup. Mr. Shah began his career in the Financial Sponsors coverage group at Salomon Brothers.
Mr. Shah holds a BA in Economics and Art History from Columbia University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
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Robbie Harris
Managing Director at Deutsche Bank |
Robbie is a Managing Director in Deutsche Bank’s Distressed Products Group (“DPG”) and heads the research part of the business. Robbie has c. 20 years of experience in banking, 18 of which have been focussed on financial distress and restructuring from a corporate credit perspective. Robbie originally advised on restructuring deals, usually on the borrower side before moving to focus on distressed trading opportunities. Robbie has worked on situations across Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia and most recently across the Middle East. Robbie began his career at HSBC before moving to Deutsche Bank.
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Marc-Henry Bellier
Managing Director at BNP Paribas |
Marc-Henry is a Managing Director in BNP Paribas’s European Leveraged Finance team where he mainly focuses on the structuring and placement of Leveraged Loans and High Yield instruments for both corporate and sponsor-owned issuers.
He has over fifteen years of experience leading transactions for clients in Europe and North America for the placement of public and private instruments as well as advising on complex liability management and capital structure optimization exercises.
Marc-Henry is based in London and graduated from ESCP Business School where he teaches the Leveraged Finance course for the school’s Masters in Finance.
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Andrew Benson
Portfolio Manager at Pemberton |
Andrew is a Portfolio Manager on the Senior Loan Strategy, where his responsibilities include the selection, due diligence and structuring of new investments and the management of the strategy. He also looks after third-party sell-downs and co-investments across the Pemberton strategies.
Prior to joining Pemberton in 2016, he was at Goldman Sachs from 2010 to 2016, working in both the Market Solutions Group and Leveraged Finance teams.
Andrew has over 15 years’ experience in corporate credit markets, including buy-side experience at KBC AIM, where he started his career.
He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Masters in Engineering and is a CFA Charterholder.
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Trevor Truman
Partner at Milbank LLP |
Trevor Truman is a partner in the London office of Milbank LLP in the European Leveraged Finance/Capital Markets group.
Primary Focus & Experience : Trevor advises on public and private capital markets and finance transactions, with a particular emphasis on high yield bonds, leveraged finance and direct lending. With 20 years’ experience in both London and New York, Trevor has represented initial purchasers, issuers and sponsors in over €250 billion of high yield bond offerings, and has extensive experience advising on leveraged buyouts, direct lending, private placements, initial public offerings, general corporate matters and US securities law reporting and compliance. He also has significant experience advising issuers, noteholders and financial advisors in complex and innovative restructurings and distressed debt liability management exercises.
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Hemal Ruparelia
Director in Infrastructure Debt at ING |
Hemal Ruparelia is adirector in Infrastructure Debt at ING leads the origination and execution of debt transactions across EMEA, with a focus on the transport, regulated utilities, social and core-plus infrastructure sectors. Based in London, he is responsible for providing senior and subordinated debt for projects, acquisitions, and fund-level NAV financings. He has extensive experience managing key client relationships—including corporates and infrastructure equity funds — implementing sustainable financing solutions and innovative structures. He also coordinates ING’s infrastructure origination activities in the Middle East and globally for ECA financings, delivering market-leading solutions across a broad spectrum of the infrastructure debt landscape.
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Ian Guthrie
Partner, Head of Real Estate Advisory
at Grant Thornton |
Ian is a highly accomplished leader with a wealth of expertise from senior roles in real estate, banking, finance and credit, recently joining Grant Thornton to lead its Real Estate Advisory business. Previously he led JLL’s pan-EMEA Loan Advisory business advising a diverse client base including banks, non-bank lenders and credit investors as well as developers, investors and operators of real estate. He is a former Managing Director and Head of Lloyds’ non-core CRE loan portfolio and a former Senior Advisor and External Member of Global Advisory Council to a $20bn global credit investment firm as well as a former two-term NED of the UK Government’s Industrial Development Advisory Board.
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