2026 Operations and Technology Conference

REGISTRATION SPONSORED BY
Asset, Inc.

Loan Market Highlights and LSTA Initiatives

Speaker

• SEAN GRIFFIN, CEO and Executive Director, LSTA

This panel will explore the operational realities across both markets, highlighting where processes converge and diverge and how greater collaboration can reduce friction while improving efficiency, accuracy, and risk management. Specifically, panelists will examine the impact of agented vs. bilateral workflows, liquidity dynamics and the challenges of reconciling fragmented data across participants, as well as the complexities of primary and secondary markets. The discussion will also address how agent banks, fund administrators, custodians and trustees manage loan administration, reporting, and compliance.

Moderator

• ILARIA FLEISCHER, Managing Director and Head of Private Deal, Loan and Onboarding Operations, Oak Hill Advisors

Speakers

• MATT CLARKIN, Senior Vice President and Head of Private Market Operations, U.S. Bank
• SANDRA CUSKIE, Vice President of Loan Operations, PGIM Public and Private Fixed Income
• MARC SILEO, Managing Director, Blackstone Credit and Insurance
• ALLISON TANENBAUM, Managing Director and Global Head of Trading Operations, Apollo

Data integrity is critical for operational scale, automation, and innovation, providing the foundation for efficiency, transparency, and risk management. Flexibility in credit agreements, funding strategies, and amendments allows borrowers, lenders, sponsors, and banks to meet bespoke needs—but it also introduces operational complexity. This panel will explore how market participants can establish a shared, trusted source of data to reconcile positions, lifecycle events, and cash flows across systems while working within the realities of a highly customizable market. Panelists will discuss how workflow automation, connectivity, industry-standard identifiers, APIs, cloud-based architecture, and stronger data governance can improve accuracy and efficiency, enabling scalable and auditable operations.

Moderator

• HUGO PEREIRA, Vice President of Analytics & Investor Strategy, LSTA

Speakers

• BRIAN CALLAHAN, Founder and CEO, Coefficient Markets
• JULIA KINGSBURY, Product Strategist, Versana
• DON NILSSON, Chief Product Officer, Siepe

SPONSORED BY
LoanStreet

Periods of market stress reveal operational weaknesses. This session will examine the complexities of handling amendments, restructurings and corporate actions in both syndicated and private credit markets. Panelists will discuss solutions to streamline consent tracking, agreement updates and lender communications, emphasizing process standardization, workflow automation and coordination between legal, operations and technology teams – to show that cross market collaboration is necessary to improve accuracy, speed and transparency.

Moderator

• JACQUELINE CUSTODIO, Director of Commercial Strategy – Loans Data, S&P Global Market Intelligence

Speakers

• GUY NUCKLES, Co-director of Operations, Shenkman
• CAROLINA QUINONEZ, Director and Global Head of Middle Office Syndicated Loan Trading, BNP Paribas
• JAKE REYNOLDS, Assistant Vice President of U.S. Client Confidentiality/Corporate Actions, Barclays

This year’s review will present settlement time benchmarks and examine how each stage of the trade lifecycle impacts overall settlement, using data from S&P Global’s ClearPar platform. Insights from 2025 and Q1 2026 will be shared, highlighting key drivers of settlement delays, areas of improvement, and how market participants can use technology to enhance trade closing, payments and data management based on ClearPar’s proprietary analytics.

Speaker

• JACK COLOMBINI, U.S. Head of ClearPar, Americas, S&P Global Market Intelligence

Settlement processes can be complex and error-prone, particularly across multi-lender structures. This panel will examine ways to improve settlement reliability, speed, accuracy and transparency, including streamlining process standardization, implementing automation and technology integration, ensuring agent and borrower coordination and revising trade documentation protocols. Panelists will explore best practices for both actively traded syndicated loans and less liquid private credit facilities, highlighting opportunities to improve liquidity while reducing reconciliation issues and settlement risk.

Moderator

• ELLEN HEFFERAN, Executive Vice President of Operations and Accounting, LSTA

Speakers

• DEIRDRE WHORTON CESARIO, VP and Head of Trade Closing, Americas, Deutsche Bank
• BERNADETTE CONWAY-CRAFT, Executive Director and Head of Global Loan Operations, Americas, UBS
• JEFF FRUSCIANTE, Managing Director and Head of Operations, Brigade Capital Management
• KRISTIE GUTIERREZ, Director and Head of U.S. Loan Trading Operations, Citigroup
• MARY HEATH, SVP and Head of Private Market Operations, Voya Investment Management
• JAMES PAGNAM, Senior Director of Bank Loan Operations and Settlements, Canyon Capital

For too long, the industry has focused on AI’s promise – this panel focuses on putting it into practice. AI and workflow automation are transforming loan operations by reducing manual effort, improving accuracy, and strengthening risk management.Panelists will highlight practical use cases, including notice parsing, covenant tracking, cash application and predictive exception management, alongside automated document abstraction, interest and fee validation and trade break analysis. The discussion will emphasize integration into existing workflows, as well as the governance and controls needed to scale, showing how automation underpins broader modernization.

Moderator

• MICHELE LIEBER, SVP and Global Head of Government Affairs and Regulatory Strategy, FactSet

Speakers

• CORAN DARLING, Associate, DLA Piper
• RUSSEL JOSEPH, Senior Vice President of Product, Nammu21
• DANIEL LIECHTENSTEIN, Co-founder and CEO, Hypercore
• RYAN MORICK, Managing Director, Private Credit Innovation & Strategy Team, Alter Domus
• CHRIS PAPATHANASSI, CEO and Founder, Oneiro Solutions

Exploring how distributed ledger technology, cloud-native platforms, digital assets and smart contracts could improve multi-party coordination, data consistency and transparency across syndicated and private credit markets, this panel focuses on practical, collaborative adoption without altering the private nature of loan contracts. Panelists will discuss applications including shared loan records, smart contract-driven interest calculations, corporate actions, waterfall distributions and tokenized or programmable cash for faster settlement. Governance models, permissioned networks and integration with existing systems will also be covered, emphasizing operational outcomes rather than technology hype. 

Moderator

• TYLER HARTTRAFT, Partner, Bull Harttraft LLP

Speakers

• CHARLES CARTER, SVP and Global Head of Digital Asset Transformation & Operations, State Street
• JAY KATZ, CEO of Loan Market Solutions, Etherealize
• PAUL ZAPPIER, Founder, President and Chief Product Officer, HashLynx

SPONSORED BY
Alston & Bird

As private credit platforms grow, operational strain emerges. This panel will identify whether private credit can leapfrog legacy BSL systems, discussing how operational teams can scale efficiently while maintaining control and highlighting opportunities for standardization, system integration, and collaborative process improvement.

Moderator

• MICHAEL SCHUSTER, Managing Director, BBH

Speakers

• GAURAV DIWAN, Director of Private Funds Implementations and Technology, Indus Valley Partners
• TODD FELLHAUER, Head of Operations, Golub Capital
• JOSH HERRERA, President & Co-founder, LendOS
• SANDRA STULBERGER, Managing Director, BlackRock

Synthesizing the day’s discussions, the final session identifies where the market must collectively modernize within the next 1–3 years, from priorities and technology adoption to governance and skills development.

Moderator

• ELLEN HEFFERAN, Executive Vice President of Operations and Accounting, LSTA

Speakers

• ANN-MARIE BAKER, Deputy COO, Muzinich & Co.
• ELENA BOEVA, Director and U.S. Chief Operating Officer, Aflac Global Investments
• JOANNE HANSONBONNEY, Partner, Ares Management

SPONSORED BY
Oneiro Solutions