Connie Bailey-Blake is Vice President and Senior Operations Manager within Agency Services at Truist Bank.   She is responsible for supervising the loan settlement and loan trading operations teams, providing guidance in a fast-paced environment.  She is passionate and strives to attain operational excellence by improving processes and procedures to ensure accuracy, reduce errors and improve settlement times.  A result-driven leader with exceptional communication, negotiation, and organizational skills, she has long established relationships across the industry.   She is a member of the Operations Steering Group of the LSTA.

Prior to joining Truist Bank, Connie was Vice President of the bank loan settlement group at Angelo Gordon for 12 ½ years where she was responsible for managing par and distressed trade settlement.  She supervised the settlement vendors, focusing on vendor initiatives to implement efficiencies in connection with corporate actions and the KYC process.   She was a member of the LSTA Buy-side Operations Working Group and one of the original members of the Loan Settlement and Operations Forum.

Prior to joining Angelo Gordon in 2004, Ms. Bailey-Blake was employed by Citigroup for 12 years in a variety of roles including: trading assistant on the desk where she was the liaison between traders, council and operations, par and distressed closer and, administrative agent.

Connie holds a BME and MME (Bachelor/Master of Music Education) from Oklahoma Baptist University and the University of Central Arkansas, respectively.

Rajiv Bhat is the co-founder and CEO of martini.ai, which delivers Agentic AI workflows powered by the world’s broadest and fastest private credit risk engine. martini.ai integrates comprehensive market data into a massive knowledge graph, providing daily credit risk analysis on 3.5M+ companies. From due diligence to portfolio monitoring, its solutions help borrowers, lenders, and secondary buyers of private debt make informed decisions and adapt to the ever-evolving credit landscape.

Previously, Rajiv co-founded Mertado (Y Combinator W2010), which was acquired by Groupon, and led Data Science at InMobi, a global ad tech unicorn. He also worked at McKinsey & Co. and Kosmix (now Walmart Labs). Rajiv holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Brian Callahan is currently the Founder and CEO of Coefficient Markets, an electronic data and trading firm focused on the secondary loan market. Prior to starting Coefficient, he spent 18 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch as Managing Director, Head of US Par Loan Trading and Head of Electronic Initiatives for the Global Credit and Special Situations. While at the bank, he created and developed Instinct Loans, the first electronic marketplace for trading syndicated corporate loans. Brian served on the Board of the Loan Syndications & Trading Association and was elected Chairman of the Board for 2017. He also currently serves on the board of Nammu21, a syndicated loan digitization and analytics startup.

Deirdre Whorton Cesario joined Deutsche Bank in 1999 and has remained with the firm for almost 25 years. She currently serves as the Head of Trade Closing for the Americas, responsible for the oversight of all trade settlements across various products including Primary Syndications, Par Loans, Distressed Products, and Third-Party Agency trades.

Deirdre received a B.S. degree in Finance from Fairfield University.

Matthew has more than 15 years of experience in the investment servicing industry, primarily in custodian product management and relationship management roles.

In his current role, Matthew serves as the product manager for U.S. Bank CLO trustee business, tasked with strategy and project management initiatives. Previously, he served in leadership roles in middle office outsourcing, government loan guarantee program assignments and was the business line’s subject matter expert on distressed ABS CDO liquidations following the financial crisis. He joined U.S. Bank in 2010 after our acquisition of Bank of America’s corporate trust department. Matthew is located in Chicago, Illinois.

Matthew earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is also a CFA charterholder.

Jason Cohen leads Octaura’s Operations functions including Legal, Compliance, Market and Customer support, and Finance.  Since joining Octaura in 2022, Jason has helped define the company strategy and ensure effective execution of the business objectives.  For more than 25 years, Jason has been at the forefront of the trading markets electronification evolution having served as COO for BrokerTec and EBS, each market leaders in electronic trading in the Rates and FX spaces respectively.  Following the CME acquisition in 2019, Jason was Managing Director of Product Management and Operations focused on Front-end product, OMS integration, and Rates settlement.

He holds an MBA from Fordham University and a BS in Accounting from Binghamton University.  He is a Certified Public Accountant and licensed Series 27 FinOps Principal.

Jack Colombini has worked within S&P Global’s Loan Platforms and ClearPar groups for over 18 years and currently is Executive Director of Business Development. Over time with the firm, his responsibilities have ranged across operations, commercial and client management roles. Working together with client users and internal product development teams is central to his current position as he contextualizes feedback and delivers new features to market. Recent projects he has contributed to include designing ClearPar’s new interface, driving ADFlow adoption efforts and new features such as penny change automation and participation workflow.

Jack received a BS in Financial Economics and Philosophy from University of Maine at Orono

Jackie has spent 12-years in Barclays Wholesale Leveraged Loan Operations where she currently heads the US Corporate Actions, NDAs, and Settlement & Servicing divisions.  Before her role at Barclays, she worked in the criminal law sector for both public and private counsel.  When Jackie assumed the corporate actions process in 2017, she channeled her paralegal, LEAN, project management, and closing experiences (LSTA, LMA, and Agency) to restructure the corporate actions experience for Barclays’ desk and clients. Additionally, over the last year, Jackie has spearheaded an agency amendments transformation project to bring clarity and standardization to documentation, while ensuring relevant and substantive information is communicated to appropriate stakeholders, with the goal to facilitate swifter returns to closing for the market.

Jackie has a B.A. and Paralegal Certification from The University of Delaware and resides in Townsend, DE, with her husband Michael, her amazingly talented daughters Ayannah and Lilita, and three dogs: Momma Honeybear, Snoopy & Chica. In addition to her work with Barclays, Jackie fosters with Renee’s Rescues, and to date has helped find loving homes for 20 dogs.

Seth Denison began his career with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in 2003. He is currently a Director with a focus on loan operations.  During his 21-year career, he has held various roles, from Par and Distressed Loan Closer to Trader’s Assistant.  Since 2008, he has been the Manager of the US Loan Closing and Documentation Team.

Mr. Denson graduated from State University of New York at Albany in 1996 (B.A.) and from Touro Law – Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in 1999 (J.D.).

Jennifer Donovan is a Principal at Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP.  She manages the global team responsible for the settlement of loans, claims and private equity and the administration of corporate actions.

Jennifer received her B.A. from Columbia University, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude.

Christopher Errico is Managing Director – Head of Settlements & Portfolio Data Management at CIFC and has 28 years of experience in operations, change management and business process re-engineering specializing in CLOs and other Loan products. Prior to joining CIFC, Mr. Errico held various management level roles at Deutsche Bank over 14 years including Head of Global Loan Services, DB’s third party loan servicing provider, specializing in CLOs, distressed debt and agency services. Prior to that, Mr. Errico was Head of Global Loan Consulting responsible for all change management across DB’s loan operations group globally. Most recently, Mr. Errico was part of DB’s Business Engineering team which was responsible for all business process engineering across Operations.

Mr. Errico holds a B.B.A in Finance from the University of Miami.

Vinnie is the Vice President of Commercial Lending at LoanStreet where he oversees their corporate and commercial loan servicing product.  Prior to joining LoanStreet in 2021, Vinnie spent 21 years in Citigroup’s North America Loan Operations. His last assignment was Head of the Institutional Clients Group, North America Loan Operations, which he held for 10 years. Vinnie is recognized world-wide for his knowledge of Loan Agency and Trading functions across the Broadly Syndicated Loan and Private Credit-Direct Lending markets.

Vinnie holds both a Master’s and Baccalaureate Degree from the University of Delaware.

Ilaria Fleischer (New York) joined KKR in 2021 and is the Global Head of Private Credit Operations, Loan and Securities Settlements and Agency. Prior to joining KKR, Ms. Fleischer established the corporate access team at Citadel. Previously, she spent 13 years at Morgan Stanley on the distressed desk, where she focused on distressed loans, high yield bonds and trade claims.

She received a B.A in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania

Kevin Gallagher joined Bain Capital in 2006. He is a Senior Vice President and the Head of Operations for Credit and Insurance. Kevin is responsible for the Middle Office, Trade Settlement, Asset Servicing, Corporation Actions, and Reconciliation functions. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Kevin was a Senior Manager at Investors Bank & Trust where he was responsible for running the middle office operations for their alternative investment clients.

Kevin received a BS from Providence College.

Sean Griffin is the CEO & Executive Director of the LSTA, the trade association for the multi-trillion dollar corporate loan market in the United States.

Prior to joining the LSTA in April 2024, Mr. Griffin spent 23 years at JPMorgan where he was a Managing Director and held various roles within its global markets division, including deputy head and co-head of JPMorgan’s Global Primary CLO business.  Mr. Griffin’s experience covers cash flow and market value securitization products and spans multiple asset classes focusing on corporate credit and bank loans.

While at JPMorgan, Mr. Griffin worked with various issuers and investors, including private equity, hedge funds, asset & money managers, banks and insurance companies.  Mr. Griffin utilized CLO/CDO technology to provide clients with access to capital and address their business goals, whether it be the growth of AUM via traditional CLO/CDO issuance, balance sheet relief and more specialized bespoke financing solutions.

Mr. Griffin received a BA in Mathematical Economics from Brown University.  He resides in Westport, CT with his family where he is actively involved with youth sports, including football, soccer and rugby.

Simon Harrison is Director of North America Lending Operations at Citibank. He is responsible for Loan Booking, Servicing & Trade Settlement activities throughout the lifecycle of a loan contract. His responsibilities span leveraged finance, securitized & collateralized lending product segments.

Simon is a Citi representative at the LSTA Operating Steering Group and is an advocate for driving the Lending Operations Industry forward.

​Mary Heath serves as the Head of Private Market Operations for Voya Investment Management, where she is responsible for the platform operations, cash management and settlement, data strategy, system solutions and strategic partner management relating to private credit and bank loans. Mary and her team partner with the investment team to offer mid-and back-office support functions. Previously at Voya, she held such roles as Treasury Manager, Portfolio Specialist and Financial Reporting Analyst for the group. She is a member of the Voya Fund Platform Leadership Committee, and is actively involved with a number of industry associations and initiatives.

Mary earned an BS in Finance from Arizona State University and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Ellen Hefferan is the Executive Vice President of Operations and Accounting of the LSTA.   She manages key operational strategies and initiatives, including establishing best practices and settlement standards, that facilitate a more efficient and liquid market.  She also reviews proposed regulatory rulemaking for operational challenges.   Ms. Hefferan supports the Liquidity Committee, and chairs the Operations Steering Group, the Settlement Committee, the Buy-side Operations Committee, the Custodian/Trustee/Fund Administrator Committee, the Private Credit Operations Committee, and co-chairs the Product and Technology Committee, assessing current operations while identifying opportunities for improvement, standardization, and system interoperability.   She also chairs the CUSIP and MEI/CEI Working Groups.   She is responsible for the SOFR Calculator and the Directory and Escalation Matrix.

Previously, Ms. Hefferan served as President of ClearPar from the founding of the settlement platform in 2000 until March of 2006, Vice President and Senior Counsel at Citigroup where she provided transactional and advisory support to the loan syndications, trading and sales desks and the corporate banking origination units,  Associate with Winston and Strawn and staff accountant in the Audit Division of Arthur Andersen & Co.

She received both a BS in Public Accounting and Marketing and a JD from Fordham University.   She is a member of the New York State Bar and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Josh Herrera is the Co-Founder & President of LendOS where he leads Product Management.  Prior to LendOS, Josh spent nearly 20 years performing various Lending Operations roles at Citibank, Barclays, and Morgan Stanley.  In his last role, Josh was the Global Head of Lending Operations at Morgan Stanley.  He is widely considered a specialist in the Administrative Agency space, starting his career as an Agency Loan Administrator and expanding into leading various Operations and Middle Office teams across organizations and regions.

LendOS is an innovative technology company whose flagship product is its next-gen Core Lending System. Originally positioned as a way for banks to dig their way out of their antiquated legacy ecosystem, LendOS’s powerful, simple and technologically advanced capabilities lend themselves to support all key market players (banks, buysides, broker/dealers, agents and custodians) and loan categories (Broadly Syndicated, Private Credit, Investment Grade, etc.).

Grant Jordan is a credit trading desk analyst and loan portfolio manager at Truist Securities. Grant joined Truist in early 2024 to help lead the transition of the bank’s loan trading desk to a public-side flow trading group. He previously worked at Wells Fargo for over 20 years in leveraged finance trading where he was managing director and helped build Wells Fargo’s business into a top five leveraged finance trading desk. Grant worked as a desk analyst and publishing high yield analyst at Wells Fargo and was named by Institutional Investor to the All-Star Fixed Income Research Team for over a decade. He started his career in investment banking at First Union / Bowles Hollowell Conner in mergers and acquisitions.

Grant earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Washington & Lee University and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Prior to joining HalseyPoint in June 2024, Karen was the Senior Director of Operations for Post Advisory Group.  Karen joined Post in 2012 and was promoted to Director of Operations in 2019. She served in this capacity until her departure in June 2024.

As the Senior Director of Operations, Karen was responsible for managing the full scope of operational duties across the firm’s platforms. This included onboarding new accounts, daily, monthly, and quarterly reporting for the separately managed accounts, mutual funds and the CLOs, trade settlements for all asset types, processing of corporate actions and amendments for bank loans, and cash and position reconciliations. Karen also managed the third-party vendor relationships including annual onsite due diligence visits.

Previously, Karen spent three years at Ares Management, where she managed the settlement process of a wide range of products, including par and distressed bank loans, private equity and private debt trades. Prior to Ares, Karen was at Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, where she co-managed the back-office operations team and was responsible for on-boarding new CLO structures. She was also a business analyst at RiverSource Investments, where she was responsible for the compliance reporting for various CLO structures.

Ryan Morick is Head of Agency Corporates, Chicago.

Before joining Alter Domus, Ryan was Manager of Fund Operations at Trian Partners. He implemented their portfolio administration system and oversaw the closing and administering of their leveraged loan portfolio.

Prior to Trian, Ryan worked for both Garrison Partners and York Capital on their operations teams with a focus on closing leveraged loan transactions and managing the settlement of various other securities. Throughout his career Ryan has had a focus on leveraged loans and has worked in operations on both the buy and sell side of the business.

Ryan holds a degree in Economics from Boston University.

Ms. Myers is a senior vice president and manager in the alternatives operations group in the Chicago office, focusing on operational support for the firm’s syndicated bank loan investments. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2021, she was a senior vice president of asset administration in the corporate trust division of U.S. Bank, where she oversaw asset setup and maintenance, loan administration, and agency functions for bank loans.

She has 18 years of investment and financial services experience and holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Illinois.

Nicholas Nolan is Managing Director, Solutions Management and R&D at SS&C. He primarily works with Hedge Funds, Assets Managers, and Fund Administrators as they evaluate new operating models for middle and back office technology and services. Areas of expertise include complex derivatives, bank loans, Bank Loan, Credit and Debt processing, Reconciliation and Asset Servicing. Prior to that he worked at Fidelity Investments in Collateral Risk Management.

He is a graduate of Columbia University and currently lives in NYC with his wife and two children.

Mr. Pagnam is the Senior Director of Bank Loan Operations and Settlements at Canyon Capital Advisors. Mr. Pagnam overseas all bank loan settlement and operation functions across the various Canyon platforms. Before Canyon, Mr. Pagnam worked at the loan trading desk at Credit Suisse in various roles.

Mr. Pagnam graduated from Skidmore College (B.A., Political Economics).

Hugo Pereira is Vice President of Market Analytics & Investor Strategy at the LSTA. Previously, he was a Director of Analysis at Refinitiv, focusing on the leveraged loan and CLO markets, and product manager for LPC Collateral, Refinitiv’s CLO analytic product. Over his tenure, Hugo covered the syndicated loan market and broader credit markets and was a frequent contributor to Refinitiv publications.

Ken Rothenberg leads the Distressed Debt & Claims Trading Team, a niche and complex field requiring particular legal and financial expertise. With over 20 years’ experience, Ken is one of the most trusted and recognized authorities on bank debt and claims trading matters. His advice is sought by the most sophisticated market participants in the par and distressed trading market for broadly syndicated loans, private credit, distressed securities, bankruptcy claims, claims arising from litigation proceedings, and other unique trading opportunities.

Ken represents some of the largest and most well-known investment banks, market makers, credit funds, CLOs, and buyside entities in all aspects of loan and claims trading. Clients look to Ken in understanding primary and secondary market standards, conventions, and documentation for trading liquid and illiquid par and distressed bank loans and claims.

Ken is also an active participant in the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) and the Loan Market Association (LMA), sitting on numerous committees. He is a regular speaker for the LSTA on topics relating to primary and secondary loan market transactions and regularly assists the LSTA in updating its loan trading documentation utilized in the primary and secondary market.

Cynthia Sachs joined Versana as Founding CEO in 2021 following decades of experience in the syndicated loan market, financial technology space and across various start-up ventures. Cynthia spent her early career as a TMT leveraged finance banker at Bank of America, and thereafter held senior portfolio manager and trader positions at Natixis CIB and within Morgan Stanley’s global proprietary trading group covering all industries. Post-2009, she spearheaded the creation of Bloomberg’s fixed income pricing business BVAL, now the global leader in the bond and loan valuation space. Most recently, she served as CEO and Chief Investment Officer of a boutique specialty finance company founded by Carlyle, Athena Art Finance, that was subsequently acquired by Yieldstreet in 2019.

Cynthia holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Ms. Schneider oversees membership relations including the development of programs and initiatives that help deepen engagement and outreach with the LSTA member community. Ms. Schneider brings over 16 years of experience in the financial services industry, most notably in her roles as a Director at Citigroup and SVP at Jefferies in Loan Sales. During her tenure at Citigroup, she was captain of the NYU recruiting team and was selected to mentor rising analysts and associates.

Prior to business school, Ms. Schneider held positions at Morgan Stanley in the Corresponding Clearing Group in New York and in London and at Goldman Sachs in their GSAM division. She has an MBA in Finance from NYU Stern School of Business and a BS from Union College in Schenectady, NY.

Courtney Schones joined OHA in 2012 and is the Head of Private Deal Operations.   She has responsibility for coordination of private deal operations for the U.S. and U.K. offices including Agency oversight. She previously worked in fund accounting at OHA. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Schones worked in assurance services at Ernst & Young.

She graduated with a B.B.A. in Accounting, magna cum laude, from the University of Oklahoma and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Chris serves as a Principal at Churchill Asset Management, a $50 billion U.S. middle market private capital manager where he manages the Asset Servicing and Private Equity operations functions. Prior to joining Churchill, Chris was a Director at Bain Capital. While at Bain, he was responsible for managing the trade settlement function across the Credit, Public Equity and Partnership Strategies business units. Chris began his career at State Street where he held various operational roles supporting the asset management, securities lending and custody lines of business.

Chris received his B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross and his M.B.A. from Boston College.

Michael Schuster is a product specialist overseeing Syndicated Loans and Private Credit business within BBH’s Alternative Fund Services team. In his role, Michael focuses on driving optimization and strategic transformation across product design, systems, and workflows for private credit operations. With a multi-dimensional understanding of loan servicing, Mike helps clients effectively adapt to the changing dynamics within the private credit space.

As the former Global Head of Loan Accounting, he oversaw significant growth in the team’s loan assets under administration. During his tenure at the firm, he also oversaw the Cash Reconciliations, Transactions, Derivatives, and Corporate Action Accounting teams.

Additionally, Michael works with key industry stakeholders to advance the private credit market. He is an active member on LSTA’s Private Credit Committee and Service Provider Working Group, where he advocates for clients and supports the organization’s broader mission to establish loan market standards and best practices.

Prior to joining BBH, Michael worked at Investors Bank and Trust as a Director in the Client Management, Custody and Fund Accounting departments. He began his career at the State Street Bank and Trust Company.

Michael received his BSBA with concentrations in both Accounting and Finance from Robert Morris University and his MBA from Northeastern University.

Amanda Segal is head of Katten’s Distressed and Special Situations Investing practice. In this role, Amanda advises banks, special opportunity funds, asset managers and financial institutions of all types on the acquisition and sale of distressed assets, including bank loans, trade claims, trust interests, and private securities, and on more bespoke opportunities relating to litigation claims and other special-situation investments. With over 20 years of experience, Amanda has a deep understanding of the distressed market and appreciation for her clients’ business objectives. She can quickly and effectively identify risks and develop tailored, strategic solutions to complex trading issues. Drawing on her background as a restructuring attorney, Amanda also represents clients on transactional matters related to in-court and out-of-court restructurings.

Amanda received a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a BA from Duke University.

Rula Urso is a Director of Loan Operations for Kayne Anderson Private credit strategies. She has 26 years of finance experience.

Prior to joining Kayne in 2017, Rula spent over two years as Assistant Vice President for Antares Capital, where she built their operations department after the successful transition from GE Capital, where she worked for over eight years as a Lead Operations Manager.

Rula earned a B.A. in International Business and Economics from Benedictine University in 2002 and an M.B.A. in Economics and International Business from Lake Forest Graduate School in 2007. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration from Florida International University with an anticipated graduation date in 2026.

Sarah Wagner is a Managing Director and Head of Loan Platforms for S&P Global Market Intelligence. Her responsibilities include ClearPar, Debtdomain, Loan Reconciliation, Custodian Services, ADFlow, and Loan Processor. The ecosystem provides holistic, full lifecycle support and managed services across settlement, onboarding, tax, and KYC services.

Ms. Wagner joined the firm in 2002. She most recently served as Global Head of Product for Loan Platforms, and previously Head of Product for Notice Manager and Loan Reference Data. She has worked her entire career with partner vendors and market leaders to drive innovation in the loan market.

Ms. Wagner obtained her Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Texas State University, and her Master of Business Administration in Finance from University of North Texas. She has held the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation since 2009, as well as the CAIA Private Debt Microcredential obtained in 2023.

Phil Waldier is an Executive Director in the CIB Markets Loan Sales and Trading at Wells Fargo.  Phil started his career with Wells Fargo in 2006 spending time in Structured Credit Products, Agency Services, and now manages the post trade activities for Par Loan Trading, Distressed Trading and High Yield Trading for CIB Markets and Spread Trading.

Phil is a graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Emma Zhang is the CEO and co-founder of PactFi, an end-to-end infrastructure for private credit transactions. PactFi, since going to production in 2023, has processed $100B in volume from more than 150 counterparties and over 1,300 Fund Entities. PactFi is a collaborative SaaS tool streamlining the deal closing process, providing seamless support for Lead Arranger, Cashless Roll, and Investor workflows.

Before PactFi, she spent most of her career in investment banking at Deutsche Bank in both Hong Kong and New York, specializing in structured credit and leveraged finance. She later served as the Head of Product at Bond.One.