Sandra Veseli Managing Director, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Sandra Veseli is a Managing Director in the Corporate Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service in London, leading the UK corporate and EMEA leveraged finance franchise.

Sandra joined Moody’s in 2013, bringing 20 years of banking experience. Prior to Moody’s, Sandra worked at Credit Suisse, where she was the Head of Rating Advisory for EMEA since 2010, after holding senior positions in the rating advisory teams at Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Sandra began her career at Dresdner Bank in Germany.

Sandra holds a Diploma from the Frankfurt Business School of Finance & Management.

Richard Etheridge Associate Managing Director, Corporate Finance Moody's Investors Service

Richard Etheridge is an Associate Managing Director in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in London, leading a team of analysts in the high yield and leveraged finance franchise covering a diverse portfolio of industries.

Prior to Moody’s in 2014, Richard had spent the last 18 years in the leverage finance market. He was most recently a senior credit analyst at Pramerica Investment Management, focusing on European high yield bonds and leveraged loans. Previously Richard was a senior portfolio manager in the leveraged loan group at Aladdin Capital, where he managed a team of credit analysts and operations professionals. Prior to Aladdin, Richard was a director and head of warehousing and credit analysis for European leveraged loans at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. He started his banking career at Natwest Bank. His early career was in the Royal Navy. Richard has a Physics degree from Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, an MBA from Henley Management College, and is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

David Keisman is responsible for creating, organizing and maintaining data sets used to help support Moody’s Investors Services LGD Ratings, and for updating Moody’s B3 Negative and Lower Corporate Ratings List as well as for other products and services. Prior to joining Moody’s, Mr. Keisman co-founded Portfolio Management Data (PMD), a provider of data and analytic services to the leveraged finance and commercial lending community. After PMD was acquired by Standard & Poor’s in May 2000, Mr. Keisman continued as Managing Director of Standard & Poor’s Recovery Analysis and Facility Risk Rating groups. Before PMD, Mr. Keisman was part of Chase Manhattan’s credit risk policy area where he created the banking industry’s first comprehensive, centralized loan-loss database. He also managed the team that reconciled the Facility Risk Grading Systems of Chase and Chemical Bank and of Manufacturers Hanover and Chemical Bank when they merged.

Mr. Keisman has written numerous articles and papers on loan and bond recovery. His work has appeared or been referenced in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, American Banker, The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision Working Papers, Standard & Poor’s CreditWeek, Journal of Lending & Credit Risk Management, LSTA newsletter, and in the book Bank Loans: Secondary Market and Portfolio Management. Mr. Keisman received an MBA in Finance from the Columbia Business School and a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Julia Chursin Assistant Vice President - Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Julia Chursin is an Assistant Vice President - Analyst in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group (CFG) that produces research on corporate defaults and recoveries and trends in high-yield/ leveraged finance space. She is also responsible for collecting, maintaining and analyzing data in Moody's Ultimate Recovery Database used to support Moody’s LGD Assessments (LGDAs), as well as other products/services at Moody’s Analytics.

Julia has both co-authored and published her own special comments/research on default-recovery trends across various sectors and involving various types of debt facilities. Notably, her own publications and other special comments she co–wrote with Moody’s senior analysts have been featured among Moody’s high-profile research in top-tier media outlets. Julia has directly contributed to greater visibility of Moody’s B3 Negative and Lower Ratings List among investors and the media by publishing quarterly special comments, monthly newsletters and creating comprehensive data visualizations.

Julia joined Moody’s CFG in January 2013 from Moody’s Public Finance Commercial group, where she handled various aspects of business and pricing relationships with rated issuers and their bankers/financial advisors.

Prior to joining Moody’s in September 2010, Julia worked as an investment associate at UBS Financial Services, where she supported a wealth management team in various aspects of the business involving execution of investment strategies and development of asset allocation models for portfolios of high- net-worth clients, in addition to researching and analyzing performance of various investment vehicles/products.

Julia received her MBA in Finance from Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College (CUNY).

Dirk Gödde Assistant Vice President - Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Dirk is an Assistant Vice President in the Corporate Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service, covering a portfolio of high yield and leveraged finance issuers in the software, consumer durables and business services industries.

Dirk joins from SEB AB in Frankfurt, where he was a Senior Credit Analyst covering customers in various industries including LBOs, project finance and corporate finance. Prior to that Dirk was heading the Financial Institutions Account  Management department and has further experience in Trading Capital Markets as Execution Desk for institutional clients as well client relationship management. 

Dirk graduated in 2012 from Europäische Fernhochschule Hamburg with a Bachelor’s Degree and is currently studying for an MBA from Warwick Business School.

Lisa Gundy Vice President – Senior Covenant Officer, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Lisa Gundy is a Vice President in the Covenant Office at Moody’s Investor Service in London, leading the covenant analysis coverage across EMEA. She joined Moody’s in 2013, bringing over 10 years of financial services experience.Prior to joining Moody’s, Lisa worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, having started her career at Deloitte & Touche.Lisa holds a BA (Hons) in History from Manchester University and is a practicing lawyer.

Yasmine Bassili Managing Director Goldman Sachs International

Yasmine is a Managing Director, and head of the Transaction Executions and Risk Management team in EMEA, within the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 2007, Yasmine spent 10 years as a banking and Finance lawyer in New Zealand and London.

Ruchi Gupta Credit Research Analyst Western Asset Management

Ruchi has 23 years of credit and equity research experience. She has been with Western Asset Management for the last 11 years focusing on European High Yield. Prior to Western Asset, she has worked with other fund managers, credit rating agency and investment banks.

Aly Hirji Managing Director, Head of European Leveraged Loans and CLOs BlackRock

Aly Hirji, Managing Director, is Head of European Leveraged Loans and CLOs and a senior portfolio manager in the European Fundamental Credit team within BlackRock’s Alternatives division, focusing primarily on the high yield leveraged loan asset class and related products, including CLOs.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2014, Mr. Hirji was a partner and portfolio manager at New Amsterdam Capital, a European credit manager focused on leveraged credit. He was responsible for managing CLOs, leveraged loan and high yield funds, managed accounts and trading. He joined the firm as its first investment- related employee in 2004 as a credit analyst and contributed to growing out the firm and its assets under management. He began his career at JP Morgan in 1999 working in leveraged finance origination, debt capital markets and financial sponsor coverage.

Mr. Hirji earned a BSc degree, with honors in economics from the University of Bristol in 1999.

Phil Robertson Senior Managing Director CVC

Senior Managing Director, joined CVC in 2012. Phil is a member of the Capital Markets team and is based in London. Prior to joining CVC, he worked in Goldman Sachs International's European Leveraged Finance team. Phil holds a BSc degree in Mathematics with Economics from University College London.

Peter Firth Associate Managing Director, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Peter Firth is an Associate Managing Director in the Corporate Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service, leading a team of analysts covering a diverse portfolio of industries including commodities, telecommunications & media, and business services. He also has joint responsibility for the leveraged finance franchise in EMEA. He joined Moody’s in July 2013, prior to which Peter had spent the last 20 years in the European finance market. He was most recently a managing director at Black Diamond Capital Management and GSC Group focusing on European high yield bonds and leveraged loans. Previously Peter was a senior director in the leveraged loan group at BHF-BANK. He started his banking career at Lloyds Bank.

Peter has a Classics degree from Cambridge University and is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Sandra Veseli Managing Director, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Sandra Veseli is a Managing Director in the Corporate Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service in London, leading the UK corporate and EMEA leveraged finance franchise.

Sandra joined Moody’s in 2013, bringing 20 years of banking experience. Prior to Moody’s, Sandra worked at Credit Suisse, where she was the Head of Rating Advisory for EMEA since 2010, after holding senior positions in the rating advisory teams at Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Sandra began her career at Dresdner Bank in Germany.

Sandra holds a Diploma from the Frankfurt Business School of Finance & Management.

Christophe de Noaillat Managing Director, Structured Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Christophe de Noaillat is a Managing Director in the Moody’s Structured Finance Group and is based in London. He is responsible for the monitoring of corporate asset-backed transactions in EMEA such as CLO’s and SME’s, as well as the new ratings and monitoring of commercial real estate securitisations (CMBS) in EMEA.  Prior to assuming this position, Christophe was responsible for the monitoring of consumer asset-backed transactions, such as ABS and RMBS. From 2000, when he joined Moody’s, to 2009, Christophe worked as an analyst and rated a wide range of transaction types in most European markets. During this period, he also focused on emerging markets and the impact of country risk on securitisation.  Before joining Moody’s, Christophe was focusing on Credit Risk Management within the consulting arm of KPMG.  Christophe holds a diploma in Aeronautical Engineering from Ecole de l’Air and graduated from Sciences Po in Paris with a post-master’s qualification in finance and capital markets.

Julie Ng Assistant Vice President - Analyst, Structured Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Julie Ng first joined Moody’s in 2007 where she was the lead analyst for structured finance programmes such as structured finance vehicles (SIVs) and credit derivative product companies (CDPCs) in EMEA. Based in London Julie now covers the ratings of Covered Bonds issuers in several markets such as Cyprus, Greece, and the UK.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Julie was a money market trader at MBIA Asset Management for structured finance and asset backed conduits. She also worked in an investment banking role in Asia before this specialising in M&A and equity capital markets.

Julie holds an MBA and a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London.

Mizuho Tanaka Vice President – Senior Analyst, Structured Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Mizuho Tanaka is a Vice President – Senior Analyst in the Structured Finance Group and is based in London. Mizuho joined Moody’s in 2005 and has been working primarily in the surveillance team, specialising in European CLOs. She has also been the lead analyst for various types of primary transactions including esoteric CDOs and repacks.

Mizuho holds a MSci in Medical Physics and a PhD in Theoretical Molecular Physics, both from University College London.

Thorsten Klotz Managing Director, Structured Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Thorsten Klotz heads a team of Moody’s primary analysts in the EMEA region mainly reviewing Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs)(including Balance Sheet CLOs), granular ABS SME transactions and Asset Backed Commercial Paper(ABCP).Thorsten Klotz has been lead analyst on various transactions, including CDOs of ABS, Leveraged Loan CLOs and German SME loan securitisations.Before joining Moody’s in 2002, Thorsten Klotz was a Senior Derivatives Structurer at CDC IXIS Capital Markets where he was responsible for the development and pricing of interest rate and inflation linked structures. Prior to this role, he was working as a trader for callable bonds and equity linked structures at DZ BANK(former DG BANK).Thorsten Klotz holds a degree in managerial economics (University of Passau) withmain options in insurance & risk theory, finance and statistics.

Michelle Manuel Co-Portfolio Manager Investec

Michelle is co-portfolio manager within the structured credit team at Investec Bank Limited with a particular focus on CLOs. Michelle joined Investec Bank in 2003 and has covered various aspects of the structured credit market from both structuring to investing. She entered banking after completing her accounting articles at PwC in the Financial Services sector.

Edward Watson CLO Arranger JP Morgan

Mr. Watson is a member of the Primary CLO business at JP Morgan, focused on deal strategy and management for Europe, and has almost twenty years of structured finance experience in both structuring and trading contexts. Before joining JP Morgan, Mr. Watson was with the Financial Analytics & Structured Transactions team at Bear Stearns in New York working on the RMBS trading desk, then the CLO and ABS CDO structuring desks, before moving to London in a similar capacity in early 2008. Upon JP Morgan’s acquisition of Bear Stearns in that year, Mr Watson initially worked as a desk analyst on the European CLO trading desk, and was seconded temporarily to JPM’s New York office to help re-launch the US CLO business in 2010. Following that, he returned to London to trade European ABS CDOs. He then transitioned back to the European Primary CLO business when the European CLO market re-opened in 2013.

Mr. Watson has a BA magna cum laude from Cornell University, and an MBA with honours in finance, accounting, and economics from the University of Chicago.

Michael Curtis Head of Private Credit Strategies Fidelity International

Michael Curtis is the Head of Private Credit Strategies at Fidelity International.

Michael joined Fidelity in March 2021 bringing a team of 10 people, a long term loan track record and CLO AUM, with a strategic goal to develop a broad set of capabilities across private credit. Michael has over 20 years experience in the credit markets as a credit portfolio manager and investor across strategies including syndicated loans, high yield bonds, direct lending, structured credit and real estate.

Prior to joining Fidelity, Michael was the CIO at MeDirect Bank from 2018 to 2021 where he led the bank’s balance sheet investment activity across asset classes and created a third party CLO management platform. From 2015 to 2017 Michael was the MD & Co-Head of European loans at ICG and was a member of the Investment Committee and Global Strategy Committee. Michael started his career in 1999 with CIBC world Markets and has also held senior portfolio management positions at Alpstar Capital & 3i Debt Management.

Michael holds a BSc Economics degree from UCL.

Thorsten Klotz Managing Director, Structured Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Thorsten Klotz heads a team of Moody’s primary analysts in the EMEA region mainly reviewing Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs)(including Balance Sheet CLOs), granular ABS SME transactions and Asset Backed Commercial Paper(ABCP).Thorsten Klotz has been lead analyst on various transactions, including CDOs of ABS, Leveraged Loan CLOs and German SME loan securitisations.Before joining Moody’s in 2002, Thorsten Klotz was a Senior Derivatives Structurer at CDC IXIS Capital Markets where he was responsible for the development and pricing of interest rate and inflation linked structures. Prior to this role, he was working as a trader for callable bonds and equity linked structures at DZ BANK(former DG BANK).Thorsten Klotz holds a degree in managerial economics (University of Passau) withmain options in insurance & risk theory, finance and statistics.

Oliver Schmitt Vice President - Senior Credit Officer, Corporate Finance Moody's Investors Service

Oliver joined Moody's in May 2005. He is a lead analyst covering various real estate Issuers across EMEA. He started his career at Moody's in the CMBS team, where he has been working on CMBS transactions across all EMEA jurisdictions and property types, and was instrumental in methodology developments as well as sector and individual transaction surveillance. Oliver is located in Moody's Frankfurt office. Prior to joining Moody's Oliver worked within the finance department of Roche Diagnostics and spent 2 years at a German savings bank. 

Egor Nikishin, CFA Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Egor Nikishin is a lead analyst in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group, based in London. Egor joined Moody’s in 2013 and is currently responsible for a diversified portfolio of EMEA high-yield issuers, which includes food and leisure companies. His previous coverage also includes real estate, shipping and airlines.

Prior to joining Moody’s, he worked as a supervisor for EY (audit of financial institutions). His previous experience also includes several internships in the banking industry in Russia.

Egor graduated from Finance University, Moscow and is also a CFA charterholder.

Martin Hallmark Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Martin Hallmark is a Senior Vice President at Moody’s in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group in London. He joined Moody’s in June 2014 and has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance and credit analysis.

Before joining Moody’s he spent 7 years as a Senior Analyst at CVC Credit Partners analysing and monitoring investments within the European leveraged finance and high yield markets. Prior to CVC Credit Partners he was at RBS where he was responsible for origination, structuring and execution of leveraged finance transactions both in the European and the UK mid-cap markets, including 4 years in Milan. Prior to that, he worked at BDO Stoy Hayward where he covered auditing, accounting and Corporate Finance sectors.

Martin is a Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in Music from Cambridge University.

Richard Etheridge Associate Managing Director, Corporate Finance Moody's Investors Service

Richard Etheridge is an Associate Managing Director in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in London, leading a team of analysts in the high yield and leveraged finance franchise covering a diverse portfolio of industries.

Prior to Moody’s in 2014, Richard had spent the last 18 years in the leverage finance market. He was most recently a senior credit analyst at Pramerica Investment Management, focusing on European high yield bonds and leveraged loans. Previously Richard was a senior portfolio manager in the leveraged loan group at Aladdin Capital, where he managed a team of credit analysts and operations professionals. Prior to Aladdin, Richard was a director and head of warehousing and credit analysis for European leveraged loans at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. He started his banking career at Natwest Bank. His early career was in the Royal Navy. Richard has a Physics degree from Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, an MBA from Henley Management College, and is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Donatella Maso Vice President, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Donatella Maso is a Vice President – Senior Analyst at Moody’s in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in London. Her portfolio covers a diverse range of European high-yield and leveraged finance credits.

Donatella joined Moody’s in December 2013. Donatella has more than 11 years of leveraged finance and credit analysis experience. Before joining Moody’s, she spent seven years at GE Capital structuring and executing Pan European mid market LBOs and investing in secondary and distressed loans. Prior to that, she worked for over four years as senior credit analyst in the Acquisition Finance team at the former Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNP Paribas Group), based in London. Donatella holds a degree in Economics from the University of Trieste.

Vitali Morgovski, CFA Assistant Vice President - Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Vitali Morgovski is an Assistant Vice President – Analyst within Moody’s EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in Frankfurt. He has lead analyst responsibility for a diverse portfolio of companies from the business and consumer services sector, manufacturing, aerospace and defense as well as auto suppliers.

Vitali joined Moody’s as an Assistant Vice President – Analyst in December 2017. Prior to this, Vitali worked for SEB and Commerzbank as a credit research analyst covering corporates across various industries.

Vitali is a CFA charterholder and holds a master degree in business administration from the Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany.

Maria Maslovsky Vice President - Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Maria Maslovsky is Vice President – Senior Analyst at Moody’s in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in London. She is managing a portfolio of both investment grade and high yield names falling in the Chemicals, Transportation, Services and Travel sectors.

Maria joined Moody’s in 2003. Her previous roles in the company include working in Moody’s New York office as an analyst covering US Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and commercial real estate finance firms.

Prior to Moody’s, Maria was an analyst at a hedge fund and an associate at JP Morgan in New York.

Maria holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

Sebastien Cieniewski Vice President - Senior Credit Officer, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Sebastien is a Vice President – Senior Credit Officer at Moody’s in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in London. He is part of the European telecommunications team and covers telecom and media companies based in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Norway. Between 2011 and 2018, Sebastien was responsible for a portfolio of mainly European high yield issuers operating in industries including payment solutions, business and consumer services, equipment and transportation rental services, and retail.

Prior to re-joining Moody’s in 2011, Sebastien was an analyst within the credit team at LGT Capital Partners (fund of hedge funds based in Switzerland), where he monitored a portfolio of investments in distressed credit/special situations hedge funds.

Sebastien holds a Master’s Degree from Audencia Business School in Nantes (France) and a post-graduate diploma from the College of Europe in Warsaw (Poland).

Ernesto Bisagno Vice President - Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Ernesto Bisagno is a Vice President – Senior Analyst in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group. Ernesto is the EMEA tobacco analyst and also covers the EMEA food, consumer goods and retail sectors.

Ernesto joined Moody’s in June 2014 with an extensive professional experience in risk management and credit analysis in several leading financial institutions in the UK and Italy, most recently with Citigroup and UBS where he covered energy, metals, mining and chemicals across Western Europe and the UK.

Ernesto was also a senior auditor with PWC earlier in his career. Ernesto holds an Economics degree from Università degli Studi di Genova and is also a CFA Charter Holder.

Gunjan Dixit Vice President - Senior Credit Officer, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Sebastien is a Vice President – Senior Credit Officer at Moody’s in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in London. He is part of the European telecommunications team and covers telecom and media companies based in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Norway. Between 2011 and 2018, Sebastien was responsible for a portfolio of mainly European high yield issuers operating in industries including payment solutions, business and consumer services, equipment and transportation rental services, and retail.

Prior to re-joining Moody’s in 2011, Sebastien was an analyst within the credit team at LGT Capital Partners (fund of hedge funds based in Switzerland), where he monitored a portfolio of investments in distressed credit/special situations hedge funds.

Sebastien holds a Master’s Degree from Audencia Business School in Nantes (France) and a post-graduate diploma from the College of Europe in Warsaw (Poland).

Agustin Alberti Vice President - Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Agustin Alberti is a Vice President – Senior Analyst in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group based in Madrid. He is responsible for a portfolio of high profile issuers in the TMT sector.

Agustin joined Moody’s in December 2018. Prior to joining Moody’s Agustin worked for 8 years for BBVA as a TMT buy side analyst and portfolio manager. Previously, he was a TMT sell side analyst for Banco Sabadell for 3 years, and head of investor relations for Tecnocom for 2 years.

Agustin has a degree in Business Administration from Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros (CUNEF) in Madrid and a degree in Philosophy from UPRA (Rome). Agustin is a native Spanish speaker and is fluent in English, French and Italian.

Carlos Winzer Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance Moody's Investors Service

Carlos Winzer is a Senior Vice President at Moody’s Investors Service where he heads up the European telecommunications team in the Corporate Finance Group. Mr. Winzer joined Moody´s New York in 1992. After spending two years at Moody’s office in NY and eight years in London, he relocated to the Madrid office in 2002. He joined Moody’s from Citibank NA, where he was Corporate Bank Risk Manager and Relationship Officer in Corporate Finance. Mr. Winzer holds a graduate degree in economics and business administration from CUNEF (Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros in Madrid). In addition, he holds a postgraduate degree in business administration from Guildhall University in London. Mr. Winzer is a professor at ICADE business school and IEB MBA program in Madrid. 

Sven Reinke Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Sven Reinke is a Senior Vice President in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group. Sven covers the Integrated Oil and Gas, Metals & Mining and Chemical sectors. Sven joined Moody’s in the autumn of 2013 with 12 years’ experience in a number of different corporate credit roles.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Sven spent six years as a Senior Corporate Credit Officer at UBS Investment Bank in London responsible for a portfolio of corporate in different industries including the Retail and Consumer Services sectors. Prior to UBS, Sven was the Lead Credit Analyst for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi’s German and Benelux blue chip counterparties. At the start of his career, Sven spent four years as a Credit Analyst at Deutsche Bank’s German mid-cap credit risk department.

Sven has a Masters Degree in Economics with focus on finance and banking from The Berlin School of Economics and Law. Sven also passed all levels of the CFA Program.

Maria Maslovsky Vice President - Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Maria Maslovsky is Vice President – Senior Analyst at Moody’s in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in London. She is managing a portfolio of both investment grade and high yield names falling in the Chemicals, Transportation, Services and Travel sectors.

Maria joined Moody’s in 2003. Her previous roles in the company include working in Moody’s New York office as an analyst covering US Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and commercial real estate finance firms.

Prior to Moody’s, Maria was an analyst at a hedge fund and an associate at JP Morgan in New York.

Maria holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

Peter Firth Associate Managing Director, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Peter Firth is an Associate Managing Director in the Corporate Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service, leading a team of analysts covering a diverse portfolio of industries including commodities, telecommunications & media, and business services. He also has joint responsibility for the leveraged finance franchise in EMEA. He joined Moody’s in July 2013, prior to which Peter had spent the last 20 years in the European finance market. He was most recently a managing director at Black Diamond Capital Management and GSC Group focusing on European high yield bonds and leveraged loans. Previously Peter was a senior director in the leveraged loan group at BHF-BANK. He started his banking career at Lloyds Bank.

Peter has a Classics degree from Cambridge University and is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Frederic Duranson Assistant Vice President - Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Frederic Duranson is a lead analyst in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group, based in London.

Frederic joined Moody’s in 2010 and currently covers a portfolio of leveraged credits, with particular focus on the software and IT services sector in Western Europe. Previously, he has covered a variety of investment grade and speculative grade credits, spanning several sectors.

Frederic graduated from Sciences Po Strasbourg in France and holds an MSc in Corporate Strategy and Finance. His previous experience includes a number of internships in the U.S. and South Africa.

Frederic is fluent in French and English and is proficient in Spanish.

Perrine Bajolle Assistant Vice President - Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Perrine is lead analyst in the high yield and leveraged finance franchise based in Frankfurt. She is currently responsible for a portfolio of companies focused primarily on the business and consumer service sector in EMEA. Prior roles at Moody’s included covering companies in the manufacturing industry, automobile manufacturers and European banks.

Prior joining Moody’s in 2014, Perrine worked in M&A advisory for Natixis Partners in Paris where she was covering the small and mid-cap corporate market in France.

Perrine holds a Master Degree from Dauphine University (Paris) and ESADE Business School (Barcelona).

Gilberto Ramos Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Gilberto Ramos is an Analyst in the Corporate Finance Group (CFG) team based in Paris. Gilberto is lead analyst for a portfolio of high-yield issuers on the healthcare,

pharmaceutical and retail industries in Europe. During his time at Moody’s, Gilberto has also covered European infrastructure companies, including airports, ports and rail infrastructure managers and has contributed to number of Moody’s reports on those topics.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2018, Gilberto was a credit analyst at Société Générale covering a wide range of sectors, including oil & gas, mining and financial institutions. Prior to this, Gilberto worked as an analyst at Fitch Ratings covering public finance issuers in Mexico.

Gilberto holds a Bachelor degree of Economics from Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico and a Master’s degree in Corporate Finance from EDHEC Business School, France, and is a CFA charterholder. Gilberto is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Marie Fischer-Sabatié Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Marie Fischer-Sabatié is a Senior Vice President in the Corporate Finance Group (CFG) team based in Paris.

Marie has lead responsibility for a portfolio of European investment grade and high yield healthcare companies with focus on the Pharmaceutical industry, as well as for French investment grade companies in other sectors including Luxury.

During her tenure at Moody’s, Marie has covered a number of sectors, including Consumer Packaged Goods, Retail, Shipping, Business Services across Europe, when she was based in Paris between 2001 and 2016, and Telecom and Mining in Latin America, when she was based in Mexico City between 2016 and 2020.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2001, Marie worked at Santander in Chile and Crédit Lyonnais in New York. She is a graduate of ESCP (Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris).

Dirk Gödde Assistant Vice President - Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Dirk is an Assistant Vice President in the Corporate Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service, covering a portfolio of high yield and leveraged finance issuers in the software, consumer durables and business services industries.

Dirk joins from SEB AB in Frankfurt, where he was a Senior Credit Analyst covering customers in various industries including LBOs, project finance and corporate finance. Prior to that Dirk was heading the Financial Institutions Account  Management department and has further experience in Trading Capital Markets as Execution Desk for institutional clients as well client relationship management. 

Dirk graduated in 2012 from Europäische Fernhochschule Hamburg with a Bachelor’s Degree and is currently studying for an MBA from Warwick Business School.

Luigi Bucci Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Luigi Bucci is a lead analyst in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group, based in London.

Luigi joined Moody’s in 2014 and was part of the European Telecoms team until late 2019. Most recently, he assumed coverage on a number of software and business & consumer services names in the leverage finance space.

Luigi holds a Management degree from the University of Bristol. Prior to joining Moody’s, Luigi covered a number of roles within the automotive sector.

Fabrizio Marchesi Vice President-Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service

Fabrizio Marchesi joined Moody’s in January 2019 where he is the Lead Analyst for a portfolio of companies operating in the technology industry. Prior to joining Moody’s, Fabrizio was a Senior Analyst at PGIM where he covered a diverse portfolio of high yield credits across the cable, telecom and technology industries as well as in the chemicals, oil & gas and transport sectors. He started his career in leveraged finance in the Leveraged Debt Origination team at Deutsche Bank in London in 2001. Prior to this he worked in derivatives risk management at CIBC World Markets and corporate finance at Scotiabank in Toronto, Canada. Fabrizio holds an M.Sc. in Finance from the London Business School as well as M.A. and B.A. degrees in Economics from the University of Toronto.

Michelle Manuel Co-Portfolio Manager Investec

Michelle is co-portfolio manager within the structured credit team at Investec Bank Limited with a particular focus on CLOs. Michelle joined Investec Bank in 2003 and has covered various aspects of the structured credit market from both structuring to investing. She entered banking after completing her accounting articles at PwC in the Financial Services sector.

Aly Hirji Managing Director, Head of European Leveraged Loans and CLOs BlackRock

Aly Hirji, Managing Director, is Head of European Leveraged Loans and CLOs and a senior portfolio manager in the European Fundamental Credit team within BlackRock’s Alternatives division, focusing primarily on the high yield leveraged loan asset class and related products, including CLOs.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2014, Mr. Hirji was a partner and portfolio manager at New Amsterdam Capital, a European credit manager focused on leveraged credit. He was responsible for managing CLOs, leveraged loan and high yield funds, managed accounts and trading. He joined the firm as its first investment- related employee in 2004 as a credit analyst and contributed to growing out the firm and its assets under management. He began his career at JP Morgan in 1999 working in leveraged finance origination, debt capital markets and financial sponsor coverage.

Mr. Hirji earned a BSc degree, with honors in economics from the University of Bristol in 1999.

Yasmine Bassili Managing Director Goldman Sachs International

Yasmine is a Managing Director, and head of the Transaction Executions and Risk Management team in EMEA, within the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 2007, Yasmine spent 10 years as a banking and Finance lawyer in New Zealand and London.

Phil Robertson Senior Managing Director CVC

Senior Managing Director, joined CVC in 2012. Phil is a member of the Capital Markets team and is based in London. Prior to joining CVC, he worked in Goldman Sachs International's European Leveraged Finance team. Phil holds a BSc degree in Mathematics with Economics from University College London.

Ruchi Gupta Credit Research Analyst Western Asset Management

Ruchi has 23 years of credit and equity research experience. She has been with Western Asset Management for the last 11 years focusing on European High Yield. Prior to Western Asset, she has worked with other fund managers, credit rating agency and investment banks.

Edward Watson CLO Arranger JP Morgan

Mr. Watson is a member of the Primary CLO business at JP Morgan, focused on deal strategy and management for Europe, and has almost twenty years of structured finance experience in both structuring and trading contexts. Before joining JP Morgan, Mr. Watson was with the Financial Analytics & Structured Transactions team at Bear Stearns in New York working on the RMBS trading desk, then the CLO and ABS CDO structuring desks, before moving to London in a similar capacity in early 2008. Upon JP Morgan’s acquisition of Bear Stearns in that year, Mr Watson initially worked as a desk analyst on the European CLO trading desk, and was seconded temporarily to JPM’s New York office to help re-launch the US CLO business in 2010. Following that, he returned to London to trade European ABS CDOs. He then transitioned back to the European Primary CLO business when the European CLO market re-opened in 2013.

Mr. Watson has a BA magna cum laude from Cornell University, and an MBA with honours in finance, accounting, and economics from the University of Chicago.

Michael Curtis Head of Private Credit Strategies Fidelity International

Michael Curtis is the Head of Private Credit Strategies at Fidelity International.

Michael joined Fidelity in March 2021 bringing a team of 10 people, a long term loan track record and CLO AUM, with a strategic goal to develop a broad set of capabilities across private credit. Michael has over 20 years experience in the credit markets as a credit portfolio manager and investor across strategies including syndicated loans, high yield bonds, direct lending, structured credit and real estate.

Prior to joining Fidelity, Michael was the CIO at MeDirect Bank from 2018 to 2021 where he led the bank’s balance sheet investment activity across asset classes and created a third party CLO management platform. From 2015 to 2017 Michael was the MD & Co-Head of European loans at ICG and was a member of the Investment Committee and Global Strategy Committee. Michael started his career in 1999 with CIBC world Markets and has also held senior portfolio management positions at Alpstar Capital & 3i Debt Management.

Michael holds a BSc Economics degree from UCL.