2025 Credit Opportunities Symposium Agenda
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presented by:

             


Dynamically Changing Credit Markets:
Opportunities & Pitfalls

Thursday, March 13, 2025
Reception
5:30pm Open to all Guests

Friday, March 14, 2025
Program
8am Registration Opens, Program starts at 9am

Location: NYU Stern, 44 West 4th Street

Conference Introduction

9:00am to 9:15am
Sean Griffin, LSTA & Dan Kamensky, Creditor Rights Coalition & Co-Director Altman-Paulson Initiative at NYU Stern

Fireside Keynote Chat

9:15am to 10:00am
Marc Lasry, Avenue Capital, in conversation with Sonali Basak, Bloomberg

Marc Lasry is the Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Avenue Capital Group, a global alternative investment manager focused on specialty lending, undervalued debt and equity opportunities in the U.S., Europe and Asia. 
Mr. Lasry is known as a pioneer in credit investing, which has been the focus of his professional career for over 40 years.  Mr. Lasry began his career clerking for the former Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York.  He later managed capital for Amroc, an investment fund affiliated with the Robert M. Bass Group.  In 1995, Mr. Lasry formed Avenue with his sister, Sonia Gardner, with less than $10 million in capital from friends and family.  Today, Avenue has 185 employees across 10 global offices and manages approximately $13 billion.   
As a former co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, Mr. Lasry oversaw the team through a period of successful growth.  The Bucks had the worst record in the NBA when Mr. Lasry purchased the team in 2014, and under his leadership the team won its first NBA championship in 50 years in 2021.
Mr. Lasry is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of Advisors of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is also a Member of the Advisory Board of the Altman-Paulson Initiative on Credit & Distressed Opportunities at NYU Stern.
Mr. Lasry received a B.A. in History from Clark University (1981) and a J.D. from New York Law School (1984).

Marc Lasry
Avenue Capital Group
Sonali Basak is global finance correspondent and anchor for Bloomberg Television and writes for Bloomberg News, where she has a weekly newsletter that you can also find on LinkedIn. She also is the host of an annual financial conference, Bloomberg Invest, a capstone event encompassing asset management, wealth and deals.
She got her BA from Bucknell University and got a master's in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She graduated from NYU's Stern School of Business in 2021, having focused on corporate finance and quantitative finance there.

Sonali Basak
Bloomberg
Moderator

The Cross-Asset Class Credit Opportunity

10:05am to 11:00am
John Cortese, Apollo, in conversation with Jeff Meli, NYU Stern.

John Cortese is a Partner in Credit at Apollo, where he is responsible for its Global Trading business and is the Deputy Chair of its Multi-Credit Committee. Prior to joining in 2021, John was Co-Head of US Credit Trading at Barclays. Previously, he was a High Yield and Distressed credit trader at Lehman Brothers. John is a board member of the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Metro & Western NY branch as well as Dartmouth College's Hopkins Center for the Arts.


John Cortese
Apollo Global Management
Jeffrey Meli joined New York University Stern School of Business as a Clinical Professor of Finance in January 2025.
Meli’s research interests include the corporate bond market, liquidity, financial intermediation, and financial regulation.
Before joining NYU Stern, Meli spent nearly 25 years working in the private sector, originally as a research analyst covering the corporate bond and structured credit markets. He spent ten years as the global head of research at Barclays, where he was a member of the investment bank management team. He launched the Barclays research data science platform, which integrated alternative data and modern data techniques into investment research, and transformed the firm’s approach to content monetization. He also founded and hosted the popular Flip Side podcast, debating current issues affecting financial markets.
He received his AB in Mathematics from Princeton University and his PhD in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Jeff Meli
NYU Stern
Moderator

Liability Management Twists and Turns

11:05am to Noon

Noah Charney is a Managing Director and Head of Capital Solutions on the US Capital Markets team at King Street. He is based in New York and is a member of the US Investment Committee.
Prior to joining King Street in 2013, Noah was an Analyst at Trilogy Capital. Before joining Trilogy Capital, Noah held analyst positions at Och-Ziff Capital Management Group and GoldenTree Asset Management. Noah began his career at Bear Stearns and Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation.
Noah received a B.A. in Economics from Queen’s University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Noah Charney
King Street Capital Management
Bill Derrough is a Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Capital Structure Advisory at Moelis & Company. Bill has extensive experience advising all types of parties in major restructurings including companies, boards of directors, creditor groups, shareholders, unions and governmental entities and has been instrumental in building out the Firm’s restructuring franchise.
Bill has over 35 years of investment banking experience. From 1998 until joining Moelis & Company, he co-founded and co-headed the Recapitalization & Restructuring Group at Jefferies & Company. While at Jefferies, Bill advised a wide spectrum of clients and investors on restructurings, recapitalizations, financings, mergers and other engagements. Prior to joining Jefferies, Bill was a Principal at Doyle & Boissiere, a private investment firm. Bill began his investment banking career at Salomon Brothers Inc.
He serves on the boards of Youth INC, Boy Scouts of Greater New York, Bennington College and the Academy of St. Joseph, New York. He also served as Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee from 2017-2021.
He is also a Member of the Advisory Board of the Altman-Paulson Initiative on Credit & Distressed Opportunities at NYU Stern.
Bill holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Bill Derrough
Moelis

Josh Feltman is the Chair of the Restructuring and Finance Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. In his cross-disciplinary practice, Mr. Feltman focuses both on acquisitions of leveraged entities in connection with incourt and out-of-court workouts and on the financing aspects of leveraged acquisitions generally, including negotiation, implementation and issuance of credit facilities and debt securities. In 2020, Mr. Feltman was recognized as a Law360 MVP in the bankruptcy area. His recent engagements include advising lenders in connection with Envision Healthcare, U.S. Renal Corp., TriMark and CURO Holdings, Inc.


Josh Feltman
Wachtell
Joshua Katzeff is the Head of the Special Credits Group in Global Credit at Carlyle where he is responsible for workouts and restructurings across the credit platform.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Katzeff was with Deutsche Bank where he focused on stressed and distressed credit analysis and investing in the Distressed Products Group. Previously, Mr. Katzeff worked at UBS and Deutsche Bank in equity research and Fortress Investment Group and DNB in credit.
Mr. Katzeff received a BS in Economics from Carnegie Mellon University.

Josh Katzeff
Carlyle

Harvard Zhang is Octus Americas’ Deputy Managing Editor in charge of distressed debt and restructuring news coverage. Prior to joining Octus, Harvard was a reporter at Bloomberg News covering corporate finance. He has a B.E. in energy and resources engineering from Peking University in Beijing and an M.A. in business journalism from Northwestern University.


Harvard Zhang
Octus
Moderator

Lunch

Paulson Auditorium Lobby

Noon to 1pm

Lightning Round: Hot Topics in Credit Restructuring

1:00pm to 1:50pm

Vince Buccola is Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where his teaching and research span the fields of corporate management and finance, with a special focus on the law of leveraged finance, distress, restructuring, and bankruptcy. Buccola received a BA from Wesleyan University and a JD from the University of Chicago. After law school, he clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and practiced as a trial lawyer at Bartlit Beck. He began his academic career as a Bigelow Fellow and then spent a decade on the faculty of the Wharton School before returning to Hyde Park.


Vince Buccola
University of Chicago
Kevin Eckhardt is a Senior Managing Editor and Legal Analyst at Octus. Prior to joining Octus in April 2019, Kevin practiced bankruptcy law for almost 20 years, specializing in creditor representation in large chapter 11 cases and distressed asset, leveraged loan and bankruptcy claims transactions. As a senior legal analyst at Octus, Kevin covers the largest and most contentious bankruptcy cases in U.S. courts.  Kevin has also spoken on bankruptcy issues at external conferences, including the Harvard Bankruptcy Roundtable and the Trial Lawyers of Mass Torts annual meeting. Since 2020, Kevin has written the Americas Court Opinion Review column for Octus, where he comments on bankruptcy cases, decisions, trends and issues.
Kevin is a Contributor to the Creditor Corner for the Creditor Rights Coalition.
Kevin clerked for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry A. Funk of the Middle District of Florida and attended the University of Florida's Levin College of Law.

Kevin Eckhardt
Octus
Honorable Craig T. Goldblatt was appointed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court bench in 2021.
Craig Goldblatt is an experienced bankruptcy litigator, with a focus on complex bankruptcy disputes and bankruptcy appeals. The core of his practice has been protecting the interests of secured creditors, financial institutions and insurance companies in bankruptcy-related disputes, though he has also represented leading technology, transportation and communications industry clients in bankruptcy matters. Mr. Goldblatt, who joined the firm in 1994, was a member of the WilmerHale’s Management Committee.

Judge Craig T. Goldblatt
Bankruptcy Court, Delaware
Brian Resnick is a partner in the Restructuring group of Davis Polk and head of its interdisciplinary Liability Management & Special Opportunities practice.
He was named one of Law360’s six Bankruptcy MVPs in 2020, one of Turnarounds & Workouts’ 2022 “Outstanding Restructuring Lawyers” and an American Lawyer 2020 “Dealmaker of the Year,” as well as being featured as one of three “industry titans” at the 2022 TMA annual conference.
He is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and on the boards of Her Justice and the Columbia Business Law Review.
He received his BM and MM in Percussion Performance from the Juilliard School and his J.D. from Columbia University Law School.

Brian Resnick
Davis Polk
David M. Hillman is the Global Co-Chair of the Restructuring Group and co-head of the Private Credit Restructuring Group at Proskauer.
David has 30 years of experience with an emphasis on representing private credit lenders, private funds, sovereign wealth funds and other alternative lenders and distressed investors in special situations and restructurings both in and out of court. He has substantial experience in every phase of restructuring and distressed investing, including credit bid sales under section 363, debt-for-equity swaps, chapter 11 plans, out-of-court restructurings and foreclosures, as well as navigating inter-creditor issues involving liability management transactions the relative rights of majority and minority lenders. David also litigates the issues facing private credit lenders, including issues involving plan confirmation, solvency, valuation, inter-creditor disputes, financing and cash collateral disputes, fraudulent transfers, equitable subordination, recharacterization, breach of fiduciary duty and similar disputes.
David has been recognized as an Outstanding Restructuring Lawyer by Turnaround & Workouts. 
He received his B.A. from the State University of New York at Onenonta and his J.D. from Albany Law School of Union University.

David Hillman
Proskauer
Moderator

Views from the Loan Market

1:55pm to 2:45pm

Harpreet S. Anand shares portfolio management responsibility for a number of Oak Hill Advisor’s portfolios. He serves on various firm committees including the compliance committee, investment strategy committee and several fund investment committees. Mr. Anand also serves on the firm’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. Previously, he had senior research responsibility for automotive, building products, chemicals, metals & mining, paper & packaging and aerospace & defense industries.
Prior to joining Oak Hill in 2006, Mr. Anand worked at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. in its Leveraged Finance/Financial Sponsors Group.
He earned a B.B.A., with honors, from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Harpreet Anand
Oak Hill Advisors
Theodore Basta is Executive Vice President of Market Analytics and Investor Strategy for the LSTA, where he leads the LSTA’s Market Analytics team which is responsible for the LSTAs analytical and reporting initiatives, all of which enhance market visibility, transparency, and liquidity. 
Mr. Basta also manages key strategic products and partnerships for the Association, including the LSTA’s secondary trading and settlement data initiatives, the LSTA/Refinitiv LPC Mark-to -Market Pricing Service and the Morningstar/LSTA Leveraged Loan Index. In addition, Mr. Basta organizes the Association’s global investor conferences and NYC based annual loan conference. 
Prior to joining the LSTA, Ted was Vice President and Director of Global Pricing with Loan Pricing Corporation (LPC), where he managed the LSTA/LPC Mark-to-Market Pricing Service. During his tenure at LPC, Ted was instrumental in driving new product development and secondary market analytics, while playing an influential role in several initiatives that enhanced the liquidity and transparency of the secondary loan market.
Mr. Basta received an M.B.A. from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College and a B.A. in Accounting from Long Island University.

Ted Basta
LSTA
Valerie Kritsberg is a Senior Managing Director and the Global Head of Capital Markets and Trading for Blackstone Credit and Insurance (BXCI) based in New York. Ms. Kritsberg leads BXCI’s capital markets origination and sourcing across both liquid and private strategies. Her team acts as a single point of contact within BXCI for banks, broker dealers and other key market participants.
Since joining Blackstone, Ms. Kritsberg has focused on the group's public and private market investments including distressed and special situation investments across multiple industries. Prior to joining Blackstone in 2005, Ms. Kritsberg worked in Credit Suisse First Boston’s Global Energy Investment Banking Group where she worked on equity, leveraged finance and M&A transactions for a number of corporate and private equity clients.
Ms. Kritsberg received a BS from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Valerie Kritsberg
Blackstone
Evan Lederman joined J.F. Lehman & Company in 2023 to launch its credit team and has nearly 20 years of investing, legal and restructuring experience across the credit spectrum, ranging from performing to distressed. Mr. Lederman has chaired various creditor committees in large and complex restructurings and served on numerous public and private corporate boards, including currently serving as a director on JFLCO portfolio company, PURIS.
Previously, Mr. Lederman was a Partner at Fir Tree Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar investment firm, where he co-managed the firm’s credit, restructuring and special situations investments. Mr. Lederman began his career as a restructuring and litigation attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.
Mr. Lederman is a Member of the Advisory Board of the Creditor Rights Coalition.
A native of New York, Mr. Lederman graduated magna cum laude from New York University, where he earned a B.A. in political science and government and was the all-university commencement speaker.  He also graduated cum laude from New York University School of Law, where he received a J.D.

Evan Lederman
J.F. Lehman & Company

Dan Pombo is the head of the Restructuring and Debt Advisory Group at J.P. Morgan, focusing on advising and raising capital for distressed companies.  Dan has led numerous DIP, Exit and distressed financings and prepackaged plans of reorganization, and has advised on several liability management and out-of-court restructuring transactions.    Prior to joining Restructuring, Dan was a senior banker in J.P. Morgan’s Leveraged Finance team, where he served in Capital Markets and Origination roles and completed over 100 transactions across numerous industry verticals, including energy, power, chemicals, paper and packaging, building materials, real estate, gaming, consumer and retail.  Prior to joining the firm, Dan practiced corporate law at White & Case, LLP. Dan holds a B.A. from Amherst College and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.


Dan Pombo
J.P. Morgan

Closing Keynote Speaker

2:50pm to 3:30pm

Edward I. Altman is the Max L. Heine Professor of Finance, Emeritus, Stern School of Business, New York University. He is the Director of Research in Credit and Debt Markets at the NYU Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions. Prior to serving in his present position, Professor Altman chaired the Stern School's MBA Program for 12 years.
Dr. Altman has an international reputation as an expert on corporate bankruptcy, high yield bonds, distressed debt and credit risk analysis. He is the creator of the world famous Altman-Z-Score model for bankruptcy prediction of companies globally. He has published or edited two-dozen books and over 160 articles in scholarly finance, accounting and economic journals.
Professor Altman is also the Chairman of the Academic Advisory Council of the Turnaround Management Association. He was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame in 2001, President of the Financial Management Association (2003) and a FMA Fellow in 2004 and was amongst the inaugural inductees into the Turnaround Management Association’s Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2005, Prof. Altman was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance” by the Treasury & Risk Management magazine.
He has an MBA and Ph.D. in Finance from UCLA’s School of Business.

Ed Altman
Professor, Emeritus
NYU Stern

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