Steve Wood Managing Director, Corporate Finance Moody's Investors Service

Steve Wood is the Managing Director for the Americas Oil & Gas Team at Moody’s Investors Service in New York. In this capacity, Steve is responsible for over 280 companies throughout the Americas across all sectors of the oil and gas industry. He also coordinates Moody’s oil and gas industry coverage globally. Prior to accepting this role in 2008, Steve was a lead analyst responsible for a portfolio of US and Canadian oil and gas companies that included exploration and production (E&P), oilfield services, contract drilling and midstream natural gas.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2004, Steve spent ten years in corporate banking with JPMorgan. During this time, he had responsibility for the debt financing of energy client relationships. Steve primarily covered independent E&P companies, midstream natural gas companies, integrated natural gas pipelines and energy merchants. Prior to business school, Steve was a reservoir engineer with Shell Oil. Steve holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Colorado School of Mines, and a MBA in finance and strategy from the University of Chicago.

Paresh Chari Associate Managing Director, Corporate Finance Moody's Investors Service

Paresh Chari is an Associate Managing Director, Coporate Finance, Moody’s Canada Inc. based in Toronto. He has lead analytical responsibilities in Moody’s Oil & Gas Team and covers a portfolio of exploration and production, midstream, refining, and oilfield services companies based in Canada.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Paresh worked in the oil & gas industry as a drilling fluids engineer for a subsidiary of Schlumberger in Alberta for three years, and then for Halliburton in Saudi Arabia for two years.

Paresh has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Calgary and an MBA from Queen’s University.

Sajjad Alam Vice President - Senior Credit Officer, Corporate Finance Moody’s Ratings

Sajjad Alam is an Vice President-Senior Credit Officer within Moody’s Corporate Finance Group in New York covering a portfolio of mostly high-yield E&P, midstream, drilling and oilfield services companies. Sajjad joined Moody’s in 2006 and spent the first two years analyzing companies in the North American metals and mining industry and the paper and forest product industry as a support analyst. Prior to joining Moody’s, Sajjad was a Senior Manager at Scotiabank’s Global Risk Management Group in Toronto responsible for revamping the bank’s risk assessment framework. Previous to that, he held various analytical and management reporting positions at Deutsche Bank, The Bank of New York and Morgan Stanley. Sajjad has an MBA in Finance from York University in Toronto, and a B.S. in Accounting and Economics from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He is also a CFA charter holder and a Certified Public Accountant. 

James Wilkins Vice President – Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance Moody’s Ratings

James Wilkins is a lead analyst at Moody’s Investors Service responsible for a portfolio of oil and gas companies, including exploration and production (E&P) companies, mid-stream energy companies, and oilfield service companies.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2005, James worked at Merrill Lynch as an analyst and has previously worked in the chemical and pharmaceuticals industries in various financial and manufacturing positions.

James holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Arvinder Saluja Vice President - Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance Moody's Investors Service

Arvinder Saluja is currently a lead analyst in Moody’s Oil & Gas Team and covers a portfolio of exploration and production, midstream, refining, and oilfield services companies. Before joining the Oil & Gas Team, he was with Moody’s High Yield Team where he was responsible for a portfolio of credits in the Auto Part Supplier, Coal Mining, Base Metals, Chemicals, and Manufacturing industries. Previously, he was an Associate Analyst in the Energy & Chemicals team where he provided coverage of the entire spectrum of chemicals credits. His experience also includes three years as a Senior Consultant with KPMG Consulting where he was based out of McLean, VA and worked in its Telecom, Media and Technology team. Arvinder holds a MS from University of Maryland and an MBA in Finance from MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also a CFA charter holder and a member of New York Society of Security Analysts.

John Thieroff Vice President - Senior Credit Officer, Corporate Finance Moody’s Ratings

John Thieroff is a Senior Analyst in Moody’s Oil and Gas Team, currently assigned to Moody’s ESG initiative. His ESG efforts are focused on carbon transition risk for sectors within the Corporate Finance Group that are considered to have significant exposure.

Prior to joining Moody’s, John worked for more than 20 years in energy credit in a variety of capacities including commercial lending at Chemical Bank and Christiania Bank, as a Director in Standard & Poor’s Oil and Gas group and as a Ratings Advisor at GE Capital. He also advised on transfer pricing for multi-national oil companies as an independent consultant.

John graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Central Michigan University and has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Toledo.

Sreedhar Kona Vice President – Senior Analyst, Oil & Gas Moody's Investors Service

Sreedhar Kona is a Vice President – Senior Analyst in the Corporate Finance Group, responsible for assigning ratings to and monitoring a portfolio of Oil & Gas issuers.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2013, Sreedhar was a Vice President at Barclays Capital focusing on Project Finance and Leveraged Finance transactions in Power & Natural Resources sector. Sreedhar also spent over five years at GE Energy Financial Services (a division of GE Capital) underwriting principal investments in assets across the Energy spectrum

Sreedhar holds a B.Tech degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and an M.B.A from Columbia Business School.