Simon Ainsworth, who is based in London, is an Associate Managing Director responsible for the analytical teams maintaining ratings on Nordic and Baltic banks and on a range of European insurance companies.

Simon previously served as a Group Credit Officer. In that role he carried responsibility for monitoring ratings quality as well as assisting in the development and implementation of rating methodologies and practices applied to rated financial institutions within the EMEA region.

Simon joined Moody’s in March 2014 following sixteen years at the Bank of England.

At the Bank, he worked in a variety of roles primarily in its financial markets and banking operation divisions; as well as working on a variety of financial risk and crisis related issues. This included the resolution of failed banks, as well as responsibility for the risk management framework applied to collateral accepted in the Bank’s sterling market operations.Simon graduated from the University of Durham in 1998, having studied Economics and Politics. He is based in London.

Antonello Aquino is Managing Director, global co-head for Insurance, Funds and Asset Management, and EMEA Private Credit at Moody’s Ratings. He leads Moody’s analytical team responsible for maintaining credit ratings on insurers, funds, and asset managers in EMEA and North America, as well as private credit entities.

Antonello joined Moody’s in 2008 as a Senior Insurance Analyst, covering major European (re)insurers. Prior to Moody’s, he led the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) rating advisory practice at Credit Suisse in Europe. His earlier experience includes roles as a Senior Analyst in Standard & Poor’s insurance sector, and positions within the FIG M&A teams at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) and ABN AMRO.

He holds an MBA from HEC Paris and is an alumnus of London Business School. He graduated cum laude in Business Administration from Bocconi University in Italy. Antonello is fluent in English, Italian, and French.

Alexandra serves as a lead analyst for financial institutions in EMEA, including asset managers, insurance brokers, insurance companies and funds. She joined Moody's in 2013 after two years of experience in the banking sector. 

Alexandra holds a Master of Science in Finance from the Manchester Business School, and BSc in Accounting and Finance from the University of Macedonia, Greece.

Michela is Head of Global Investment Research and Chief Credit Officer at Standard Life PLC, long-term savings and retirement business with over £295 billion of assets under administration. We offer our c.12 million customers a range of products through our trusted pensions, savings and life insurance brands. It’s our mission to help everyone achieve the retirement they want and stay with them for the whole journey.

In this role, Michela leads a team that provides, credit, macro and sustainability analysis and fundamental research for all asset strategies pursued by Phoenix Group encompassing public and private markets. Michela joined Phoenix in 2021 from Pension Insurance Corporation where she served as Head of Ratings and Credit Research. Prior to that, Michela spent 14 years at S&P Global Ratings, London, most recently as Senior Director, Infrastructure Ratings – EMEA Analytical Head, managing a team of 20 analysts and a portfolio of over 150 issuers in the infrastructure sector. The portfolio included corporate and project finance transactions covering social infrastructure, road, transport and renewables. Michela started her career at Goldman Sachs within the Equities Division. She holds a DEA en Analyse et Politique Economique (Master in Economics) from EHESS, Paris and a Specialization in Finance as a Ph.D. candidate from HEC, Paris.

Gordon is Head of Corporate & Sustainable Securitisation EMEA at Barclays in London, with 12 years of banking experience in corporate and structured debt and derivatives. Gordon is currently responsible for origination, structuring and execution of corporate and sustainable securitisation financing for asset classes including Leasing, Corporate Receivables, Rental Car, SME & Fintech financing, Renewable Energy and Digital Infrastructure ABS, and is a member of the Sustainable Finance Leadership Group for Barclays Investment Bank.

He was previously based in New York, where he focused on securitization and warehouse financing origination and execution across RMBS and a number of Esoteric ABS asset classes, including acting as structuring lead on over $5bn of public securitisations and 10+ financing transactions. Gordon started his career in the Risk Solutions Group at Barclays in London, covering UK corporate clients for interest rate and inflation derivative solutions.

Gordon holds a Masters in Finance and Economics from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, where he completed an undergraduate degree in economics. Outside of the office Gordon’s interests include music, running and volunteering.

Nathanaël (Nat) Benjamin was appointed as the Bank of England’s Executive Director for Financial Stability Strategy and Risk and a member of its Financial Policy Committee (FPC) in December 2023. The FPC is the United Kingdom’s ‘macroprudential’ authority and it is tasked by Parliament with ensuring financial stability so that the UK financial system is able to absorb rather than amplify shocks, and serve UK households and businesses. Nat is responsible for the Bank of England’s work to deliver this objective.

Before that, from October 2021 to December 2023 Nat was the Executive Director in charge of Authorisations, Regulatory Technology, and International Supervision.

Nat originally joined the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) in 2004, where he held a range of risk specialist roles: supervising how firms measure credit, market, insurance, and counterparty risks. During this time he also participated in policy developments under the Basel Committee and the European banking and insurance authorities. He became closely involved in the management of the global financial crisis, first in the UK and then at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he was seconded from 2008 to 2010. After returning from secondment, he became head of the Prudential Regulation Authority’s division responsible for equipping the Bank of England with the capability to run concurrent public stress tests of major banks. In 2015, he was appointed to head the newly-created financial risk oversight function for the Bank of England's own balance sheet. In 2020 he became interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO), acting as the Executive Director in charge of the Finance & Performance directorate.

Nat graduated from the École Centrale de Paris and has a doctorate in applied probability from Oxford University.

Rory is currently responsible for Moody’s Funds & Asset Management ratings practice in the Americas. This includes ratings on over 60 asset managers and 400 investment funds across 5 countries. He joined Moody’s Global Managed Investments Group in1998, working on analysis of investment funds. Rory regularly speaks at industry conferences on trends and developments in the asset management sector. He holds a BA in Government from Georgetown University

Mike Carruthers is Head of European Private Credit for Blackstone. Mr. Carruthers is involved in the origination, researching, structuring, and managing of our investments.

Mr. Carruthers re-joined the London team in 2022 after having previously relocated to Toronto, Canada to focus on Blackstone Credit's origination efforts in Canada and the Midwest. Mr. Carruthers previously worked in the London office of Blackstone Credit from 2006 – 2019. Prior to joining Blackstone Credit, Mr. Carruthers worked in the investment banking division of Credit Suisse.

Mr. Carruthers graduated with Honors in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Torben joined the firm in 1997, working in a variety of roles including Leveraged Finance and High Yield Capital Markets. In 2001 he was appointed Head of Leveraged Finance Credit Analysis at Legal and General, and as a Portfolio Manager, managed more than $5bn in assets.

In 2008 he returned to JPMorgan and currently is responsible for the Direct Lending franchise in Europe, where he works closely with partners from Financial Sponsors, other Direct Lending businesses as well as JPMorgan Banking, Leveraged Finance and Credit Trading to build JPMorgan’s Direct Lending business.

Damiano is a Managing Director and heads up the rating advisory team for EMEA at Deutsche bank, focusing on both private and public rated debt solutions for corporate clients as well as investors

Damiano has more than 19 years of banking experience, 8 of which at DB. He holds a master’s degree in Telecom Engineering from 'La Sapienza' university of Rome and an MBA from St. Johns' University in New York.

Andrea Daniels is an Associate Managing Director and leads the EMEA Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS) team. Prior to joining the team in London in2011, she was a team leader in the US CMBS surveillance team responsible for large loan and single borrower transactions. Since joining Moody’s in 1998, Andrea has rated various fixed and floating rate US CMBS transactions. Prior to joining Moody’s, Andrea worked as an Asset Manager within the Real Estate group at Aetna in Hartford, Connecticut.  Ms. Daniels has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and Management from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and an MBA in Real Estate from the University of Connecticut.

David Hamilton is Managing Director, Head of Asset Management Research, based in New York. He has held various senior positions in both Moody’s Ratings and Moody’s Analytics over his 27-year career with Moody's. Mr. Hamilton has worked across different asset classes including corporates, high-yield, financial institutions, sovereigns, public finance, structured finance, and digital assets, and in diverse leadership roles in quantitative research, credit policy, and business development in the US and Asia. Prior to joining Moody’s in 1997, Mr. Hamilton worked in the Regional Economics group at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Matt is Head of Europe, Portfolio Finance. He was previously European Head of Direct Private Investments at MassMutual where he led a team originating, structuring, executing, and managing investment grade portfolio and GP financing transactions. Prior to joining MassMutual, Matt spent ten years at Investec Plc where he was a founding member of the Fund Finance team and Head of Origination and NAV Financing. At Investec, Matt deployed bank and institutional investor capital into GP and Fund Finance solutions. Prior to that, Matt was at Barclays, investing in senior and subordinated credit. Matt graduated from Loughborough University with a MEng in Aeronautical Engineering and is an Associate of Corporate Treasurers.

Dr. Cornelia Holthausen is Director General for Macroprudential Policy and Financial Stability at the European Central Bank, responsible for providing policy advice on macroprudential policies, financial stability, and financial regulation as well as conducting analysis, market monitoring and stress testing exercises for identifying and assessing financial sector risks.

Holthausen chairs the ESCB’s Financial Stability Committee and is member of the Basel Committee of Banking Supervision. She also attends the Standing Committee on Supervisory and Regulatory Cooperation under the Financial Stability Board.

Before taking up her current position in 2021, she held positions as Deputy Director General in DG Markets and DG Economics, as well as Head of the Financial Research Division at the ECB.

Ramzi is a Vice President in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group in London focused on real estate.

He joined Moody’s in February 2011 as a lead analyst in EMEA CMBS responsible for analysing and rating a large variety of commercial mortgage backed transactions across all EMEA jurisdictions and property types. Ramzi’s responsibilities also included researching and analysing property market data and tracking European occupational and investment market trends.

Ramzi also worked in Moody’s Financial Institutions Group’s Analytics Team, where he was instrumental in conducting successful stress tests for banks globally as well as monitoring bank asset quality.

Prior to beginning his career at Moody’s in 2011, Ramzi spent 15 years working with a variety of European banks as a real estate credit specialist, and also worked in the Middle East on real estate development projects.

Ramzi’s prior roles included working as a senior real estate credit officer at the Royal Bank of Scotland. He also worked as deputy head of portfolio management at pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank with direct risk responsibility for a large real estate finance portfolio covering a diverse range of assets including office, retail, industrial, hotels, residential, and healthcare.

Ramzi earned his MSc in Real Estate Investment from the Cass Business School. He also holds an MSc in Finance and a BA in General Management, both from Boston College.

Nicole Lawrence is a Senior Director – Strategist for the Moody’s Analytics. She is responsible for strategy, management and marketing in Moody’s Analytics Structured Solutions group. Her expertise spans across several ABS and CLO markets. In addition, she is responsible for the Structured Solutions Research team.

Prior to joining Moody’s Analytics, Nicole held various roles with T-REX and B Asset Manager (BAM), focusing on analyzing and investing in esoteric and consumer ABS markets. Before BAM, she spent 11 years at PPM America, most notably as a Vice President, where she was responsible for investments across several ABS and CLO asset classes. Nicole began her career as an ABS ratings analyst for Moody’s Investors Service. Nicole has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.

Kevin Maddick joined Moody’s in 2017, and has responsibility for a team of analysts covering project finance and infrastructure in EMEA. He has extensive experience in the financing of infrastructure and energy assets, as debt provider, as equity investor, and as financial advisor. He has structured, arranged or advised on over 200 project, secured corporate and asset financings globally. Kevin has also acted as Board Director of a portfolio of operating companies and of an investment holding company. Kevin was previously Head of Infrastructure and a Managing Director at NatWest, leading origination, execution, and financial modelling teams for debt, equity and advisory, during a 17-year period with the bank. Before that Kevin was responsible for new equity investments for 3 years whilst at Balfour Beatty Capital. Kevin spent the early 10 years of his career with Peninsular and Oriental Shipping, chartering tanker and dry bulk vessels worldwide, and in ship sale, purchase, financing and leasing, based in Europe and Asia. Kevin is a CFA Charterholder, a Chartered Management Accountant, a Chartered Shipbroker, and has an MA in Geography from Oxford University.

Moody’s has a leading global Infrastructure Finance franchise, rating some US$2.8 trillion of corporate and project finance securities. Our team of 148 analytical staff covers more than 2,700 public and private sector infrastructure issuers globally. Moody’s EMEA team of 48 infrastructure specialists is responsible for rating around 330 issuers with approximately US$756 billion in debt outstanding. Moody’s Investors Service covers a total of more than 35,000 issuers and structured finance transactions worldwide, representing more than US$73 trillion in rated debt

Nick Miller is Managing Director for Global Regulatory Affairs and a member of the Corporate Affairs senior leadership team. He is responsible for driving a strong regulatory strategy that is consistent and locally relevant across the globe; managing global regulatory policy engagements and leading the firm’s regulatory affairs initiatives.

He leads the regulatory specialists within our Government, Public and Regulatory Affairs (GPRA) team. Nick works closely with colleagues throughout Moody’s to help fortify our relationships with regulators and central banks around the world.

Before joining Moody’s, as the Head of the Asset Management Department at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, Nick was responsible for the oversight of more than 3,000 firms across the asset management, custody bank and credit rating agency sectors. Previously, Nick was head of the International Department, responsible for managing the FCA's strategic relationships with counterpart regulators and other stakeholders throughout Europe and globally. He was also responsible for the FCA’s strategy in relation to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Prior to joining the regulator, Nick was Executive Director and Head of Public Policy, EMEA at Morgan Stanley, where he spent four and a half years. He previously worked in a government relations role at Thomson Reuters and as a trade policy expert at the Confederation of British Industry. He holds an MSc in Finance from the London Business School and an MA in European Politics from the College of Europe in Belgium. He was awarded a BA in Modern European Studies from University College London.

Clay Montgomery is a Vice President - Senior Credit Officer in the Financial Institutions Group of Moody’s Ratings, covering a portfolio of banks, exchange operators, and business development companies. Clay joined Moody’s in September 2021.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Clay was an Associate Director at S&P Global Ratings for 10 years covering a variety of bank and non-bank financial institutions. Prior to S&P, Clay worked at UBS in equity research and equity capital markets. He holds an undergraduate degree with a major in finance from the University of South Carolina.

Lyuba Petrova is Moody’s Global Head of Leveraged Finance, bringing together the firm’s leveraged finance expertise across regions and disciplines. Lyuba’s team focuses on credit performance of speculative grade issuers, trends in documentation, dynamics in the leveraged finance market and private credit.

Prior to Moody’s, Lyuba spent a decade at Fitch Ratings, leading the firm’s North America Leveraged Finance team, and 9 years at JPMorgan, in roles in leveraged finance origination, capital markets and credit risk management in New York and London.

Marc Pinto is the Global Head of Private Credit. In this role, he coordinates across the financial institutions, corporate, structured, and public and infrastructure finance rating groups to provide thought leadership, and ratings oversight in growth areas of the private credit market, including fund finance, private asset-backed securities, and privately placed investment-grade corporate assets. For over a decade, Marc has held a series of leadership roles of increasing scope and responsibility at Moody’s, including Global Co-Head of Insurance and Global Head of Funds & Asset Management.

Marc is deeply committed to educational and empowerment initiatives, acting as an Executive Sponsor for Moody's CFA and Global Administrative Professionals Networks, a Mentor Advisor in the Women’s Business Resource Group, and a frequent participant in career development seminars.

Marc’s extensive career in the fixed income credit markets, in New York and London, has included leadership roles at sell-side and buy-side firms including Merrill Lynch, Keefe Bruyette & Woods, and Susquehanna International. At Merrill Lynch, Marc was also a top-ranked financial institutions analyst.

Marc is a Chartered Financial Analyst and an alumnus of Columbia Business School and Trinity College (Connecticut).

Mattis Poetter is a Partner and CIO of Arcmont Asset Management. Mattis was previously a Partner at BlueBay’s Private Debt group where he worked from 2018.

Prior to BlueBay, Mattis was a Director in the Private Credit team of HPS Investment Partners, formerly Highbridge Principal Strategies. Before that, Mattis spent seven years in the European Leveraged Finance team of J.P. Morgan focusing on German LBOs. Mattis has extensive experience in sourcing, analysing and structuring investments and has a wide network of client relationships.

He received a degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics in 2007.

Barbara is the Co-Team Leader of the RMBS New Ratings Team in EMEA. Before this Barbara held the position of the Team Leader in EMEA RMBS Surveillance. She started in Moody’s in 2002 and has since then covered a large variety of products and markets. Barbara originally comes from the banking industry, where she mainly focused on working with derivative products.

Barbara holds an LLM in Banking and Finance Law from the University of London and a Laurea in International and Diplomatic Sciences from the University of Trieste.

Yasemin leads Investment Strategy for the Institutional Retirement division of Legal and General, overseeing an £80 bn portfolio. She joined recently from British International Investments (BII), where she has been Managing Director and Head of Asset Allocation & Capital Solutions. Prior to BII, Yasemin spent time in tech venture capital at the Omidyar Network, managing an impact investment portfolio for the founder of eBay. She began her career at JPMorgan, where she worked with in Structured Alternative Investments, in Credit Exotics, and was a founding member of JPMorgan’s Social Finance team

Douglas Segars is responsible for Moody’s EMEA Infrastructure Finance ratings and research business. He leads a team of analysts in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid covering utilities, infrastructure corporates and project financings. 

Moody’s has a leading global Infrastructure Finance franchise, rating some US$2.8trillion of corporate and project finance securities. Our team of 148 analytical staff covers more than 2,700 public and private sector infrastructure issuers globally. Moody’s EMEA team of 48 infrastructure specialists is responsible for rating around 330 issuers with approximately US$756 billion in debt outstanding. Moody’s Investors Service covers a total of more than 35,000 issuers and structured finance transactions worldwide, representing more than US$73 trillion in rated debt. Before joining Moody’s in 2014, Douglas spent his 30-year career in Europe and the Americas in a variety of credit and origination roles with a focus on infrastructure, financial institutions and public finance. From 2010 to 2014, he served as Head of Infrastructure Finance at Her Majesty’s Treasury, advising government ministers on initiatives to support infrastructure in the United Kingdom including the UK Guarantees Scheme, a £40 billion programme to provide financial guarantees for social and economic infrastructure projects, and the Green Investment Bank, the first national financial institution created to mobilise private sector capital for sustainable infrastructure development. Prior to HM Treasury, Douglas was a Managing Director at Financial Security Assurance, holding a number of positions in the firm’s New York, Paris and London offices and leading teams structuring and guaranteeing financings for public-private partnerships, utilities and local authorities. Douglas began his career with American Express and Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. Douglas holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from the University of Georgia and a MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is a CFA charter holder

Mr. Seminara is a Partner and Head of Europe at Apollo having joined in 2003. He is a member of the firm’s Management Committee. He is based in London, having previously spent over a decade in Apollo’s New York office. Prior to that time, Mr. Seminara was a member of the Private Equity group at Evercore Partners and previously was employed by Lazard Frères & Co. in the firm’s Media & Communications group. Mr. Seminara is a member of the Board of Managers of MCC Holding Company LLC and Board member for Novolex. Mr. Seminara graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He is an active alum and serves on the Wharton EMEA Executive Board.

Anna Sherbakova is a Senior Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group, based in London, where she covers banks in the UK and Norway, as well as non-bank financial institutions. She joined Moody’s in 2011 in New York, where she held lead analytical responsibility for a portfolio of finance companies across multiple sectors, including business development companies (BDCs), consumer and commercial lenders, and leasing firms. Prior to joining Moody’s, Anna worked at a private equity firm focused on middle- market companies, as well as at a buy- side investment firm.

Anna holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BSBA from Boston University.

Mr. West has served as President of Moody’s Ratings since November 2019. Mike served as Managing Director—Head of MIS Ratings and Research from June 2016 to October 2019. Previously, Mike served as Managing Director—Head of Global Structured Finance from February 2014 to May 2016 and Managing Director—Head of Global Corporate Finance from January 2010 to January 2014. Earlier in his career, Mike was also responsible for the research strategy for the ratings businesses and before that led Corporate Finance for the EMEA Region, European Corporates and the EMEA leveraged finance business. Prior to joining Moody’s in 1998, Mike worked at Bank of America and HSBC in various credit roles.

Andreas Wilgen is Managing Director and Head of Moody’s EMEA Structured Finance Group, which operates from offices in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid and Milan. The team covers all new ratings and surveillance activities in covered bonds, asset-backed securities (ABS), residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and Structured Credit.

Andreas joined Moody’s from Fitch Ratings where he most recently led a team of credit analysts focused on private credit securitization structures, including credit fund finance and rated note feeders. Prior roles at Fitch include Group Credit Officer for Global Structured Finance, co-Head of US ABS in New York, Head of the EMEA ABS in London, and credit analyst in Structured Credit.

Andreas began his career at Fitch in 2005 after having earned the degree of Diplom-Kaufmann at the University of Cologne and an M.B.A. from Eastern Illinois University.