Arlene Kearns is a Senior Director in the Digital Content & Innovation business at Moody’s Analytics. She is responsible for driving initiatives that will grow Moody’s Structured Finance product suite globally. Arlene has over 25 years of combined experience in fixed income credit analysis and product development.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2010, Arlene held Structured Finance positions at Banc of America Securities, Lehman Brothers and Standard & Poor’s. Her experience spans banking, credit analysis, proprietary trading, and M&A.

Arlene earned a BA in Economics and International Relations from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Nicole Lawrence is Managing Director, Asset Management Strategy, leading global commercial and market strategy. She has over 25 years of experience in credit markets, with expertise in structured assets, including CLOs, as well as public, private, and esoteric asset-backed securities.

Most recently, Nicole served as Senior Director, Private Credit Strategist, where she helped shape Moody’s Asset Management strategy and expand its private credit presence. Prior to joining Moody’s, she held various roles at fintech company T-REX and several insurance asset managers, including over 11 years at Prudential PLC’s U.S. subsidiary, PPM America, where she most notably served as Vice President responsible for investments across several structured asset classes. She began her career as a structured analyst at Moody’s Ratings.

Nicole holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.

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.

Kerry O’Brien is global head of Multi-Asset Solutions for MetLife Investment Management (MIM). She is responsible for the execution of investment strategies for the MetLife general account, helping drive growth in MIM’s third party insurance client channel as well as working with teams to drive liability solutions across other client segments.
 
Prior to joining MIM in December 2024, Kerry served as head of insurance at Insight Investments, a subsidiary of BNY. Prior to Insight Investments, Kerry was a portfolio manager and Head of Emerging Markets and Sovereign Credit at AIG. In her over 35 years of experience, she has also held senior positions at SwissRe, Munich Re Capital Management, and Dreyfus.
 
Kerry earned an M.B.A in Finance from Hofstra University and a B.S. in Business Administration from LeMoyne College.

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.

Gretchen French is an Executive Director in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group, with responsibility for the Technology team.

Prior to her current role, Gretchen was heading the Homebuilding, Building Materials and Packaging Team. And prior, she was an Associate Managing Director in Ratings & Research Support (RRS), where she led a team of Associate Analyst Team Managers responsible for managing support analysts in the Corporate Finance, Project and Infrastructure Finance, and Sub-Sovereign Groups in the Americas.

Before joining the RRS team, Gretchen was a Vice President - Senior Credit Officer in the Oil and Gas team in the Corporate Finance Group. In this role, she was a lead analyst on a portfolio of investment grade and high yield exploration and production, refining and marketing, midstream, drilling and oilfield services companies in the US, Latin America and Canada.

Gretchen is an active member of the Women’s Business Resource Group (WBRG) at Moody’s and previously served in role of Co-Chair of the New York WBRG.

Gretchen holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College

Adam Chaim is a Vice President in Moody’s Ratings’ Corporate Finance Group. His coverage includes a diverse portfolio of healthcare services companies, including radiology, physician practices, and healthcare cost containment companies. Adam joined Moody’s in 2022 with 15 years of experience in corporate credit analysis and equity research. Prior to joining Moody’s, Adam was a credit analyst at Elanus Capital Management, with a focus on US and European issuers across numerous industries. Previously, Adam was a sell-side research analyst at both Autonomous Research and Deutsche Bank, covering US Banks and Healthcare sectors. Adam graduated from SUNY Albany with a BS in Biology. He received an MBA from Baruch College with a concentration in Finance and Investments. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Bart Walas is a Vice President – Senior Analyst on the TMT team within US CFG where he covers leveraged finance issuers in the software, diversified tech and tech-enabled services sectors. Bart has been with Moody’s for over 5 years. Prior to joining the TMT team, Bart covered issuers throughout the consumer products, services, and healthcare industries as a Ratings Associate.

 Bart holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Connecticut.

Justin Remsen is a Senior Vice President on the Technology team covering a portfolio of investment grade and high yield technology issuers in several verticals including software, diversified technology and semiconductors. Justin has been at Moody’s for over 10 years, including roles as an analyst covering homebuilding related issuers and a team manager, leading a team of associates.

Prior to joining Moody’s in September 2013, Justin was a consultant at Accenture Consulting. Justin holds an MBA from NYU Stern school of Business, a B.S. in finance from Lehigh University, and is a CFA charterholder.

Julia Chursin is a Vice President in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group (CFG), specializing in Leveraged Finance Research and Analytics. Julia leads research on corporate defaults, loss-given-default (LGD), private equity, and leveraged finance outlook. Julia
serves on the editorial board of the Leveraged Finance Interest newsletter for North America and is a frequent speaker at Moody’s webinars, CLO conferences, and investor roundtables.

Julia has authored numerous special comments on defaults, recoveries and other leveraged finance topics, with her work featured in top-tier media outlets. Her efforts have advanced Moody’s thought leadership in leveraged finance and enhanced visibility of proprietary spec-grade indicators, and the DRD product. Since joining Moody’s in 2010- first in commercial and business development, and with CFG since 2013 – Julia has contributed to various strategic initiatives, including the Global Leveraged Finance Dashboard, Credit Cycle Gauge and LGD spec-grade methodology. Earlier in her career, Julia worked in UBS Wealth Management, focusing on portfolio strategies for high net-worth investors. She holds an MBA in Finance from Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College (CUNY).

Part of LSTA’s senior leadership team, Elizabeth is focused on the drafting and negotiation of LSTA’s suite of standardized primary and secondary loan market documentation. Notably, she spearheaded the creation of LSTA’s “Private Corporate Credit – Representative Liability Management Transaction Protections for Credit Agreements,” which offers approaches to help lenders draft robust protective language in their agreements. In her day-to-day, she engages with market stakeholders from corporate and investment banks to industry regulators on developments in the international loan space. Elizabeth also leads the Association’s sustainability and sustainable lending projects, collaborating with global stakeholders on key guidance for sustainable debt instruments, such as the green and sustainability-linked loan frameworks and the “Model Credit Agreement Provisions for Green Loans.” (Her recent publications are listed below.) 

Before joining LSTA, Elizabeth practiced as a debt finance attorney at Morrison & Foerster LLP, White & Case LLP and Linklaters LLP in New York. After receiving her master’s in French from the New York University Institute of French Studies, she earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law and is admitted as an attorney in New York.

Farah Zakir is a Vice President – Senior Analyst in the Business and Consumer Services team. Farah covers a portfolio that includes companies in the staffing, travel services and business consulting industries, among other verticals. Farah joined Moody’s from Citigroup, where she was a high yield credit research analyst covering the oilfield services and power sectors. In her capacity as lead analyst at Citigroup Farah published research that analyzed the credit and operations of companies and made recommendations based on her research. Prior to her work at Citigroup Farah was an Associate in the Leveraged Finance group at RBS Securities, where she advised issuers on debt transactions across sectors. Farah also has experience in the Leveraged Finance group at Bank of America where she was an Analyst.

Farah has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hamilton College and a Masters of Arts in Finance and Economics from Brandeis University.

Al Remeza is an Executive Director and Head of the CLO and Structured Credit new rating team with Moody's Ratings. He is also the managing editor for Moody’s CLO Interest newsletter.

Prior to joining Moody’s, he was a Senior Consultant at one of Mercer’s financial advisory consulting groups. His clients were financial institutions such as major investment banks, reinsurance, and insurance companies, energy and commodities trading firms, quasi-government agencies, and numerous other Fortune 500 firms.

His other experiences include working for Credit Suisse First Boston and Alliance Capital. He earned an MA in Economics, a BS in Economics, and a BS in Engineering and did his doctoral work in finance while at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Connor Byrnes is an Executive Director on PGIM Credit’s Securitized Products Team and is a portfolio manager focused on Collateralized Loan Obligation (“CLO”) tranche investing across the US and Europe. Mr. Byrnes is responsible for CLO security selection in dedicated separate accounts as well as the Firm’s multi-sector, investment grade, high yield, LDI, money market, and general account strategies. Prior to assuming his current responsibilities, Mr. Byrnes was responsible for supporting PGIM Credit's Dryden CLO platform in structuring, business development, client management, and analysis functions. 

Mr. Byrnes joined the Firm in 2012. He received a dual B.S. in Business Administration Finance and Economics from Susquehanna University and an MBA from Indiana University.

Patrick Deharveng is Head of Investments & Execution Americas for Group Treasury at UBS AG, responsible for asset allocation, portfolio execution, and repo desk activities across the U.S. bank portfolios. He serves on UBS's U.S. Asset-Liability Committees and the Treasury Investment Forum and established the firm's in-house CLO investment program. Prior to Group Treasury, Patrick held sales and trading roles within Global Markets. He is a CFA Charterholder and holds master's degrees in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. He is based in New York City.

Peter focuses on the CLO market at Moody’s Analytics via the further development of the CLO analytics products and CLO research.

Mr. Sallerson began his finance career in the Corporate Finance Department at Nomura Securities where he executed numerous debt, equity, and derivative transactions as well as a variety of domestic and international structured financings. At Bear Stearns for 14 years, Mr. Sallerson structured transactions for a variety of collateral types with an emphasis beginning in 1995 on CLOs and CSOs. He was a founding member of the CLO group at Bear. Subsequent to Bear, he ran Mitsubishi UFJ Securities (USA)’s CLO effort and advised its parent (BTMU) on its CLO investment activities for 3 years.

Mr. Sallerson graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College and his M.B.A. is with honors from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Josh Soffer is a Managing Director at Prospect and has been in the finance industry since 2004. He is responsible for originating, executing, and managing investments in CLOs. Prior to joining Prospect, from 2018-2021, Josh was a co-founder and portfolio manager of 1L Investments, a securitized products hedge fund. From 2011-2016, he was co-founder and co-chief investment officer of Rion Capital, a fixed income relative value hedge fund specializing in securitized products. Josh also held positions in trading and portfolio management at Level Global Investors, UBS AG and AVM LP. He began his career at Merrill Lynch Investment Management.

Josh received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sam Spackman is a Vice President – Senior Analyst in the Moody’s Structured Credit Surveillance team, with a primary focus on CLOs. Before joining Moody’s in 2015, Mr. Spackman was the Head CLO Trader at Canaccord Genuity and Odeon Capital before that. Prior to trading CLOs, he spent 10 years purchasing and structuring CLOs at Katonah, Greywolf Capital and Rabobank. Mr. Spackman began his career in the Global Securitization Group at Citi in 1996, focusing on a variety of ABS securitized asset classes. Mr. Spackman has a BA from Vassar College.

Nalin Aeron is a Vice President for the US Structured Credit team. In his current role at Moody’s, Nalin rates new transactions, leads surveillance activities on the existing transactions, methodology development and regularly contributes to thematic research articles and newsletters.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2013, Nalin held positions at Gleacher Descap on the structured credit trading desk serving as a junior trader, research analyst and sale rep for securitizations backed by multiple asset types and as a quantitative investment analyst in Credit Capital Research Technology (a research firm for a hedge fund in US) in Pune India.  

Nalin holds a master’s degree in financial engineering from Baruch College, CUNY. He also holds bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay), India. Nalin is also a CFA charter holder.

Pratik Gupta is a Managing Director and head of CLO and RMBS Strategy. Gupta and his team are responsible for covering trends in mortgage credit, Housing and its securitized market in the US and publishing their views on relative-value across sub-sectors and focal risk points for investors, as well as highlighting issues around governing documents and ongoing court cases. Gupta is responsible for covering the CLO market, focusing on underlying CLO manager behavior, trends in the underlying leveraged loan asset class, relative value and performance trends. Regular research publications include Non-Agency Alert, Non-Agency MBS Weekly, CLO Alert, and CLO Weekly. 

Gupta has been ranked #1 in the Institutional Investor Survey for the past 5 years in Non-Agency RMBS since 2020. He has been ranked #1 in CLOs for the past 4 years since 2021. His team has been ranked as the ‘Best US CLO Research’ since 2021-2026 in the LSTA/Deal Catalyst & Creditflux surveys. 

He was the co-head of RMBS/CLO research at Nomura until 2019. He has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and a Bachelor's and Master's in Electronics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras.

Karen Lau is a Managing Director and serves as lead portfolio manager for CVC Marathon’s Leveraged Loan and CLO Management Strategies, co-manager for the Multi-Asset Credit portfolios, and a member of the Performing Credit Investment Committee. Ms. Lau joined CVC Marathon in 2022 from Onex Credit, where she was Managing Director, serving as the Head of U.S. CLOs, managing over $10 billion of AUM across 20 OCP CLO vehicles, and a member of the Par Loans & High Yield Investment Committee. Previously, Ms. Lau spent six years at TPG Institutional Credit Partners as Co-Head of Portfolio Strategy focused on CLO portfolio construction and optimization of the TICP CLOs. Prior to TPG, Karen was at Blackstone Credit from the inception of its CLO business in the early 2000s, serving over ten years as Senior Investment Analyst covering a wide range of sectors. Ms. Lau began her career at Banc of America Securities as an analyst in the leveraged finance credit group. 

Ms. Lau received a B.S. in Finance from the Leonard Stern School of Business at New York University

Brian Pilko is the Head of Portfolio Management at AGL Credit Management and a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. AGL is a corporate credit specialist that currently manages over $24 billion across CLOs and private credit and is one of the largest issuers of US reinvesting BSL CLOs since its inception in 2019. Prior to joining AGL in 2019, Pilko was a Managing Director at CIFC Asset Management and a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. 

Pilko has a BA in economics from Stanford University and an MBA in finance from the Leonard Stern School of Business at New York University. Pilko is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Jay Hu leads the structured finance teams responsible for new ratings, surveillance and research on CLOs, Corporate and Novel ABS, structured credit, and ABCP in the Americas. Additionally, he is a key member of the Private Credit Group, overseeing all structured deals related to private assets. Jay is a member of Moody’s Decentralized Finance and Digital Assets leadership team and also chairs Moody’s global structured finance surveillance council. At Moody’s for over two decades, Jay has held a series of leadership roles of increasing scope and responsibility.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Jay was a senior economist at FannieMae, where he researched mortgage portfolio risk. He also authored academic research on the relationship between job markets and capital markets which appeared in the Journal of Finance.

Jay holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, and a bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management.