People moves and key promotions in securitisation

This week’s roundup of securitisation job swaps sees KBRA making multiple senior structured finance appointments including a new global head of ABS and RMBS. Elsewhere, a c-suite executive at PACE Funding Group has left the firm and transitioned away from structured credit with a move to Greenday Finance, while specialty finance company Encina Lender Finance has made two senior hires and promoted three.

KBRA has announced several senior structured finance appointments, including the promotions of Jack Kahan to global head of ABS and RMBS and Yee Cent Wong to lead analytical manager for structured finance.

Based in New York, Kahan takes on his new role as head of RMBS after more than nine years at KBRA, where he most recently operated as the global head of RMBS. Kahan will continue to lead RMBS, while industry veterans Edward DeVito and Patrick Gervais handle day-to-day operations.

Wong returns to New York after four years in Dublin, where she served as co-head of Europe, and will manage the analytical efforts across KBRA’s structured finance platform. She will continue to report to global head of structured finance Eric Thompson.

Additionally, KBRA’s former global head of ABS, Eric Neglia, will head up the agency’s global funds business in a bid to support increased interest in asset backed lending in the private credit space. Neglia is based in New York and most recently served as a senior md, leading on consumer ABS after Thomas Speller took over ABS analytical efforts in 2021. He specialises in fund finance transactions and in his new role will continue to lead KBRA’s European funds business.

Meanwhile, James Vergara has left his role as chief operating officer/chief investment officer at PACE Funding Group (formerly Home Run Financing) and taken over as chief financial officer at Greenday Finance. This marks a departure from the securitisation field, with Vergara instead focused on power purchase agreements.

Vergara spent seven years at PACE and previously had stints at Spruce Finance, Deutsche Bank Prager Sealy & Co and Swap Financial Group.

Specialty finance company Encina Lender Finance (ELF) has made two new hires and promoted three senior team members to drive its next growth stage. Neha Banthia has joined the firm as chief risk officer, overseeing credit risk, asset-level collateral analysis, and post-close surveillance, while also serving as a voting member of the investment committee. Previously, Banthia worked as vp, head of lending at Rocket Loans, and director, head of personal loans at Avant. 

Chris Pickett has joined ELF as principal and co-head of asset management and infrastructure. Pickett was previously director of analytics and quantitative solutions at BlackRock, which he joined in 2014. 

Additionally, ELF has promoted Geoff Beard to ceo and cio, Joe Ressa to cfo and coo, and Jeff Carbery to md and co-head of asset management. Edward Chang has transitioned from co-ceo to a senior advisor role.

ELFA has announced a round of new co-chairs to multiple committees as the search for its new ceo continues. Stuart Fuller has joined ELFA’s leveraged loan committee as co-chair, and holds more than two decades of experience in the industry. He presently serves as a global loans portfolio manager at Muzinich & Co in London. 

Nils Weber, the Frankfurt-based Pemberton origination team md, has joined as the new co-chair of ELFA’s private debt investor committee. Finally, Patrick Kersting, research analyst within Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s high yield practice, will serve as the new co-chair of ELFA’s disclosure and transparency committee.

BNP Paribas has recruited a Credit Suisse veteran to lead its structured products team in Hong Kong. KK Wai has joined BNP Paribas Wealth Management’s investment team after more than 17 years at Credit Suisse, where he was co-head of structured products advisory and equities sales. Wai will report to head of investment services for the region, Gabriel Chan.

Andrews Kurth has recruited Alan Cunningham and Richard Skipper as partners in its asset finance practice in London. The duo join the firm from EY Law, which they joined in 2022. Prior to this, they led DLA Piper’s asset finance team as partners. Their background includes expertise in securitisation and forward flow transactions across aviation, shipping, rail, defence, automotive, energy and other asset classes.

Debt capital advisory firm Armentum Partners has hired senior banker, Andrew Fineberg, to its royalty and credit opportunities fund in New York to bolster its royalty capabilities. Fineberg joins the business from OrbiMed Advisors, and prior to this held senior structured finance positions at multiple companies including SVB securities.

And finally, former Silver Point Capital md Steven Sasson has taken up his new position as co-head of structured credit at New York-headquartered alternative investment firm Millennium. Sasson joined Silver Point in early 2022 to expand the firm’s CLO strategy and left in June this year. He previously spent nine and a half years as md at Anchorage Capital.

Claudia Lewis, Marta Canini, Joe Quiruga, Kenny Wastell