Fidelity International has expanded its private credit team with 12 hires, including senior appointments in direct lending.
The hires include portfolio manager Marc Preiser, who will focus on developing and launching a direct lending offering. He joins after five years with Apollo Global Management where he developed and managed Apollo’s direct lending business in Europe.
Head of origination (direct lending) Raphael Charon joins after 10 years at Bank of Ireland where he held the position of deputy global head of leveraged and acquisition finance.
Pierluigi Volini will lead credit risk management and portfolio oversight across private credit strategies. He joins from Credit Suisse where he spent 10 years as head of European Special Situations Desk Strategy. Prior to this, Volini held similar roles at Barclays, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs.
Elsewhere, Tim Johnston joins as managing director for direct lending from Beechbrook Capital, where he was a partner. He brings 15 years’ experience of originating, executing and monitoring transactions in the UK direct lending market. Prior to Beechbrook, Johnston worked at ICG and at PwC.
Ben Forman has been named as director for direct lending joining from Mizuho Bank, and Mikko Iso-Kulmala has joined as an investment director from Barings.
Michael Curtis, head of private credit strategies at Fidelity International, said: “Fidelity launched its first SFDR Article 8 aligned collateralised loan obligation in November 2021.
“Since then, we have invested heavily in growing the team to ensure we have the right level of support and technical expertise to help drive our ambitious expansion plans as we diversify into new areas such as direct lending.”
Fidelity’s private credit team was established in early 2021 to launch a full range of loan and private credit strategies. It currently has 70 employees.
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