Jennifer Abbene, CRD Operations Manager, Moody’s KMV
Jennifer manages the Moody’s KMV’s Credit Research Database (CRD), the world’s largest and most accurate private firm credit risk database. The CRD currently covers countries that account for approximately 75% of the world’s GDP.
Jennifer has 6 years of experience in Credit Risk Management. Prior to joining Moody’s KMV, she worked in the Credit Risk Management group at Morgan Stanley and at Merchant’s Bank in Burlington, Vermont, where she created regulatory reporting and loan loss reserve reporting systems.
She holds an MBA from Long Island University and a BA in Business from St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont.
Mark E. Almeida, Senior Vice President, Moody’s Analytics
Mr. Almeida was elected Senior Vice President of Moody’s Corporation in August 2007. In this role, he oversees Moody's Analytics, which comprises Moody’s KMV and Moody's Economy.com as well as the sales and marketing of research and analytic products that are produced by Moody’s Investors Service, the rating agency.
Prior to this position, Mr. Almeida was Senior Managing Director of the Investor Services Group (ISG) at Moody’s Investors Service, where he was responsible for sales and development of Moody's portfolio of research products and services. His organization included the Sales, Product Development, and Client Service functions that support distribution of research products and services to institutional investors, credit professionals, and other capital markets participants. Mr. Almeida joined the Corporate Finance division of Moody's Investors Service in 1988.
In 1993 and 1994, he was based in Moody's London office, where he designed and structured a marketing organization in order to seize the capital markets business opportunities anticipated from the development of the European Union and the emergence of a common European currency. He was named Group Managing Director, Investor Services in 2000, and was promoted to Senior Managing Director in 2004.
Prior to joining Moody's, Mr. Almeida worked in marketing and in regional economics for Chase Econometrics, a consulting subsidiary of The Chase Manhattan Bank. He holds a BA from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, and an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.
Ivo Antonov, Senior Director, Moody’s KMV
Ivo Antonov, a Senior Director at Moody’s KMV, is responsible for the Modeling Services arm of Moody’s KMV Professional Services. In that capacity, Ivo leads a global team that helps clients with the development, validation and calibration of internal rating systems.
Since joining Moody’s KMV in 1999, Ivo has facilitated the adoption and implementation of credit decisioning and quantitative credit risk tools at major financial institutions worldwide and has actively participated in more than 30 Modeling Services engagements. Prior to joining Moody’s KMV, Ivo spent six years as a corporate banker and business development executive with a merchant bank.
He holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from Technical University of Sofia and an MBA from Cyprus International Institute of Management.
Ian Assersohn, Senior Director, Moody’s KMV
Ian Assersohn, a Senior Director at Moody's KMV, leads the Platform Product Management group. Previously Ian was Product Manager for the firm's internal rating products, with responsibility for RiskAnalyst™ and the RiskAnalyst ratings package.
Ian joined Moody's Risk Management Services in 2000 when Moody's acquired the Crowe Chizek software business. Ian worked on internal rating systems for 12 years, first as a knowledge engineer and then as a C++ developer, before moving into product management.
He received a BA in music from the Royal College of Music in London and the Koningklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag, the Netherlands. Ian has done postgraduate work in computing and artificial intelligence at London University.
Terry Benzschawel, Ph.D., Head of Credit Modeling Group, Citigroup Global Markets
Terry Benzschawelholds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology and has held post-doctoral fellowships in optometry, ophthalmology and engineering prior to embarking on a career in Finance. His financial career began in 1988 with Chase Manhattan Bank modeling corporate bankruptcy, and his focus since then has been on risky debt of consumers, sovereign nations and corporations.
Terry joined the fixed income arbitrage group at Salomon Brothers in 1992 focusing on pricing models and risk management of emerging market cash and synthetic obligations until 1998 when he moved to fixed income strategy. Since then, his main focus has been on US corporate debt, with recent emphasis on credit models as applied to structured products, credit derivatives and capital structure arbitrage. He currently heads the Credit Modeling group within Citigroup Global Markets.
Carl Chambers, Senior Corporate Risk Manager, Lloyds TSB
Carl is a Senior Corporate Risk Manager for Lloyds TSB where he heads up a team responsible for the Research and Design of PD rating models. He is responsible for the building of new models and enhancement of existing models, with a view to ensure they meet internal standards and regulatory requirements.
Carl joined Lloyds TSB in 1997 where he was responsible for building Dynamic Credit Scoring models for the personal overdrafts portfolio. In 2000 he joined Lloyds TSB Group Project Services as a project manager responsible for the implementation of Customer Decisioning Systems as part of the Customer Relationship Management program. In 2002 he joined the Lloyds TSB Corporate Risk Management team as a PD modeller, where he has worked ever since.
Carl has a BS degree in Mathematics and Meteorology from Reading University.
Steven Conyers, Head of Investment Modeling and Data Analytics Group, Citigroup Global Market
Steven Conyers holds a BS in biology and worked in cell biology and biochemistry research labs prior to embarking on a career in Financial Analytics. After completing a computer programming program he joined Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1984 developing systems for high-yield. Steve joined the fixed income quant research group at Salomon Brothers in 1990 focusing on high-yield analytical tools. Steve subsequently implemented the FI value-at-risk in-desk reporting databases, feeds and web site. From 1997 through 2004 he focused on Emerging Markets. Steve now heads the NY analytical tools group within Citigroup Global Markets FI Quant Analysis.
Emilie Cortes, Director, Moody's KMV
Emilie is a Director of Client Solutions at Moody’s KMV focusing exclusively on the Insurance segment. Previously, Emilie was a client of Moody’s KMV when she was Vice President in the Financial Risk Products group of MMC Securities delivering innovative structured credit solutions for insurance problems. Prior to that, she was an associate with The Geneva Companies, a middle-market M&A broker in California owned by Citigroup.
Emilie received her MBA in Finance from UC, Berkeley and her BSBA in International Business from American University. She is currently pursuing her Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is active in a number of professional organizations, including holding a two-year term as President of the Association of Women MBAs.
Gregory M. Cortez, Director of Credit, Hess Corporation
Greg is the Director of Credit in the Corporate Risk Controls department of Hess Corporation. Based in New York, he is responsible for the counterparty credit risk management of Hess Corp’s worldwide, wholesale trading activities.
Prior to joining Hess, Greg worked for Bankers Trust Co. (1994-99) in the Energy Portfolio Management group.
Greg is currently a member of the Board of Directors (through 2008) of the International Energy Credit Association (IECA), where he also serves on the Strategic Planning Committee. He is also a past Chairperson of the IECA’s Crude Oil and Refined Products Corp Committee. He holds a BA in History from the State University of Albany (1993).
Andrew Curtis, Ph.D., Head of Risk Models, Barclays Bank PLC
Andrew Curtis joined Barclays in 1987 and worked in the firm’s private equity investment and human resources divisions before joining risk management in 1998. Andrew is responsible for developing, validating and managing the UK Business Bank’s PD, EAD and LGD models, including addressing all necessary Basel II model requirements. He did the same for Barclays’ mortgage and small business books before handing these over to the UK Retail Bank.
Barton W. Davis, Assistant Vice President, Financial Products, RLI Insurance Company
Bart started with RLI in 1993 as an underwriter and sales representative. Bart has taken over as Home Office Underwriting Coordinator for the Surety line, Professional Liability Line, and Casualty Lines of Business to provide both underwriting direction and administrative support for these lines of business. Prior to joining RLI, Bart spent seven years with Ohio Casualty as an underwriter. In his last position at Ohio Casualty, he was responsible for production and underwriting functions on the west coast of Florida. He holds the AFSB designation and a BSBA in finance from The Ohio State University.
Brian J. Dvorak, Managing Director, Moody’s KMV
Brian Dvorak joined KMV in 1998. Named Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2003, he went on to lead the Global Account Solutions team in 2005. Previously, he was VP of Product Marketing and Technical Support at CATS Software Inc. and was EVP and COO of LOR/Geske Bock Associates and LORGB Investment Advisors before that.
Brian has an AB in Economics with Highest Honors and an MBA with concentration in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley.
Douglas W. Dwyer, Ph. D., Senior Director, Moody’s KMV
Douglas W. Dwyer, Senior Director, has been at Moody’s KMV for nearly five years. He is now responsible for the research foundations of Moody’s KMV single obligor risk models including both public and private EDFs as well as loan valuation and loss given default.
Douglas was the lead architect of Moody’s RiskCalc v3.1 modeling framework. The RiskCalc models predict private company defaults throughout the world. By incorporating both market (systematic) and company specific (idiosyncratic) risk factors, the RiskCalc v3.1 models are at the forefront of modeling middle-market default risk.
Prior to working at Moody’s KMV, Douglas was a Principal at William M. Mercer Inc., in their Human Capital Strategy practice. He earned a Ph.D. in Economics at Columbia University, and has published several articles in peer reviewed academic journals.
Edward Emanuel, Director, Moody’s KMV
Edward Emanuel is a Director in the Moody’s KMV Client Services Group based in London. Ed is responsible for marketing and discussing with prospective and current clients the Credit Portfolio Management services and products across EMEA and Asia Pacific. Through this, Ed works closely with Moody’s KMV research and product management groups providing market feedback to assist in the direction of the models and offers assistance and guidance to the marketplace on Credit Portfolio Management perspectives.
Ed started working at Moody’s KMV in February 2001 in San Francisco. During this time he gained extensive experience in working with US-based clients using Moody’s KMV EDF Credit Measure and Portfolio Manager technology, among others. He started working in the company’s London office in February 2003, working in Client Services in South Africa and the UK until joining the Credit Risk Specialists team in 2006. In his six years with the company he has worked on a number of implementations of Moody’s KMV credit portfolio models, Portfolio Manager and RiskFrontier; and pricing/valuation tools such as DealAnalyzer and CreditMark.
Ed holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand and an Economics degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
Geoff Fite, Chief Operating Officer, Senior Managing Director and Head of Moody's KMV
Geoff Fite joined Moody's KMV in July 2005 as CTO and became COO and Head of Moody's KMV in July 2007. Previously, Geoff was Head of Technology and VP of Institutional Investment Consulting at Morningstar Associates (a business unit of Morningstar Inc). Prior to Morningstar Associates, Geoff was COO and CTO of mPower Advisors, a Principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers and CTO of Cogent. Geoff holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California at San Diego and master's degree from Columbia University.
John Gibbon, Ph.D., Senior Director, Moody's KMV
John Gibbon is a Senior Director of Product Management at Moody’s KMV. He is responsible for Public and Private EDF products and for promoting best practices in product management processes for all products. John has a financial services product management and product development background including having been a founding officer of a JPMorgan Chase–backed secure financial transaction company and more recently having been the VP Products for a default mortgage software company.
John earned a BA and BS from the University of Notre Dame and an MS and Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Boston University. He is a graduate of the Executive Program for Growing Companies at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business
Peter Gleysteen, Chairman and CEO, CIFC
Peter is the founder of CIFC and serves as Chief Executive Officer. He is Chairman of CIFC’s Board of Directors and is also a member of the Credit Committee. Peter has over 31 years’ experience in the global credit markets.
Prior to founding CIFC, Peter had a 25-year career at JPMorgan Chase and its predecessor institutions, Chemical Bank and Chase Manhattan Bank (JPMC). He was the Chief Credit Officer of JPMC during its merger. Previously, he was responsible for both JPMC’s global loan syndication business and its corporate loan portfolio. Peter was a member of JPMC’s Management and Credit Committees and co-chair of the Investment Banking Division Balance Sheet Committee. Prior to joining JPMC’s syndications group in 1986, Peter was in the Corporate Banking Division from 1983 – 1986 and the International Banking Division from 1976 – 1983. Peter joined JPMC in its Management & Credit Training Program in 1975.
Peter holds a BA in History from Trinity College and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Gene D. Guill, Ph.D., Managing Director, Deutsche Bank
Gene is a Managing Director in the Loan Exposure Management Group (LEMG) of Deutsche Bank’s Global Banking Division. Based in New York, he is responsible for the valuation and risk management models/practices deployed in managing the global investment grade-lending portfolio.
Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Gene held positions in Credit Risk Management at Bankers Trust Co. (1989-94) and as a managing consultant in modeling/analyzing financial and industrial markets at DRI-McGraw-Hill (1984-89) and Wharton EFA Inc. (1976-84).
Gene has served as Chairman (2002-05), Vice Chairman (2001-02), and member of the Board of Directors (2001-06) of the International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers; President (1999-2000) and member of the Board of Directors (1997-2001) of the New York Chapter of the Risk Management Association; member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the RMA Journal (1995-2006); and member of the Finance Committee for Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) (since 2006). He holds a BA from Davidson College and a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University.
Anuj Gupta, Director, Moody's KMV
Anuj Gupta is a Director with Moody’s KMV in San Francisco. He is responsible for developing and supporting products to evaluate credit risk in privately held firms.
Anuj has been with the firm for a little over two years.
Anuj has a significant risk management background that includes hands-on experience in structuring and managing commodity risk, especially in the Energy sector.
Anuj completed his Bachelors in Engineering from IIT in India, and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jim Hall, Director, Moody's KMV
Jim Hall is a Director in Moody’s KMV North Americas Sales group, where he focuses on managing client relations in the asset manager and investment banking segments.
Prior to joining Moody’s KMV, Jim spent six years as a Senior Vice President at Marsh & McLennan Securities Corp.,
a boutique securities firm. MMC Securities specialized in structuring and placing synthetic collateralized debt obligations transferring credit risk from the insurance industry into the capital markets.
Steve Haney, Senior Vice President, ACE
Steve is a Senior Vice President of ACE-USA’s Professional Risk Division responsible for leading the company’s Surety business in North America. Steve’s career spans over fifteen years and includes positions with reinsurance and primary companies. He is on the board of directors of the Surety and Fidelity Association of America and the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks.
Steve holds a B.Sc. in Finance from The Pennsylvania State University, a master’s in International Business from the European University, Associate Underwriting designation from the Insurance Institute of America and the Chartered Life Underwriter designation from American College.
Jim Herrity, Senior Director, Moody’s KMV
Jim has 21 years’ experience in the credit profession, including 11 years at Moody's KMV. Currently, Jim is Senior Director of Moody’s KMV Credit Research Database (CRD), which he cofounded in 1996 to support the firm’s private firm default research and the RiskCalc network. Today, the CRD and RiskCalc cover countries that account for approximately 75% of the world’s GDP.
At Moody's KMV, Jim has also been project manager for upgrades to the Public EDF model, product manager of Credit Monitor and LossCalc, and a relationship manager in the Corporate Sales Group. Prior to joining Moody's KMV, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Credit Officer at Banknorth Group. Previously, he managed Chapter 11 firms through the re-organization process. Jim started his credit career at Bank of America where he was a commercial real estate construction loan officer.
He graduated cum laude from the University of Vermont in 1985.
Andrew Kaplin, Ph.D., Manager, Moody’s KMV
Andrew works in the Credit Risk Modeling group of Moody’s KMV and is the Model Manager for Portfolio Products. His main responsibilities include model development, research, and client support.
He holds an MS in Applied Mathematics from the St. Petersburg State University and a Ph.D. in Finance from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. Prior to joining Moody’s KMV, Andrew taught Finance courses at the Kellogg School of Management. His work has been published in the Journal of Econometrics. Andrew’s research interests include market microstructure effects around corporate events, capital structure choices as it relates to macroeconomic conditions, and credit risk and interest rate risk models.
Sean Keenan, Ph.D., Portfolio Analytics Leader, GE Commercial Finance
Sean Keenan is Portfolio Analytics Leader for GE Commercial Finance, and is responsible for the design and implementation of portfolio level credit risk measurement/management systems. Prior to joining GE, Sean worked in the Risk Architecture group at Citigroup developing quantitative models for obligor and portfolio credit risk. Previously, Sean worked at Moody’s Investors Service.
Sean holds a BA in History and a Ph.D. in Economics, both from NYU. He was a recipient of GE’s Edison Award for technological innovation in 2007.
David Keisman, Senior Vice President, Moody's Investors Service
David Keisman is a senior vice president in the corporate finance group. His responsibilities include forming data and research to support the creation and implementation of Moody’s LGD Ratings as well as for other products and services.
Prior to joining Moody's Investors Service in 2005, David managed Standard & Poor’s Recovery Analysis group and the Facility Risk Rating group. David cofounded Portfolio Management Data, a provider of data and analytic services to the leveraged finance and commercial lending community. Standard & Poor’s acquired PMD in May 2000.
David has also worked at Chase Manhattan in its credit risk policy area; while at Chase he created the banking industry's first comprehensive, centralized loan-loss database. That database tracked thousands of loans that defaulted over a 10-year period from Chase, Chemical Bank, Manufacturer's Hanover and Texas Commerce Bank. He also managed the team that reconciled the Facility Risk Grading Systems of Chase and Chemical Bank and of Manufacturers Hanover and Chemical Bank when those banks merged.
He has written articles and research on loan and bond recovery that have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, American Banker, The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision Working Papers, Standard & Poor’s CreditWeek, Journal of Lending & Credit Risk Management, LSTA newsletter, and Bank Loans: Secondary Market and Portfolio Management (edited by Frank Fabozzi).
David received an MBA in finance from the Columbia Business School and a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
John D. Kloberdanz, CPA, CIA, Vice President, M&T Bank
John Kloberdanz is Vice President and Manager of the Commercial Scorecard Modeling Group, which is part of M&T Bank’s Credit Administration Division. Commercial Scorecard Modeling is responsible for the development and maintenance of the risk rating models used to assess credit risk for M&T Bank's commercial loans and commercial real estate loans. He is the subject-matter expert for the Bank’s commercial credit risk rating system, and is responsible for developing strategies for continuous improvement that will best align risk and reward. Prior to his current position, John was the Regional Manager of Loan Review for New York State, and he served as Project Manager for M&T’s development of their dual risk rating system.
John joined M&T Bank in 1987, and before joining Credit Administration was an Internal Audit Manager. He is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Internal Auditor.
Jouni Korhonen, Senior Vice President, Head of Portfolio Risk Management Division, Union Bank
Jouni Korhonen is Senior Vice President and head of Portfolio Risk Management Division at Union Bank of California. His current responsibilities include the bank’s risk rating methodology, Basel II preparation, as well as the bank’s provisioning and allowance processes. Before joining UBOC in 2006, Jouni was a Senior Vice President, managing Credit Risk Architecture at Wells Fargo Bank. That role included the implementation of Wells Fargo’s bifurcated risk rating system, and Basel parameter estimation and quantification processes for the wholesale bank. Prior to joining Wells Fargo in 2002, Jouni was Managing Director of Credit Products at Bank of America. His earlier positions at BofA included management of Middle East and North Africa region (Dubai), and managing a syndicated credits unit for the Europe Middle East and Africa division (London). Mr. Korhonen has a B.A. from Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, and a master’s degree from Harvard.
Stephanie Lee, Director, Moody’s KMV
Stephanie is the Product Manager for Portfolio Manager™ and is on the team that manages RiskFrontier™. Stephanie was hired by KMV in 1998. Prior to joining Product Management, Stephanie was the technical lead engineer on Portfolio Manager and GCorr™. Before Moody’s KMV, she was the head of Information Technology for two California cities. She has been published in Network World and has spoken at several conferences. Stephanie holds a BS in Applied Mathematics from Yale University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California.
Amnon Levy, Ph.D., Senior Director, Moody’s KMV
Amnon heads the Portfolio Research Group that is responsible for research and model development for Moody’s KMV portfolio, CDO and valuation models.
Amnon holds a BA in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. Prior to joining Moody’s KMV, Amnon was a visiting assistant professor at the Stern School of Business, New York University, and the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. He also has taught Corporate Finance at the Kellogg School of Management and worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Amnon’s work has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics and Risk. His research interests include capital structure choices as it relates to macroeconomic conditions, modeling credit risk, and recovery.
Donald C. Lewis, CFA, Director, Moody’s KMV
Don Lewis is Practice Manager, Professional Services within the Credit Risk Specialist (Americas Sales) organization, based in San Francisco, CA. He is responsible for developing professional services engagements and managing service alignment with customer business goals.
Prior to joining Moody's KMV in 2006, Don was a Director in the Credit Risk Advisory Services practice at KPMG, where he led development and delivery of credit risk rating, analytics and reporting projects, and a Principal with Barclays Global Investors, where he chaired the Capital Markets Risk and Fiduciary Committee.
Don earned a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia College and an M.I.A. in International Banking and Finance from Columbia University.
Robert E. Lewis, Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, AIG. Inc.
Robert joined American International Group, Inc. (AIG) in 1993 and is responsible for all aspects of enterprise risk management for the firm. Departments representing corporate risk and insurance, credit, market and operational risk management report directly to him. As an integral part of the operational risk management function, he is responsible for corporate compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. He serves as the Chairman of AIG’s Complex Structured Finance Transaction Committee.
Prior to his appointment to Chief Risk Officer in 2004, he was AIG’s Chief Credit Officer, chaired AIG’s Credit Risk Committee, and was responsible for setting credit policy and procedures at the corporate level and for approving all financial transactions, investments and credit exposures outside certain established parameters and limits.
Prior to joining AIG, Robert worked at various positions in the banking industry with ING Bank and The Chase Manhattan Bank. He holds BA and MA degrees from Davidson College and Duke University, respectively.
Emil Lopez, Senior Bank Analyst, Moody’s KMV
Emil has been part of Moody’s KMV Credit Research Database (CRD) for two years, and has been one of the primary analysts for the group, helping improve operational efficiency and overall processing capacity. Today the CRD covers countries that account for approximately 75% of the world’s GDP.
He graduated cum laude at the University of Vermont in 2005.
Ronnie Maclachlan, European Risk Director, Iveco Finance Holdings
Ronnie is European Risk Director for Iveco Finance Holdings. He joined Barclays in 2005 to head up the risk function for the new joint venture with commercial vehicle manufacturer Iveco. He is a Scottish Chartered Accountant trained by PWC but has spent 30 years working in the Financial Services industry.
For 19 years Ronnie was employed by Lloyds TSB, becoming CEO of Lloyds Bowmaker Motor Finance in 1994 and the merged Lloyds UDT Motor Finance in 1997. He joined GE as Director of UK Auto Finance business in 1999 and left in 2003 to set up his own consultancy business.
Alec McAndrew, Director, Moody’s KMV
Alec McAndrew is a Director at Moody's KMV and is Product Manager for the CreditMark and DealAnalyzer Products. Prior to joining Moody's KMV in 2003, Alec held a variety of risk management positions in Europe and North America over a 14 year career at JP Morgan and consulted on the design of risk management systems for a major European stock exchange group.
Alec holds a BA degree in Mathematics from Amherst College and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Raymond W. McDaniel, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Moody’s Corporation
Raymond W. McDaniel, Jr. is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Moody's Corporation. Mr. McDaniel has held a variety of positions since joining the firm in 1987. He was named President of Moody's Investors Service in November 2001. He was promoted to Executive Vice President of the corporation and was elected to its board of directors in April 2003. Mr. McDaniel was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Moody's Corporation in January 2004, and was named President of the corporation in October 2004. He assumed responsibility as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in April 2005.
During his tenure, Mr. McDaniel has helped lead the company to record levels of financial performance and implemented important enhancements to Moody's ratings practices. Some of these initiatives include growing the core ratings and research business globally, implementing international expansion and new products, and improving professional practices in the ratings business by enhancing credit policies, rating committee processes, and credit research capabilities.
In his earlier days with the firm, Mr. McDaniel served as Senior Managing Director for Global Ratings & Research. He was Managing Director for International, with responsibility for designing and managing regional expansion in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Mr. McDaniel also served as Managing Director for Moody's Europe, based in London. In that capacity, he was responsible for managing all business and rating activities for Moody's in the region. He began his Moody's career as a Senior Analyst in the Asset Securitization department in New York.
Mr. McDaniel holds a J.D. from Emory University School of Law and a B.A. in political science from Colgate University. He was admitted to the Bar of the State of New York in 1984, and is a member of the board of directors of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and the National Council on Economic Education.
Francis J. McGrath, CPA, CFE, Vice President, Liberty Mutual Surety
Fran McGrath is Vice President of Professional Advisory Services for Liberty Mutual Surety (LMS) responsible for forensic financial investigations, underwriting support and audit services including serving as Chairman of the Company internal Credit Committee and workplace safety executive. Prior to assuming his current position within LMS, Fran was responsible for managing claims involving complex performance issues and structured workouts, transition issues related to the acquisition of two companies, cost to complete analysis, claims financial reporting, and special projects with the underwriting department.
Fran is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner with over 24 years of financial and business experience acquired in both public accounting and private industry. He received his accounting degree from LaSalle University in 1982.
He is a member of the Pennsylvania and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Prior to joining LMS, Fran was an associate with Nihill & Riedley and later joined Ernst & Young, LLP as a manager in the Construction Industry Group providing consulting services to various banks, surety companies, and construction contractors.
Farshad Mashayekhi, Ph.D., Director, Moody's KMV
Farshad Mashayekhi is the head of Research Services group at Moody’s KMV. The group leverages off its strong quantitative credit research capabilities in the latest portfolio management and valuation techniques at Moody’s KMV to support consulting services and research projects related to credit risk. Since joining Moody’s KMV in 2002, Farshad has led research projects related to correlation models and copulas, retail and SME correlations, the valuation of corporate loans and bonds, and the analysis of corporate bond indices. He has also been involved in the initial development of CDO Analyzer for evaluating various types of structured products.
As a member of Advisory Services team at Moody’s KMV, he has also led the implementation of Economic Capital Programs in banks through Portfolio Manager Pilots. He has been also a member of the Portfolio and Valuation Analytics group, and acted as the model manager for Moody’s KMV Global Correlation Model which is used in a range of portfolio products. The Research Services group is now leading a series of stress testing projects and working on the extension of the correlation model in order to incorporate CRE exposures.
Farshad holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University, Tehran, a master’s in Economics from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a Ph.D. in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Raymond Monnik, Credit Portfolio Management, Rabobank
Raymond is a member of the Credit Portfolio Management team that is based in Group Risk Management at Rabobank since 2006. After having worked for four years as a project manager in the Economic Capital implementation project for Rabobank Group, Raymond was one of the initiators of the creation of a CPM unit as a follow-on from this project. Prior to these activities, Raymond was a member of the management team of Rabobank’s Group Treasury and responsible for the management of credit risk resulting from trading activities. Other previous positions include various roles in Equity Capital Markets for ING Bank.
Raymond holds an MBA from Simon School of Business in Rochester and University Nyenrode in the Netherlands.
Ewa Nikiel, Vice President, Fifth Third Bank
Ewa Nikiel is responsible for the design and ongoing enhancements to PD, LGD & EAD models applied to the commercial portfolio. Since joining Fifth Third Bank in 2005, she led the work on the development of a new approach to LGD modeling for middle market, CRE and private banking portfolios. She also managed projects related to the EAD modeling and to the enhancements of PD models for various CRE portfolios. Prior to joining Fifth Third Bank, Ewa worked at Bank One (now JP Morgan Chase), where she designed a new LGD methodology for middle market and CRE portfolios.
Ewa received an MBA in finance from DePaul University and MA in economics from the Krakow Academy of Economics in Poland.
Mikael Nyberg, Senior Director, Moody’s KMV
Mikael Nyberg leads the Moody’s KMV Advisory Services practice, a group that is focused on providing services that improve credit portfolio performance. The Moody’s KMV Advisory Services group is responsible for the implementation and introduction of RiskFrontier™, Moody’s KMV latest portfolio and CDO technology. His background includes having worked since 1997 on the global implementation and product management of Moody’s KMV EDF™ and Portfolio Manager™ products. In these roles he was responsible for the new development of models, software and data products.
Mikael has a B.Sc. in Finance and Accounting from the London School of Economics and an MBA from IESE in Barcelona. His thought leadership focus provides clients with frameworks and insights for addressing their most pressing portfolio strategy issues.
James O'Brien, Ph.D., Senior Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Federal Reserve Board of Governors
James O'Brien is a Senior Economist in Risk Analysis at the Federal Reserve Board. His policy and research responsibilities include financial market and bank risk, bank capital requirements, and fair value accounting. Recent research areas include Value-at-Risk measurement, bank trading risk, market risk capital requirements, retail deposit valuation, and bank loan fair value measurement. His publications include articles in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance and the Journal of Money Credit and Banking.
James holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
Denis O'Donoghue, Vice President, Director of Credit Risk Modelling, Toronto Dominion
Denis O'Donoghue is Vice President and Director of Credit Risk Modelling for the Toronto Dominion Bank Financial Group. Denis leads an enterprise-wide team responsible for the Bank's independent credit risk control unit. His group oversees the methodology, development, implementation and maintenance of the models used in the determination of Borrower and Facility Risk Ratings, and Collateral Management reporting, across the Bank's Wholesale and Commercial Banking divisions. Prior to this role Denis held increasingly more senior credit roles within Retail Banking, Commercial Banking, and the Corporate Office. Denis' subject matter expertise is enhanced by his global credit and risk management experience.
Jan-Peter Onstwedder, Head of Risk Management, BP
Jan-Peter is Head of Risk Management for the Integrated Supply & Trading division of BP, where he is responsible for the management of market, credit and operational risk in BP’s global supply and trading business. Previously, he held positions with The Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank and Citibank.
Jan-Peter is also Project Director for The London Accord, a cooperative research project that aims to incorporate climate change into the rigorous financial decision-making analysis that drives investment decisions. The project will use specific investment banking research reports to draw out current thinking and approaches that can be applied by decision makers in companies and by investors.
Jan-Peter has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Chicago, and an MS in mechanical engineering from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
Nihil Patel, Research Associate, Moody's KMV
Nihil Patel is a Research Associate in the Research Services group at Moody's KMV. The group leverages its strong quantitative credit research capabilities in the latest portfolio management and valuation techniques at Moody’s KMV to support consulting services and research projects related to the measurement and management of credit risk. Since joining Moody’s KMV in 2006, Nihil has primarily focused on an empirical work assessing credit risk over short horizons and enhancing Moody’s KMV Global Correlation Model to incorporate risk factors in Commercial Real Estate (CRE) exposures. The extended correlation model allows Moody’s KMV clients to effectively model the credit risk of CRE portfolios combined with corporate loan portfolios.
Nihil has a MSE in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University and a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining Moody’s KMV, Nihil worked as an Analyst for Cornerstone Research, a firm which specializes in litigation consulting.
Jim Pendergrass, Credit Risk Analysis Manager, CoBank
As credit risk analysis manager, Jim is primarily responsible for the software products used for underwriting and credit analysis at CoBank and Farm Credit Leasing. Additionally, he provides support to the bank’s economic capital, allowance for loan loss, stress testing, and compliance projects.
Jim has worked for CoBank and the Farm Credit System for the past 25 years. He has held a variety of positions in risk management, credit administration, and operations.
He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern Mississippi and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University.
Tad Philipp, Managing Director, Moody’s Investors Service
Tad Philipp is a Managing Director at Moody’s Investors Service responsible for the ratings of CMBS and commercial real estate CDOs. In addition, he oversees commercial mortgage related surveillance and quantitative tool development. Prior to joining Moody’s in 1991, he had 12 years of diverse real estate debt and equity experience, including positions with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Investment Capital Associates (a commercial real estate investment banking firm), and Manhattan Equities (an office and residential property developer).
He holds a BA from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Columbia University.
Brian J. Ranson, Managing Director, Moody’s KMV
Brian J. Ranson heads the Credit Strategies Group. Prior to joining Moody's KMV, Brian was a Senior Vice President of Bank of Montreal. He has a global reputation as a pioneer in the introduction of modern portfolio theory to the management of credit risk in banking and is the author of the book “Credit Risk Management” as well as many articles on credit risk management. Brian founded the forerunner to what eventually became the International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers Inc.
Terry J. Reckamp, CPCU, Vice President, CNA Surety
Terry heads the Corporate Commercial Surety practice responsible for underwriting, portfolio monitoring, pricing and risk management of commercial surety. Prior to assuming his current position, Terry was a commercial loan officer for Fortune 500 companies with a focus on branded consumer and general corporate customers. Responsibilities included loan underwriting, global credit monitoring and portfolio analysis.
Terry is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter with over 19 years of credit and financial experience in the banking and insurance area. He holds a BS degree from Marquette University and an MBA from Indiana University.
Rex Roney, Sr. Credit Analyst, Spirit AeroSystems
Rex joined Spirit AeroSystems in 2006. Spirit AeroSystems became the world’s largest manufacturer of aero structures when Boeing spun off its Wichita Division in 2005.
Leading the credit function, Rex is responsible for financially analyzing suppliers who contract for Spirit AeroSystems’ supply chain and approving credit limits to companies purchasing airline parts manufactured by Spirit AeroSystems.
Before his position with Spirit AeroSystems, he was Airline Credit Manager for Raytheon Aircraft Credit Corporation for five years. Prior to Raytheon he spent 20 years in commercial banking as a lending officer.
Rex has a BS degree in Agriculture Economics from Kansas State University, an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado University.
Brad Saegesser, Senior Director, Moody’s KMV
Brad Saegesser is a Senior Director on the Product Management Team who is leading the Moody's KMV Commercial Real Estate (CRE) initiative. He is responsible for designing and developing new credit risk management solutions for the CRE sector. Brad has been with Moody’s KMV for 14 years and has worked in many different capacities, including product development, quality assurance, professional services, and sales. Brad moved from his previous Credit Risk Specialist position, where he worked directly with clients on their implementation of Moody’s KMV products and services, to his new role leading the CRE initiative in November 2006.
Brad has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and master’s in computer science from Michigan State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant who practiced with Ernst & Young prior to joining Moody’s KMV.
Martha Sellers, Managing Director, Moody’s KMV
Martha Sellers is a Managing Director in Credit Strategies at Moody’s KMV. Her role bridges research, product development and client relationships for the firm, as she brings emerging product and research innovation to clients in the Americas.
Martha joined Moody’s KMV in 1995, first working in client service and product management. Before joining Moody’s KMV, she spent five years managing client relationships at a quantitative equity investment management firm. She began her career at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, in bank supervision.
Martha has a BA in economics from Mills College, an MBA in finance from the University of California, Berkeley, and a CFA.
Jon Southard, Senior Vice President & Chief Economist; Director, Research & Research Systems, CBRE/Torto Wheaton Research
Jon Southard is TWR's chief economist, directing the economic research group at TWR since 1993. Working closely with the company’s principals on statistical and economic research, his current projects involve directing Commercial Mortgage Metrics, TWR’s partnership with Moody’s to analyze risk in commercial mortgage portfolios. He also supports TWR’s Investment Strategy Services, providing consulting ranging from detailed asset-specific market assessments to portfolio analysis and asset allocation advice. He is an author of numerous articles for academic journals, and has been quoted widely in the press, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Boston Globe. His work has included forecasting of each of the five major property types. Jon holds an MS in Economics from Brown University.
Jamie Stark, Director, Moody’s KMV
Jamie Stark leads the Modeling Services team for the EMEA region. The modeling services team develops, validates and calibrates internal rating models, and also provides assistance in understanding and using Moody’s KMV platform products and configuration tools. Jamie joined Moody’s KMV in 2002 and has been involved in a number of internal rating projects for large banks around the world.
Prior to joining Moody’s KMV, he has experience researching and developing commercial Artificial Intelligence applications. He has a Ph.D. from Herriot-Watt University and gained a first class BSc with honors from the University of Edinburgh in 1996 where he studied Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics.
Charles Stewart, Senior Director, Moody's KMV
Charles works primarily with clients in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Previously a commercial banker with extensive experience in corporate credit risk management, he was Portfolio Trading Director for Barclays Bank PLC. In 2003, he managed the first known synthetic portfolio level SME transaction to achieve material risk transfer and economic capital relief in the UK. He has a BA with Honors from Sheffield Hallam University and became an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in 1983.
Wayne Iric Super, Director of Finance and CRO, Cisco Systems
Wayne Iric Super is Director of Finance and Chief Risk Officer of Cisco Systems Capital, where he leads the worldwide risk function of 42 managers and analysts. The team executes credit risk, portfolio risk, portfolio reward, and compliance activities of a $3 billion long-term portfolio, $2 billion annual long-term originations, and $7 billion short-term originations, and develops worldwide risk, economic, and compliance policies.
Before joining Cisco, Wayne worked for GE Capital and Pitney Bowes. He serves on the board of directors of Tideline Capital Corporation and Vavni Corporation.
Wayne has a BA from the University of Missouri and an Executive MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management.
Richard Vasicek, Director, Moody's KMV
Richard Vasicek, a director in the Professional Services group of Moody’s KMV, has been with the company since 2000. Within this role, his team assists clients by providing customized modeling solutions concerning Moody’s KMV portfolio analytics. Previously, Richard was part of Client Solutions, responsible for relationship management and sales. He has extensive experience working with Moody’s KMV clients including banks, asset managers and insurers based in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Richard currently works at the head office in San Francisco, but also spent four years working in London. He has a bachelor’s degree in International Management, as well as an MBA with a concentration in Finance.
Yashan Wang, Ph.D., Director, Portfolio Research, Moody's KMV
Yashan is a Director in the Portfolio Research Group at Moody’s KMV, where he leads the research efforts in the valuation models of all single name assets. In addition, Yashan provides quantitative client support for Moody’s KMV CreditMark, Portfolio Manager and RiskFrontier.
Prior to joining Moody’s KMV, Yashan was with MSCI Barra as a Senior Research Consultant. Previously, Yashan was an assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he taught classes in probability and stochastic processes to Ph.D. and MBA students. Yashan’s research work has been published in Annals of Applied Probability, Operations Research, and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. His current research interests include credit risk modeling and Monte Carlo methods in financial engineering.
He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China and a Ph.D. in Management Science from the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University.
Steve Wiggins, Senior Director, Moody’s KMV
Steve Wiggins is a Senior Director in Moody’s KMV Credit Risk Specialist group, where he focuses on helping asset managers, insurance companies and hedge funds extract maximum value from Moody’s KMV solutions. Steve is also helping to guide future product development for the buy side and sell side. Steve previously led Moody’s KMV sales and relationship management effort for asset managers and hedge funds in North America.
Prior to joining Moody’s KMV, Steve spent several years as a management consultant at A.T. Kearney, specializing in financial institutions. His consulting experience spans multiple industries (from banking, to insurance, securities and central banking) and geographies (from the US, to Canada, Europe and Southeast Asia). Previous to that, he spent two years at Credit Suisse First Boston in fixed income portfolio strategy, focusing primarily on mortgage-backed securities and derivatives. He has also worked in Equity Research for Merrill Lynch.
Steve graduated from MIT with a BS in Economics, and holds an MBA in Finance and Strategy from Wharton.
Mark M. Zandi, Ph.D., Chief Economist and Cofounder, Moody’s Economy.com
Mark is Chief Economist and cofounder of Moody’s Economy.com Inc., where he directs the company’s research and consulting activities. Moody’s Economy.com is an independent subsidiary of the Moody’s Corporation and provides economic research and consulting services to businesses, governments and other institutions.
Mark’s research interests include macroeconomic, financial and regional economics. Recent areas of research include the benefits and risks of financial innovation, house price modeling, studying the determinants of mortgage delinquency and foreclosure, and an analysis of the economic impact of various tax and government spending policies. In addition, Mark conducts regular briefings on the economy. He is frequently quoted in national and global news outlets.
Mark received his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, where he did his research with Nobel Laureate Lawrence Klein and Gerard Adams, and he received his BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jing Zhang, Ph.D., Managing Director, Research
Jing heads the Research Group for Moody’s KMV. He joined the KMV in 1998, eventually becoming Deputy to Stephen Kealhofer, one of the founders of the company. As a Director in the Research Group, as well as managing day-to-day research operations, he made major contributions on single obligor EDF credit measures, correlation and portfolio research. Since then, Jing has held a number of additional senior roles at Moody’s KMV for the Americas, most recently, Senior Director, Head of the Credit Risk Specialist Group.
Jing obtained his Ph.D. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from Tulane University. |
 |
