Rachel McGovern is a Senior Director at KBRA Analytics (DLD) and leads the news and data publication in Europe. She is building up KBRA’s European direct lending database and default radar as well as breaking news and producing quarterly market reports.

Rachel has covered the private debt market for over a decade, breaking news and seeking better data on an opaque market. Prior to joining KBRA, Rachel covered private credit at other leading financial publications including Bloomberg and LCD. She has a master’s in journalism from London City University and a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College Dublin.

Veronica is a Managing Director on the Investment Research team and has over 20 years of industry experience working with private capital managers. She is actively involved throughout the investment process including sourcing, screening and evaluating private credit primary, secondary, co-investment and SMA investments. Veronica also supports the Portfolio Advisory teams on existing and potential private credit investments in Europe.

Prior to joining Aksia in 2022, Veronica provided specialist structuring, debt placement and restructuring advice to private equity funds, portfolio companies and corporate clients across Europe. Veronica joined Aksia from Talbot Leyborne Partners LLP, where she was a Managing Partner. Prior to that, she was a Managing Director at Capital Markets Initiative LLP and previously worked for several years in European Financial Sponsor Coverage and Leveraged Finance at both Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, based in London. Veronica graduated with distinction from ITBA – Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires with a BS and an MSc in Industrial Engineering and holds an MBA with distinction from London Business School.

Andrew Lockhart is a founder and one of the four Managing Partners who form the Investment Committee at Metrics Credit Partners. Andrew has more than 30 years’ banking, funds management and financial markets experience specialising in leverage and acquisition finance as well as corporate and institutional lending. Andrew’s considerable experience includes being responsible for the origination and portfolio risk management of large, diversified, and complex loan portfolios including corporate restructurings. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Business and Masters of Business Administration from the Queensland University of Technology.

David Wilmot is a Founding Partner of Apera Asset Management responsible for developing the business in the UK and the Nordic region. David has extensive experience both of direct lending investment and management of private debt teams and portfolios. Prior to Apera, David spent 16 years at Babson Capital Management, where, as Joint Head of European Private Finance, he was responsible for the investment origination, portfolio management, and capital raising activities for several funds and investment mandates. Prior to Babson, David was head of the UK Leverage Finance team at Société Générale. David holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Banking and Finance from Loughborough University, an MBA from Bayes Business School and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.