Lending to Private Credit Funds: ABL, Mezzanine and Other Facilities, Rated Notes, Partner Loans

Ms. Cotton joined Third Point’s Private Credit team in 2024. Prior to joining Third Point, she served as a Managing Director for Apogem Capital, a subsidiary of New York Life formed by the merger of three boutique investment firms, including Madison Capital Funding. Prior to the merger with Apogem Capital, Ms. Cotton served nearly 15 years in positions of increasing responsibility most recently as Chief Underwriting Officer for Madison Capital, a middle market lender to private equity-backed companies. She began her career in commercial lending at National City Bank. Ms. Cotton earned a Master of Business Administration from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester and a B.A. from the State University of New York College at Geneseo. 

Mr. Johnston is the Executive Vice President, Group Head – Asset-Backed Finance for EverBank. Prior to joining the bank, he was a Managing Director and the Head of Asset Management within Wells Fargo’s Corporate & Investment Banking group, with oversight of a nearly $100 billion portfolio of bank commitments. Before founding the Subscription Finance business at Wells Fargo in 2010, Mr. Johnston was responsible for the portfolio and workout of over $10 billion of legacy structured products for the bank, including cash and synthetic ABS and CRE CDO’s, total return swaps and RMBS positions. Earlier in his career, he worked at Bank of America in their Global Structured Products group working on securitizations and financings for a variety of different asset classes. Mr. Johnston is a co-founder and Chairman of the Board for the Fund Finance Association, a global industry organization for constituents in the fund finance space. He is considered an original thought leader of fund finance and a frequent speaker at industry conferences.

Mr. Schmalz is a Senior Director within the Corporate Credit Funds team at KBRA. He focuses on ratings and analytical assessments of private credit funds, direct lending vehicles, feeder fund notes, and other alternative investment structures. Prior to joining KBRA, Mr. Schmalz was a portfolio manager within the asset management group at Antares Capital, where he managed various senior debt investment strategies. Previously, he led structured credit and fund initiatives at Maranon Capital. Earlier in his career, Mr. Schmalz held senior underwriting and investment roles at CapitalSource Finance and JPMorgan Securities and worked at Fitch Ratings, where he specialized in corporate credit and structured finance. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Sysel has extensive experience representing sponsors, borrowers, arrangers, and lenders across the full range of products in fund finance and adjacent financing transactions. He advises clients on structuring, negotiating, documenting, and executing a broad spectrum of financings, including syndicated senior facilities, mezzanine facilities, and private debt placements. Mr. Sysel’s work spans unsecured and secured facilities with a particular focus on fund subscription, NAV and hybrid facilities, management company facilities, employee loan programs and other forms of investment fund leverage, as well as related transactions including back-leverage, rated note funds, collateralized fund obligations and, other securitized fund assets and bespoke structured financings. Mr. Sysel currently serves on the Fund Finance Association (FFA) U.S. Advisory Council, and he frequently speaks at FFA and other industry conferences. 

For over 15 years, Mr. Wheelahan has been advising fund sponsors and lenders, in both an advisory and principal capacity. Prior to co-founding FFP, he was the General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and a Director of a $3 billion asset manager investing debt and equity in lower middle-market companies. During his 10-year tenure, Mr. Wheelahan executed numerous capital markets initiatives on behalf of the firm’s investment vehicles and oversaw fund formation activity, developing comingled funds, SMA concepts, a NASDAQ-listed BDC, and joint ventures. He also executed financings for the foregoing, including but not limited to subscription facilities, corporate and SPV revolvers, total return swaps, hybrid and NAV credit facilities, GP/asset manager lines of credit and securitizations of credit assets. Mr. Wheelahan’s breadth of asset management experience presents valuable, innovative expertise to fund sponsors dealing with fundraising, investor relations, compliance, financing, and portfolio management challenges and opportunities. He began his career as an attorney with two large law firms, representing Fortune 500 companies, privately held entities and alternative asset managers with M&A and capital markets activities, and financial institutions in the execution of leveraged finance and securitization transactions.