Episodes

  • Peter Gleysteen, Founder, CEO & CIO at AGL Credit Management joins

    your host Brian Bejile, CEO of Octaura on The Ramp Up. Peter is a legend in the

    structured credit industry, successfully navigating every economic cycle and

    market crisis since his career began in 1975. Pulling from his unique

    upbringing, Peter has honed the ability to shed a different perspective throughout

    his career – leading him to launch innovations that laid the foundations of how

    today’s loan market operates. With experience starting not one, but two buyside

    shops, Peter is an incredible wealth of knowledge.

     

    About Peter

    Peter Gleysteen is the Founder, CEO, and CIO of AGL Credit Management

    which he established with the support of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. AGL

    creates and manages corporate credit investments including CLOs and private

    credit with managed assets of $16 billion.

    Gleysteen has over four decades of credit and management experience

    and successfully navigated every economic cycle and market crisis since his

    career began in 1975. Gleysteen’s prior two employers were JPMorgan Chase &

    Co. and CIFC Asset Management.

    At JPMorgan Chase, and antecedent entities Chemical Bank and Chase

    Manhattan, Gleysteen was the lead banker on many of the largest LBO, M&A,

    and Restructuring financings in the 1980s and 1990s. He ran global loan

    syndications as Group Head of Global Syndicated Finance, was responsible for

    the global corporate loan portfolio as Group Head of Global Capital Management,

    and then served as the Chief Credit Officer.

    Gleysteen was integral to the evolution of the bank loan asset class

    from inception, including making the first “B-Loan” in 1989 and conceiving and

    instituting the “Market Flex” pricing convention in 1997.

    Gleysteen founded CIFC Asset Management in 2005 and managed it as CEO

    from inception to 2014 when it was sold. He served as Vice-Chairman and special

    advisor until 2016.

    Gleysteen formed AGL Credit Management in 2018 and launched it in

    2019. In 2024, AGL announced an exclusive private credit collaboration with

    Barclays Bank PLC.

    Gleysteen has a BA in History from Trinity College, a MBA, Executive

    Program, from the University of Chicago, and attended St. Petersburg

    University, when Russia was the USSR. He is a member of the Council on Foreign

    Relations and a board member of Mystic Seaport Museum.

  • This month, co-founders and managing partners of HalseyPoint Lynn Hopton and Yvonne Stevens join Brian Bejile on The Ramp Up. Lynn and Yvonne are veterans of the CLO market. They've been securitizing assets since the market's early days in the '90s. After decades of working together at SunAmerica and then at American Express, they seized the moment and started their own shop, HalseyPoint in 2018. To get HalseyPoint off the ground, they built on their resilience, the relationships they curated, and a lengthy track record of success. The launch of HalseyPoint was fully embraced and celebrated by the street. And now, the business is thriving.

     

    About Lynn

    Prior to founding HalseyPoint, Lynn was the Co-Head and Senior Managing Director of the Leveraged Debt Group at Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC (and its predecessor companies) for 18 years from April of 2000 through March 2018. She was responsible for running the leveraged debt business of Columbia which had approximately $9 billion in assets under management at its peak, including over $8 billion in CLO vehicles. She also was the lead portfolio manager for all funds and chair of the credit committee.

    Lynn previously worked as a Managing Director at AIG/ SunAmerica for nine years where she was responsible for the management and trading of over $3 billion of assets across a variety of fixed income asset classes.

    She began her career as a banker covering private equity sponsors on the west coast for Security Pacific Merchant Bank.

    Lynn received a BA in Economics with distinction from Northwestern University and an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern. She is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society.

    About Yvonne

    Prior to founding HalseyPoint, Yvonne was the Co-Head and Senior Managing Director of the Leveraged Debt Group at Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC (and its predecessor companies) for 18 years from April of 2000 through March 2018. She was instrumental in building the platform to be one of the early CLO managers recognized for consistency and performance. 

    Prior to joining Columbia, Yvonne was a portfolio manager at SunAmerica/AIG for seven years where, among other responsibilities, she developed a structured finance expertise in CLO mezzanine investments beginning in the early 1990s. In addition to managing a $2 billion CLO mezzanine portfolio, she expanded that focus from investing to issuing CLOs as a manager, helping to raise and create the first SunAmerica-managed CLO named Galaxy in 1999.

    Prior to SunAmerica, Yvonne started her career in the bank training program at Irving Trust Bank and then subsequently worked at GE Capital in a loan underwriting and origination role.

    Yvonne received a BA from Wellesley College and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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  • This month, Brett Jefferson, Founder and Co-Chief Investment Officer at Hildene Capital Management, joins your host Brian Bejile, CEO of Octaura, on The Ramp Up. Brett has charted an impressive career by looking at things differently. From the early days of navigating his education and passion for lacrosse at Syracuse University to landing on Wall Street and teaching himself the world of structured credit, Brett's refusal to fail and his focus on innovation has led Hildene to become a multi -award winning asset manager, and there's a lot more on the horizon for the firm.

    About Brett

    Mr. Jefferson is the Founder and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Hildene Capital Management, an asset management firm specializing in structured finance investments. Mr. Jefferson oversees all firm investment decisions and strategies. With over 25 years of combined experience in the structured finance market and the option arbitrage industry, Mr. Jefferson led Hildene to the Wall Street Journal (formerly Barron’s) Top 100 Annual Hedge Funds list for a seven-consecutive year period.

    Prior to founding Hildene, Mr. Jefferson was a Senior Portfolio Manager of the Marathon Structured Finance Fund, which had no down months during his tenure. Prior to Marathon, he worked in the Structured Credit Products groups at Salomon Smith Barney and Chase Securities.

    Mr. Jefferson graduated with a BA from Syracuse University and an MBA from J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Mr. Jefferson serves on the board of SILAC Insurance Company. Additionally, Mr. Jefferson is very active in the community. He is a member of the board of directors of the Tewaaraton Foundation, which annually awards the Tewaaraton Trophy to the best college lacrosse player in the nation; as well as a board member of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL). In 2023, Mr. Jefferson was awarded the Syracuse University Letterwinner of Distinction in recognition of his success after graduation and his mark on the athletics program.

  • This month, Andy Gordon, co-founder, former CEO, and current Executive Chair of the Board of Managers at Octagon Credit joins your host Brian Bejile, CEO of Octaura on The Ramp Up. Andy has had an illustrious career on Wall Street. From being one of the first analysts on the leveraged buyout desk at Manufacturers Hanover Trust to successfully spinning out Octagon – he did all of this while finding opportunity through two recessions and building a business that champions diversity and inclusion.

    About Andy

    Andrew Gordon is a member of Octagon’s Investment Committee and serves as the Executive Chair of Octagon’s Board of Managers. He co-founded Octagon in 1994. Andy served as the firm’s Chief Executive Officer from 2009 to 2023, prior to which he managed numerous Octagon funds. He possesses over 30 years of experience in the below investment grade leveraged loan and high yield bond asset classes, in both sell-side and buy-side capacities. He also sits on Octagon’s ESG Committee.

    Before co-founding Octagon, Andy was a Managing Director at Chemical Securities, Inc., where he focused primarily on the oil and gas industries. He advised on and arranged below investment grade loans for corporate clients, while also undertaking special projects in M&A advisory and distressed credit situations. Prior to Chemical, Andy served as Vice President in the Acquisition Finance Division of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company.  In this capacity, he structured, syndicated and managed leveraged buyout transactions.

    From 2010 to 2015, Andy served on the Board of Directors of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association ("LSTA") and on the LSTA's Executive Committee.  He graduated Cum Laude with an A.B. in Economics from Duke University, and holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 Registrations.

  • This month, Thomas Majewski, Founder and Managing Partner at Eagle Point Credit joins your host Brian Bejile, CEO of Octaura on The Ramp Up. Tom has been at the center of some of the most impactful innovations in the CLO market. On this episode, we cover a wide spectrum – including how Tom executed one of the earliest known CLO equity trades and what led him to start one of the first CLO equity funds.

     

    About Tom

    Tom is the Founder and Managing Partner of Eagle Point Credit Management. He manages Eagle Point and its affiliates, oversees all of the firm’s investment offerings, and is the lead Portfolio Manager for Eagle Point’s multi-credit strategies. Tom is Chairman of the firm’s Investment Committee. Tom founded Eagle Point in 2012 and has over 28 years of experience in credit and structured finance. He led the creation of some of the earliest refinancing CLOs, pioneering techniques that are now commonplace in the market. In 2017, Tom received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst & Young in recognition of Eagle Point’s innovative and entrepreneurial culture. He holds a BS in Accounting from Binghamton University.

  • What do you say when someone asks you if you want to “be the guy?” On this month’s episode of The Ramp Up, Scott McKay, Head of Blue Owl Liquid Credit, fills us in on what he said next and shares why long-lasting relationships and perseverance were key to his career thus far. 

     

    About Scott 

    Before joining Blue Owl, Scott was a Managing Director at Littlejohn & Co., a middle-market private equity fund based in Greenwich. Scott began his career as an Investment Banking Associate at Bear Stearns & Co. in the Leverage Finance Group. Prior to beginning his finance career, Scott served in the United States Air Force as an acquisition officer and was honorably discharged at the rank of Captain. 

    Scott received his BS in Management from the United States Air Force Academy and MBA from the University of Southern California.