Churchill Asset Management announced promotions across the firm. Notably, Randy Schwimmer, Senior Managing Director, Head of Origination and Capital Markets, and Mathew Linett, Senior Managing Director, Head of Underwriting and Portfolio Management, have been named Co-Heads of Senior Lending. The Firm also announced the promotion of Christopher Cox, formally Chief Risk Officer for the senior lending strategy, to Chief Risk Officer for the entire Churchill organization. All promotions will be effective March 1, 2021.
Schwimmer, one of Churchill’s founding partners, will remain focused on origination and capital markets initiatives, continuing to lead a team of seven origination and capital markets professionals. A 40-year industry veteran, Schwimmer is widely credited with developing loan syndications for middle market companies and has approved all of Churchill’s over $16 billion in senior loan investments since its 2006 inception, along with Ken Kencel, President and CEO of Churchill, and Mr. Cox.
Linett has been with Churchill since the firm became an affiliate of Nuveen in 2015 and brings over 25 years of leveraged finance experience with a strong focus on the middle market. He will continue to remain focused on underwriting and portfolio management activities and manage a team of approximately 20 senior lending-focused investment professionals.
Cox, another founding partner of Churchill, will now oversee risk management for the entire Churchill organization as Chief Risk Officer, including the firm’s investment strategies, as well as operational, systems and infrastructure risk. He brings over two decades of experience overseeing risk management infrastructure, processes and policies within middle market lending-focused asset managers.
“We’re delighted to celebrate the well-deserved promotions of Randy, Mat and Chris for their significant contributions to the Firm’s continued success,” said Kencel. “With Jason Strife serving in a complementary role as Head of Junior Capital and Private Equity Solutions, the formalization of Randy and Mat as Co-Heads of Senior Lending creates clearly defined business heads for our investment strategies.”
“We are also very proud of the growth and development of our senior level investment professionals, particularly the promotions of Alona Gornick, Kevin Meyer, Carol Loundon and Derek Fricke to Managing Director,” Kencel continued. “They have all made very meaningful contributions to the tremendous growth in our firm—now with $29 billion1 in committed capital.”
Of the 23 additional promotions across Churchill’s two investment teams, as well as investor relations and operations departments, the following individuals have been promoted to Vice President and above:
Senior Lending
- Alona Gornick – Managing Director, Origination & Head of Chicago Office
- Kevin Meyer – Managing Director, Origination
- Carol Loundon – Managing Director, Underwriting & Portfolio Management
- Joe Lee – Principal, Underwriting & Portfolio Management
- Nick Carroll – Vice President, Underwriting & Portfolio Management
- Jacob Iati – Vice President, Underwriting & Portfolio Management
Junior Capital & Private Equity Solutions
- Derek Fricke – Managing Director
- Michal Chiulli – Principal
- Andrew Topping – Vice President
“On the heels of a very challenging and difficult year globally, I am very proud of our investment and support teams and their ability to quickly adopt and succeed in a virtual world,” added Kencel. “Due to their unwavering and tireless work, Churchill achieved record breaking investment activity and capital raising in 2020, emphasizing our continued commitment to enhance and strengthen our position as one of the largest, most differentiated middle market private capital investment platforms in the U.S.”