Angelo Gordon announced a number of senior personnel moves to bolster the Firm’s structured credit business. The promotion of several experienced team members and the hiring of an additional industry veteran, each of whom will help lead activities across specific asset classes and functions, serves to better align the group’s deep expertise with the market opportunities in this space.
Marc Lessner and Xavier Dailly, both Managing Directors at Angelo Gordon, have been appointed co-Deputy Portfolio Managers of the Firm’s open-ended structured credit fund. T.J. Durkin, Angelo Gordon’s Head of Structured Credit, and Yong Joe, the team’s head of structured credit research, continue to lead the fund as co-Portfolio Managers.
Strengthening the structured credit platform’s leadership in ABS, Aaron Ong – a 17-year veteran of the Firm – has been named Head of Private Asset Based Credit. Additionally, Sunil Kothari – who joined Angelo Gordon in 2019 – has been appointed Head of European ABS.
Joining Angelo Gordon’s structured credit team as Head of Commercial Real Estate Debt is David Busker, who most recently led commercial real estate strategies and served as a portfolio manager at Tilden Park. He will assume responsibility for Angelo Gordon’s liquid commercial real estate securities investments from Andy Solomon, who has successfully led the strategy for 17 years and will be retiring at the end of 2023. Solomon will work closely with Busker in an advisory capacity through year end to ensure a seamless transition. Based in New York, Busker will report to Durkin and work alongside Messrs. Ong and Kothari as well as Nick Smith, who joined Angelo Gordon’s structured credit team in 2021 as Head of Residential Mortgages.
“We are pleased to welcome David to Angelo Gordon,” said Durkin. “We believe the CMBS market to be today’s most distressed space across all credit markets. With banks and other legacy owners continuing to shed risk, the combined headwinds of challenging fundamentals and diminished market liquidity support make for an interesting environment for CMBS investors. While we are likely only in the early innings of this cycle, we already see compelling opportunities today and are thrilled to have a professional of David’s caliber leading our efforts to capitalize on them for the benefit of our clients.”
Busker added: “I am delighted to be joining Angelo Gordon, a firm with a deeply established and research-driven approach to structured credit, at a pivotal time of increased market dislocation. The level of stress in the commercial real estate sector has the potential to create significant opportunities for investors. I am excited to work alongside T.J. and the team and leverage my years of experience investing in the sector to capitalize on the dislocation within the CMBS ecosystem.”
Josh Baumgarten, co-CEO, co-CIO, and head of the Firm’s credit business, concluded: “Angelo Gordon has a long and successful track record across all facets of the structured credit market. David significantly expands our team’s top talent and ability to execute on unique investment opportunities that meet the needs of borrowers. David’s leadership of our commercial real estate debt efforts, alongside our existing and newly promoted leaders, will help us build on an already well-respected structured credit platform that is positioned to serve the markets and our LPs with opportunities across the entire liquidity spectrum.
“We are grateful to Andy Solomon for his efforts in building and leading our commercial real estate debt business for 17 years, and we wish him all the best in his next chapter.”