Officers
President
LARRY WHITE is a Managing Director of DBRS, a Carlyle and Warburg Pincus company, since 2006. His responsibilities include managing and growing relationships with financial institutions, sovereign related issuers and other constituents of DBRS, such as investors and bankers.
Before joining DBRS, Larry spent more than 8 years at Moody’s Investors Service, where he was responsible for product development related to global financial institutions and Latin America. In addition, he has held positions at several banks including The Bank of New York and First Horizon. Larry received his MBA from Columbia University and his BS in Finance/Economics from Christian Brothers University.
Vice-President
MONICA AGGARWAL, CFA is a Managing Director within Fitch’s U.S. Corporate Ratings group and Team Head of Retail and Consumer. She is responsible for the sector team covering retail, consumer products, packaged foods, restaurants, and beverages across the investment grade and high yield space. Prior to joining Fitch in September 2007, Monica spent almost ten years in equity research at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Chapdelaine Institutional Equities covering various retail segments. Monica earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in economics from Delhi University and an MBA with majors in finance and international business from Fordham Gabelli School of Business. She is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society New York.
Treasurer
MARIAROSA VERDE is a Group Credit Officer for the Americas Corporate Finance team at Moody’s Investors Service. She is responsible for maintaining and promoting high quality ratings and works closely with senior analysts and managers to identify emerging credit risks and initiate timely action.
Prior to joining Moody’s in June 2015, Mariarosa was a Managing Director and Head of Credit Market Research at Fitch Ratings. Her responsibilities included examining rating and credit quality trends, conducting in-depth default and recovery studies, and providing insight on key developments in the bond and loan markets. Earlier in her career, Mariarosa was a high yield analyst at the Chase Manhattan Bank.
Mariarosa has published articles on default risk and other credit topics in professional magazines and books. Mariarosa holds a BS and an MBA in finance and economics, magna cum laude, from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Mariarosa was the president of Fixed Income Analysts Society in 2007-2008.
Secretary
MARK HOWARD, CFA, is a Senior Multi-Asset Specialist at BNP Paribas. His analysis and work with investors cuts across the global markets, with a particular emphasis on Fixed Income. Previously, Mark spent 5 years at Barclays Capital, where he was a Managing Director and held the roles of Co-Head of Global Research and Head of Credit Analysis. Prior to joining Barclays in April 2004, Mr. Howard was at Lehman Brothers for 18 years, where he was a Managing Director and Global Credit Strategist. In that capacity, he was responsible for the firm’s high grade, high yield, emerging market and credit derivative strategy teams. As an active researcher, Mr. Howard has been recognized as a fixed income ‘All American’ by Institutional Investor magazine 11 times, including first place rankings in 7 of those years. Mr. Howard received his MBA in Finance from New York University and his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Colby College. Mark Chairs the Board of the University College Friends and Alumni Association, is on the Board of the Friends of IHES, and is a member of the Maine Community Foundation Investment Committee. Previously he was an Overseer of the Board of Trustees of Colby College and served on the Board as Treasurer of Village Community School in New York City. He was president of FIASI in the fiscal years 2011—2012 and 2014—2015.
Member-at-large
RALPH DECESARE, CFA, CAIA is Managing Director and Head of credit research for TD Asset Management. As part of the Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group, one of the largest banks in North America, TDAM manages about $300 billion in assets under management on behalf of pension, insurance, endowment/foundation and corporate clients, as well as for high-net worth individuals and retail mutual funds. Prior to joining TDAM, Ralph was a director of fixed income research at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers for 16 years. Responsibilities included leading a team of fixed income analysts that helped manage over $150 billion in fixed income assets including mutual funds, money market and institutional accounts. Ralph also has had two separate terms at Standard & Poor’s Corp. as a debt ratings analyst, covering multiple industries including electric utilities, natural gas and financial institutions. Ralph earned an MBA in finance from Fordham University, and a B.S. in finance from the University of Arizona. Ralph served as a of President of the FIASI in the fiscal years 2012—2014. Ralph is a member of the CFA Society of New York and the Canadian Bond Investors Association. He is a CFA charterholder and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst. He serves on the Board of Gibney Dance, a non-profit in New York City.
MARK HOCHBERG is a Director in BlackRock's Technology and Enterprise Services department, a member of their AI Labs team. He has worked at BlackRock, Inc. since 1998 in a variety of management, information technology and project management roles. Prior to joining BlackRock, Mark managed application development and system engineering teams at Credit Suisse First Boston. Mark received an S.B. in Computer Science and Engineering from M.I.T. Outside work, Mark contributes time and effort to a number of organizations, primarily those focusing on the promotion of the sciences and performing arts, the ongoing health and prosperity of New York and, of course, Finance.
ARASH KAMYAB is an Associate Director, Emerging Markets Interest Rates trader at UBS Securities LLC. He is responsible for the Latam Rates book of business, and a market maker in Latam Rates & FX. Arash also spent 4 year at UBS as a quant developer.
Prior to joining UBS in 2014, Mr. Kamyab was at Thomson Reuters for 8 years where he was a Fixed Income specialist working closely with Hedge Funds, Banks and Credit Agencies and helping Thomson Reuters grow the business in Fixed Income data and analytics.
Mr. Kamyab received his bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering from McMaster University.
PAWEL MOSAKOWSKI is an accomplished fixed income PM, trader and an expert risk manager. He spent 20 years in the institutional fixed income business currently leading Summit Place Advisers, LLC an advisory practice helping insurance companies and asset managers with investment process and risk management solutions. Prior to that Pawel was managing a multi-billion dollar corporate credit portfolio as a senior leader of Deutsche Bank’s Credit Portfolio Strategies Group. An expert in fixed income, derivatives and complex risk, Pawel led a proprietary platform managing portfolio of corporate loans, bonds, derivatives and structured products. He developed comprehensive investment and risk management process and delivered industry leading results during the credit crisis and beyond. Under his leadership DB CPSG was awarded Risk Magazine’s Credit Portfolio Manager of the Year distinction three times. Prior to this Pawel was at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein where he traded Corporate Credit, Emerging Markets and built Credit Derivatives business in North America. Pawel earned his MBA in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business and previously studied Mechanical Engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology.
HENRY SHILLING Founder and Director of Research, Sustainable Research and Analysis LLC, a NYC-based firm offering independent research and analysis, portfolio implementation strategies, consulting, education as well as training services targeted at investors who wish to integrate sustainability considerations into their investment approaches.
Previously with Moody’s Investors, Henry in more recent years initiated and coordinated Moody’s efforts to expand disclosure and add transparency in research, ratings and analysis to the reflection of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks. He also led the firm’s effort to launch and implement a methodology for assessing green bonds world-wide. In these and other capacities over the years, Henry published research articles, was a frequent commentator, and regularly presented Moody’s views at various industry conferences.
With Moody’s between 1992 and June 2017, Henry played a leading role in the development and management of the firm’s Managed Investments Group.
Henry is the author of The International Guide to Securities Market Indices which was published in 1996 by International Publishing Corp., Chicago, Illinois. He is a contributor to Money Market Funds in the EU and the US, published in 2014 by Oxford University Press. Henry served as a President of FIASI during the fiscal years 2015—2017. He earned a B.A. in economics from Lehman College, City University of New York in 1971.
JASVINDER SINGH is a product manager for Bloomberg's index business. In his current role, Jas oversees the development of Bloomberg Barclays Municipal, Canadian and Bloomberg Currency indices. He is also a member of Bloomberg Indices PROC (Product, Risk and Operations Committee), which provides governance oversight of benchmark indices, strategy indices and fixings administered by Bloomberg. In his prior roles at Bloomberg, Jas was the head of Bloomberg Index production, and managed Bloomberg Index Classification System (BICS) and Dividend forecasting (BDVD) products in Global Data.
Jas attended Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur for Bachelor in Technology (B.Tech) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta for his MBA. Jas is also a CFA charterholder.
ROBERT SLOWKO is a Business Development Manager at MSCI, responsible for the strategy, marketing and sales of the entire suite of company’s ESG products. Robert joined MSCI through the acquisition of GMI Ratings in August 2014. Prior to MSCI Robert worked as a Business Development Manager for the Hedge Funds group of Thomson Reuters and was involved in multiple projects including launching an Emerging Markets group or developing company’s North American Hedge Funds product, marketing and sales strategy. He held a number of positions in the financial industry including Emerging Markets research and trading at Galleon International, senior roles in global funds custody at RBC Dexia Investor Services, foreign exchange trading or economic research. Robert has been actively involved in FIASI since 2010 and is the immediate past president. He participated in and was responsible for a number of projects critical to the organization. Robert holds a Master’s of Arts degree in Economics from Cracow University of Economics and a Master’s of Business Administration in Finance from Fordham University.
BRIAN TOTH, CFA is a Senior Credit Analyst at the New York State Insurance Fund responsible for the utilities, energy, media, telecom, transportation and metals & mining sectors. Other sectors Mr. Toth has experience include the retail, consumer products and services, and has expertise in high-yield, investment grade and distressed securities. Mr. Toth has more than 15 years of experience in corporate credit analysis, counter party credit risk assessment, sovereign risk determination and private equity analysis at various institutions. Previously Mr. Toth was a Private Equity Consultant and Credit Analyst Consultant for APG Asset Management, Senior Credit Analyst at Paloma Partners, Director and Senior Credit Analyst at Babson Capital Management (now Barings Capital) and Senior Counterparty Credit Analyst at PaineWebber.
Brian received an MBA from the Simon School (University of Rochester) in 2001 and received a BS in Accounting and Finance from SUNY/Buffalo in 1990. Brian has been a CFA charterholder since 1998.
DIANE VAZZA is Global Head of Fixed Income Research at S&P Global Ratings and chairs the firm’s Ratings Performance Governance Council. Her team’s analyses, forecasts and research on global credit markets and studies on ratings behavior have earned an international audience.
Diane began her Wall Street journey by surviving Chase Bank’s two-year credit training program. Her career spans banking, capital markets, regulatory oversight, trading, and credit research at Chase, Drexel Burnham Lambert, and Citibank. Credit Magazine named Diane one of the top 50 women across the globe in credit and fixed income. She has traveled to over 100 countries.
She is past President of the FIASI for the fiscal year 2004—2005, Chaired FIASI’s Inaugural 2015 & 2016 Women in Fixed Income Conferences (WiFI-New York and Boston).
Diane is a certified Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and volunteers for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) 911 rescue squad.
Diane holds a BA degree in both Classics (Latin and Ancient Greek) and French from College of the Holy Cross.
