About FIASI

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.

See the 2015 Holiday Party pictures!

BIOGRAPHIES
President:
MARK HOWARD, CFA is the Head of US Credit Strategy at BNP Paribas. He directs a team that provides strategic and portfolio advice related to the US Investment Grade, High Yield and Structured Credit markets. 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.  At Barclays, he was active in a range of firm-wide initiatives as a member of the firm's Management, Recruitment and Diversity committees.  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 recognised 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.  He is an Overseer of the Board of Trustees of Colby College and serves on the Board as well as the Finance and Investment Committees of Village Community School in New York City.

Vice President:
ADAM B. COHEN, Esq., Founder and Managing Member, Covenant Review, graduated from the University of Florida in 1993 and from Georgetown University Law School cum laude in 1997, having been elected to the Georgetown Law Journal. Prior to founding Covenant Review, he was a corporate finance attorney with Latham & Watkins and an investment banker with Lehman Brothers. Adam founded Covenant Review in 2005 as the world's first boutique research firm focused on corporate bond covenants in order to provide institutional investors with perspectives on their rights as bondholders as seen through the eyes of experienced practicing lawyers. He was one of seven contributors to the American Bar Association's Model Negotiated Covenants Project and is on the Credit Roundtable where he was instrumental in the development of the "White Paper" for model covenants for the investment grade universe. He also co-authored two chapters in Frank Fabozzi’s Handbook of Fixed Income Securities, Eighth Edition. He is widely considered to be the leading commentator on corporate bond covenants.

Secretary:
HENRY SHILLING is a Senior Vice President with Moody’s Analytics.   Working at Moody’s since 1992, Henry recently joined the Social Performance Group (SPG) with a broad mandate to explore the sustainable and responsible investing (SRI) field.  Previously he focused on research, analysis and ratings of money market and bond mutual funds, various other pooled investment vehicles, pension funds, debt like instruments issued by closed-end funds as well as asset (fund) management companies.  Earlier in his career he was a vice president with a firm specializing in tracking and evaluating the performance of mutual funds and an officer in the employee-benefit trust and asset management divisions of several large banks.  Henry is the author of The International Guide to Securities Market Indices which was published in 1996 by International Publishing Corp., Chicago, Illinois.  Also, he is a recent contributor to Money Market Funds in the EU and the US, published in 2014 by Oxford University Press.  Henry earned a B.A. in economics from Lehman College, City University of New York in 1971. 

Treasurer:
MELODY VOGELMANN, CFA is currently a credit research consultant. She also spent 9 months working for FIASI on a range of strategic projects before joining the Board in 2011.  Prior to her work at FIASI she spent nearly a decade as a sell side researcher.  Most recently, she was at Barclays Capital, where she worked as an investment grade credit strategist.  She began her career as a fundamental corporate bond analyst, spending 5 years at Lehman Brothers.  Melody received an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the Stern School of Business at NYU and an S.B. in Economics from M.I.T.  Outside of work she is active in several family-focused community organizations.

Members-at-Large:
CHRISTOPHER BUCK is a Director and head of Latin America Corporate Credit Research at Finisterre Capital. He is the senior analyst covering the Media and Telecom, Oil and Gas, and Industrial sectors throughout Latin America. Christopher joined Barclays in 2007, prior to which he was a research analyst at the RAND Corporation. In 2011 and 2012, Mr. Buck and his team were ranked by Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-America Fixed Income and Latin America Research Team surveys.  Mr. Buck has an M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a B.A. in International Studies from Colby College.

RALPH DECESARE, CFA, CAIA is Vice-President and Director and head of research for TD Asset Management USA, headquartered in New York. As part of the Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group, one of the largest banks in North America, TDAM manages over US$250 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 from 1990 to 2006. 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 is the immediate Past President of the Fixed Income Analyst Society, Inc., a 250+ member non-profit professional organization that furthers the education and careers of its members, and is the sponsor of the FIASI Hall of Fame. Ralph is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. 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.

MARTHA DUMONT, Founding Employee, Managing Director and Global Head of Research, CreditSights, oversees global research and sales for CreditSights.  Martha joined CreditSights full time in the fall of 2009 to lead the firm's strategic planning and new product development as well as oversee the Quantitative Research effort before assuming the role of Head of Global Research in 2010. As Head of Global Research, Martha is also a member of the Executive Committee. Martha was an anchor investor in CreditSights and has been a member of the Board of Directors since December 2000. Prior to joining CreditSights, Martha was a private investor, based in Maine, where she served on the Boards and Investment Committees of several charitable organizations. Martha brings an extensive research background to CreditSights having been Director of Global Fixed Income Research at Lehman Brothers where she oversaw all research and index products until 1994. While there Martha was responsible for building the Fixed Income team that captured the number one position in the Institutional Investor rankings when the poll was established. Martha graduated from Mount Holyoke College with an AB in Mathematics and Economics in 1979.

MARK HOCHBERG is a Director in BlackRock's Investment Servicesdepartment and has worked at BlackRock, Inc. 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 of 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 Finance.

DAVID W. MUNVES, CFA is a Divisional Managing Director in Moody’s Analytics, and is in charge of the Capital Markets Research Group. The group manages and researches applications of the firm’s suite of markets-based signals, principally EDF^TM (Expected Default Frequency) metrics for public firms and the Market Implied Ratings service, as well as the Capital Markets Economics group. David joined Moody’s in December 2004. Prior to joining Moody’s David worked for nine years in Lehman Brothers’ Fixed Income Research Group in London. At Lehman he headed the European Credit Strategy Group for seven years before taking responsibility for the European Fixed Income Index Group. He began his sell side career at Kidder Peabody and PaineWebber. David also worked for 10 years at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group, where he held a variety of analytical and managerial positions in New York, Stockholm, and London. Prior to joining S&P David was a lending officer with Swiss Bank Corporation in New York. A Chartered Financial Analyst, David holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College and a Master’s Degree in International and Public Affairs from Columbia University.  He was president of FIASI from 2009 to 2011.

ROBERT SLOWKO is a Business Development Manager at GMI Ratings, responsible for the strategy, marketing and sales of the entire suite of company’s products. Robert Joined GMI in January 2014 to spearhead company’s rapid growth. Prior to joining GMI 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 for global funds custody at RBC Dexia Investor Services, foreign exchange trading or economic research. Robert has been actively involved in FIASI since 2010. 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.

DIANE VAZZA is the Head of Global Fixed Income Research at Standard & Poor’s.  Her analyses, forecasts and research on global credit markets have earned her an international audience and she is widely quoted in the financial media, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, CNBC, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.

Diane has more than 30 years experience working in the capital markets, including rating agency, regulatory, trading, credit and banking experience at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Citibank and Chase Manhattan Bank. In 2006, 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. Diane holds dual BA degrees in Classics (Latin and Ancient Greek) and French from Holy Cross College. She is past President (2004-2005) of the Fixed Income Analysts Society.

MARIAROSA VERDE is a Managing Director and Head of Credit Market Research at Fitch Ratings.  Her responsibilities include examining rating and credit quality trends, conducting default and recovery studies, and commenting on developments in the capital markets.  Mariarosa has published articles on default risk and other credit topics in professional magazines and books.  Credit Market Research data and analysis is often cited in national and trade publications.  Prior to joining Fitch in 1998, Mariarosa worked as a high yield analyst at the Chase Manhattan Bank.  Mariarosa earned a BS and an MBA, magna cum laude, in finance and economics from New York University’s Stern School of Business.  She is past President (2008-2009) of the Fixed Income Analysts Society.

LARRY WHITEis a Managing Director of DBRS since 2006.  His responsibilities include managing and growing relationships with the investors and other constituents of DBRS, such as issuers and bankers.  He is also responsible for business development related to financial institutions and sovereigns in the U.S. and Europe.  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.

BIOGRAPHIES
President:
HENRY SHILLING is a Senior Vice President with Moody’s Investors Service.   Working at Moody’s since 1992, Henry recently assumed a new role with a focus on environmental, social as well as governance risks and their impact on credit ratings, research and analysis. Previously he focused on research, analysis and ratings of money market and bond mutual funds, various other pooled investment vehicles, pension funds, debt like instruments issued by closed-end funds as well as asset (fund) management companies.  Earlier in his career he was a vice president with a firm specializing in tracking and evaluating the performance of mutual funds and an officer in the employee-benefit trust and asset management divisions of several large banks.  Henry is the author of The International Guide to Securities Market Indices which was published in 1996 by International Publishing Corp., Chicago, Illinois.  Also, he is a recent contributor to Money Market Funds in the EU and the US, published in 2014 by Oxford University Press.  Henry earned a B.A. in economics from Lehman College, City University of New York in 1971.   

Vice President:
ADAM B. COHEN, Esq., Founder and Managing Member, Covenant Review, graduated from the University of Florida in 1993 and from Georgetown University Law School cum laude in 1997, having been elected to the Georgetown Law Journal. Adam founded Covenant Review in 2005 as the world's first boutique research firm focused on corporate bond covenants in order to provide institutional investors with perspectives on their rights as bondholders as seen through the eyes of experienced practicing lawyers.  Covenant Review has since grown to own Capital Structure, Europe’s leading publishes of news on the sub-investment grade credit universe.  Adam was one of seven contributors to the American Bar Association's Model Negotiated Covenants Project and is on the Credit Roundtable where he was instrumental in the development of the "White Paper" for model covenants for the investment grade universe. He also co-authored two chapters in Frank Fabozzi’s Handbook of Fixed Income Securities, Eighth Edition. He is widely considered to be the leading commentator on corporate bond covenants. Prior to founding Covenant Review, he was a corporate finance attorney with Latham & Watkins and an investment banker with Lehman Brothers.

Secretary:
LARRY WHITE is a Managing Director of DBRS, a Carlyle and Warburg Pincus company, since 2006.  His responsibilities include managing and growing relationships with investors and other constituents of DBRS, such as issuers and bankers.  He is also responsible for business development related to financial institutions and sovereigns in the U.S. and Europe.  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.

Treasurer:
MELODY VOGELMANN, CFA is currently a credit research consultant. She also spent 9 months working for FIASI on a range of strategic projects before joining the Board in 2011.  Prior to her work at FIASI she spent nearly a decade as a sell side researcher.  Most recently, she was at Barclays Capital, where she worked as an investment grade credit strategist.  She began her career as a fundamental corporate bond analyst, spending 5 years at Lehman Brothers.  Melody received an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the Stern School of Business at NYU and an S.B. in Economics from M.I.T.  Outside of work she is active in several family-focused community organizations.

Members-at-Large:
STEVE BERKLEY is a Wall Street professional with over 30 years of experience and joined Bloomberg in 2014 to lead their index effort.  Most of his career was spent at Lehman Brothers where he was the Global Head of the Index Business.  During his 19 years at Lehman, Steve led the effort to grow market share resulting in a franchise that is widely accepted as the global leader in fixed income benchmarks.  Berkley participated in the initial launch of the U.S. Aggregate Index, led the effort to create the Global and Euro-Aggregate Indices, established a program to monetize the index through various licensing agreements, improved production and distribution processes, conducted multiple Index Advisory Councils with key clients on three continents, worked with internal compliance to communicate index developments with the media and marketed various software packages distributed by the index team.

Berkley left Lehman and joined BlackRock in 2005 where he established and headed the Relationship Management function for BlackRock Solutions.  During this time the number of Aladdin clients nearly quadrupled.  Steve was also responsible for the BlackRock Solutions Center and the Investment Accounting business.  He was named COO for the Aladdin business in 2010.

Steve holds a BS in Computer Science and an MBA, both from Hofstra University, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.  Steve served as the President of FIASI from 2005—2006.

CHRISTOPHER BUCK is Head of Credit Research at Finisterre Capital and is based in the UK. Finisterre seeks global investment opportunities across the credit spectrum from distressed to investment grade. Finisterre is an Emerging Market's focused, absolute return, long/short hedge fund with over 3.5bn in assets under management. Before joining Finisterre in September 2014 Christopher was the Head of Latin America Corporate Credit Research at Barclays from 2012 where he managed a team covering LatAm corporate bonds.  Chris also worked in a variety of roles within Emerging Markets corporate credit research at Barclays from 2006.  He was previously a research assistant at The Rand Corporation from 2003 to 2005. Chris received an MBA from Stern School of Business at New York University in 2007 and graduated with a BA in International Studies from Colby College in 2000.

RALPH DECESARE, CFA, CAIA, is Vice-President and Director and head of research for TD Asset Management USA, headquartered in New York. As part of the Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group, one of the largest banks in North America, TDAM manages over US$250 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 from 1990 to 2006. 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 the President of FIASI from 2012 to 2014.  Ralph is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. 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.

MARTHA DUMONT has extensive financial services management and leadership experience in both the corporate and not-for-profit arenas. Most recently, she was a founding investor, Board Member and Global Head of Research and Sales at CreditSights, a leading independent research provider based in New York. Earlier in her career, Martha was the Director of Global Fixed Income Research at Lehman Brothers where she oversaw all research and index products until 1994. While at Lehman Martha was responsible for building the Fixed Income team that captured the number one position in the Institutional Investor rankings when the poll was established. Between Lehman Brothers and CreditSights, Martha was a private investor, based in Maine, where she served on the Boards and Investment Committees of several charitable organizations. Martha graduated from Mount Holyoke College with an AB in Mathematics and Economics in 1979 and currently serves on the Board of the Maine Community Foundation.

EILEEN A. FAHEY, CFA is the Chief Credit Officer at Fitch Ratings. She and her team of regional and group credit officers are responsible for ratings oversight, quality assurance, credit market commentary and research globally. Previously, Ms. Fahey was the Regional Credit Officer for the Americas at Fitch Ratings playing an important role in helping to evolve Fitch's credit policy in the wake of the global financial crisis. Ms. Fahey has held a variety of roles during her tenure at Fitch, including group credit officer for the Insurance, Fund and Asset Managers, and REITs groups. In these roles she oversaw the development and application of credit rating criteria and participated in ratings committees. Ms. Fahey joined Fitch Ratings in 1998 as a credit analyst in the financial institutions group, eventually leading the analytical teams on investment and money center banks, and asset management firms including traditional mutual fund managers, hedge fund managers and derivatives product companies.

Prior to joining Fitch, Ms. Fahey was a National Bank Examiner with the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). At the OCC, she was a member of the multinational banking group and examined capital markets and trading operations of U.S. money center banks. Ms. Fahey received a BA in business and economics from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, and has been a chartered financial analyst (CFA) charterholder since 1994.

MARK HOCHBERG is a Director in BlackRock's Investment Servicesdepartment and has worked at BlackRock, Inc. 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 of 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 Finance.

MARK HOWARD, CFA, Immediate Past-President of FIASI, is the Head of US Credit Strategy at BNP Paribas. He directs a team that provides strategic and portfolio advice related to the US Investment Grade, High Yield and Structured Credit markets. 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.  At Barclays, he was active in a range of firm-wide initiatives as a member of the firm's Management, Recruitment and Diversity committees.  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.  He is an Overseer of the Board of Trustees of Colby College and serves on the Board as well as the Finance and Investment Committees of Village Community School in New York City.  He also serves on the Board and Finance Committee for University College London’s Friends and Alumni Association.  He was president of FIASI in the fiscal years 2011—2012 and 2014—2015.

DAVID W. MUNVES, CFA is a Managing Director at Moody’s Analytics, and is in charge of the Capital Markets Research Group. The group manages and researches applications of the firm’s suite of markets-based signals, principally EDF (Expected Default Frequency) metrics for public firms and the Market Implied Ratings service, as well as the Capital Markets Economics group.  David joined Moody’s in December 2004. Prior to joining Moody’s David worked for nine years in Lehman Brothers’ Fixed Income Research Group in London.  At Lehman he headed the European Credit Strategy Group for seven years before taking responsibility for the European Fixed Income Index Group.  He began his sell side career at Kidder Peabody and PaineWebber. David also worked for 10 years at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group, where he held a variety of analytical and managerial positions in New York, Stockholm, and London. Prior to joining S&P David was a lending officer with Swiss Bank Corporation in New York. A Chartered Financial Analyst, David holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College and a Master’s Degree in International and Public Affairs from Columbia University.  He was president of FIASI from 2009 to 2011.

PETER PETAS is the President and COO of CreditSights, was an original investor and co-founder of CreditSights. Peter has been responsible for a range of activities within CreditSights including the restructuring and expansion of the company's global sales force and direct oversight of the globally integrated research teams. Peter draws heavily on the breadth of perspective that he developed during his 20+ years in the discipline of corporate, sovereign, and emerging markets research. During that time, the quality of his research work in the face of rapidly changing market dynamics and increasingly frequent bouts of sovereign and regional credit stress earned him broad professional recognition. Peter has been recognized in various investor polls in Emerging Markets Strategy, Sovereign Debt Research, Canadian Debt, and Asian Debt Research. Among Peter's achievements, Institutional Investor ranked him as the #1 Sovereign Debt analysts for five consecutive years.

Prior to founding CreditSights Inc. in 2000, Peter was a Managing Director and Head of Global Emerging Market Debt Strategy at Deutsche Bank (1997 to 2000), where he was responsible for a group of analysts located in London, New York, and Singapore and was the principal strategist for the Global Markets Emerging Markets business. From 1988 to 1997, Peter was the Senior Sovereign Debt Strategist and Yankee Bond analyst at Lehman Brothers. Peter graduated from Princeton University with an AB in History in 1988.

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. 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.

DIANE VAZZA is the Head of Global Fixed Income Research at Standard & Poor’s.  Her analyses, forecasts and research on global credit markets have earned her an international audience.

Diane has 30 years’ experience working in the capital markets, including rating agency, regulatory, trading, credit and banking experience at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Citibank and Chase Manhattan Bank. 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. Diane holds a BA degree in Classics (Latin and Ancient Greek) and French from Holy Cross College. She was President of FIASI in 2004—2005 and Chaired FIASI’s Inaugural Women in Fixed Income Conference in 2015.

Below find a list of all past presidents of FIASI.