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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 EDFTM (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.

Corporate Sustaining Members

Moody's Credit Outlook

Moody's Credit Outlook report is available here. Published Monday and Thursday mornings, Moody's Credit Outlook provides you with the credit implications of current events.