Press Release

23rd March 2026, London: The European Leveraged Finance Association (ELFA) is pleased to announce the appointments to its Board of Gareth Simmons, Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Sustainable Investment Strategy, Fixed Income, at Columbia Threadneedle Investments and Cecilia Beke-Molnar, Managing Director at Benefit Street Partners.

Gareth takes over with immediate effect from Roman Gaiser, while Cecilia replaces Jerome Ingenhoff after completing his three-year term in April.

Gareth has been an active member of the ELFA ESG Committee since 2020, involved in the development and adoption of the ESG Fact Sheets as well as the inclusion of private companies in investor-led industry engagement initiatives. He joined Columbia Threadneedle Investments in 2011, and his portfolio management responsibilities include the management of ESG and sustainable high yield strategies. Previously, Gareth was a senior credit analyst covering the telecom, media and technology (TMT) sectors at both Columbia Threadneedle Investments and Morgan Stanley. Gareth is also a member of the UK Transition Finance Council and Co-Chair of the IIGCC’s Bondholder Stewardship Working Group. He has a BSc (Hons) in Natural Sciences from the University of Durham.

Cecilia joined Benefit Street Partners London office in 2021 and is part of the liquid credit team covering Technology, Software and select Business Services. Previously, she was a Senior Credit Analyst at Cairn Capital, (now Polus Capital Management), a Credit Research Associate at Lyxor Asset Management (now Tikehau) and a Credit Risk Analyst at Morgan Stanley. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Finance and Accounting from Corvinus University of Budapest. She is a CFA charterholder, passed the CFA Institute’s Certificate in ESG Investing and in 2025, achieved a certificate in Generative AI for Finance: Use Cases, Applications and Regulation from Oxford University, Oxford Lifelong Learning.

Commenting on her appointment, Cecilia said: “ELFA plays a vital role in representing the investor community and promoting transparency, engagement, and best practices across the leveraged finance market. I welcome the opportunity to support ELFA’s mission and initiatives and applying my experience across credit analysis, the CLO market, ESG considerations, and the impact of AI on the investment process to bring a thoughtful, forward-looking, and balanced perspective to board discussions.”

Commenting on his appointment, Gareth said: “I’m excited to be joining the ELFA Board and widening my contribution to the ongoing improvement of transparency and best practice across leveraged finance, and to collective advocacy for the buyside.”

ELFA’s CEO Ed Eyerman commented: “We are delighted to welcome Cecilia and Gareth to the Board. Gareth has already made an important contribution to ELFA as an active member of the ESG Committee, and Cecilia brings a wealth of new experience to the Board. We look forward to working with them both. Our thanks to outgoing board members, Roman Gaiser and Jerome Ingenhoff, for their commitment and contribution to ELFA and the Board.”