Press Release

European Leveraged Finance Association (ELFA) is delighted to announce the appointment of two new Co-Chairs to its Loan Investor Committee. Saurabh Bhalla, Principal and Senior Credit Analyst at Oak Hill Advisors, and Lorraine Specketer, Leverage Loan Portfolio Manager at Insight Investment, will commence their new roles immediately.

The Loan Investor Committee is focused on issues unique to loan investors and CLO managers, working to improve transparency, liquidity and engagement in order to better inform their investment decisions.

Saurabh Bhalla joined Oak Hill Advisors in 2013 and focuses on European investments. Previously he worked in the Credit Suisse European Leveraged Finance and Sponsors Group. He earned a Chartered Accountant qualification with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and B.Com. (Hons.) from the University of Delhi.

Lorraine Specketer joined the Fixed Income Group at Insight Investment in July 2007 to help establish and manage the loan platform. She is the portfolio manager for the Loan Fund and is responsible for Insight’s leveraged loan investments more widely. She has broad transactional experience across both leveraged and CRE loan deals. Previously, she worked at Bayern LB in the Acquisition & Leveraged Finance Team that sourced and transacted loans. Lorraine graduated from the University of Bath with a BA (Hons) degree in French, German and European Studies, and holds an Investment Management Certificate from the CFA.

Saurabh and Lorraine will take over from Scarlett de Posson and Emma Norman who led the committee for approximately 2 years. ELFA would like to thank Emma and Scarlett for their time and significant contributions to ELFA by helping to drive forward many impactful initiatives.

Sabrina Fox, CEO of ELFA commented: “We are delighted to welcome Saurabh and Lorraine as the new Co-Chairs of the Loan Investor Committee. We are confident that together with the committee members they will seamlessly continue our efforts to address the challenges and inefficiencies experienced by investors in the market.

The Loan Investor Committee provides a forum for members and other market participants to discuss the most pressing issues for the market and to develop solutions, with the good of the market as a whole at the centre of those efforts.

I would like to personally thank Emma and Scarlett for their considerable commitment and contributions to driving this agenda. Our Co-Chair roles are an essential infrastructure to our work on improving the efficiency and resilience of the industry. The roles are voluntary, and we are very grateful to our Co-Chairs for devoting their time to our mission to represent investors in the leveraged finance market.”