Brightwood Announces Appointment of Kristan O’Connor as Managing Director

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brightwood Capital Advisors ("Brightwood"), a leading private credit and impact firm, announced the appointment of Kristan O’Connor as Managing Director in the firm’s Portfolio Management & Risk group.

Ms. O’Connor brings over 30 years of experience across credit administration, portfolio management, underwriting, and loan workouts to the team. Prior to joining Brightwood, she served as Senior Vice President and Credit Risk Executive of Special Assets and Venture Lending at Bank Leumi. She also previously held the positions of Chief Financial Officer at EduLab Capital Partners, Senior Credit Manager at Hercules Capital, Inc. and Senior Advisor of Advisory Services for the East Coast US, UK, and Israel at Silicon Valley Bank.

"We are thrilled to welcome Kristan to the team," said Sengal Selassie, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Brightwood. "As the ongoing market dislocation continues to present promising investment opportunities, it’s vital that we continue to build our leadership team with diverse perspectives and highly experienced credit professionals that are capable of navigating the current market environment. Kristan’s deep leadership experience and proven track record will be invaluable to Brightwood as we continue to enhance our risk management framework and expand our investing capabilities.”

This news comes on the heels of Brightwood expanding its Risk and Underwriting groups this past April with the appointment of Frederick Jelks and Chris Halajian. In addition to expanding the senior leadership team, Brightwood has built the Portfolio Management & Risk team to nine people through other additions this year. These team members will be instrumental in enhancing the coverage model and ensuring prudent monitoring of the portfolio as Brightwood positions to successfully navigate the current economic environment.

About Brightwood Capital

Brightwood Capital Advisors, LLC is a leading private credit firm with a long-standing track record of investing in middle market businesses. Brightwood specializes in providing senior debt capital primarily to U.S. businesses with $5-$75 million of EBITDA within five core industries: technology & telecommunications, healthcare, business services, transportation & logistics and franchising. Through deep relationships with non-sponsored businesses as well as private equity sponsored partnerships, Brightwood offers customized financing solutions for directly originated investments. After intensive credit-focused due diligence including fulsome environmental, social, and governance (ESG) screening, Brightwood takes a hand-on, solutions-oriented approach to fostering the growth of its portfolio companies and supporting the long-term health of these businesses.

Brightwood offers a variety of financial products to meet the needs of investors including private commingled funds, separately managed accounts, CLOs and a BDC platform. In addition to its traditional private debt funds, Brightwood manages Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) funds. Notably, Brightwood is also a signatory to United Nations, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and Institutional Limited Partners Association’s (ILPA) Diversity in Action.

As a 100% minority-owned firm founded in 2010, Brightwood fosters an inclusive culture to create advancement opportunities for talented people of all backgrounds. Brightwood's team of over 50 employees manage more than $4 billion of assets on behalf of its primarily institutional investor base.

Brightwood is headquartered in New York City. For more information, please visit: https://brightwoodlp.com/.