Sukesh Thekkenmar is Managing Director, Valuations for TPG Angelo Gordon. Sukesh joined Angelo Gordon from BlackRock, where he was Director of Pricing & Economy Data strategy. Prior to BlackRock, Sukesh was VP, Head of Valuations and Liquidity Risk Management at Alliance Bernstein, where he was also Chairman of the Valuations Committee. Before joining Alliance Bernstein, Sukesh was VP, Derivatives Valuations at State Street Bank, he held market data roles at UBS investment bank and held multiple roles at Reuters including structured products and derivatives modeling. He has served on key industry committees and working groups.

Sukesh has an MBA from the Barney school of Business at the University of Hartford and a Master’s degree in Finance from the Bharathiar University, India.

Ingrid Taylor Fincham serves as a Director in T. Rowe Price’s Global Investment Operations Division, where she manages the oversight of third-party securities valuation and corporate actions service providers. In addition, she is responsible for managing the process around fair valuation of difficult-to-value securities and providing support to the Valuation Committee and various product line Boards of Directors.

Prior to her current position, Ingrid served in various operating departments, including Fund Accounting and Corporate Actions, servicing both the T. Rowe Price Funds and other T. Rowe Price-managed portfolios. Ingrid earned a B.S. in Finance from Virginia Commonwealth University and an M.B.A. in International Business from Johns Hopkins University.

Frank Gavin is a member of BlackRock’s Valuation Governance team overseeing the pricing of public securities within the Americas region.  The Valuation Governance team is responsible for ensuring BlackRock Funds are priced in accordance with the firm's valuation policies and procedures which requires oversight of both fund administrators and market data vendors. Additionally, the team is responsible for the pricing of assets under management in BlackRock’s internal investment platform, Aladdin. Frank co-chairs both the US & Canada and Latin America Pricing Committees and is a member of the firm’s Global Valuation Methodologies Committee and Collective Investment Fund Oversight Committee.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Frank spent 13 years overseeing fund accounting and valuation for a client account at BNY Mellon. Frank earned a B.S. and M.S. in Finance both from the University of Delaware.

Niti Shukla is the Director of Valuations at SS&C GlobeOp, leading the team responsible for providing Valuation & Controls services used for the production of NAV for hedge funds. Prior to joining SS&C, she had 18+ years of experience in valuation of Securities and OTC derivatives, risk management and analytics as the Director of Pricing & Valuation team at Freddie Mac. Niti has an M.B.A degree in Finance, with concentrations in Investments and Corporate Finance, from Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech University.

Dhruv Bajpai joined IFM Investors in 2023 as a Director in the Valuation and Counterparty Oversight group. He oversees the firm’s investment valuation policies and procedures across multiple asset classes. Prior to joining IFM, he was associated with TPG Angelo Gordon, where he was responsible for valuation governance, foreign exchange hedging, and front-office reporting for various investment portfolios. Before his tenure at TPG Angelo Gordon, he worked with Updata Venture Partners, an early-stage investor in IT and communications startups. From 1994 to 2000, he held various operating positions at Lucent Technologies (Bell Labs) within the CFO organization and served as a product manager for high-speed communication products.

Dhruv began his career in technology research at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center. He holds an MBA degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business, an M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, and a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India.

JAY BARIS is a partner in the Investment Funds group and has practiced in the asset management area for more than 35 years. Jay is widely recognized for his breadth of experience representing registered funds, investment advisers, financial institutions, broker-dealers, and independent directors on the full spectrum of financial services regulation, transactions, and governance matters. Jay’s work with registered funds includes mutual funds, closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, and business development companies. He has extensive experience advising on the regulatory aspects of fund and investment advisory operations, and has represented numerous clients on mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, exemptive applications, and compliance issues. He also advises operating companies on “status” issues that arise under the Investment Company Act of 1940. More recently, he has been advising FinTech clients on how the federal securities laws apply to digital assets and cryptocurrencies. 

An active speaker and writer on issues concerning investment management and the regulation of financial institutions, Jay has been published in a variety of trade and general interest publications, including Insights: The Corporate & Securities Law Advisor, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Wolters Kluwer, The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation, Fund Action, The Review of Banking & Financial Services, Fund Directions, and Fund Board Views. Jay is an adjunct professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, and chairs the Task Force on Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies and Investment Management of the Federal Securities Regulation Committee of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section.  Jay hosts Mutual Fund Minute, a bi-weekly podcast available on Spotify, Apple, Google and other major podcast platforms.

Jay has been ranked in Chambers Global (2020–2024) and Chambers USA in Registered Funds (2009–2023), The Legal 500 US as a “Leading Lawyer” and in the “Hall of Fame” for Investment Fund Formation and Management: Mutual/Registered/Exchange Traded Funds (2018–2020 and 2022), and The Best Lawyers in America for his work in corporate law, mutual funds law, and financial services regulation law (2008–2024). He has been listed in New York Super Lawyers in Securities and Corporate Finance (2006–2020), Super Lawyers Business Edition (2011), and JD Supra in its annual Readers’ Choice Awards (2016–2017). His nominations include “Independent Fund Counsel of the Year” by Institutional Investor’s Fund Directions and Ignites.com’s “Fund Titan” award in the Outside Counsel category (2008). Chambers USA notes that Jay “is highly skilled in advising registered funds ETFs and their independent trustees.” Clients praised him as “a strong practitioner. He is knowledgeable and he’s very well regarded among industry lawyers” (2021).

Bill specializes in financial instruments and transactions valuation, accounting and risk management. He leads Deloitte’s Valuation & Analytics practice, overseeing a global team of valuation specialists.

His team is responsible for designing and maintaining the One Deloitte Price in Omnia DNAV, Deloitte’s digital cloud-based solution for the audit of securities, investments and funds.

Additionally, he serves as the lead valuation partner for audit of one of Deloitte’s largest global banking clients.

Theodore Basta is Executive Vice President of Market Analytics and Investor Strategy for the LSTA, where he leads the LSTA’s Market Analytics team which is responsible for the LSTAs analytical and reporting initiatives, all of which enhance market visibility, transparency, and liquidity.  Mr. Basta also manages key strategic products and partnerships for the Association, including the LSTA’s secondary trading and settlement data initiatives, the LSTA/Refinitiv LPC Mark-to -Market Pricing Service and the S&P/LSTA Leveraged Loan Index. In addition, Mr. Basta organizes the Association’s global investor conferences and NYC based annual loan conference.  Mr. Basta also runs the LSTA’s Shift Date Process and the LSTA’s website. Finally, Mr. Basta plays an active role in speaking at industry conferences, both in the US and abroad, and has authored chapters on the secondary loan market in numerous books and market publications.

Prior to joining the LSTA, Ted was Vice President and Director of Global Pricing with Loan Pricing Corporation (LPC), where he managed the LSTA/LPC Mark-to-Market Pricing Service. During his tenure at LPC, Ted was instrumental in driving new product development and secondary market analytics, while playing an influential role in several initiatives that enhanced the liquidity and transparency of the secondary loan market.

Mr. Basta received an M.B.A. from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College and a B.A. in Accounting from Long Island University.

Brian Bejile is the Chief Executive Officer of Octaura, where he brings two decades of senior trading positions and leadership experience to the role. Prior to founding Octaura, Brian was most recently at Citi as Managing Director and Global Head of CLO Issuer Management, a combined offering across syndicated loan trading, financing and securitization. Before that, he ran the Loan Portfolio Trading and Global CLO trading desks. He was formally recognized for having the number-one CLO trading desk by volume for multiple years in a row.

Driven by his passion for simplifying and evolving markets, Brian sought the backing of Citi to bring his idea of an independent execution, data and analytics platform for fixed income markets to life. Brian’s collaborative spirit led him to join forces with several seasoned industry participants and strategic investors to address what he saw as the greatest challenges in Syndicated Loans and Structured Credit.

Throughout his career, Brian has observed that diversity in all its facets has been a key ingredient to all his successful innovations. He is a champion for the development, attraction, and retention of Black and other underrepresented groups in the financial services industry, having led multiple key diversity initiatives while at Citi. Brian is currently the Board Treasurer for Education Matters Africa Foundation, a non-profit organization providing education access to highly talented, underprivileged African youth.

Brian is a graduate of Haverford College where he double majored in computer science and economics. He lives in New York City along with his wife and their three children.

Tadvana is a senior CMBS and ABS product manager at Yield Book. She joined LSEG in January, 2021 and has been involved in many initiatives including the addition of Freddie K cash flow and prepayment/default models into the analytics platform. She has worked closely with the Research team for the delivery and adoption of the Non-Agency CMBS model. She has been instrumental in the enhancement of existing deal coverage for ABS deals as well as the integration of REPs pricing and Yield Book’s cashflow engine as part of establishing LSEG as the ‘Golden Source’ for Securitized Valuation.

Tadvana has over 15 years of experience in capital markets, fixed income and structured products with a deep knowledge of commercial real estate and CMBS. Prior to joining LSEG, she worked at Wells Fargo in the Commercial Mortgage Loan and Securities Finance division, where she was responsible for underwriting, pricing and hedging of the CMBS loan portfolio to support their conduit and SASB origination and securitization. At Bloomberg, she designed and was critical in the implementation of a structuring tool (CMBS STRU) for agency and non-agency CMBS in addition to her responsibilities on new issue US/CAD and Euro CMBS. Prior to Bloomberg, she worked at Merrill Lynch CMBS Origination desk where she structured and priced fixed and floating CMBS non-agency securitizations in the US and Canadian markets.  

Tadvana received her Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Illinois Wesleyan University. Additionally, she also has a Master of Science in Financial Engineering from Columbia University. 

Chip Thresher is Director, Government Relations and Regulatory Strategy, Americas at LSEG. Chip originally joined Thomson Reuters in 2014 covering the Financial Data & Risk business which subsequently became Refinitiv. Following LSEG’s acquisition of Refinitiv in 2021, Chip joined the LSEG team in the Americas, focusing on issues impacting the Data & Analytics and FTSE Russell businesses of LSEG as well as key group-wide issues including sustainable finance and geopolitical risk.

Prior to joining the company, Chip held various government affairs and regulatory positions in the private and public sector spanning industries including pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, energy, and finance. Chip served in the George W. Bush Administration from 2003-2008 with roles at the White House and U.S. Department of Commerce.

Chip holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Colorado, an MBA from Pepperdine University, and a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law.

Kevin Sawula is the Senior Director of Barings' Pricing and Valuations Group. With over 20 years of experience at Barings, Kevin has specialized in valuation and corporate actions. Throughout his tenure, he has actively contributed to the Real Estate and Global Valuation Committees. Kevin oversees global teams responsible for the oversight and delivery of the firm's valuation data.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA in Business Administration.

Roberto Guerra is a Vice President at Carlyle where he leads the valuation of liquid credit and asset-backed finance within the Global Credit division. 

Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Guerra was an Executive Director at JP Morgan where he was responsible for the valuation of various types of liquid/illiquid structured products. Prior to JP Morgan, Mr. Guerra held similar valuation roles at Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and Freddie Mac. 

Mr. Guerra holds a Bachelor’s degree in Integrated Science and Technology from James Madison University and a Master's in Finance from Georgetown University. He also earned the CFA and FRM designations.