Nomura Corporate Research and Asset Management Inc.

David Crall, CFA, is the President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Investment Officer (CIO), and a Managing Director with NCRAM. He is also a member of NCRAM’s Board of Directors. Mr. Crall became President and CEO of NCRAM in June 2019, and in this capacity he is responsible for the firm’s overall management and business strategy. In addition, as CIO since January 2010, he leads the investment activities and investment team of NCRAM. He is the Chair of NCRAM’s Management Oversight, Investment, New Product, Risk Monitoring, and ESG Committees. Previously, he was a portfolio manager and co-head of the high yield bond team at NCRAM, encompassing primarily high yield bonds but also public-side management of loans and distressed investments, since 2000. Prior to that, he was a portfolio manager of various high yield accounts at NCRAM since 1997, and an analyst in the high yield group at NCRAM for various industries since 1992. Mr. Crall received his B.A. from Yale University in 1992. He is a CFA® charterholder, a member of the CFA institute, and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Steve Kotsen, CFA, is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager with NCRAM. He joined NCRAM in December 1998 and has been a portfolio manager for NCRAM’s high yield bond investments since 2000. Upon joining NCRAM he worked as a credit analyst primarily responsible for the Gaming, Lodging, Leisure, Metals and Mining, Chemicals, Homebuilding, Building Products, Printing, Publishing, and Shipping industries. From July 1995 until December 1998 he was a portfolio manager at Lazard Frères Asset Management for a $2 billion investment-grade portfolio. Thereafter, he became a generalist high yield research analyst and later managed an $85 million double-B rated high yield portfolio. Mr. Kotsen received his M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia Business School in 1995, and his B.A. in International Relations from Princeton University in 1991. Mr. Kotsen is a CFA® charterholder, a member of the CFA Institute, and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Amy Yu Chang, CFA, is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager with NCRAM. She manages NCRAM's higher credit quality accounts, including the BB-B High Yield Strategy, and also assists in managing accounts in the full spectrum High Yield Total Return Strategy. She has been a high yield bond Portfolio Manager since 2007. Prior to that, she was an Assistant Portfolio Manager of various long-only high yield accounts at NCRAM since 2004, and an analyst in the high yield group at NCRAM for various industries including Retail, Apparel, Food, Restaurants, Technology, and Business Services since 1999. Ms. Yu Chang received her B.S. in Biology from Yale University in 1999. She is a CFA® charterholder, a member of the CFA Institute, and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Steven Rosenthal, CFA, is an Managing Director and Portfolio Manager with NCRAM. He is the portfolio manager of NCRAM’s European High Yield Strategy, having managed it since its 2012 inception, and he is the Co-Portfolio Manager of our Global High Yield Strategy with David Crall since 2019. He also supervises NCRAM’s activities in the Leveraged Loan market. From 2010–2016 he was the co-portfolio manager of the long/short strategy. He had been the assistant portfolio manager of the long/short strategy during 2009. In 2005 he spearheaded the firm’s establishment of a dedicated distressed capability and was the primary analyst following the distressed universe through 2009. Prior to that, he had been an analyst in the high yield group at NCRAM for various industries including Gaming, Lodging & Leisure, Metals & Mining, Homebuilding and Building Products and Wireline Telecommunications since 2000. Mr. Rosenthal received his B.A. in History from Yale University in 2000. He is a CFA® charterholder, a member of the CFA Institute, and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Derek Leung, CFA, is an Executive Director and Portfolio Manager with NCRAM. He has been with NCRAM since July 2003 and has acted as the Portfolio Manager for a selection of NCRAM’s High Yield Total Return portfolios since 2019. He has also served as Assistant Portfolio Manager for various high yield long-only portfolios, supporting Stephen Kotsen and Amy Yu Chang, since 2010. Prior to becoming a Portfolio Manager, Mr. Leung was a credit analyst with the high yield group at NCRAM. He has covered numerous industries including Industrials and Services, Aerospace and Defense, Utilities, Technology, Shipping, Airlines and Aircraft Lessors, Paper and Packaging, and also acts as the firm’s distressed credit and special situations analyst. Mr. Leung received his B.A. in Economics from Yale University in May 2003. He is a CFA® charterholder, a member of the CFA Institute, and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. 

Meno Stroemer is a Managing Director and Head of Emerging Market Corporate Bond Portfolio Management at NCRAM. Previously, he headed the Portfolio Management team and was lead portfolio manager of emerging market strategies at Fisch Asset Management from 2014-2022. Prior to that, he worked for Morgan Stanley in New York where he initially built up the emerging markets corporate trading desk. He later transferred to Morgan Stanley’s Global Capital Markets group to head up the emerging markets debt syndicate function globally. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Meno worked at UBS for 14 years, initially in London as credit research analyst. He subsequently transferred to New York and transitioned into a trading role covering emerging markets (Asia, EMEA and Latin America), and ultimately became the head of UBS’ Latin American credit trading desk. Earlier in his career, he worked as Eurobond desk analyst for HSBC in London and spent nearly three years at Moody’s Investor Service in New York in the position of research analyst. He holds a BA in Economics from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona.

Eric Torres, is an Executive Director and Portfolio Manager for Emerging Markets (EM) at NCRAM. Mr. Torres is responsible for the management of EM hard currency sovereign credit bonds and assumed the lead portfolio manager role for EM corporate sleeves for global high-yield products managed by NCRAM in September 2016. Before joining NCRAM in 2008, Mr. Torres was research strategist in the Latin America Research Team at JP Morgan in New York, where he worked since 2000 covering different roles within the Emerging Markets Research Team. Prior to joining JP Morgan, Mr. Torres was an economist covering his home country at Chase Manhattan Bank Mexico (from 1998 to 2000) and Banco Santander’s economic consulting unit (from 1996 to 1998) based in Mexico City. Eric earned a B.A. in Economics from the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and his MBA in Finance at Fordham University in New York.

Hideo Kajiwara is an Executive Director and Portfolio Manager with NCRAM since 2020. He has more than 20 years of experience in managing global credit and securitized credit products. Prior to joining NCRAM, he was the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and Senior Portfolio Manager at Nomura Global Alpha LLC (NGA), responsible for managing a global macro hedge fund strategy with a focus on global credit and securitized credit products for more than 11 years. Before NGA, he was a Portfolio Manager at Nomura Asset Management Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, where managed a broad range of credit and securitized products from 1997 through 2008, and he was the lead manager of a large short-duration strategy. Mr. Kajiwara holds a B.A. in international business from Sophia University.

Melanie Hawthorne is a Vice President and Head of Investment Management Legal of NCRAM and NHA, where she focuses on the US-based asset managers within the Nomura Group of companies. Ms. Hawthorne joined Nomura in 2021. She has over 15 years of legal experience spanning multiple industries. She has worked in legal as well as compliance roles in the financial industry, having held dual roles at CIFC Asset Management, registered investment adviser Silver Point Capital, and the Royal Bank of Scotland. She also has extensive experience consulting with advisory firms, working on high-profile cases for mortgage-backed securities litigation. Most recently, Ms. Hawthorne served as In-House Counsel and Compliance Officer for an insurance technology company in Connecticut. Ms. Hawthorne holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Western Connecticut State University and earned her J.D. degree from Quinnipiac University School of Law in 2004.

Dr. Eugene Shuster, Managing Director and Head of Risk, joined Nomura in December 2012. Previously, he was Senior Vice President, Head of Quantitative Analytics within the Market Risk Management Group at PNC, where his team was responsible for providing a centralized solution center for all quantitative modeling efforts, research, development, documentation, and implementation across all the asset classes, products, and books that Market Risk Management oversees. Prior to PNC, Eugene spent five years with Deutsche Bank as a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager leading a small team which invested in a large spectrum of fixed income assets using both quantitative and non-systematic strategies (i.e., black box semi-automated Treasury bonds book, new issue Agency and Corporate bonds book, bullet and callable relative value strategy). Prior to Deutsche Bank, he spent three years as a Fixed Income Quantitative Analyst at Putnam Investments creating predictive, pricing and risk, term structure and default, and portfolio construction models for asset classes ranging from Treasury and Agency bonds, to investment grade and high yield bonds, to structured securities such as MBS, ABS, and CMBS. Dr. Shuster earned his Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Theoretical Mathematics and his Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jennie Wong, CPA, is a Managing Director, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), and Head of Operations of NCRAM. She is the Chair of NCRAM’s Counterparty Review, Performance Reporting Oversight, and Pricing committees. She joined NCRAM in August 1993 and is responsible for the firms’ operations functions. Prior to this position, she was a senior auditor in public accounting with McGladrey & Pullen. Ms. Wong is a Certified Public Accountant and received her B.B.A. in Public Accounting from Pace University in 1989.

Brett Collins, CFA is an Executive Director and Client Portfolio Manager at NCRAM. He rejoined the firm in July 2021 and covers US, European, and Global High Yield, and Emerging Market Debt and Multi-Credit strategies. Prior to this role, Brett held a variety of positions at State Street Global Advisors, including Quantitative Equity Client Portfolio Manager and Chief Operating Officer of the firm's Investment Solutions Group. Brett also worked at NCRAM from 1996 to 2004 as an Analyst with the firm's Emerging Market Debt team. He holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from Columbia Business School and a B.S. in Finance/Investments from Babson College. He is a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute.

Heather Grantham is an Executive Director, Client Portfolio Manager, ESG Specialist, and the Head of Client Relations at NCRAM, where she manages institutional client relationships and works closely with portfolio management, credit research, sales and business development teams to create and market high-yield fixed-income investment products for investors globally. She also serves on NCRAM’s ESG Committee and has a leadership role in defining and framing NCRAM’s responsible investing practices, ESG integration and ESG-focused products to clients, prospects, internal stakeholders and global Nomura affiliates. Ms. Grantham joined NCRAM’s Product Development team in 2012, prior to which her background was in financial services communications, branding, investor relations and business development support. She earned a B.A. in Government, with additional studies in Sociology and Fine Arts, from Cornell University.