🎙Alona Gornick from Churchill Asset Management

Welcome back to another episode of the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast. Today’s guest is someone who has witnessed the evolution of the credit landscape from various unique perspectives. Let’s welcome Alona Gornick, a Managing Director and Senior Investment Strategist who also co-heads the Chicago office at Churchill Asset Management. With an impressive $50 billion in committed capital, Churchill provides financial solutions to middle-market private equity firms and their portfolio companies. It’s worth noting that Churchill is an affiliate of Nuveen, the asset management arm of TIAA.

We’ve got options for you to catch this episode—whether you’re an Apple Podcasts fanatic, prefer Spotify, or are a Transistor regular, you can tune in using the links above.

Alona brings an impressive range of insights into the private capital spectrum to the investment community, focusing on the Private Wealth and Retail channels. She works hand in hand with Nuveen’s global distribution team, aiming to strengthen connections and provide education to Churchill’s investors and partners.

Her rich experience in the realms of capital markets, investor relations, and credit investing comes from esteemed organizations such as Nuveen, Golden Gate Capital, and Oaktree Capital Management.

In our conversation, Alona and I dove into several intriguing topics:

The evolution and current landscape of credit investing.
Opportunities and potential pitfalls in private credit.
A discussion on whether we might be in a private credit bubble.
The significance of the product specialist role in dealing with the wealth channel.
How scale development, particularly in private credit, aids alternative asset managers in winning deals.
The advantages of using platforms and maintaining permanent capital structures.

I want to extend a huge thanks to Alona for joining the show and sharing her invaluable insights into private markets. I hope you, our listeners, enjoy the episode.

In this episode, you’ll hear some compelling soundbites:

"You don’t find these credit deals on a Bloomberg terminal."
"Is this the right time for private credit?"
"What’s the wealth channel’s view on where private credit fits in a portfolio?"
"Just how important is structure?"

And a big shoutout to Ultimus Fund Solutions for sponsoring this series. They’re a leading full-service fund administrator for asset managers in private and public markets. As the private market sector grows more mainstream, the need for robust infrastructure solutions becomes essential. In today’s complex financial world, investment managers face an array of challenges, from intricate fund structures to evolving compliance needs and higher demands for transparency.

More and more, fund sponsors and asset managers are turning to Ultimus. They blend technology with personalized service to offer unique fund administration and middle-office solutions to a diverse client base of over 450 and 1,800 funds—representing $500 billion in assets under administration—all managed by a team of over 1,000 professionals. Ultimus specializes in capabilities across registered funds, private funds, public plans, and middle-office services, ensuring operational excellence and guidance through the shifting regulatory landscape.

For those eager to learn more about how Ultimus can assist with your fund solutions, be sure to check out www.ultimusfundsolutions.com. You can even reach out to their Executive Vice President of Business Development, Gary Harris, at [email protected].

Thanks again to Ultimus for their continued support of alternative investments going mainstream!

Show Notes: