Event Speakers

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Manuel Köppel is managing director of the institutional private debt manager BF.capital. With a degree in business administration, he began his career in banking at LBBW where he was involved in various projects related to institutional asset management. At BF.capital he is responsible for the management of real estate debt direct lending funds and institutional relationship management.

Nedelina Lazarova is Head of Private Debt and Investment Manager at HQ Trust, one of the largest multi family offices in Germany. She is responsible for selection, due diligence, execution and monitoring of Private Debt investments. Prior to joining HQ Trust, she was Project Lead for the multibillion Alternative Credit Program of a large German life insurance company, and was covering Private Corporate Debt, Infrastructure Debt, Commercial Real Estate Debt, Mortgages, Leveraged Loans and other alternative lending strategies. Prior experience includes manager due diligence of traditional investments and hedge funds, as well as consulting and project experience in M&A and valuation of structured products. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a Master’s Degree in Quantitative Finance from Bocconi University. She is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), FRM (Financial Risk Manager) and CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst) Charterholder.

Thomas is leading the private debt team at Viridium, Germany’s leading life insurance consolidator. He is responsible for sourcing, selecting, implementing and monitoring mandates in the area of direct lending, real estate, infrastructure and other lending strategies. Thomas has also set up Viridium’s direct lending co-investment and secondaries program. Prior to joining Viridium, Thomas was working on M&A transactions with a focus on technology and healthcare at ACXIT Capital. He started his career as credit risk analyst at Goldman Sachs. Thomas holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from University of Muenster and is CFA Charterholder.

Christophe was appointed Head of Commercial Real Estate (CRE) debt at BNP Paribas Asset Management in May 2020. Before that, he was CRE Debt Investment Director, acting as team Deputy Head, since joining the company in early 2019 from Société Générale. Prior to Société Générale, Christophe worked at GE Capital Real Estate, managing a pan-European real estate fund. He later launched a debt business. Christophe has also previously managed the Real Estate Finance team at RBS in Paris. Having started his career at BNP Paribas, he then held roles at Merrill Lynch, financing private equity funds buying nonperforming loans, and Citi, advising listed property companies and corporates in Europe. Christophe graduated from Sciences Po Paris and holds a master’s degree in finance from Paris Sorbonne. He is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and a board member of the Institut d’Epargne Immobilière et Foncière (IEIF). Christophe is based in Paris.

Alexander Schmitt is a senior portfolio manager in the Global Private Debt team at Allianz Global Investors. Prior to that, he has been involved in various roles managing Allianz Group’s investments since 2011. Most recently, he was responsible for the development, execution and oversight of Allianz’s investment strategies in infrastructure and real estate debt. Previous work experience includes a role as an investment manager for a fixed income insurance portfolio at Allianz as well as postings with PIMCO’s emerging markets portfolio management team in the US and with AllianzGI’s Asia Private Credit team in Singapore. Alexander is a CFA Charterholder and graduated with a Master in Finance & Economics from Goethe University, Frankfurt.