Europe's Credit Market. One Room.
Octus London Credit Forum
13 October 2026 | 12:00 – 17:30 BST, followed by networking drinks and canapés
The Biltmore Mayfair, 44 Grosvenor Square, London, W1K 2HP
The most senior minds in credit gather in London for our largest event of the year. Expert-led sessions and peer discussions put you ahead of the forces reshaping private credit, CLOs, primary markets and restructuring.
What to expect
A full-day credit experience
Year after year, attendees rate the content and networking as the most valuable parts of the day.
9/10 Overall Experience/Likelihood to recommend
- Top-tier speakers from buy side, legal, investment banking and advisory firms
- First-hand insights on private credit, CLOs, leveraged finance and restructuring
- Co-working space, Demo station, Speaker green room
Agenda
Agenda subject to change as speakers are confirmed.
Get in Touch to SpeakSpeaker: Julie Miecamp, Deputy Global Head of Editorial, Octus
Moderator: Kent Collier, Founder & CEO, Octus
Moderator: Oscar Laurikka, Head of European Private Credit and Deal Origination Coverage, Octus
A deep dive into manager differentiation and structural innovations within an ever-changing and institutionalized European CLO market.
Moderator: Sid Punjabi, CLO Reporter, Octus
Panelists:
- Madelaine Jones, Head of European Liquid Performing Credit and Portfolio Manager, Oaktree Capital Management
- Mehdi Kashani, Head of Structured Credit, Arini Capital Management
- Andrew Lockhart, Structured Products Portfolio Manager, Conning
- Aaron Scott, CLO Partner, Dechert LLP
Moderator: Ben Kovacka, Head of Direct Data Services, Octus
Insights into the state of the leverage finance primary markets from multiple view points, including originators, arrangers, investors and advisors.
Moderator: Aditya Khanna, Vice President, Head of Legal Research, EMEA, Octus
Panelist: Treasa Tomy, Director, Capital Markets, KKR
Bringing together the perspectives of investors and advisors, the session will provide an overview of the current state of Europe’s distressed debt and restructuring market, focusing on recent LME activity, the developments of cooperation agreements, and pros and cons of the UK versus other jurisdictions.
Moderator: Chiara Elisei, Chief Credit Correspondent, Octus
Panelist: Simon Lalande, Managing Director, European Co-Head of Restructuring and LME, Rothschild & Co
Speaker: Julie Miecamp, Deputy Global Head of Editorial, Octus
Kent Collier
Founder & CEO
Octus
Kent set out with a visionary goal: to transform how the world understands and leverages credit data. As the founder and driving force behind Octus, he combines deep expertise with a forward-thinking approach, delivering solutions that empower clients in complex financial markets. His experience as a research analyst at firms like Millennium Partners, Catalyst Investment Management, Assurant Asset Management, and Babson Capital refined his expertise in high-yield, distressed debt, and special situations. As a passionate innovator in data science and generative AI, Kent has led Octus to the forefront of these cutting-edge technologies. This forward-thinking vision keeps Octus at the forefront of innovation, continuously challenging the status quo and redefining what’s possible in the world of credit intelligence.
Beyond Octus, Kent’s influence extends into academia, where he inspires the next generation of financial leaders as a guest lecturer at institutions like the University of Virginia, the Wharton School, and Columbia University. A passionate golfer and lover of music, Kent finds creativity in every facet of life. He lives in Washington, D.C., where he balances his role as a leader in financial innovation with the most important job of all—being a father to his two children.
Chiara Elisei
Chief Credit Correspondent
Octus
Chiara is Chief Credit Correspondent at Octus, covering stressed and distressed credits in EMEA. Prior to joining Octus in 2023, she was Chief Credit Correspondent in the London’s Markets and Finance team of Reuters, and the Managing Editor of Debtwire Europe, heading up a team of reporters and analysts covering the leveraged finance, high yield and distressed markets across Europe.
Chiara started her career in journalism in Italy, writing about local and international news for Italian newspapers Il Messaggero and Il Corriere della Sera. She holds a Master’s Degree and a PhD in classics from Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
Madelaine Jones
Head of European Liquid Performing Credit and Portfolio Manager
Oaktree Capital Management
Madelaine Jones
Head of European Liquid Performing Credit and Portfolio Manager
Oaktree Capital Management
Ms. Jones joined Oaktree’s London office in 2003 and serves as Head of European Liquid PerformingCredit, portfolio manager for the European High Yield Bond and European Senior Loan strategies, and a co-portfolio manager for the Global High Yield Bond strategy. She is also a member of the firm’s EMEA Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
Before joining Oaktree, Ms. Jones spent more than three years at Deutsche Bank AG in London as a senior associate in the Leveraged Debt Origination Group specializing in loan, mezzanine and high yield bond financings to support European leveraged buyouts.
Prior thereto, she spent two years in the Acquisition Finance Group at Natwest Group plc. Ms. Jones received a B.A. degree in economics from the University of Durham, England. She is a CFA charterholder.
Mehdi Kashani
Head of Structured Credit
Arini Capital Management
Prior to joining Arini in 2022, Mr. Kashani was Head of ABS and CLO Trading at BNP Paribas. Under his leadership, the team won Global Capital’s Secondary ABS Trading Desk of the Year award in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Previously, he established the European ABS and Structured Credit desks at RBC Capital Markets and served as Interim Co-Head of European Credit Trading.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Kashani developed the European ABS trading platform within Citigroup’s Global Securitised Markets franchise and built secondary trading desks at HBOS and Lloyds. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Banking and International Finance from City University London.
Aditya Khanna
Vice President, Head of Legal Research EMEA
Octus
Aditya Khanna is Vice President and Head of Legal Research for EMEA at Octus. A New York-qualified lawyer, he brings deep expertise in high yield bonds, leveraged finance, and complex capital structures across Europe and the United States.
Before joining Octus, Aditya spent 4 years at Cravath in New York and London and then more than a decade at Ropes & Gray in London, most recently as a partner, advising sponsors, underwriters, and investors on high-stakes financing and restructuring transactions in Europe and the U.S.
His work spans the full lifecycle of leveraged finance deals, with a particular focus on sophisticated covenant analysis and liability management transactions. Aditya holds law degrees from Columbia University in New York and the National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata.
Ben Kovacka
Head of Direct Data Services
Octus
Benjamin Kovacka, CFA is Global Head of Direct Data Services at Octus, where he leads content connectivity and AI-powered data initiatives. He has previously led content and data products focused on private companies, sponsored borrowers, and complex capital structures. Since joining Octus in 2017, Ben has held senior leadership roles across European distressed and high yield research, global fundamentals, and sponsored borrower coverage, and is responsible for launching, scaling, and integrating data-driven research products through organic growth and M&A. Before Octus, he worked as an analyst at Citi and held research roles across credit and financial markets in London and Europe. He is a CFA charterholder and holds a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Simon Lalande
Managing Director, European Co-Head of Restructuring and LME
Rothschild & Co
Simon Lalande is based in London and is Rothschild & Co’s European Co-Head of Restructuring & Liability Management. He joined Rothschild & Co in 2009.He has extensive experience in debt restructurings, Liability Management Exercises (“LMEs”), recapitalisations, special situations M&A and strategic advisory across 75+ transactions covering multiple sectors and EMEA jurisdictions (company and creditor side). Simon holds an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and a B.Com. and a B.A. from the University of Ottawa in Canada.
Oscar Laurikka
Head of European Private Credit and Deal Origination Coverage
Octus
Oscar is head of European private credit and deal origination coverage at Octus. He has previously worked at other industry publications including Debtwire, Creditflux and GlobalCapital covering various aspects of leveraged finance.
Andrew Lockhart
Structured Portfolio Manager
Conning Asset Management London
Andrew is the Structured Credit Portfolio Manager for Conning’s European operations, with responsibility for portfolio construction and trading across USD and EUR CLO strategies. Andrew is responsible for asset raising and managing $3.1bn via institutional SMA mandates and two CLO funds.
Julie Miecamp
Deputy Global Head of Editorial
Octus
Julie Miecamp is the Deputy Global Head of Editorial at Octus and the primary host of Industry Insights Exclusive Interviews. She manages the EMEA reporters and financial analysts and works on standardizing global editorial practices. Known for her decisive and people-focused leadership, she brings the same judgment to managing her team as she does to shaping editorial coverage. Before joining Octus to establish its EMEA bureau, she spent years breaking news and telling complex credit stories in leveraged finance and debt restructuring as a reporter for Bloomberg News and Debtwire. She holds an M.A. in English from La Sorbonne.
Julie is proud of her Mediterranean upbringing in the south of France which fuelled a genuine curiosity about people, culture and travels. A native French speaker, she is also fluent in English, Italian and Spanish, and has built some beginner Arabic, always drawn to new ways of connecting across borders
Sid Punjabi
CLO Reporter
Octus
Sid Punjabi is a CLO reporter at Octus, where he covers collateralized loan obligations, credit risk transfers, leveraged finance, and structured credit across the US and Europe.
Before joining Octus in 2025, he worked in convertible bond sales and trading. Earlier in his career, he did research in special situations and high-yield credit. Sid holds a BA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Aaron Scott
Partner
Dechert
Aaron Scott advises on structured finance and securitization matters, with a particular focus on collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Based in Dechert’s London office, Mr. Scott represents leading managers on European CLO transactions. In addition, he advises on the EU regulatory aspects of U.S. CLOs, including risk retention and transparency requirements.
Mr. Scott’s recent experience includes advising Ares on Ares European Direct Lending CLO II – their second European Direct Lending Collateralised Loan Obligation, valued at over £300 million – as well as advising Barings on the launch of Europe’s first multicurrency private credit CLO. He has acted as drafting counsel on every European Private Credit CLO completed to date.
The Legal 500 UK, 2026, recommends Mr. Scott for securitization and Chambers and Partners UK, 2026, also recognized Mr. Scott for his work on CLOs.
Mr. Scott was nominated for the Securitisation Rising Star of the Year award at the GlobalCapital European Securitization Awards 2024.
Mr. Scott trained and worked as a lawyer in New Zealand before moving to London where, prior to joining Dechert, he worked in the structured finance practice of another international law firm.
Why attend
150+
senior credit professionals across buy side, investment banks, legal and advisory firms
9/10
would attend again; highly rated for speaker quality, content relevance and overall experience
4
market-leading sessions: private credit, primary markets, CLOs and restructuring, with live polling and anonymous Q&A built in so you can have your say
2025 in review
“Speaker quality was excellent. The primary and CLO market discussions as well as the networking sessions were the most valuable parts of the day.”
Octus London Credit Forum 2025 Attendee
- Speakers from buy side, investment banking, legal and advisory, all under one roof
- 100% of respondents said topics were relevant to today's market
- New features: co-working space, green room, demo station, live captions
- Diverse lunch menu celebrating Black History Month and networking drinks reception included
