Varkki Chacko is the Chief Investment Officer and the Managing Principal of Credit Capital Investments (CCI). CCI seeks investment opportunities across the capital structure with a focus on the publicly traded markets in the US.

He has extensive experience in the global credit markets. Prior to moving to the buy-side in 2003, he spent approximately 16 years, initially at Salomon Brothers and then at Goldman Sachs. While at Goldman Sachs, Varkki was a Managing Director serving in various roles including Co-Head of Global High Yield Research, Head of European and Asian Credit Research and Head of Global Credit Strategy. Varkki was a top-ranked analyst in the Institutional Investor All-America Fixed Income Research Team from 1994 to 1998 and again in 2000. The 2000 and 2002 Euro money Credit Research Polls named the teams led by Varkki as top-ranked in Credit Research and in High-Grade and High-Yield Credit Strategy respectively.

Varkki was significantly involved in proprietary credit trading activities both at Goldman Sachs and Salomon Brothers. Varkki’s work in the real time index area has been awarded U.S. and European patents and is the basis of one of the $36 billion iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund ETF (LQD). His research work in the polymer science industry, upon completing his graduate studies in engineering, also resulted in eight industrial patents being awarded.

Varkki completed his M.B.A. in Finance from New York University in 1987, a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1982, and a B.E. (Hons) and M.S. (Hons) in 1978 from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India. Varkki is an Advisory Board member of the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Michael Kerlan is Head of Research at CCI. He is also responsible for the Communication Services sector for the Teak Hill Fund.

Prior to joining CCI, Mike worked at Wells Fargo Securities, LLC in the Equity Research Group following the Communications Technology sector. He previously worked at Moody’s Investor Services, in the Corporate Credit Group, where he followed Technology, Media, and Telecom. Earlier in his career, Mike worked as a network engineer at International Paper, DoubleClick, and TD Waterhouse.

Mike completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, where he graduated cum laude, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL, where he completed a thesis titled, “Video Broadcast and Conferencing – A Performance Study and Traffic Characterization”. Mike also completed a Master of Business Administration with a specialization in Quantitative Finance at New York University, where he was a Stern Scholar.

Steve Cohen is a Principal and Portfolio Manager at CCI where he manages the Firm’s fixed income SMA assets and Income Priority Fund.

Steve has extensive expertise in the credit markets with over 25 years of experience in corporate bonds and leveraged loans, including high yield, investment grade and distressed. His experience includes head of high yield research groups, management of a prop trading business, and desk analyst. His broad industry research coverage includes chemicals, paper & packaging, metals & mining, industrials, transportation, building, and services.

Prior to joining CCI, Steve was a Managing Director and high yield desk analyst at KeyBank covering high yield bonds and leveraged loans across a broad range of basic materials and industrials sectors. He previously worked at CIBC where he helped manage a prop trading business and provided research coverage in the chemicals, paper & packaging, and metals & mining industries. At BTIG, Steve managed a highly respected high yield research effort and led research coverage across high yield, distressed and post-reorg equity. Steve spent 16 years at Citigroup where he was a Managing Director and led high yield coverage across a wide range of sectors. He was a top-ranked analyst and named to the Institutional Investor Fixed Income Research Team for five years.

Steve completed his M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University.

Steve Cohen is a Principal and Portfolio Manager at CCI where he manages the Firm’s fixed income SMA assets.

Steve has extensive expertise in the credit markets with over 25 years of experience in corporate bonds and leveraged loans, including high yield, investment grade and distressed. His experience includes head of high yield research groups, management of a prop trading business, and desk analyst. His broad industry research coverage includes chemicals, paper & packaging, metals & mining, industrials, transportation, building, and services.

Prior to joining CCI, Steve was a Managing Director and high yield desk analyst at KeyBank covering high yield bonds and leveraged loans across a broad range of basic materials and industrials sectors. He previously worked at CIBC where he helped manage a prop trading business and provided research coverage in the chemicals, paper & packaging, and metals & mining industries. At BTIG, Steve managed a highly respected high yield research effort and led research coverage across high yield, distressed and post-reorg equity. Steve spent 16 years at Citigroup where he was a Managing Director and led high yield coverage across a wide range of sectors. He was a top-ranked analyst and named to the Institutional Investor Fixed Income Research Team for five years.

Steve completed his M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University.

Patrick Arata is a Principal of the Firm and Head of Trading. Prior to joining CCI, Pat spent 32 years at Morgan Stanley as a senior Executive Director in the Institutional Equity Division and was involved in its client relationship management and collegiate recruiting programs. While at Morgan Stanley, Pat had a varied career in both sales and trading and developed a broad and deep base of product and client knowledge.

Pat’s first key role at Morgan Stanley was trading equity derivatives for a broad spectrum of institutional clients and he was ultimately responsible for the client index arbitrage trading book. Pat then transitioned to global equity derivatives and portfolio trading sales where he had direct relationship responsibility for clients ranging from the Firm Top 50 to emerging hedge funds, quantitative managers, index funds and corporate plan sponsors.

From 2004 through 2017 Pat was a leader in developing and implementing Morgan Stanley’s Non-100 client coverage strategy. Pat had a significant role in enhancing the Morgan Stanley’s reputation with that client segment and working collaboratively with colleagues in the prime brokerage, fixed income and private wealth units. Client coverage expanded to include mutual fund complexes and family offices. Pat and his teams met with and developed relationships with CEOs, CIOs, head traders and senior portfolio managers and restored numerous dormant relationships to active, revenue producing partnerships.

Pat received a B.S. in Finance from New York University and was a member of the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity. Pat holds licenses for the Series 3, 7, 9, 10, 55 and 63.

Richard Roy is a Principal, Portfolio Manager and a member of the Investment Committee at CCI.

Prior to joining CCI, Richard was the Founder and Managing Partner of Lucror Capital Advisors, L.P., an investment management firm focused on investments in the energy and energy infrastructure sectors.

Prior to that, Richard served as a Director in Citigroup Investment Research’s Energy & Energy Infrastructure Group. While at Citigroup, Richard advised institutions (corporate and state pension funds, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, mutual funds), financial advisers and high net worth individuals on investing in the energy, energy infrastructure and industrials complexes. During his tenure at Citigroup, Richard had direct responsibility for over $100 billion in equity market capitalization, worked on over $15 billion of MLP and other energy equity offerings (including the marketing of more than 25 initial public offerings), and analyzed over $10 billion worth of Mergers & Acquisitions. Richard’s research has been featured in Barron’s and in 2010, he was recognized as a “Top Stock Picker” in the United States by Financial Times/StarMine, placing 6th out of 1,800. In addition, he has been recognized by StarMine as a top-ranked equity research analyst, receiving 4 out of 5 stars, for stocks under coverage in such categories as “EPS Estimate Accuracy” and “Industry Excess Return.”

Earlier in his career, Richard worked as an associate with the boutique investment bank B.V. Murray & Co. and as an associate in the International Private Banking division of Merrill Lynch.

Richard received a B.S. in Finance and Marketing from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia (where he was a 4-Year Varsity Tennis Letterman as well as a team Co-Captain) and an MBA from Columbia Business School with a concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurship.

Chris Kelly will lead and assist with developing and maintaining new and existing business relationships for CCI.

Chris has extensive experience in the financial markets. He started out as a lending officer and worked at General Electric in the leveraged buyout group. He then went on to found, co-found and work with several alternative asset firms and funds, including Value Asset Management, Citigroup Alternative Investments, Weston Capital Management, Harvest Fund Management and Michigan Investment Management. Several of the Funds he co-founded or founded went on to grow into multibillion-sized institutional investors.

He is currently a board member and advisor to several companies, including the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund’s FIG Group.

Chris has an M.B.A from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth and a B.A from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Robert Murray is an Advisor to the Firm and the Chief Compliance Officer at Credit Capital. Robert also advises on corporate credit allocations in several of the Separate Managed Accounts.

Prior to joining CCI, Robert was most recently at Wexford Capital LLC, where he was a Senior Credit Analyst on the Credit Opportunities Fund. Prior to that, he spent over 17 years at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in Plainsboro, New Jersey, including eight years as a Portfolio Manager where he ran several high yield bond funds for retail and institutional clients. Earlier in his career, he spent over five years at Standard and Poor’s in New York, where he worked in both equity research and debt rating.

Robert received an M.B.A. in Finance, Accounting and Managerial Economics from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1983. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1984. Robert earned a B.A. in Economics magna cum laude at the College of the Holy Cross, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Freeman Saltus Prize in Economics. He is a member of the CFA Institute, the New York Society of Security Analysts and Fixed Income Analysts Income Society Inc.