Sweta Chanda joined Monroe Capital as managing director and head of business strategy based in the firm’s New York office. She will be responsible for firmwide strategy, product and corporate development and new initiatives to expand Monroe’s global footprint.

Prior to Monroe, Chanda was a director at New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM) within the firm’s strategy and M&A team that was responsible for heading alternative investment strategy, where she helped launch a European opportunistic credit fund, a European CLO platform, a GP stakes fund and a social impact fund amongst other strategic business development and growth opportunities for NYLIM. She has more than 18 years of experience in asset management and has achieved business growth through strategic stewardship, new product development and the sourcing of M&A opportunities.

Prior to NYLIM, Chanda was a vice president at Blackstone, where she led initiatives related to cross platform mandates, relationship management and operations across the firm’s hedge fund solutions platform. Prior to Blackstone, she was an assistant vice president at Lehman Brothers in the business process alignment group working on strategy and process alignment for the investment banking division and a client relations associate and management consultant at Starpoint Solutions.

“We are very excited to add Sweta to the Monroe Capital team,” Ted Koenig, president and CEO of Monroe Capital, said. “Sweta has an accomplished career of over 18 years of experience in alternative investments focusing on business strategy. She brings with her many relationships and experience across the globe working with firms’ strategic efforts and new product development.

“For the past 18 years, our core investment efforts have always been, and continue to be, focused on the U.S. lower middle market, targeting companies with $35 million or less of EBITDA. We have been fortunate to expand our efforts in areas such as healthcare, software, technology, fintech, real estate, litigation finance and structured credit, among others. We look forward to Monroe Capital’s continued growth as we seek to find new and attractive adjacencies in direct lending where we can continue to generate ‘alpha’ for our limited partners and other investors.”