Alex Howell joined Marathon Asset Management, a global credit investment manager, as a senior managing director and head of European alternative credit, responsible for leading public investments, corporate capital solutions, special situations and direct lending in Europe. In addition, Howell becomes a member of the firm’s investment committee.

Howell joins Marathon after almost 11 years at Blackstone Credit and GSO Capital, where he made numerous investments across the capital structure in its public and private credit strategies. In that time, Howell’s roles included leading the UK geography for Blackstone’s private credit strategies across direct lending, capital opportunities and capital solutions. He most recently served as head of opportunistic credit and capital markets for Europe and APAC. Before joining Blackstone, Howell worked at Lehman Brothers and Nomura in mergers and acquisitions and then in fixed income analyzing investments on the firms’ credit trading desks.

“As Marathon grows its corporate credit business in Europe, Alex’s experience investing across the capital structure in private and public credit, combined with his deep relationships in the advisory, sponsor and banking communities, make him a valuable addition to our leadership team,” Bruce Richards, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Marathon, said. “Our core focus is generating alpha for our clients through differentiated investment opportunities and solutions. Alex’s hiring further demonstrates our commitment to that focus.”

“I’m excited to join Marathon to help grow the firm’s European business and reinforce its position as a leading global credit manager,” Howell said. “The firm’s ability to generate alpha across corporate, asset backed and structured credit, combined with its sector expertise in areas such as real estate and life sciences, enable us to offer a suite of creative public and private credit solutions for corporates and sponsors alike.”