Stellus Capital Management, a provider of middle-market direct lending, hired Bill Haverland as principal and Casey Carroll as vice president of investor relations.

“With their many years of credit, private equity and investment banking experience, we are very pleased to have Bill and Casey join the Firm,” Robert T. Ladd, managing partner at Stellus, said. “Bill and Casey will provide our private equity clients and investors the high caliber support that is the hallmark of Stellus Capital.”

Haverland, who will be focused on building private equity relationships in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, brings more than 10 years of credit and investment banking experience to Stellus. Most recently, he served as an executive director in Fifth Third Bank’s technology, media, and telecom group, where he focused on private equity coverage from 2017 to 2022 and was a member of the investment banking team responsible for originating and executing M&A transactions.

Carroll joins Stellus with more than 10 years of investor relations and fundraising experience. Most recently, Carroll was the vice president of investor relations at Comvest Partners, where he was involved in all aspects of IR with a focus on institutional fundraising for the firm’s private credit and private equity strategies. Prior to that, he was a senior vice president of production and development at Straight Up Films in Los Angeles, involved in fundraising, financial structuring and production for the firm’s slate of films.