Scott Macklin was appointed head of U.S. leveraged finance at Obra Capital, an asset management firm with a specialized approach to alternative investing. In this role, Macklin will be responsible for managing Obra’s CLO management platform, including driving investment strategy and portfolio construction, deal sourcing and execution, risk management and market research. Macklin will be based in New York and report to Peter Polanskyj, head of structured credit.
Macklin brings more than 27 years of experience to the firm. Most recently, Macklin served as senior vice president, director of leveraged loans for AllianceBernstein, where he initiated, structured and acted as the sole portfolio manager of the firm’s broadly syndicated loan and CLO management business. Under Macklin’s leadership, the broadly syndicated loan and CLO business was recognized for its market leadership across several key categories.
Macklin’s new role with Obra is the latest in a series of significant milestones in the development of Obra’s fundamental credit capabilities. The Obra Institutional Credit team, formed after Obra’s acquisition of the 16 employee KDP team, brought decades of extensive public high-yield and leveraged loan market knowledge and experience to the firm. This team, along with Obra’s expertise in diversified asset management, will provide the critical research and analysis functions, and the portfolio management infrastructure, to support the growth of Obra’s CLO management platform as well as other initiatives in the leveraged finance space.
In addition, in early December, Obra advised funds committed subordinated capital to a novel structure which will provide users with an alternative path to source capacity through alternative letters of credit (ALOC). Obra, in partnership with insurance program design specialists, top-tier banks and insurance companies, closed on an initial diverse portfolio of ALOCs. The consortium, led by Obra Capital Management, acting as investment manager, will seek to actively grow the portfolio in a process that will continue to rely on Obra’s credit underwriting.
“We’re thrilled to have Scott joining our team to focus on managing CLO portfolios – a core part of our structured credit business,” Blair Wallace, president and CEO of Obra, said. “His expertise and extensive background in the credit markets is a huge asset to the firm as we continue to operate in the space and deliver investment solutions to our clients.”
“We believe that the portfolio management style that Scott has demonstrated in his stewardship of CLO portfolios historically, combined with the multiple decades of experience in defensive fundamental credit underwriting that our analyst team has, will result in a highly complementary investment process and is something that we expect will allow us to provide an attractive offering in the CLO market,” Peter Polanskyj, Head of Structured Credit at Obra, said. “Scott, Blair, and I, have a long history working together, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to collaborate with him again.”
“Obra is a firm with a unique strategy, combining multi-dimensional underwriting and risk assessment processes to create value with a focus on mitigating downside risk,” Macklin said. “I’m excited to join the firm and contribute my experience to lead our CLO portfolio management alongside this impressive team.”
Prior to AllianceBernstein, Macklin was the director of research for performing credit and a member of the portfolio committee for CLO investments at Och-Ziff Capital Management. Earlier in his career, Macklin held senior roles at Scoggin Capital Management and Marathon Asset Management, and he began his career at Lehman Brothers.
