Owl Rock Capital hired Jesse Huff, formerly of Oaktree Capital Management, and expanded the role of Nicole Drapkin, managing director at Owl Rock, who together will serve as co-heads of the firm’s opportunistic investing strategy.
Huff most recently served as a managing director and member of Oaktree’s strategic credit platform, where he focused on opportunistic credit starting in 2014. Prior to Oaktree, Huff was the global head of distressed debt trading and sourcing at The Carlyle Group. He joined Carlyle following a 12-year career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he held a variety of positions across the risk arbitrage and financials and special situations divisions.
Drapkin will take on her new role after playing a leadership role in building Owl Rock since its inception nearly five years ago. In her time at Owl Rock, she has helped design and implement the investment framework and process that has enabled the firm’s growth and has been responsible for originating, researching, diligencing and structuring investments. Prior to Owl Rock, Nicole was a principal in the principal credit investments group at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board focused on sourcing and evaluating credit investments. Prior to that, Drapkin was with Goldman Sachs.
“We are thrilled to have two such talented, experienced and committed professionals leading our opportunistic investing efforts,” Douglas Ostrover, Marc Lipschultz and Craig Packer, co-founders of Owl Rock Capital Partners, said in a joint statement. “Nicole and Jesse have the right mix of expertise and experience to capitalize on compelling investment opportunities while providing an even more comprehensive suite of capital solutions to borrowers and financial sponsors. We look forward to working closely with them both as they drive this key area for Owl Rock. We had long ago identified opportunistic investing as an important element of our long-term vision of the firm and the current market conditions make it especially attractive and relevant today.”
Owl Rock Capital is a New York-based direct lending platform with approximately $17.3 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2020.
