What initially attracted you to join Siepe as an Advisor in October 2023? Can you tell us about your role and how this has evolved since you became President.
I’ve known Michael for a long time, dating back to when he was a customer as CTO of Highland Capital Management. At the time, I was working in various leadership roles for the Wall Street Office business at JP Morgan, and later, IHS Markit after its acquisition. In 2019, I left the credit and CLO world to run another technology and services business in the Life & Annuity space, but kept in touch with Michael, and remained interested in what he and the team had been up to. It was really refreshing to see the ideas he had brought to life and I felt a natural connection towards the business.
When I joined Siepe as an Advisor last fall, I was interested in helping grow and scale the business. I believed the technology Siepe had developed could offer an enhanced customer experience across the full front-to-back needs of CLO and private credit managers. One of our goals was to further share the story and value that Siepe provides its customers, along with helping find the right capital partner to move faster and drive growth.
For example, many fund managers are still creating a data warehouse to consolidate and attempt to achieve their golden source of data. These tools and capabilities are at the heart of what Siepe does, along with specific functionality needed to cater to the CLO and private credit space. In addition, Siepe has also developed collateral administration and middle office services, with robust technology, expertise and processes that produce higher quality data.
As President, my focus continues to be on how we can scale the business, further bring advancements like these to market, and engage better with our people and customers.
Before Siepe, you spent 19+ years in the WSO business, including serving as SVP and Partner at IHS Market. Can you tell us a bit more about your background and experience?
During my time at IHS Markit, I was heavily involved in the credit and CLO space and held many leadership roles during my time there, including my latest role of running WSO globally. It was quite a fun and challenging journey. When I joined in 2000, WSO was focused on selling software. Over time, the business transitioned into a middle-office service provider, handling much of the administration and operational functions on behalf of managers. Later, we expanded our offerings to offer market and transactional data. Our goal was to partner and handle all of the above, so fund managers could focus on their core functions, such as credit analysis, portfolio management, and investing to drive growth in their own business.
In the years after I left, I saw that little progress in the industry had been made on the technology front. Despite advancements in AI and machine learning, these tools have not been widely adopted to help improve efficiency or reduce costs. The underinvestment and sentiment from the industry around deterioration of service and data quality were all opportunities for an innovative, tech-first company, like Siepe, to step in and lead the way. This was one of the main reasons I was keen to work with Michael and his team (along with the fact that they are talented!)
How has the private credit and CLO industry evolved over the years, and what opportunities does this present?
The broadly syndicated loan market has experienced a long run of growth over the last 20+ years, a trend that continues, along with even more accelerated growth in the private credit arena. In fact, private credit reached $2.1 trillion last year, (according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)). Much of this has been driven by regulatory tightening on bank lending, which has forced borrowers to seek alternative sources of capital outside traditional banking channels. Consequently, more sophisticated BSL and CLO structures have emerged, providing businesses with unique ways to source capital – intensifying the growth in this space.
However, a major challenge in this market remains. There is minimal data transparency and quality across CLO and private credit structures, and the process to manage and make investment decisions is highly manual and disjointed across many workflows and applications – which is slow and expensive.
While the CLO industry has made some progress over the years, there are still material improvements that can be made in both process and technology. In addition, private credit is still very much in its infancy, which presents a significant opportunity to help streamline the whole investment lifecycle and optimize the various functions involved, such as trading, settlement, administration and reporting.
What initiatives excite you the most at Siepe?
Our core end-to-end solution and robust services for private credit, CLO and alternative investment managers are at the top of the list. We can help unlock greater data transparency and provide a single source of truth. This enables our customers to gain new perspectives across the entire investment cycle, including functions that are notoriously difficult to manage, such as reconciliation and cash activity.
I’m also excited by our investment in AI and Machine learning. These technologies present tremendous opportunities to enhance operational efficiency, improve data quality and create valuable insights for managers. By automating data workflows, AI and machine learning can be used to deliver the right information to the right people across an organization.
Overall, Siepe’s modern tech stack, tools and teams are well positioned to help advance the industry. Front-office processes remain highly manual despite the availability of software that helps analysts monitor credits and financials, and update information on companies they’re holding. The same can be applied to compliance and risk reporting of transactions. Companies that successfully digitize these areas will significantly improve data delivery and transparency – making a real impact on their operational performance – and ultimately drive alpha.
What do you think makes Siepe different from other solutions in the market?
Our modern technology, our teams and our ability to act as the glue that brings everything together are big differentiators. As businesses grow organically, many develop fragmented systems that lead to inefficiencies and poor data quality. Often, firms will bolt on solutions to address problems only to create new inefficiencies and challenges down the line. This piecemeal approach also complicates efforts when reassessing and modernizing technology stacks as firms can lack a clear understanding of their data flow.
Siepe provides the full-suite, end-to-end solution that helps firms map and understand their data flow, from trade reconciliation to reporting. This allows them to streamline operations and achieve a single source of truth. By bringing this approach to market, we enable businesses to improve efficiency, reduce complexity, and make more informed decisions based on accurate, reliable data.
What is a fun fact about yourself?
I love to stay active and engaged with my family, whether that’s in the day to day or traveling to fun, exciting places. I try to spend time outdoors, the fresh air recharges my mind, body and soul. One fun fact that you may not know (many years ago, haha) – I was the punter for the Texas Longhorns.
