19th Annual High Yield Bond Conference

DATE:
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

TIME:
8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

LOCATION:
NYSSA
1177 Avenue of the Americas, 2nd Floor
(between 45th and 46th Streets), NYC (Directions)
Photo ID required for access to the building.

REGISTRATION/FEES:
Early Registration by May 28
$315 Members | $495 Nonmembers
Registration May 29 to June 4
$385 Members | $565 Nonmembers
After June 4
$435 Members | $615 Nonmembers

CREDITS:
6 CE/CPE

Sponsor

Media Partners

Chair

Martin Fridson, CFA, Fridson Investment Advisors

8:30

Check-in and Continental Breakfast

9:00

Welcome and Opening Remarks
Martin Fridson, CFA, Chief Executive Officer, Fridson Investment Advisors

9:10

Market Overview  
Rene Robert, President, Advantage Data Inc. (ADI)
Michael Franklin Brown, Head of Research, Advantage Data Inc. (ADI)

Default/Recovery Outlook
Mariarosa Verde, Managing Director and Head of Credit Market Research, Fitch Ratings

10:30

Coffee Break

10:45

Buyside Panel 
Kevin R. Lorenz, CFA, Managing Director, TIAA/CREF
Kenneth J. Monaghan, Partner, Portfolio Manager, and Head of High Yield Credit, Rogge Global Partners Plc
Sharyl Van Winkle, CFA, Portfolio Manager and Founding Member, Independence United Capital

11:45

Active Management Innovations 
Martin Fridson, CFA, Chief Executive Officer, Fridson Investment Advisors

Washington Perspective on the Credit Crisis
John Tamny, Editor, Real Clear Markets

New Issue Market 
James P. Casey, Managing Director and Co-Head of Syndicated and Leveraged Finance, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.

4:30

Concluding Remarks 
Martin Fridson, CFA, Chief Executive Officer, Fridson Investment Advisors

Michael F. Brown is currently head of research at Advantage Data Inc. (ADI). He leads research and analytical support for ADI’s comprehensive database on fixed-income instruments, and heads up publication of daily research reports and commentary for high-yield and high-grade bonds. He is also involved in the product development of tools for analyzing fixed-income securities and equities. Before joining ADI in 2004, Brown worked as assistant vice president and quantitative analyst for State Street Corporation. At State Street Global Advisors, he was involved in mathematical modeling and analysis of the FX market. Later, he provided signals for real-dollar FX positions on the trading floor of SSGM (State Street Global Markets), and contributed to a weekly newsletter on world economics. He has published papers in mathematical finance, analysis, and forecasting, preceded by papers in theoretical and applied physics. Brown holds degrees from Harvard University, The University of Virginia, and The University of California.

James P. Casey has 20 years of high yield experience and has completed over 400 debt transactions. His experience includes high yield new issuance for acquisitions, refinancings, recapitalizations and general corporate purposes. He also has extensive experience with debt tenders and debt restructurings. Casey has completed transactions in the following business sectors: business services, manufacturing, distribution, insurance, food, retail, apparel, transportation, healthcare, media, telecommunications, lodging, real estate, consumer products, technology, oil and gas and financial institutions. He began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert and joined JP Morgan Chase from CS First Boston. Casey holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS from Bentley College.

Adam B. Cohen founded Covenant Review in November 2005 as the world’s first boutique research firm focused on corporate bond covenants. He was previously a corporate finance attorney with Latham & Watkins and an investment banker for Lehman Brothers. At Latham, he represented both investment banks and sponsor-backed issuers on dozens of high yield debt and equity offerings for significant transactions that included Calpine, Magnachip Semiconductors, and XM Satellite Radio. Cohen was one of seven contributors to the American Bar Association’s Model Negotiated Covenants Project and is on the executive committee of the Credit Roundtable where he was instrumental in the development of the “White Paper” for model covenants for the investment grade universe. He has been quoted and/or published in publications such as Barron’s, Bloomberg, and Credit Investment News, and he regularly lectures on covenant issues. Cohen graduated from the University of Florida in 1993 and from Georgetown University Law School cum laude in 1997, having been elected to the Georgetown Law Journal.

Martin Fridson is chief executive officer of Fridson Investment Advisors, a research-driven investment management firm specializing in corporate credit opportunities. Fridson has enjoyed an award-winning 25-year career with brokerage firms including Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch, where he became known for his innovative work in credit analysis and investment strategy. Fridson left Merrill to form FridsonVision, LLC., the first independent research company to focus on high yield strategy. Fridson is the author of six widely acclaimed books. Fridson received his BA cum laude in history from Harvard College and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He has served as president of the Fixed Income Analysts Society, governor of the Association for Investment Management and Research (now CFA Institute), and director of the New York Society of Security Analysts. The Financial Management Association International named Fridson the Financial Executive of the Year in 2002. Also in 2000, Fridson became the youngest person ever inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame.

Kevin R. Lorenz, CFA, is a high yield portfolio manager at TIAA-CREF. He began investing in high yield in 1987 as a private placement generalist. He is a founding member of TIAA-CREF’s High Yield team which currently has approximately $3 billion under management including a high yield mutual fund which has a five-star rating from Morningstar. He holds a BS in accounting from Rider University and an MBA in finance from Indiana University. Lorenz is a member of the CFA Institute and the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Anders Maxwell is a managing director focusing on corporate restructuring and strategic sales. Joining PJSC in 1999, Maxwell has led a number of advisory assignments including representing the shareholders of Mirant Corporation in the bankruptcy reorganization of this $12 billion independent power company; Payless Cashways, in the company’s bankruptcy as the fourth largest distributor of building products; Tokyo Electric Power Company, in its purchase of Mirant Philippines; and many others. During a 14-year career with GE Capital, he was vice president of corporate finance and vice president and general manager of GE’s Equity Capital Group. As managing director at Dean Witter Reynolds, Maxwell was in charge of leasing and project finance and the reorganization of two major partnerships: EPIC Mortgage and Zond Systems, Inc. In addition, he held high yield sales and trading positions at Kidder Peabody & Co., Salomon Smith Barney and Lazard Frères. Maxwell earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Architecture with honors from the University of California.

Steven Miller manages the Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentary & Data business (LCD). In his role at S&P, Miller frequently speaks on leveraged-finance topics at industry conferences and client events. He also writes market commentary for LCD’s various publications as well as numerous outside journals, including The Deal, to which he regularly contributes. In addition, he has commented on the leveraged-finance market on NPR, CNBC and Bloomberg. Miller has been involved in developing leveraged market information products since 1990, when he joined Loan Pricing Corporation (LPC) as a secondary reporter. At LPC, Miller was instrumental in the creation of the Gold Sheets, the Goldman Sachs/LPC Loan Index and early efforts to collect and publish secondary loan prices. After leaving LPC in 1995, Miller worked briefly at Chemical Bank and Bankers Trust. Then, in 1996, he co-founded Portfolio Management Data LLC (PMD), a firm that pioneered statistical analysis for the leveraged loan market. In 2000, Standard & Poor’s acquired PMD, which has since been rebranded Standard & Poor’s LCD. Separate from his work at S&P, Miller was a founding shareholder in and advisor to, LoanX, a firm that was later acquired by Markit Partners and, in 2006, became a founding shareholder and chairman of the board for Black Mountain Systems LLC.

John J. Monaghan is the national practice group leader of the Holland & Knight’s Corporate Restructuring, Insolvency and Creditors’ Rights Practice Group. Monaghan is particularly focused on representing major case participants in complex commercial Chapter 11 cases. His extensive bankruptcy practice has involved representation of a wide range of clients, including Chapter 11 debtors, creditors’ committees, equity committees, lenders, purchasers of assets, landlords, licensors, trustees, parties to prepetition contracts and leases, defendants in adversary proceedings and unsecured creditors. His experience crosses a broad array of industries, including finance, leasing, manufacturing, real estate, technology, telecommunications, retail, health care, resort and hospitality, franchise, food service and the airline industry. He advises clients on the business aspects of bankruptcy and workouts, and represents clients in matters in the Bankruptcy Court as well as in other state and federal courts.

Kenneth J. Monaghan heads Rogge’s high yield effort. Prior to joining Rogge, Monaghan was the co-founder of the high yield group at ING Ghent Asset Management LLC and its predecessor firm, which he joined in 1995. Monaghan joined Salomon Brothers in 1983 as a high yield credit analyst before becoming head of high yield research, moved to Salomon’s London office in 1986 to establish a high yield credit department in Europe and then returned to Salomon’s New York office in 1991 to spearhead the distressed research effort. In 1993, he joined the high yield institutional sales team. Before joining Salomon, Monaghan was a credit analyst at Lord, Abbett & Co. He received a BA from Colgate University and MPA and MBA from New York University.

Rene L. Robert is president and founder of Advantage Data Inc., a financial information company founded in 1997. Advantage Data collects bond, credit default swap, loan and equity information from 400 sources worldwide and provides a web-based analytical product to bond traders, salespeople, risk managers, portfolio managers and other market participants in 15 countries. Prior to founding Advantage Data, Robert was in high yield research and high yield capital markets at BancBoston Securities, which was later acquired by Fleet and Bank of America. Robert has been active in the corporate bond market for the past 15 years. He also co-founded Cornell Software, later renamed Micah Development and now Full Armor Corporation. FullArmor delivers to Fortune 1000 firms innovative, leading-edge solutions that extend the native capabilities of Microsoft’s virtualization, cloud and security technologies. Robert received his BS from Cornell University and MBA from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

John Tamny is a senior economic adviser to both Toreador Research & Trading and H.C. Wainwright Economics. He’s also editor of RealClearMarkets.com (RCM) which seeks to compile top-quality information and opinion about the stock markets and global economy. Tamny frequently writes about the securities markets, along with tax, trade and monetary policy issues that impact those markets for a variety of publications including Investor’s Business Daily, Financial Times, National Review and London’s Daily Telegraph. He’s also a frequent guest on the Fox News and Business Channels, the Glenn Beck Show and CNBC’s Kudlow & Co. Prior to his present work, Tamny worked at the Cato Institute, and before that in private wealth management for Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. He received a BA in government from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MBA from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.

Sharyl Van Winkle, CFA, is the founder and portfolio manager of Pythoness Fund, a broadly market neutral fund investing in the securities (80% bonds, 20% equities) of highly leveraged companies. Prior to founding Pythoness Fund LP in 2004, she worked her entire career in securities research at firms widely considered to be “research houses.” She was a director in the high yield research department of Merrill Lynch, where she worked for 14 years. Prior to that, she rated and analyzed bonds at McCarthy, Crisanti and Maffei (now part of Duff and Phelps) and covered equities at L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin. She was an Institutional Investor ranked analyst 10 times in 8 years (due to rankings in multiple industries). She holds the CFA designation, and has a BA in economics from Stanford and an MBA in finance from Wharton.

Mariarosa Verde is a managing director and head of credit market research at Fitch Ratings. Her responsibilities include examining rating and credit quality trends, conducting default and recovery studies, and commenting on developments in the loan and bond markets. Verde has published articles on default risk and other credit topics in professional magazines and books. Prior to joining Fitch in 1998, Verde worked as a high yield analyst at the Chase Manhattan Bank. She earned a BS and an MBA, magna cum laude, in finance and economics from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She was elected an NYU Scholar and a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. Verde is a board member of the Fixed Income Analyst Society.