New York, NY – The International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers announced today it has elected Mark Hughes Chair of the Association and Sean Kavanagh Vice Chair. Mr. Hughes is COO and Head of Global Credit at RBC Capital Markets. Mr. Kavanagh is Managing Director and Global Head of the Loan Exposure Management Group at Deutsche Bank.
Continuing as officers for the remainder of 2009, Vipin Ramani, Senior Vice President at the Bank of America, will remain Treasurer and Tamar Joulia, Head of ING’s Credit Portfolio Group, will stay on as Secretary of the Association. Also, joining the Board for the first time are Lori Evangel of MetLife and Sarah Cheriton of Sumitomo-Mitsui Banking Corp.
“I’m honored to be elected chair at this critically important time,” commented Mr. Hughes. “The global credit markets continue to undergo unprecedented turmoil and the Association, along with its members, is playing an extremely important role in helping the credit markets and our institutions navigate these difficult times.”
The IACPM remains focused this year on continuing to identify potential risks in the credit markets and developing sound practices for dealing with them. Committee discussions are focusing on critical topics, such as bankruptcy, counterparty risk, the development of central clearinghouses for credit default swaps and the ongoing need to create greater transparency. The IACPM is also meeting with regulators globally and is developing industry wide standard practices and procedures which risk managers can adopt and implement in their own institutions.
“Our members depend upon well functioning markets,” said Som-lok Leung, Executive Director of the IACPM. “We are working hard this year to ensure any new regulation which may be established, as well the development of sound practices, enable the markets to work more effectively and transparently for the benefit of all participants.”
The Association’s new Chair, Mark Hughes, is based in Toronto, Canada where he serves as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Global Credit for RBC Capital Markets. In his capacity as COO, Mr. Hughes is in charge of global administrative, operational and functional matters for the firm. In his role as Head of Global Credit, Mr. Hughes is responsible for RBC’s global wholesale loan portfolio. Mr. Hughes received his MBA from Manchester Business School, his LLB from Leeds University in England and has been with RBC since 1981.
New Vice Chair Sean Kavanagh is responsible for pricing, managing and actively distributing credit risk in his role as Global Head of the Loan Exposure Management Group at Deutsche Bank. Mr. Kavanagh is based in New York. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, he ran the Credit Trading and Execution function in North America for JP Morgan. Mr. Kavanagh received a Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University.
Rounding out the 2009 Board, the other directors are Jeffrey R. Bohn, of Standard Chartered, Steven Buck, Standard Bank of South Africa, Michael El Hadj, JP Morgan, Alban Fauchere, Swiss Re, Masahiro Hosomi, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ed Kyritz, Barclays Capital, Rene Mouchotte, Calyon, Kevin Starrett, Citigroup and Jeffery J. Weaver, KeyCorp.
About IACPM
The IACPM, with over 80 member institutions located in 16 countries, is a professional association dedicated to the advancement of credit portfolio management. Founded in 2001, the organization’s programs of meetings, studies, research and collaboration are designed to increase awareness of the value and function of credit portfolio management among financial markets worldwide, and to discuss and resolve issues of common interest to its members.