All Categories: Corporate Finance

Kirk Hovde

Kirk structures, underwrites, negotiates, and manages investments for NXT Capital’s Direct Lending Group.

Kirk has over 10 years of leveraged finance experience. Before joining NXT Capital in 2012, Kirk performed financial due diligence for private equity transactions in PwC’s transaction services group. Kirk began his career at Deloitte in their audit practice.

Kirk earned a B.B.A. and a Master’s in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Steven Young

Steven structures, underwrites, negotiates and manages investments for NXT Capital’s Direct Lending Group.

Steven has over 8 years of leveraged finance experience. Prior to joining NXT Capital in 2014, Steven began his career at Deloitte in their audit practice.

Steven earned a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Miami University. He also holds a CFA® charter.

Jeff White

Jeff structures, underwrites, negotiates and manages investments for NXT Capital’s Direct Lending Group.

Jeff has over 8 years of leveraged finance experience. Prior to joining NXT Capital in 2014, Jeff began his career at Ernst & Young working in their audit and transaction services practices.

Jeff earned a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Miami University.

Karl Liebenauer

Karl is a member of NXT Capital’s Direct Lending Group, where he is responsible for managing challenged investments.

Karl brings over a decade of finance experience to NXT Capital, both in the direct lending space and in private equity and investment banking. His experience includes work at Antares Capital, Primus Capital, and UBS Investment Bank.

Karl earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, with majors in finance and philosophy, from the University of Notre Dame.

Joseph Levenstein

Joseph is a member of NXT Capital’s Direct Lending Group, where he is responsible for managing challenged investments.

Joseph brings over 12 years of finance experience to NXT Capital. Prior to joining NXT Capital, Joseph was a member of GE Antares Restructuring Group, where he managed troubled and high-profile investments. Joseph began his career at General Electric where he completed the Financial Management Program (FMP) and Corporate Audit Staff (CAS) leadership development programs.

Joseph earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Connecticut.

Cary Verasco

Cary focuses on loan originations and managing private equity sponsor relationships.

Cary brings 15 years of investment banking and leveraged finance experience to NXT Capital. His most recent role was as a Senior Vice President in the Financial Sponsors Group at Jefferies LLC, where he served as coverage officer for a broad range of private equity clients, focusing on relationship management and expansion, transaction origination and execution. Prior to that, he held a number of roles at Jefferies LLC, including Vice President in the Financial Sponsors Group, Vice President in the Leveraged Finance Group and several other positions within the Investment Banking Division.

Cary earned a B.B.A. with distinction from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Garett Gilles

Garett focuses on building and maintaining NXT Capital’s relationships with private equity sponsors. He originates and structures cash flow loan transactions.

Garett brings 18 years of commercial finance experience to NXT Capital, including 7 years at GE Antares Capital and Merrill Lynch Capital, where he executed and managed cash flow loan transactions for middle-market private equity sponsors.  Prior to that, he worked in commercial banking at LaSalle Bank.

Garett earned a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Wisconsin and an M.B.A. in Finance and Management Strategy from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Joseph Lazewski

Joe serves as Co-Head and Senior Managing Director of NXT Capital and Senior Vice President of NXT Capital Investment Advisers, LLC.

Joe is jointly responsible for setting the strategic direction and overseeing all aspects of NXT Capital’s middle market private debt strategy. He supervises and manages all risk-related activities in the Direct Lending Group. His responsibilities include overseeing evaluation; structuring, diligence and closing new transactions; portfolio management, account monitoring and reporting; maintenance and compliance with NXT Capital’s Policies and Procedures; and restructuring activity. Joe also is a member of NXT Capital’s Credit and Investment Committees.

Joe has over 20 years of middle market leveraged lending experience, having held positions that include client relationship development and new business origination, transaction structuring and underwriting, negotiating and closing transactions, ongoing portfolio management and distressed debt evaluation and acquisition. Joe’s middle market lending experience also includes working at Merrill Lynch Capital and Heller Financial, as well as Golub Capital and LaSalle Bank.

Joe earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Valparaiso University and an M.B.A in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is a CFA® charterholder.

Heath Fuller

Heath oversees NXT Capital’s capital markets activities, with an emphasis on structuring and syndicating financing transactions. Heath is also responsible for managing relationships with other leveraged lending institutions and gathering and analyzing market intelligence. In addition, Heath originates lending opportunities from other arrangers and intermediaries.

Heath brings 25 years of capital markets and leveraged lending experience to NXT Capital. Prior to joining NXT Capital, Heath formed Golub Capital’s loan syndication function and team. Previously, he was a Director of Capital Markets at Merrill Lynch Capital responsible for structuring and syndicating transactions originating in the Western, Midwest and Northeastern U.S. Heath’s experience also includes capital markets positions with Antares Capital Corporation, Heller Financial and GE Capital, as well as roles at vCapital, Inc. and State Farm Insurance.

Heath earned a B.A. in Finance from Michigan State University and an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Ted Denniston

Ted serves as Co-Head and Senior Managing Director of NXT Capital and Head of Originations.

Ted is jointly responsible for setting the strategic direction and overseeing all aspects of NXT Capital’s middle market private debt strategy. Ted and his team are responsible for originating and closing new transactions, as well as maintaining relationships with private equity clients in the U.S. Ted also is a member of NXT Capital’s Credit and Investment Committees.

Ted has over 25 years of experience in credit, originations, and portfolio management. Before joining NXT Capital, he was a Director at Merrill Lynch Capital, where he was responsible for sourcing, closing, and managing transactions with private equity firms in the Northeast U.S. Ted also spent nine years in a variety of roles at Transamerica Commercial Finance.

Ted studied Business Administration at Emporia State University.