All Sectors: Originations

Mitchell Gruesen

Mitchell originates, underwrites, and manages investments as a member of NXT Capital’s dedicated healthcare team.

Mitchell has nearly 15 years of direct lending experience in the healthcare sector. Prior to joining NXT Capital in 2022, Mitchell held senior underwriting roles on healthcare corporate finance teams at Bank of Ireland and Ally Corporate Finance. Mitchell began his career at Fifth Third Bank as a credit analyst in the Healthcare Financial Sponsors Group.

Mitchell earned a B.B.A. from the Max M. Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.

Cary Verasco

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

Cary brings over 18 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 brings over 20 years of commercial finance experience to NXT Capital and focuses on building and maintaining NXT Capital’s relationships with middle market private equity sponsors located primarily in the Midwest and West regions. His responsibilities include originating, structuring and closing of private credit transactions.

Prior to NXT Capital, Garett was at GE Antares Capital and Merrill Lynch Capital, where he executed and managed cash flow loan transactions for middle-market private equity sponsors. He started his career 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.

Heath Fuller

Heath has been a member of the NXT Capital team since inception, overseeing NXT’s capital markets activities, with an emphasis on structuring transactions. He maintains relationships with other private credit managers and gathers and analyzes market intelligence. Heath also is a member of NXT Capital’s Credit and Investment Committees and plays a leading role in fundraising initiatives, fund development and managing NXT’s investor relationships.

Heath brings over 28 years of capital markets and direct lending experience to NXT Capital. Prior to joining NXT Capital, Heath held senior Capital Markets positions with leading middle market lending platforms including GE Capital, Heller Financial, Antares Capital and Merrill Lynch Capital.

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.

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 30 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.

Kal Kilgast

Kal serves as Co-Head of Sponsor Coverage at NXT Capital. In this role, he is responsible for co-leading the team that originates, structures, underwrites, and closes new transactions, as well as overseeing the ongoing monitoring of the originated loan portfolio. The team manages relationships with private equity sponsors across the U.S. In addition, he plays an active role in the strategic planning and broader marketing efforts of the Direct Lending Group. Kal is also a member of NXT Capital’s Credit and Investment Committees.

Kal brings over 25 years of corporate finance, lending, and private equity experience to NXT Capital. Prior to joining NXT Capital, Kal was a Director at Merrill Lynch Capital, where he originated, underwrote, and managed cash flow and asset-based financings for clients in the West and Midwest regions.

His experience also includes roles at middle-market private equity firm Ridge Capital Partners and Heller Financial’s Asset Based and Corporate Finance groups, as well as at Arthur Andersen and Newark Electronics.

Kal earned a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Stuart Smartt

Stuart leads NXT Capital’s healthcare financing activities. With the support of a dedicated healthcare team, Stuart partners with private equity sponsors and middle market companies to support growth needs across all sectors of the healthcare industry.

Stuart brings over 25 years of expertise to NXT Capital. He was a director in CIT’s Healthcare group, where he originated, syndicated, and led senior secured credit facilities for middle-market healthcare companies.

Prior to joining CIT, Stuart was a vice president for GE Capital’s Healthcare Financial Services group. He also held a number of additional roles at GE, including Manager of Finance, Associate Auditor for the Corporate Audit Staff and Financial Analyst in the company’s Financial Management Program.

Stuart earned a B.S. cum laude in Business and French from Wake Forest University and an M.B.A. with honors from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.

Scott Gast

Scott serves as Co-Head of Sponsor Coverage at NXT Capital. In this role, he is responsible for co-leading the team that originates, underwrites, structures, and closes new transactions, as well as as well as overseeing the ongoing monitoring of the originated loan portfolio. The team manages relationships with private equity sponsors across the U.S. In addition, he plays an active role in the strategic planning and broader marketing efforts of the Direct Lending Group. Scott is also a member of NXT Capital’s Credit and Investment Committees.

Scott brings 30 years of middle market direct lending experience to NXT Capital, with deep expertise across manufacturing and distribution, business services, and recurring-revenue sectors.

Before joining NXT Capital, Scott was a Director at Merrill Lynch Capital, where he originated, underwrote, and managed cash flow and asset-based financings. He also held key roles in Heller Financial’s Corporate Finance Group, where he led transactions across Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, and Canada. Earlier in his career, Scott worked as an audit senior at Ernst & Young.

Scott earned a B.A. in Accounting from the University of Northern Iowa.

Jeff Kurtzweil

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

Jeff brings over 25 years of risk management discipline to NXT Capital. Prior to joining NXT Capital, Jeff was a Vice President in the GE Antares/Ares Capital Senior Secured Loan Program (SSLP) joint venture. While with the SSLP, Jeff’s role included structuring senior secured unitranche solutions to support sponsors’ acquisitions of new platforms or expansion of existing portfolio companies.

Jeff earned a B.A. in Finance and Statistics from Miami University of Ohio.