Thomas Vannatta // Exectutive Director • Senior Portfolio Manager
- 28 Years Experience / 16 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX, Thomas Vannatta was a Executive Director at Brightwater Capital, where he served as an Investment Committee member specializing in Asset Backed Securities, and performerd credit analysis and modeling at asset specific and portfolio levels.
- Prior to joining Brightwater, Mr. Vannatta was an ABS analyst in the Global Financial Markets Portfolio Management Unit of WestLB. His responsibilities included management of CDO’s, Bank Balance Sheet, and Security Arbitrage Conduits.
- Mr. Vannatta joined WestLB in 1999 as a member of the Financial Group as part of a team that analyzed new product proposals related to structured credit businesses, including daily risk attribution reporting.
- Prior to joining WestLB, Mr. Vannatta was an associate of the Prudential Insurance Company working in the Pension and Insurance group.
- He began his career working at Bloomberg Financial Markets as part of the quality control group, responsible for all ABS, MBS and structured credit functionality.
- Mr. Vannatta holds a B.S. in Accounting from William Patterson University
Frederick H. Taylor // Managing Director • Head of Research
- 44 Years Experience / 17 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX, Fred Taylor was a Senior Research Analyst for Lord Abbett & Co. covering high yield.
- Mr. Taylor has extensive experience in the high yield market, beginning in the late 1980’s as a Senior High Yield Analyst at Salomon Brothers where he was named an Institutional Investor All-American.
- Following 10 years at Salomon Brothers, Mr. Taylor has had several senior high yield positions including Head of High Yield Research at Schroders and Company, Global Head of High Yield Research for Barclays Capital and Head of High Yield Research at Fleet Security until 2004.
- He began his career as a Relationship Manager at Bank of America.
- Mr. Taylor received his BS in Economics from Guilford College and his MBA in Finance from Boston College Graduate School of Management.
Kenneth G. Ostmann // Managing Director
- 31 Years Experience / 20 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX in November 2003, Kenneth Ostmann was a Portfolio Manager for Barclays. He joined Barclays in January 2002. Prior to that, Mr. Ostmann was a Vice President for the Private Securities unit of Alliance Capital where he was responsible for investments in private placement transactions and leveraged loans for high yield and CDO vehicles. He also managed a portfolio of investments in the aerospace/defense and transportation sectors.
- Prior to joining Alliance, Mr. Ostmann worked with Mr. Christensen at Citibank as part of the portfolio management team.
- A former Naval Flight Officer and U.S. Navy veteran, Mr. Ostmann received his B.S. in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA in Finance from the Yale School of Management.
David F. Harrington // Managing Director
- 45 Years Experience / 16 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX, Mr. Harrington was a Managing Director at Brightwater Capital Management, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor. Brightwater specialized in the management of diversified structured finance securities including residential and commercial MBS, consumer and commercial ABS, CLOs and other securitized products. Brightwater’s combined Assets Under Management totaled approximately $35 billion which included $2 billion of U.S. broadly syndicated leverage loans and investment grade corporate bonds.
- Prior to joining Brightwater, Mr. Harrington was Managing Director of ING Barings (US) Capital LLC, and was responsible for investing, trading, hedging and funding requirements of a $2 billion commercial paper conduit program comprised of diversified RMBS, CMBS and ABS securities. David also managed two term-funded structures that totaled approximately $908 million of AUM. One structure included investment grade corporates only while the other contained a diversified portfolio of RMBS, CMBS and ABS securities.
- Prior to joining ING/BBL in 1993, Mr. Harrington spent twelve years in the leveraged leasing business primarily with Bank of America. Mr. Harrington began his career at Price Waterhouse in the Audit Group.
- Mr. Harrington is a Certified Public Accountant and a graduate of Yale University with a B.A. in History.
Atha Baugh // Managing Director
- 28 Years Experience / 19 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX in August 2004, Atha Baugh was a Vice President/Bank Debt Analyst in the Leverage Finance group of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). As an analyst at CSFB, Mr. Baugh was responsible for credit research on actively traded bank debt. In addition, he was responsible for the credit review of clients’ assets included in CDO/CLO warehouse vehicles. Prior to CSFB, Mr. Baugh was a Bank Debt and Distressed Debt research analyst for Barclays Capital’s Syndicated Loan Group (July 1997 through December 1998)
- Mr. Baugh began his research career at Citicorp Securities where he completed rotations in the Syndicated Loan and High-Yield Research Groups from 1994 to 1997. During his career Mr. Baugh has covered numerous industries including Chemicals, Steel, Auto Suppliers, Healthcare, Restaurants and Hotels. Other experiences include Senior Auditor at the First National Bank of Chicago where his responsibilities included leading internal audits of acquired banks
- Mr. Baugh graduated from Morehouse College earning a Bachelor of Arts with a Concentration in Accounting and Clark Atlanta University with a MBA in Finance
Simon Yuan // Managing Director
- 21 Years Experience / 21 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX in January 2004, Simon Yuan worked as a financial analyst at AXA Financial, LLC. He joined AXA in 2002 where he used statisical models to analyze historical trends and develop forecasts. Along with a team of senior financial analysts, Mr. Yuan assisted in constructing hypothetical illustrations for various client portfolios.
- Mr. Yuan graduated from New York University with a BA in Economics and Psychology and attended Cornell Johnson GSB for his MBA.
Lex Ng To // Managing Director
- 18 Years Experience / 18 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX, Lex Ng To was a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley.
- Mr. To received his BS from NYU Stern School of Business and attended Columbia University where he received his MBA.
Timothy S. Farrell, CFA // Managing Director
- 13 Years Experience / 13 at MJX
- Mr. Farrell joined MJX in 2010
- Mr. Farrell holds a B.S. in Finance from Villanova University.
- Mr. Farrell received his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2015.
Harold S. Holappa, II // Managing Director
- 35 Years Experience / 16 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX, Harold Holappa was a Managing Director and Global Head of Structuring at TD Securities with stints in both New York and London. He was responsible for the origination and distribution of both synthetic and cash CDOs. Mr. Holappa created, closed and distributed approximately $10 billion of synthetic CDOs including one of the first and largest fully-syndicated, rated transactions (TORUS) and one of the first managed high yield CDOs (TORUS HY). Mr. Holappa also helped establish and integrate a cash CDO origination and distribution business into TD’s derivatives trading infrastructure.
- Prior to joining TD Securities, Mr. Holappa was a Director in CIBC’s Financial Products Group in New York from 1995 to 1997 where he was recruited to establish a credit derivatives business. At CIBC, Mr. Holappa was a frequent speaker at credit derivatives conferences.
- Prior to CIBC, Mr. Holappa spent almost 7 years at Bankers Trust in New York where he was a Vice President and founding member of the world’s first Credit Derivatives Group. Other assignments included Loan Syndications, High Yield Capital Markets, CDOs and Private Equity.
- Mr. Holappa earned an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1990. He earned a BA, magna cum laude, in Mathematical Economics from Colgate University in 1986.
Andrew Burns // Director
- 9 Years Experience / 9 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX, Andrew Burns was a Summer Analyst at Soros Fund Management.
- Mr. Burns holds a BS degree in Finance from Fordham University.
Casey Lynch // Director
- 8 Years Experience / 6 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX, Casey Lynch was an Associate Analyst at Moody’s Investor Service.
- Ms. Lynch holds a BS degree in Finance from Tulane University.
Josh Benjamin // Director
- 18 Years Experience / 10 at MJX
- Prior to joining MJX, Josh Benjamin was a Summer Analyst, Commodity Derivatives at Wells Fargo.
- Mr. Benjamin graduated from Washington and Lee University with a BA in Business Administration and Management.
Jason Harty // Vice President
- 17 Years Experience / 17 at MJX
- Jason Harty began his career in Collateralized Loan Obligations at MJX.
- Mr. Harty attended Quinnipiac University – School of Business
