Dinner & Fireside Chat with Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital

Since the formation of Oaktree in 1995, Mr. Marks has been responsible for ensuring the firm’s adherence to its core investment philosophy; communicating closely with clients concerning products and strategies; and contributing his experience to big-picture decisions relating to investments and corporate direction. From 1985 until 1995, Mr. Marks led the groups at The TCW Group, Inc. that were responsible for investments in distressed debt, high yield bonds, and convertible securities. He was also Chief Investment Officer for Domestic Fixed Income at TCW. Previously, Mr. Marks was with Citicorp Investment Management for 16 years, where from 1978 to 1985 he was Vice President and senior portfolio manager in charge of convertible and high yield securities. Between 1969 and 1978, he was an equity research analyst and, subsequently, Citicorp's Director of Research. Mr. Marks holds a B.S.Ec. degree cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a major in finance and an M.B.A. in accounting and marketing from the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago, where he received the George Hay Brown Prize. He is a CFA® charterholder. Mr. Marks is an Emeritus Trustee and member of the Investment Committee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is a member of the Investment Committee of the Royal Drawing School and is Professor of Practice at King’s Business School (both in London). He serves on the Shanghai International Financial Advisory Council and the Advisory Board of Duke Kunshan University. He is an Emeritus Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, where from 2000 to 2010 he chaired the Investment Board.

Steven Tananbaum is Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of GoldenTree Asset Management, overseeing the firm’s investments across all fund offerings. In addition, Mr. Tananbaum is the Lead Portfolio Manager for the Master Fund and Distressed Fund strategies, as well as a Lead Portfolio Manager for GoldenTree Loan Management and other fixed income oriented strategies. Mr. Tananbaum chairs GoldenTree Asset Management’s Executive Committee and Distressed Committee. Mr. Tananbaum is also a member of GoldenTree’s Private Credit Committee.

A veteran of the credit markets with over 35 years of investing experience, Mr. Tananbaum founded GoldenTree in 2000 and was instrumental in building the firm into an organization that is highly regarded for its investment process and partnership culture. Known for its focus on fundamental and relative value analysis, GoldenTree has produced strong competitive returns across product lines since its inception. The firm has grown into an organization of 24 partners, over 290 employees and over $51 billion of assets under management.

GoldenTree’s strength in the industry has been recognized recently by numerous awards, such as Best Credit-Focused Hedge Fund Manager by Institutional Investor, Best Distressed Debt and Special Situation Investor by Private Debt Investor, and Emerging Markets Manager of the Year by European Pension. The firm’s flagship strategy has also been recognized as Best Billion Dollar Fund by HFM, and each vintage of the firm's distressed funds has been awarded best in their vintage by a variety of media outlets including Hedgeweek, HFM, and Absolute Return. In 2023, Mr. Tananbaum received HFM’s US Outstanding Industry Achievement award, recognizing how he has helped progress and define the spirit of the industry through both his professional accomplishments and his philanthropic leadership.

Prior to forming GoldenTree, Mr. Tananbaum spent over a decade at MacKay Shields. He was head of the firm’s high yield group beginning on June 1, 1991 and, in 1997, founded its hedge fund business and served as the lead portfolio manager. Under Mr. Tananbaum’s leadership, MacKay Shields’ high yield mutual funds were rated in the top 5% by Lipper from June 1, 1991 through December 31, 1999. He also received two 5-year Lipper awards for funds managed during his time at MacKay. Prior to joining MacKay Shields, Mr. Tananbaum worked primarily on high yield and merger & acquisition transactions in the corporate finance department of Kidder, Peabody & Co. He is a graduate of Vassar College with a B.A. in Economics. Mr. Tananbaum is a CFA charterholder. He is a Member of the Board of Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art and a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mitchell R. Julis is Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Canyon Partners, LLC, a leading global alternative asset management firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Canyon specializes in value-oriented investments for endowments, foundations, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors. Its investment strategies focus on distressed loans, corporate bonds, convertible bonds, securitized assets, direct investments, real estate, arbitrage, and value equities. Canyon Partners’ flagship fund, the Canyon Value Realization Fund, twice received Institutional Investor’s “Credit-Focused Hedge Fund Manager of the Year” Award. Additionally, the Canyon Structured Asset Fund received Institutional Investor’s “Hybrid Hedge Fund of the Year” Award. Mr. Julis has also received Institutional Investor’s “Lifetime Achievement” Award.

Mr. Julis is a graduate of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), Harvard Law School (J.D., magna cum laude) and Harvard Business School (M.B.A., honors). He serves as a Trustee of the Brown University Corporation, on the Board of Governors at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, on the Board of Trustees at Yeshiva University and as Trustee Emeritus at the Asia Society. He previously served on the Board of Trustees at Princeton University. He is currently a member of the Advisory Council for the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and a member of Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science Leadership Council. Furthermore, he sits on the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute Advisory Council and the Lincoln Center Theater Board of Directors. Also noteworthy is his active role in establishing the Harvard Law School Program on Jewish and Israeli Law. In 2019, Mr. Julis received an Honorary Fellowship from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.