Melissa Daniel is an Analyst on the NB Specialty Finance Team. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman in 2023, Melissa was a venture analyst at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation and a fellow in the Accel Venture Capital Leadership Program. Melissa graduated from Stanford University with a M.S. in Management Science and Engineering, a B.A. in Economics, and a B.S. in Computer Science. At Stanford, Melissa was also a Defense Innovation Scholar and a player on the NCAA Stanford Beach Volleyball team.
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Varun Surapaneni, Senior Associate, joined the firm in 2023. Varun is a Quantitative Analyst on the Specialty Finance team. Previously, Varun was a Vice President within Sound Point Capital’s Specialty Finance Team focusing on consumer, small business, commercial and student loan assets and he was responsible for due diligence, underwriting, monitoring, and structuring of investments. Varun began his career at WebBank where he worked on managing credit risk for consumer and SMB loans and evaluating new opportunities in the Fintech lending space. He earned a B.Tech. in Production and Industrial Engineering with a minor in Business Management from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and an MS in Operations Research from Columbia University.
VALERIE OSBAND, a Vice President at Outpost Ventures, focuses on investing in Fintech and B2B software companies. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman in 2022, Valerie worked as a product manager at Cash App (“SQ”) on work that spanned payments, commerce, lending and investing. Prior to that she held product roles at international payments provider SumUp and international fintech company Tala, where she focused on new product development, scaling products from 0 to 1. Prior, Valerie worked in Global Capital Markets at Funding Circle and grew with the company from early VC investment through to IPO. Valerie began her career in the Fixed Income team at Macquarie Bank. Valerie holds both an MBA and MPP from Stanford University, where she was a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, as well as a BEng from Imperial College London.
SAM LUK is a Vice President on Neuberger Berman’s Specialty Finance team. Before joining the firm, Sam served as head of capital markets, credit risk and underwriting at Shopify, as chief funding and credit officer at CommonBond, and held several investment roles at Monarch Alternative Capital and PartnerRe. Sam began his career at Lehman Brothers in securitization banking. He has a BBA from the University of Michigan.
CEDRIC DRUI, CFA, FRM, CAIA, is a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman. He is also on the Investment Committee of the Outpost Venture Fund. Prior to joining Neuberger, Cedric was on the management team of Cartesian Re’s insurance-linked securities strategy. Prior to joining Cartesian Re, Cedric was a Portfolio Analyst in the Global Cat Management team at Transatlantic Reinsurance Company, where he was responsible for identifying investment opportunities and managing third-party capital through reinsurance sidecars. Cedric previously served as a Senior Consultant in the Capital Markets team at Risk Management Solutions, where he led the expertized risk analysis on a number of Insurance-Linked Securities issuances. Cedric is a CFA charterholder, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Charterholder, and certified Financial Risk Manager. He holds a MS in Mathematics and a MS in Atmospheric & Space Sciences from the University of Michigan, and an Aerospace Engineering degree from the École Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace.
DAVID KUPPERMAN, PhD, Managing Director, is Co-head of the NB Alternative Investment Management team and a member of its Investment Committee. He is also on the Investment Committee of the Specialty Finance Group which he co-founded after years of investing experience in the consumer credit space, as well as Chairman of the NB Insurance-Linked Strategies Underwriting Committee and a Director of NB Reinsurance Ltd. David also sits on the firm’s Asset Allocation Committee, the Investment Risk Committee and the Model Risk Subcommittee. Prior to joining the firm in 2011, David was a partner and member of the investment committee at Alternative Investment Management, LLC. Before that, he was a managing director and member of the executive committee at Paloma Partners Management Company, a multi-strategy hedge fund focused on relative value trading strategies. Previously, David was a principal at The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest alternative investment managers. Prior to joining Carlyle, he was a vice president in both the private equity and portfolio strategy groups at Goldman, Sachs & Co. In his portfolio strategy role, he authored papers on asset allocation and helped develop Goldman’s quantitative asset allocation framework for high-net-worth investors. David is the Chairman of The Johns Hopkins Physics & Astronomy Advisory Council and is a member of the Cornell University Council. David holds an MA and a PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University and a BA and an ME from Cornell University.
PETER STERLING, is a Partner at Outpost Ventures (platform within NB Alternative Advisers LLC) and head of the Neuberger Berman Specialty Finance Platform. Peter focuses on investing in Financial Technology related companies and has been involved in over $3 billion in Fintech related financings. Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Peter served as President of Coastland Capital and as the Portfolio Manager for Coastland’s specialty finance vehicle which invested across consumer and small business loans/receivables with an emphasis on the Fintech space. The group underwrote and purchased varying assets across the whole loan, receivable, and securitized ABS markets. From 2001-2005, Peter served as a Portfolio Manager focusing on credit arbitrage strategies at Marin Capital and previously at KBC Alternative Investment Management Ltd., a multi-strategy asset manager with several billion dollars under management. During his tenure, Peter co-managed a large credit portfolio large focused on capital structure arbitrage. Previous to that, Peter was initially hired into D.E. Shaw’s Financial Products group which was subsequently sold to KBC Bank, managing their U.S. convertible bond arbitrage portfolio. Prior to that, Peter traded equity derivatives for Gateway Partners on the floors of the American and Philadelphia Stock Exchanges. Peter received a BA with a dual major in Economics and Psychology from Cornell University.
ZHENGYUAN LU, is a partner at Outpost Ventures and Managing Director on Neuberger Berman’s Specialty Finance team. He is also on the Investment Committee of the Outpost Venture Fund. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman, Lu was a Managing Director and head of the Warehouse Financing Group with SVB Financial Group (“SVB”), where he was responsible for investments in the Fintech sector. Prior to SVB, Lu was in a similar capacity with Victory Park Capital. Prior to that, Lu was a senior vice president and head of Capital Markets and Treasury at OnDeck (“ONDK”), where he spearheaded all capital markets and fundraising activities. Lu was a member of OnDeck’s Executive and Management Committee, and successfully took the company public in 2014 . Prior to OnDeck, he spent almost 20 years as an investment banker where he advised clients in Specialty Finance and FinTech sectors on all phases of fund raising. Lu holds a B.A in Economics and Computer Science from Middlebury College.
FARSHAD MASHAYEKHI, PhD, is a Senior Vice President in Neuberger Berman’s Specialty Finance team. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman, Farshad was Co-head of Investor Analytics at Lending Club where he led the analytical support for institutional and retail investors in Lending Club loans (+10B AUM). Prior to Lending Club, Farshad was a Managing Director in Research and Analytics at BondDesk, where he built and managed the analytics team that utilized data and machine learning algorithms to gain insights, establish novel financial and operational metrics, build products, lead marketing, and develop strategies. Farshad holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business as well as an M.S. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
KAREN BI, Vice President, is a Private Credit Modelling Analyst on the NB Specialty Finance Team and is responsible for data analytics to evaluate deal assets and monitor existing portfolio performance trends. Prior to joining NB in 2020, Karen served more than seven years at Colchis Capital in a similar position, and her experience spans a broad set of loan products including consumer, small business, real estate bridge, and student lending, as well as structured products such as credit lines and notes. She graduated from Stanford University with a MS in Management Science and Engineering as well as University of Maryland, College Park with a BS in Economics and Minor in Actuarial Mathematics.
DAVID DUBICK, is a Partner at Outpost Ventures (platform within NB Alternative Advisers LLC) and focuses on investing in b2b software companies, crypto, and fintech. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman, David was a founder and General Partner of an enterprise-focused venture capital fund within Point72. Prior to that he held investing roles at Lightspeed Venture Partners and DFJ Growth, where he worked with companies from their earliest formation all the way through IPO. David’s early-stage investments include seed investments in Handshake, Velo3D (NASDAQ: VLD), Privacera, Bigeye, Anvilogic, and Anjuna. Prior to venture capital, David held product management roles at Palantir and Lookout Mobile Security, where he built big data and cybersecurity products for large enterprises. David started his career at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency focused on the Middle East. David holds a B.A. from Yale University and an MBA from Wharton.
SACHIN PATEL, is a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman’s Specialty Finance team. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman, Sachin founded the Global Capital Markets group at Funding Circle Holdings Plc and served on the Boards of its listed and private asset management companies. He was responsible for all aspects of the Capital Markets businesses from the overall strategic direction, governance & risk management through to the day-to-day operations of the sales, structuring & execution teams. During his tenure, Sachin was responsible for its many capital raises and funding transactions including the IPO of the Funding Circle SME Income Fund, launching the UK & U.S. securitisation programs, and building the private debt funds business. He also developed Funding Circle’s partnerships with UK and European government entities and led the funding of loans under the Government-backed Recovery Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme to support small businesses through the pandemic. Prior to that, Sachin worked in the Insurance & Pensions ALM Solutions business at Barclays Capital, advising and structuring private credit investments for European insurance companies and pension funds across a broad spectrum of consumer, SME and asset backed receivables. Sachin started his career in the cross-asset structured products business at JPMorgan, designing and structuring investments across fixed income, credit and equities from complex structured transactions through to derivatives and flow products. Sachin holds an MPhys (Physics) from Oxford University.
JAY BERGER, CFA, Senior Vice President, joined the firm in 2011. Jay is a Research Analyst on the NB Alternative Investment Management Team. He graduated from Yeshiva University with a BA in Mathematics. Jay has been awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
MITCHELL BOOTH, Associate, is an Analyst on the NB Specialty Finance Team. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman in 2021, Mitchell was an investment banking analyst within J.P. Morgan’s asset backed securities business focusing on consumer, credit card, small business, and student loan assets. He worked with originators on both warehouse financing and ABS issuance. Mitchell graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in Economics.
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