Our Team
Varkki Chacko is the Chief Investment Officer and the Managing Principal of Credit Capital Investments (CCI). CCI seeks investment opportunities across the capital structure with a focus on the publicly traded markets in the US and India.
He has extensive experience in the global credit markets. Prior to moving to the buy-side in 2003, he spent approximately 16 years, initially at Salomon Brothers and then at Goldman Sachs. While at Goldman Sachs, Varkki was a Managing Director serving in various roles including Co-Head of Global High Yield Research, Head of European and Asian Credit Research and Head of Global Credit Strategy. Varkki was a top-ranked analyst in the Institutional Investor All-America Fixed Income Research Team from 1994 to 1998 and again in 2000. The 2000 and 2002 Euro money Credit Research Polls named the teams led by Varkki as top-ranked in Credit Research and in High-Grade and High-Yield Credit Strategy respectively.
Varkki was significantly involved in proprietary credit trading activities both at Goldman Sachs and Salomon Brothers. Varkki’s work in the real time index area has been awarded U.S. and European patents and is the basis of one of the $36 billion iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund ETF (LQD). His research work in the polymer science industry, upon completing his graduate studies in engineering, also resulted in eight industrial patents being awarded.
Varkki completed his M.B.A. in Finance from New York University in 1987, a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1982, and a B.E. (Hons) and M.S. (Hons) in 1978 from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India. Varkki is an Advisory Board member of the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Robert Murray is an Advisor to the Firm and the Chief Compliance Officer at CCI. Robert worked at CCI from May 2008 until his retirement in June 2020, in various positions including head of research, co-portfolio manager and bond/loan trader for several corporate bond Separately Managed Accounts.
Prior to joining CCI, Robert was at Wexford Capital LLC, where he was a Senior Credit Analyst on the Credit Opportunities Fund. Prior to that, he spent over 17 years at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in Plainsboro, New Jersey, including eight years as a Portfolio Manager where he ran several high yield bond funds for retail and institutional clients. Earlier in his career, he spent over five years at Standard and Poor’s in New York, where he worked in both equity research and debt rating.
Robert received an M.B.A. in Finance, Accounting and Managerial Economics from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1983. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1984. Robert earned a B.A. in Economics magna cum laude at the College of the Holy Cross, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Freeman Saltus Prize in Economics. He is a member of the CFA Institute, the New York Society of Security Analysts and Fixed Income Analysts Society Inc.
Michael Kerlan is Head of Research at CCI. He is also responsible for the Communication Services sector for the THF and Indus Fund.
Prior to joining CCI, Mike worked at Wells Fargo Securities, LLC in the Equity Research Group following the Communications Technology sector. He previously worked at Moody’s Investor Services, in the Corporate Credit Group, where he followed Technology, Media, and Telecom. Earlier in his career, Mike worked as a network engineer at International Paper, DoubleClick, and TD Waterhouse.
Mike completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, where he graduated cum laude, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL, where he completed a thesis titled, “Video Broadcast and Conferencing – A Performance Study and Traffic Characterization”. Mike also completed a Master of Business Administration with a specialization in Quantitative Finance at New York University, where he was a Stern Scholar.
Tonia DeMario is the Operations Manager for CCI.
Tonia works closely with Senior Management, handling all aspects of Fund and office operations. Her responsibilities include liaising with fund administrators, custodians, auditors, the Compliance team, investors, etc.
Prior to joining CCI, Tonia spent several years at the law firm of Herrick Feinstein LLP as well as Bear Stearns. Earlier on, Tonia and Varkki Chacko worked together at Gartmore Group for many years and transitioned with him to CCI, to launch the Teak Hill Fund in 2006. She rejoined CCI in 2016.
Steve Cohen is a Principal and Portfolio Manager at CCI where he manages the Firm’s fixed income SMA assets.
Steve has extensive expertise in the credit markets with over 25 years of experience in corporate bonds and leveraged loans, including high yield, investment grade and distressed. His experience includes head of high yield research groups, management of a prop trading business, and desk analyst. His broad industry research coverage includes chemicals, paper & packaging, metals & mining, industrials, transportation, building, and services.
Prior to joining CCI, Steve was a Managing Director and high yield desk analyst at KeyBank covering high yield bonds and leveraged loans across a broad range of basic materials and industrials sectors. He previously worked at CIBC where he helped manage a prop trading business and provided research coverage in the chemicals, paper & packaging, and metals & mining industries. At BTIG, Steve managed a highly respected high yield research effort and led research coverage across high yield, distressed and post-reorg equity. Steve spent 16 years at Citigroup where he was a Managing Director and led high yield coverage across a wide range of sectors. He was a top-ranked analyst and named to the Institutional Investor Fixed Income Research Team for five years.
Steve completed his M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University.
Patrick Arata is a Principal of the Firm and Head of Trading. Prior to joining CCI, Pat spent 32 years at Morgan Stanley as a senior Executive Director in the Institutional Equity Division and was involved in its client relationship management and collegiate recruiting programs. While at Morgan Stanley, Pat had a varied career in both sales and trading and developed a broad and deep base of product and client knowledge.
Pat’s first key role at Morgan Stanley was trading equity derivatives for a broad spectrum of institutional clients and he was ultimately responsible for the client index arbitrage trading book. Pat then transitioned to global equity derivatives and portfolio trading sales where he had direct relationship responsibility for clients ranging from the Firm Top 50 to emerging hedge funds, quantitative managers, index funds and corporate plan sponsors.
From 2004 through 2017 Pat was a leader in developing and implementing Morgan Stanley’s Non-100 client coverage strategy. Pat had a significant role in enhancing the Morgan Stanley’s reputation with that client segment and working collaboratively with colleagues in the prime brokerage, fixed income and private wealth units. Client coverage expanded to include mutual fund complexes and family offices. Pat and his teams met with and developed relationships with CEOs, CIOs, head traders and senior portfolio managers and restored numerous dormant relationships to active, revenue producing partnerships.
Pat received a B.S. in Finance from New York University and was a member of the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity. Pat holds licenses for the Series 3, 7, 9, 10, 55 and 63.
Richard Roy is a Principal, Portfolio Manager and a member of the Investment Committee at CCI.
Prior to joining CCI, Richard was the Founder and Managing Partner of Lucror Capital Advisors, L.P., an investment management firm focused on investments in the energy and energy infrastructure sectors.
Prior to that, Richard served as a Director in Citigroup Investment Research’s Energy & Energy Infrastructure Group. While at Citigroup, Richard advised institutions (corporate and state pension funds, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, mutual funds), financial advisers and high net worth individuals on investing in the energy, energy infrastructure and industrials complexes. During his tenure at Citigroup, Richard had direct responsibility for over $100 billion in equity market capitalization, worked on over $15 billion of MLP and other energy equity offerings (including the marketing of more than 25 initial public offerings), and analyzed over $10 billion worth of Mergers & Acquisitions. Richard’s research has been featured in Barron’s and in 2010, he was recognized as a “Top Stock Picker” in the United States by Financial Times/StarMine, placing 6th out of 1,800. In addition, he has been recognized by StarMine as a top-ranked equity research analyst, receiving 4 out of 5 stars, for stocks under coverage in such categories as “EPS Estimate Accuracy” and “Industry Excess Return.”
Earlier in his career, Richard worked as an associate with the boutique investment bank B.V. Murray & Co. and as an associate in the International Private Banking division of Merrill Lynch.
Richard received a B.S. in Finance and Marketing from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia (where he was a 4-Year Varsity Tennis Letterman as well as a team Co-Captain) and an MBA from Columbia Business School with a concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurship.
Chris Kelly will lead and assist with developing and maintaining new and existing business relationships for CCI.
Chris has extensive experience in the financial markets. He started out as a lending officer and worked at General Electric in the leveraged buyout group. He then went on to found, co-found and work with several alternative asset firms and funds, including Value Asset Management, Citigroup Alternative Investments, Weston Capital Management, Harvest Fund Management and Michigan Investment Management. Several of the Funds he co-founded or founded went on to grow into multibillion-sized institutional investors.
He is currently a board member and advisor to several companies, including the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund’s FIG Group.
Chris has an M.B.A from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth and a B.A from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Varkki Chacko is the Chief Investment Officer and the Managing Principal of Credit Capital Investments (CCI). CCI seeks investment opportunities across the capital structure with a focus on the publicly traded markets in the US and India.
He has extensive experience in the global credit markets. Prior to moving to the buy-side in 2003, he spent approximately 16 years, initially at Salomon Brothers and then at Goldman Sachs. While at Goldman Sachs, Varkki was a Managing Director serving in various roles including Co-Head of Global High Yield Research, Head of European and Asian Credit Research and Head of Global Credit Strategy. Varkki was a top-ranked analyst in the Institutional Investor All-America Fixed Income Research Team from 1994 to 1998 and again in 2000. The 2000 and 2002 Euro money Credit Research Polls named the teams led by Varkki as top-ranked in Credit Research and in High-Grade and High-Yield Credit Strategy respectively.
Varkki was significantly involved in proprietary credit trading activities both at Goldman Sachs and Salomon Brothers. Varkki’s work in the real time index area has been awarded U.S. and European patents and is the basis of one of the $36 billion Ishares $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund ETF. His research work in the polymer science industry, upon completing his graduate studies in engineering, also resulted in eight industrial patents being awarded.
Varkki completed his M.B.A. in Finance from New York University in 1987, a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1982, and a B.E. (Hons) and M.S. (Hons) in 1978 from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India. Varkki is an Advisory Board member of the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Robert Murray is an Advisor to the Firm and the Chief Compliance Officer at CCI. Robert also advises on corporate credit allocations in several of the Separate Managed Accounts.
Prior to joining CCI, Robert was most recently at Wexford Capital LLC, where he was a Senior Credit Analyst on the Credit Opportunities Fund. Prior to that, he spent over 17 years at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in Plainsboro, New Jersey, including eight years as a Portfolio Manager where he ran several high yield bond funds for retail and institutional clients. Earlier in his career, he spent over five years at Standard and Poor’s in New York, where he worked in both equity research and debt rating.
Robert received an M.B.A. in Finance, Accounting and Managerial Economics from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1983. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1984. Robert earned a B.A. in Economics magna cum laude at the College of the Holy Cross, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Freeman Saltus Prize in Economics. He is a member of the CFA Institute, the New York Society of Security Analysts and Fixed Income Analysts Income Society Inc.
Michael Kerlan is Head of Research at CCI. He is also responsible for the Communication Services sector for the THF and Indus.
Prior to joining CCI, Mike worked at Wells Fargo Securities, LLC in the Equity Research Group following the Communications Technology sector. He previously worked at Moody’s Investor Services, in the Corporate Credit Group, where he followed Technology, Media, and Telecom. Earlier in his career, Mike worked as a network engineer at International Paper, DoubleClick, and TD Waterhouse.
Mike completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, where he graduated cum laude, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL, where he completed a thesis titled, “Video Broadcast and Conferencing – A Performance Study and Traffic Characterization”. Mike also completed a Master of Business Administration with a specialization in Quantitative Finance at New York University, where he was a Stern Scholar.
Tonia DeMario is the Operations Manager for Credit Capital Investments (CCI).
Tonia works closely with Senior Management, handling all aspects of Fund and office operations. Her responsibilities include liaising with Fund Administrators, Custodians, Auditors, Compliance Team, Investors, etc.
Prior to joining CCI, Tonia spent several years at the law firm of Herrick Feinstein LLP as well as Bear Stearns, brokerage firm. Earlier on, Tonia and Varkki Chacko worked together at Gartmore Group for many years and transitioned with him to CCI, to launch the Teak Hill Fund in 2006. She rejoined CCI in 2016.
Steve Cohen is a Principal and Portfolio Manager at CCI where he manages the firm’s fixed income SMA assets.
Steve has extensive expertise in the credit markets with over 25 years of experience in corporate bonds and leveraged loans, including high yield, investment grade and distressed. His experience includes head of high yield research groups, management of a prop trading business, and desk analyst. His broad industry research coverage includes chemicals, paper & packaging, metals & mining, industrials, transportation, building, and services.
Prior to joining CCI, Steve was a Managing Director and high yield desk analyst at KeyBank covering high yield bonds and leveraged loans across a broad range of basic materials and industrials sectors. He previously worked at CIBC where he helped manage a prop trading business and provided research coverage in the chemicals, paper & packaging, and metals & mining industries. At BTIG, Steve managed a highly respected high yield research effort and led research coverage across high yield, distressed and post-reorg equity. Steve spent 16 years at Citigroup where he was a Managing Director and led high yield coverage across a wide range of sectors. He was a top-ranked analyst and named to the Institutional Investor Fixed Income Research Team for five years.
Steve completed his M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University.
Patrick Arata is a Principal of the Firm and Head of Trading. Prior to joining CCI, Pat spent 32 years at Morgan Stanley as a senior Executive Director in the Institutional Equity Division and was involved in its client relationship management and collegiate recruiting programs. While at Morgan Stanley, Pat had a varied career in both sales and trading and developed a broad and deep base of product and client knowledge.
Pat’s first key role at Morgan Stanley was trading equity derivatives for a broad spectrum of institutional clients and he was ultimately responsible for the client index arbitrage trading book. Pat then transitioned to global equity derivatives and portfolio trading sales where he had direct relationship responsibility for clients ranging from the Firm Top 50 to emerging hedge funds, quantitative managers, index funds and corporate plan sponsors.
From 2004 through 2017 Pat was a leader in developing and implementing Morgan Stanley’s Non-100 client coverage strategy. Pat had a significant role in enhancing the Firm’s reputation with that client segment and working collaboratively with colleagues in the prime brokerage, fixed income and private wealth units. Client coverage expanded to include mutual fund complexes and family offices. Pat and his teams met with and developed relationships with CEOs, CIOs, head traders and senior portfolio managers and restored numerous dormant relationships to active, revenue producing partnerships.
Pat received a B.S. in Finance from New York University and was a member of the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity. Pat holds licenses for the Series 3, 7, 9, 10, 55 and 63.
Richard Roy is a Principal, Portfolio Manager and a member of the Investment Committee at Credit Capital Investments (CCI).
Prior to joining CCI, Richard was the founder and Managing Partner of Lucror Capital Advisors, L.P., an investment management firm focused on investments in the energy and energy infrastructure sectors.
Prior to that, Richard served as a Director in Citigroup Investment Research’s Energy & Energy Infrastructure Group. While at Citigroup, Richard advised institutions (corporate and state pension funds, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, mutual funds), financial advisers and high net worth individuals on investing in the energy, energy infrastructure and industrials complexes. During his tenure at Citigroup, Richard had direct responsibility for over $100 billion in equity market capitalization, worked on over $15 billion of MLP and other energy equity offerings (including the marketing of more than 25 initial public offerings), and analyzed over $10 billion worth of Mergers & Acquisitions. Richard’s research has been featured in Barron’s and in 2010, he was recognized as a “Top Stock Picker” in the United States by Financial Times/StarMine, placing 6th out of 1,800. In addition, he has been recognized by StarMine as a top-ranked equity research analyst, receiving 4 out of 5 stars, for stocks under coverage in such categories as “EPS Estimate Accuracy” and “Industry Excess Return.”
Earlier in his career, Richard worked as an associate with the boutique investment bank B.V. Murray & Co. and as an associate in the International Private Banking division of Merrill Lynch.
Richard received a B.S. in Finance and Marketing from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia (where he was a 4-Year Varsity Tennis Letterman as well as a team Co-Captain) and an MBA from Columbia Business School with a concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurship.
Chris will lead and assist with developing and maintaining new and existing business relationships for Credit Capital.
Chris has extensive experience in the financial markets. He started out as a lending officer and worked at General Electric in the leveraged buyout group. He then went on to found, co-found and work with several alternative asset firms and funds, including Value Asset Management, Citigroup Alternative Investments, Weston Capital Management, Harvest Fund Management and Michigan Investment Management. Several of the Funds he co-founded or founded went on to grow into multibillion-sized institutional investors.
He is a board member and advisor to several companies at the current time, including the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund’s FIG Group.
Chris has an M.B.A from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth and a B.A from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Awards & Achievements
Careers
We are glad that you are considering a career with Credit Capital Investments. At CCI, we invite candidates on board not just by assessing what they are today, but also by gauging their potential to drive the business tomorrow. Besides academic records and technical soundness, we also value your passion.
Our goal is to build an engaging, productive and nurturing work environment through our corporate culture, career opportunities and HR practices. Whether you are a fresh graduate or an experienced professional, our global presence and pioneering work in Financial Services and cutting-edge technologies such as Business Intelligence, GIS, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud will give you a rewarding career and help you grow to your potential.
At CCI, we recognize that our people are our most important assets. With the right mix of skills expertise and acumen, our employees are the most important reason for our success.
We are seeking a Marketing Associate to assist with Investor Relations and Business Development in our New Jersey office. The ideal candidate will have 2-3 years of experience as a marketing professional in the fund-raising or investor relations space. Knowledge of quantitative analysis and algorithmic trading is a plus. The individual will be working closely with the firm’s senior team members and assist with all aspects of the fund-raising process.
Job Objectives:
- Develop a firm understanding of the firm’s product platform
- Help maintain current client relationships through client service, preparation of marketing materials, and performance updates
- Actively research, prospect, source and build relationships with new clients, primarily institutional investors.
- Attend conferences and meetings with key prospective and existing investors to provide insights to the firm’s investment process and methodology.
- Work alongside colleagues on the sales process.
- Over time, take charge of the firm’s fund-raising process.
Key Deliverables :
- Research prospective clients for the firm’s various offerings
- Facilitate initial contacts with appropriate personnel at institutional and family office investors.
- Set up meetings with prospective client visits and periodic update calls with existing investors
- Develop and update presentations on firm’s offerings
- Coordinate the production of periodic newsletters and reports to investors
- Periodically update company websites with excerpts of the firm’s investment insights.
Qualification(s):
-Undergraduate degree in Liberal arts or Science.
-MBA degree in marketing or finance
Experience : 2-3 years
Key Requirements:
- Have excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Have experience marketing products, especially financial products.
- Be able to work effectively as part of a team.
- Have an entrepreneurial mindset.
- Have strong experience in using PowerPoint, Word and Excel
- Skills in marketing-related website development and maintenance
- Skills in maintaining a professional and commercial social media presence.
- We are seeking to hire a securities analyst/associate analyst, based out of Short Hills, NJ, who is well versed with analysis of both corporate debt and equity securities
- The analyst should be proficient in developing and maintaining financial models, communicating with brokerage analysts and company management and generating written reports that communicate investment findings and conclusions
- The analyst has to be proficient in working with MS Office tools
- Excellent verbal and written English communication skills and the ability to work with a cross-functional team is a requirement
- Candidates with a CFA charter, MBA or prior experience in Fixed Income and equity security analysis will be preferred
- Selected candidates will work closely with the Portfolio Manager of a US-based Fund, tracking companies primarily in the US financial markets and generating actionable investment ideas within our rigorous research framework
- Preferred: CFA Charter (or working towards the same) / MBA in Finance
- Prior experience in Fixed Income and Equity Security analysis will be preferred
Dedicated finance professionals who can adapt to changing environments and innovate within the organization. They will work closely with portfolio managers in the US for the development and enhancement of complex econometric and statistical models, to be used toward security analysis. They will also be expected to track global macro events, indexes, economic data and strategy reports.
Knowledge of capital markets, including equity, debt, securitized loans, CDS, etc., with a focus on fixed income and derivatives, is expected. Proficiency in statistical software is required. At the minimum, demonstrable competency in the MS Office suite, especially MS Excel, including VBA macro programming, is a must. Thorough knowledge of Regression (Linear, Non-Linear, Multiple & Time Series) and Discriminant Analysis is expected. Prior knowledge and/or work experience with econometric analysis & forecasting techniques will be preferred. Should have the ability to work on several projects concurrently and independently. Additionally, excellent communication skills in English and the ability to work with a cross-functional team with backgrounds in IT & Fundamental Research are necessary.
A Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, Statistics or a related field or alternatively, a Master’s Degree in Econometrics or Mathematics with analytical and research experience would be considered.
A high caliber professional with a background in Financial Research/Financial Journalism. The role entails researching all relevant financial and geopolitical news and identifying articles of interest for a specific financial sector on a daily basis. The shortlisted articles then require editing and ranking by importance. The goal is to develop a daily package of news content for recording and for delivery to clients. The role also requires editing of financial research reports and blogs.
Familiarity with working on a MS Windows XP/Vista/7 desktop/laptop and using Microsoft Office (Word or Excel) would be essential. Excellent written and spoken English are a compulsory requirement. Prior experience with English news reading would be a major asset. A talent for public speaking in English would also be viewed favorably. The speaking accent may be neutral, American or British.
An educational background in Finance, Journalism or Media would be ideal. Candidates with degrees in these fields or relevant experience are invited to apply, including fresh graduates. The requirement is for a long-term and ongoing commitment. Consultants and freelancers need not apply.
Financials Analysts, India / US Fixed Income & Equity Research
We are seeking to hire experienced securities analysts who will work closely with Portfolio Managers of two offshore-based Funds in tracking companies within the Indian / US financial markets generating actionable investment ideas.
The work involves the analysis of both corporate debt and equity securities of financial institutions in India / US. The candidates should be proficient in financial modeling as well as communicating ideas in a clear and concise manner, in both written and verbal formats. The analyst will develop and maintain financial models, communicate with sell side analysts and company management and generate written reports communicating investment findings and conclusions. The analyst must be proficient in working with MS Office tools. The ideal candidate will be a diligent, curious and insightful individual who has the drive to both learn and excel in the evolving Indian / US capital markets environment.
Candidates must have a CA, CFA or MBA. Experience in Fixed Income / equity analysis is a requirement. The position is based in Pune. Some travel is expected. Compensation will be excellent and commensurate with experience and skills.