Our Team
James M. Peterson
Founder & Managing Partner
Prior to founding Nearwater Capital, Mr. Peterson was a Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners where he worked for over 14 years as Head of Origination of Guggenheim Treasury Services. Prior to working at Guggenheim, Mr. Peterson was a Senior Vice President for Lehman Brothers where he worked for five years, both in London and New York as a banker in ABCP Origination where he structured and launched over 20 conduits for European banks. Prior to Lehman Brothers, Mr. Peterson was Head of ABS for the Americas for Bayersiche Landesbank, where he launched and oversaw two ABCP conduit programs with over $15 billion in CP outstandings.
Christopher R. Conetta
Senior Managing Director
Mr. Conetta joins Nearwater Capital with 25 years of experience in Fixed Income Trading and Origination. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Barclays Capital Inc., responsible for the U.S. Rates Cash Trading business, which encompassed U.S. Treasuries, Agencies and SSA’s. In addition to managing Barclays U.S. Rates business, Mr. Conetta also managed the market-leading short-term Rates and Credit trading businesses at Lehman Brothers and then Barclays, while also being responsible for the Origination of ABCP and unsecured commercial paper programs.
Jonathan M. Kitei
Senior Managing Director
Jonathan Kitei is the Head of Risk Retention Financing and brings a wealth of experience and leadership in banking and structured products to Nearwater. Previously, Mr. Kitei was a Managing Director at Barclays Capital responsible for managing US Securitized Products Sales and Global CLO Distribution. His prior roles include Head of US CLO Origination and Syndicate as well as Head of US Loan Sales which he held at both Barclays and Lehman Brothers. Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Mr. Kitei was Head of Loan Sales and Trading at Sun Trust Equitable Securities and Head of Loan Trading at BancAmerica Securities and served on the Board of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association for six years including two years as Chairman of the Board.
Anthony Bertoldo
Senior Officer
Mr. Bertoldo serves as the Senior Officer of Nearwater Capital Markets, Limited. Prior to joining Nearwater Capital, Mr. Bertoldo headed Equity Finance, Equity Swaps and Delta One at Mizuho Americas. Prior to Mizuho, he spent 18 years at Credit Suisse USA, concluding his tenure as co-head of Americas Delta One and Equity Swaps. Mr. Bertoldo also served as a Bank Examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Mr. Bertoldo holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from Boston College and a master’s degree from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Scott Kimmel
Managing Director & General Counsel
Mr. Kimmel has been a senior counsel in the financial industry with significant experience advising sales, trading and structured finance businesses on a broad range of legal, compliance and regulatory issues. He was a Managing Director and Head of Legal for the Fixed Income businesses at both Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, with additional responsibilities as chair of committees reviewing new products and transactions. Most recently, he was Deputy General Counsel at Guggenheim Securities. Mr. Kimmel has also participated in a number of industry initiatives and programs, and was a member of the Legal and Compliance Executive Committee of SIFMA.
Thomas (TJ) Gavenda
Chief Administrative Officer
Mr. Gavenda, joins Nearwater after 11 years at Credit Suisse in various senior roles across Operations, Compliance and Technology. Prior to that, he held senior finance and regulatory roles at prominent financial institutions like Barclays, Evercore Partners and Deutsche Bank. TJ started his career at Deloitte and is a CPA.
Ursula Clay
Chief Compliance Officer
Ms. Clay joins Nearwater from FINRA where she was a Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff for Member Supervision. In this role, Ms. Clay advanced Member Supervision’s operational effectiveness and strategic direction, served as its regulatory counsel, and led its Core Functions teams that included policies and procedures, liaison to the SEC and other regulators, and publishing guidance to member firms. Ms. Clay brings over 25 years of regulatory experience to Nearwater, having held senior compliance roles at Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and Exos Securities, practicing securities law at Bressler, Amery & Ross, and managing her own swap dealer consulting business.
Robert Pascuzzi
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Pascuzzi brings nearly 20 years of experience leading Finance, Accounting, and Regulatory teams at some of the largest global Institutional Prime Brokers. Prior to joining Nearwater Mr. Pascuzzi held various senior Controller and Chief Financial Officer roles at Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Citigroup. In addition to having responsibilities for Financial and Regulatory Reporting at these firms, Mr. Pascuzzi was also responsible for advising their Sales and Trading teams on regulatory and capital implications of new business initiatives as well as the impact of new regulatory regimes, such as Swap Dealer and Security Based Swap Dealer regulations.
Theo Fleishman
Managing Director, Risk Retention Financing
Theo Fleishman joins Nearwater Capital as a Managing Director with over 15 years of banking experience. Most recently, Mr. Fleishman was a Director at Natixis where he managed Structured Credit Syndication, primarily focusing on the execution and origination of CLOs, ABS, and CMBS, both domestic and abroad. While at Natixis, he syndicated over 200 transactions to a global investor base, consistently ranking in the top 10 of the league tables. Prior to that, he worked out of Natixis’ head office in Paris and spent two years at Morgan Stanley, where he began his career in 2006.
Monica Wu
Senior Risk Officer
Ms. Wu brings over 10 years of experience in global financial markets risk management to Nearwater. Prior to joining the firm, she worked for Morgan Stanley (New York), HSBC (New York and Hong Kong) and Westpac (Sydney). Ms. Wu’s experience and focus include ensuring that risk management systems and framework are in compliance with regulatory requirements, as well as risk model development and validation, with a view toward applicable regulations.
Andrew Clark
Head of Operations
Andrew Clark joins Nearwater with over 20 years of operations experience across the Americas, EMEA and APAC. Andrew had previously spent 10 years at UBS, where he was global lead of equity operations and middle office and over saw the transition from regional to global reporting, as well as working with sales, trading and structuring on numerous new business initiatives. Prior to UBS, Andrew had worked for US broker dealers including MF Global and Jefferies and Co, Australian investment bank Macquarie Bank and London hedge funds in operations, working with existing businesses and in the creation of new businesses.
Adam Wigderson
Senior Director, Rates Trading
Mr. Wigderson brings over fifteen years of fixed income market experience to Nearwater Capital. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Wigderson was a senior trader on the US Agency desk at UBS where he focused on providing client solutions through primary and secondary market execution. Prior to UBS, he held senior trading positions on the US Agency and US Treasury desks at JP Morgan. Mr. Wigderson began his career as an auditor with KPMG and has held roles at Chase Bank and Barclays Capital.
Paterno (Tino) Luzano
Director, CP Trading/
Liquidity Management
Mr. Luzano was a Director of Short-Term Fixed Income Trading at BoAML from 2007-2014. While at BoAML, he traded CP and ABCP for over 18 programs with cumulative outstandings of over $50 billion. Prior to BoAML, Mr. Luzano worked at JPMorgan in Global Treasury where he was responsible for managing the funding and liquidity requirements of the bank-sponsored ABCP programs. In addition to his experience as a trader, Mr. Luzano has worked in Administration rolls at major conduits for Chase Manhattan and Credit Lyonnais where he gained experience in managing the issuance, liquidity management and administration of large conduits.
William Yang
Director, Trade Compliance / Transaction Management
Prior to Nearwater, he was a cross asset derivatives structurer at Credit Agricole focusing on structured solutions for corporate clients and institutional investors. Previously, Mr. Yang was with Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets. Mr. Yang holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a M.S. in Financial Engineering from Baruch College of the City University of New York.
Izabela Olito
Director,
Accounting/Controller
Izabela manages the accounting and reporting functions for the Company. She joined Nearwater Capital from Miura Global, where she performed Controller functions for the Funds and Management Company. At Miura Izabela was responsible for oversight of accounting and audit, tax reporting, monthly NAV closings, supporting traders and reporting for various groups within organization. Prior to Miura Global Izabela worked at Goldman Sachs Administration Services where she was Senior Fund Accountant and managed accounting for various hedge fund clients. Izabela began her career in 2005 as an auditor at Ernst & Young LLP within Asset Management Group. Izabela is a CPA licensed in New York and holds BBA in Public Accounting from Baruch College.
Claudia Quintanilla
Director of Administration
Claudia Quintanilla started her career with AIM Fund Services in Houston, TX. Currently Ms Quintanilla is Head of Administration for Nearwater Capital, where she is responsible for Human Resources, Administration, Commercial Logistics and operational efficiency. Prior to Nearwater, Ms Quintanilla worked at New England Consulting in inside sales and marketing.
Adam Shuvall
Director
Mr. Shuvall joins Nearwater Capital, bringing over 15 years of fixed income market experience to the trading team. His background spans across market execution, financing solutions, and balance sheet optimization. Before joining Nearwater, Mr. Shuvall held multiple positions at BlackRock across Fixed Income trading products. Earlier in his career, he held trading and support positions at Bank of America and JP Morgan. Mr. Shuvall graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Economics and Statistics.
Benjamin Biscarrat
Director
Mr. Biscarrat joins Nearwater as a Director in Business Origination. Mr. Biscarrat joined from Societe Generale where he held roles in Rates Sales and Structuring and Collateral Optimization over the prior 11 years. He holds a CFA and is a graduate of Boston University and received an MBA from INSEAD.
Nearwater Capital | Specialty Financing Company Based in New York, NY
Brian Kramer
Senior Trader
Mr. Kramer joins Nearwater Capital as a Senior Trader of the Capital Markets business. Mr. Kramer brings over 21 years of market experience to Nearwater. He has extensive sales and trading experience across the capital structure. Prior to Nearwater, he spent the previous 21 years trading Delta One products at Credit Suisse where he was responsible for managing and trading an extensive balance sheet optimization book.
Miguel Franco
Director of Technology
Mr. Franco joins Nearwater Capital as the head of Technology. Mr. Franco has over 25 years of experience in technology within the financial industry. Most recently, Mr. Franco was with Ziff Brothers Investments where he was the VP of Software and Program Management, responsible for financial systems, software development, IT help desk and program management.
Michael Lacerenza
Director
Mr. Lacerenza joins Nearwater Capital as a Director for Business Controls with 18 years experience in financial services. Prior to joining Nearwater he worked for NatWest Markets for the majority of his career, most recently as Head of Front Office Controls, Conduct & Supervision, US. Mr. Lacerenza also has experience in Operational Risk and started his career as a Product Controller supporting both fixed income and commodities at Cantor Fitzgerald and Glencore.
Kristy Giardino
Associate Director, Trade Compliance/Transaction Management
Mrs. Giardino was an Associate Director and Sr. Portfolio Manager for FMS Service Group from 2010-2018 where she issued commercial paper for Kells Funding LLC and managed the daily administration of the conduit. During her tenor, she also administered a $5 billion Total Return Swap warehouse facility consisting primarily of CLO’s and Student Loans. Prior to joining FMS-SG, Mrs. Giardino worked for DEPFA Bank plc from 2004-2010 where she was a Jr. Trader for a $25 billion ABCP conduit, Morrigan TRR Funding. Ms. Giardino began her career at Salomon Smith Barney in 1999 as a trading assistant for Retail Sales and Trading.
Malthi Narayan
Associate Director,
Operations / Trade Settlement
Mrs. Narayan comes to Nearwater from Dexia Credit Local’s New York office, where she worked for more than 15 years in various settlements and operational roles. She has extensive operational experience in money market instruments such as CP and CDs, as well as interest rate and credit derivatives and foreign exchange. She began her career at Fortis Bank’s New York branch where she held as senior roll in derivative operations.
Kimberly Villanella
Associate Director, Trade Settlement/
Operations
Mrs. Villanella joins Nearwater as a specialist in the operations and settlements departments, having worked hands on with a number of assets classes including Equities, Fixed Income and Foreign Exchange and numerous markets, both international and domestic. She brings years of experience across the whole trade lifecycle and documentation requirements, as well stakeholder management both internally and externally.
Emma Deng
Associate
Ms. Deng currently serves as an Associate in the Risk Retention group at Nearwater. Previously, she was an Associate at Blackstone focused on Direct Lending and Business Development Company activities. Prior to that, she also worked as a Senior Consultant in the Structured Finance Advisory Practice at Ernst & Young LLP, specializing in CLO. Ms. Deng holds B.S. and M.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
William Smith
Operations Specialist
Prior to Nearwater Capital, Mr. Smith held various roles within the fixed income market. Mr. Smith began his career at Standard and Poor’s Evaluations Services where he spent 10 years pricing high yield municipal securities in the healthcare sector. Mr. Smith also has 13 years of experience within the ABCP market. The first 10 years was spent at Global Securitization Services where he was the program manager for multiple ABCP programs. The last 3 years were spent at Credit Agricole performing middle office duties for the bank’s Atlantic and LaFayette ABCP programs. Mr. Smith holds an M.B.A from Long Island University.
Abigail Paholski
Paralegal / Transaction Support Specialist
Ms. Paholski joins Nearwater Capital as a Paralegal and Transaction Support Specialist. Ms. Paholski has previously worked as a legal assistant and location manager for WeWork. Ms. Paholski is currently pursuing her Juris Doctorate from New York Law School after graduating from Indiana University.