Monty Cook
Monty Cook is Head of Financial Services, North America Lending and a Senior Managing Director on the Financial Services & Diversified Private Credit team. He oversees private credit solutions to financial services, technology, software, and other businesses. Based in New York, he joined the firm in 2020.
Prior to joining Värde, Monty served as Head of Financial Services at First Eagle Alternative Credit. Monty was with THL Credit for seven years before it was acquired by First Eagle and most recently served as co-head of Direct Lending. Prior to THL Credit, Monty was a Director in Deutsche Bank’s Credit Solutions Group where he sourced and structured credit investments across numerous specialty finance and other asset classes. His previous experience also includes roles at Greenbridge Partners, J.P. Morgan & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co.
Monty received a B.S. in Business Administration from Northeastern University.
Missy Dolski
Missy Dolski is Global Head of Capital Markets. Missy joined Värde in 2017 and is responsible for managing relationships with key capital markets accounts globally. She is also responsible for the debt advisory and financing execution needs of the firm’s investment book in both public and private debt markets.
Prior to joining Värde, Missy was a Director at Wells Fargo Securities in the Commercial Real Estate Capital Markets & Finance group where she focused on capital markets financing for a variety of non-bank lender clients. Throughout her career she held multiple roles at Wells Fargo within its structured finance, principal investing and corporate credit divisions in New York, London and San Francisco.
Missy graduated from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management with a B.S. in Business Administration and received an M.B.A. with distinction from London Business School.
Krzysztof Drozd
Krzysztof Drozd is Global Head of Portfolio Operations focused on value creation in Värde private equity investments. Based in London, he joined the firm in 2007.
Prior to joining Värde, Krzysztof was a Manager at Deloitte responsible for advisory on corporate treasury and complex financial instruments. Prior to that, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Frankfurt, Germany.
Krzysztof received an M.B.A. from Frankfurt University in Germany. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a CPA (inactive).
Hanli Mangun
Hanli Mangun is a Senior Managing Director of Värde’s Asia-Pacific team, with a focus on Corporate and Traded Credit. Based in Singapore, he joined the firm in 2011.
Prior to joining Värde, Hanli worked as a research analyst at King Street Capital Management and as an associate at Ripplewood Holdings, a global private equity fund focusing on leveraged buyouts in the U.S. and Japan. Prior to that, Hanli was an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, where he provided M&A and corporate finance advisory services.
Hanli received a B.S. in Systems Engineering and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Kathryn Azavedo
Kathryn Azavedo is a Managing Director on the European Corporate investment team. Based in London, she joined the firm in 2014.
Prior to joining Varde, Kathryn worked in credit sales at Lloyds Banking Group.
Kathryn earned a BSc in Management from University of Warwick.
Melissa Band
Melissa Band is a Managing Director on the Capital Markets team. She is responsible for the capital markets and structured finance needs of Värde’s real estate investments, in addition to relationship management of key accounts. Based in New York, she joined the firm in 2019.
Prior to joining Värde, Melissa was a Vice President in the CRE Capital Markets & Finance group at Wells Fargo Securities where she focused on securitization execution and capital markets analysis across CRE CLOs, Conduit, Agency and other CRE-backed capital markets transactions. Prior to her time at Wells Fargo, Melissa spent time working at Ernst & Young, focused on CMBS and other fixed income products as part of the Structured Products Advisory group.
Melissa graduated summa cum laude as the class valedictorian with a B.S. in Finance and minor in Economics from James Madison University.