Fifth Street hires a Goldman vet

Fifth Street Management, the Greenwich, CT-based lender and BDC advisor, has hired Todd Owens as a co-president. He will be starting in this new role on Sept. 29 and will split the duties with the firm’s existing president, Bernard Berman, who joined the firm in 2004. 

Owens will also become a member of the management committee and will be responsible for growing the business, new strategic initiatives, managing institutional capital raising efforts, investor relations and distribution channels. 

Prior to joining Fifth Street, Owens spent 24 years at Goldman Sachs most recently as a managing director and partner. While there, he has worn a variety of hats, including head of the West Coast Financial Institutions Group, head of the Specialty Finance Group and a senior member of the Bank Group. 

Owens has worked with Fifth Street while at Goldman for the past six years. “Todd and Goldman Sachs took our first BDC public in 2008 and since then Todd has been a valuable advisor to Fifth Street. His deep industry knowledge and specific understanding of our company, combined with his strong leadership skills, make him a unique and natural fit for this position,” Leonard Tannenbaum, Fifth Street's chief executive said in a news release. 

Fifth Street has about $5 billion under management and oversees several private funds and runs two publicly-traded business development companies, Fifth Street Finance Corp and Fifth Street Senior Floating Rate Corp. The firm’s platform provides custom financing solutions to small and mid-sized, private equity sponsored companies. It invests via one-stop financings, first lien, second lien, mezzanine debt and equity co-investments.