First Avenue bolsters US private credit team

First Avenue Partners, the London-based global advisory and capital placement business focused on private funds and companies, has hired Haroon Chishti as a director in its private credit team in New York.

Chishti was previously a vice president at Unigestion where he worked on origination, due diligence and research across a number of credit strategies. Prior to that, he spent the majority of his career at Avenue Capital Group co-managing a multi-manager hedge funds portfolio. He also had spells at Tremont Capital Management and ABN AMRO.

“It is rare to find someone as knowledgeable about liquid and illiquid credit as Haroon,” said Ben Schryber, head of private credit at First Avenue. “He brings over 10 years of credit investing experience to First Avenue.”

First Avenue has five global offices and a large team of former pension consultants on its staff. It advises GPs and management teams across private equity, private credit, real estate and real assets.

The firm has advised the likes of Permira, Hastings Funds Management, M&G Investments and MezzVest on their fundraising efforts.