The European Leveraged Finance Association (Elfa) has appointed Edward Eyerman as its new chief executive, replacing Sabrina Fox, who resigned in September.
Eyerman was managing director and head of European leveraged finance at Fitch Ratings, where he has worked as a leveraged finance analyst since 2003. Before that, he began his capital markets career at Merrill Lynch in New York in 1994 and subsequently worked in levfin at Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse in London.
Elfa was founded in 2019 to act as a voice for investors in European leveraged finance. The founders, which included Fox, believed their views were not well enough represented by existing trade bodies, at a time when private equity firms and investment banks were continually pushing to reduce protections for investors in deal documentation.
The association now has four staff besides the CEO and Michael Dolan, independent chair of the board. Until 2023 he was director of research at Fidelity International in London.
Elfa has eight committees run by market practitioners covering artificial intelligence; CLO investors; disclosure and transparency; diversity, equity and inclusion; engagement; ESG; leveraged loans, and private credit.
Fox was a high yield bond lawyer who had also worked from 2015 to 2018 at Covenant Review, a research firm specialising in levfin deal terms.
She has also founded Fox Legal Consulting, Fox Legal Training and Good Girl to Goddess, which offers personal development training for women.