WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., April 12, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NYSE:FSC) announced today additions to the staff of its investment adviser, Fifth Street Management LLC ("Fifth Street"), as well as promotions within the team. Robert Rakowski joins as an Executive Director within its portfolio management division; Arnold Jung joins as an Associate. In addition to these new hires, we are pleased to announce the promotion of Kyde Sharp to the position of Vice President and Jennifer Yang to the position of Associate, both within the underwriting division.
"For several months I have been announcing our plan to expand our team with seasoned talent and we have been able to take advantage of the market," commented Leonard M. Tannenbaum, Chief Executive Officer, who also added, "We are also very pleased to recognize the achievements of both Kyde and Jennifer and welcome their expanded contributions to Fifth Street. We believe these additions and promotions reflect our ongoing strategy of building the firm to allow Fifth Street Finance Corp. to be a leading provider of capital to middle market companies."
Prior to joining Fifth Street, Mr. Rakowski was a Director with the restructuring firm AlixPartners, where he was actively involved with the financial and operational restructurings of corporations across a variety of industries. Prior to AlixPartners, Mr. Rakowski was a Strategy Senior Manager with Accenture and provided a wide range of management consulting services which included cost reductions, sales and marketing improvements, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Rakowski began his career with Arthur Andersen Business Consulting and Deloitte & Touche. Mr. Rakowski received his B.S. in Accounting from St. Michael's College (summa cum laude) and his M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.
Arnold Jung joins Fifth Street as an Associate and most recently comes from The Royal Bank of Scotland where he was a financial analyst. While at RBS, Mr. Jung performed financial analyses on potential mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and divestitures. He was also involved in all aspects of buy and sell-side processes of mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Jung will be primarily focused on analyzing mergers and acquisitions activity with the goal of expanding the Fifth Street platform. Mr. Jung holds a B.A. in Economics from New York University.
Kyde Sharp is a member of Fifth Street's underwriting team and is responsible for the evaluation, structuring, documentation and management of middle market leveraged cash flow transactions. Mr. Sharp joined the firm in June 2008. Prior to joining Fifth Street, he was an attorney at a boutique litigation firm in Washington, D.C. where he focused on securities law and dispute resolution. Additionally, Mr. Sharp served as an Associate at Entrecorp, a Washington, D.C.-based consultancy, where he analyzed and structured investments in a variety of industries. Mr. Sharp received a J.D. from Fordham Law School and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Jennifer Yang is also a member of Fifth Street's underwriting team and is involved in the evaluation and structuring of new portfolio investments for the firm. Ms. Yang joined Fifth Street in June 2007. Ms. Yang received her B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and Accounting from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
About Fifth Street Finance Corp.
Fifth Street Finance Corp. is a specialty finance company that lends to and invests in small and mid-sized companies in connection with investments by private equity sponsors. Fifth Street Finance Corp.'s investment objective is to maximize its portfolio's total return by generating current income from its debt investments and capital appreciation from its equity investments.
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Forward-Looking Statements
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