Flat Rock Global is founded by Robert Grunewald, CEO
Flat Rock Core Income Fund (CORFX) launched
Flat Rock Opportunity Fund (FROPX) launched
FROPX recognized by Creditflux as the Best CLO Fund
FROPX recognized as a finalist for Creditflux’s Manager Awards
CORFX recognized as a Performance Winner in the AltCredit US Performance & Services Awards
FROPX recognized as a finalist for Creditflux’s Manager Awards
Flat Rock Enhanced Income Fund (FRBBX) launched
Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and should be read carefully before investing. The prospectus may be obtained at flatrockglobal.com.
The Flat Rock Core Income Fund (CORFX), Flat Rock Enhanced Income Fund (FRBBX), and Flat Rock Opportunity Fund (FROPX) are distributed by Ultimus Fund Distributors, Inc.
Our Flat Rock investment professionals focus on niche strategies within the credit market. Advisors who partner with Flat Rock receive the focus and insights they need to successfully introduce alternatives into their client portfolios.
Chief financial officer
CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER
MANAGING DIRECTOR
MANAGING DIRECTOR
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Managing Director
Director
Head of marketing
Managing director
vice president
Managing Director
Director, Investments Sagehall
Robert K. Grunewald most recently served as the President and Chief Investment Officer of Business Development Corp. of America (BDCA). During his tenure at BDCA, Mr. Grunewald grew the company from $2.5 million of assets under management to $2.5 billion. BDCA was one of the top performing non-traded BDCs during Mr. Grunewald’s tenure. Mr. Grunewald hired the investment and origination teams, established BDCA’s strategy, and chaired the investment committee. He also established the firm’s loan management systems as well as its policies and procedures. While at BDCA, Mr. Grunewald also founded Kahala Aviation, a mid-life aircraft leasing business and The AR Capital BDC Income Fund, the first open-end mutual fund dedicated to investing in the BDC sector.
Mr. Grunewald has over 30 years of experience with middle market finance, BDCs and asset management. Within the finance industry, he has participated as a lender, investment banker, M&A advisor, private equity investor and hedge fund manager. As head of Financial Services M&A at NationsBank/Montgomery Securities from 1992 through 1997, Mr. Grunewald and his team completed numerous assignments for clients throughout the specialty finance industry. In 1997, Mr. Grunewald was recruited to lead the Specialty Finance Investment Banking Practice at what became Wachovia Securities. At Wachovia, Mr. Grunewald managed a number of high profile transactions, including initial public offerings and secondary offerings for some of the largest publicly-traded BDCs and finance companies including Capital Source, Ares Capital, American Capital Strategies, Allied Capital, and Gladstone Capital.
In 2006, Mr. Grunewald joined American Capital Strategies (‘‘ACAS’’), which was one of the largest publicly-traded BDCs before it was sold to Ares Capital Corp. in 2017. As head of the Financial Services Investment Practice from 2006 through 2009, Mr. Grunewald and his team focused on investment activity in the specialty finance, insurance, and asset management sectors. In his three years at ACAS, Mr. Grunewald committed over $1 billion to debt and equity investments generating an average annual return of 9.6%. While at ACAS he founded two highly successful financial services companies: Core Financial Holdings, a diversified commercial finance company and asset based lender, and American Capital Agency Corporation (NASDAQ: ‘‘AGNC’’), a publicly traded mortgage REIT.
Ryan Ripp joined Flat Rock Global in 2021 and oversees finance and operations for the firm. Before joining Flat Rock, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company and the Boston Consulting Group. He focused his work in the firms’ Corporate Finance & Strategy practices, where he advised clients on topics including operating model transformation for corporate finance organizations, zero-based budgeting, and M&A due diligence and integration. Previously, he worked as a Senior Associate within the equity research departments at Citi and Barclays, where he covered the TMT sector. He began his career as an investment banking analyst in the structured credit space.
Ryan earned his MBA, with honors, from Columbia Business School and his Bachelors in Finance from the University of Notre Dame. He is a CFA charterholder.
John Stahmer has had extensive experience in the finance industry, from serving as the CFO and COO of the Phoenix Arizona Department of Fire, Building and Life Safety, wholesaling for Insurance and Real Estate Products, business development for Balter Liquid Alternatives, LLC, to his current position as Managing Director of Flat Rock Global. In addition to his finance experience, Mr. Stahmer practiced as a private bar attorney for three years and served as the President of the Arizona Chapter of non-practicing attorneys. Mr. Stahmer attended University of Wisconsin Law School and has a masters in Finance from Eller College of Management.
James Bragg Prior to joining Flat Rock Global, James served as Vice President in the US Private Credit Solutions for Allianz Global Investors after their acquisition of Sound Harbor Partners where James was a Principal and Analyst. In these roles, he underwrote primary and secondary broadly syndicated and middle market leveraged loan deals. At Allianz Global Investors, he was also a key contributor to the launch of a new middle market loan strategy partnering with a regional bank to source middle market loans directly on a secondary basis while underwriting the loans. Sound Harbor Partners was a private credit manager specializing in alternative investments in corporate loans, direct lending, distressed debt and opportunistic credit.
During his tenure at Aladdin Capital, James underwrote and monitored high yield bonds and leveraged first and second lien loans across eleven CLO funds and five separate managed accounts representing $4.5b of AUM. James was a Director and Senior Analyst at Aladdin before their acquisition by Sound Harbor Partners. James was Vice-President at Denali Capital where he was an early contributor to the growth of this commercial loan asset management startup from inception to 8 CLO funds representing $2.5b of AUM. He also oversaw the successful development of three credit analysts at Denali.
James earned his Bachelors in History from Dartmouth College and his MBA from the University of Rochester. James is a CFA charterholder.
Stephen Pfau, CAIA, is a Managing Director at Flat Rock Global. Mr. Pfau brings a broad understanding of traditional and alternative investments over the course of 25 years in the investment industry. Prior to joining Flat Rock Global in 2022, he was a Director at FS Investments responsible for alternative investment business development focusing on Registered Investment Advisors, Family Offices and Investment Consultants. Before joining FS in 2019, he was Director of Business Development at Frontier Partners covering RIA’s, Family Offices and Bank Trusts. Formerly, Mr. Pfau was Executive Director in the RIA & Bank Trust channel at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and held client relations positions at Russell Investments and Vanguard.
Mr. Pfau earned a BS in Finance from Arcadia University and a MBA from Drexel University. He holds the Series 7 & 63 FINRA licenses as well as the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst® designation.
Heather Madden is a Managing Director at Flat Rock Global. Prior to joining Flat Rock Global in 2022, she was a Director at FS Investments responsible for alternative investment business development focusing on Registered Investment Advisors, Family Offices and Investment Consultants. Before joining FS in 2019, she was Senior Vice President at Advisory Research Investment Management covering RIA’s, Family Offices and Institutions. Formerly, Ms. Madden was Executive Director in the RIA & Bank Trust channel at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and held a relationship management position at Oak Associates, ltd.
Ms. Madden earned a BA in Communications from Denison University and a MBA from Case Western Reserve University. She holds the Series 7 & 63 FINRA licenses.
Derek Russo joined Flat Rock Global in 2021. Prior to joining Flat Rock Global, Derek served as a Vice President at Kahala Aviation, a boutique aircraft leasing manager that invested in mid-life commercial and freighter aircraft. At Kahala, Derek had primary pricing and underwriting responsibility for new investments as well as monitoring, maintenance analysis and sales modeling of the existing fleet.
Before joining Kahala, Derek worked at BDCA Adviser as a leveraged loan credit analyst where he underwrote over $800 million in debt investments consisting of broadly syndicated and middle market transactions. During his time at BDCA, Derek helped launch the fund’s aircraft leasing strategy and established a joint venture with Kahala Aviation to invest in commercial and freighter aircraft. He began his career at UBS Investment Bank on the high yield bond desk as a credit analyst covering the Gaming, Lodging and Leisure sector.
Derek graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Ann Hynek is the Head of Marketing for Flat Rock Global. With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing for financial services, Ann is a recognized expert in thought leadership content and brand strategy.
Prior to joining Flat Rock Global, Ann was Head of Content and Campaign Strategy at Lord Abbett, where she restructured the firm’s approach to thought leadership in performance marketing. She joined Lord Abbett after leading a team at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where she helped to build and launch its Access Investing platform as Executive Director, Head of Digital Content and Capabilities Marketing. Ann developed her passion for data and analytics-driven marketing strategy as a Vice President at BlackRock, working first within the iShares business in San Francisco and later joining the team in New York.
Ann earned her Bachelors in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and her Masters in Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver. She holds both the FINRA Series 7 and Series 24 financial securities licenses.
John FitzHugh is a Managing Director at Flat Rock Global. John has over 30 years of fixed income sales and marketing experience from Wells Fargo and its predecessors. John served as a Managing Director in the Asset Backed Finance sales team and throughout his career has held senior sales positions including Head of Structured Product Sales, and Co-Head of International Structured Product Sales. He has sold, and led sales teams responsible for, the distribution of structured products including CLOs, CMBS, ABS and MBS. John’s tenured immersion in structured products sales and management, focused on the largest institutional buyers globally, has afforded him the knowledge and experience to provide valued insight on innovative, new structures and product distribution channels.
John graduated from Virginia Tech with a BS in Finance and was a member of the Peach Bowl championship team. He holds the Series 7, Series 24 and Series 63 FINRA licenses.
Michael Dolacky is a Vice President at Flat Rock Global. Prior to Flat Rock, Michael worked as a senior investment analyst at Senzar Asset Management, portfolio manager at Mirae Asset Global Investments, and operating partner at Black Watch Advisors. He began his career in US Rates at Nomura Securities International.
Mr. Dolacky holds a BA in Economics from Tufts University and lives in New York City.
Will Joyner is a Managing Director at Flat Rock Global. Prior to joining Flat Rock, Will spent over 25 years with leading financial institutions in sales and relationship management for institutional loan, high yield and structured credit markets.
Will spent 10 years with Citizens as a Managing Director where he helped build a loan sales, trading and research team. Citizens was regularly a top originator for middle market leveraged loans. Will maintained sales responsibilities with leading investors and actively collaborated with capital markets colleagues to assist in distribution strategy and investor due diligence. Clients included both broadly syndicated managers and a variety of middle market and private credit funds. Will contributed to the growth of the bank’s lender finance portfolio by introducing key investor clients.
Prior to joining Citizens, Will spent 17 years with BofA Securities in a senior sales role covering large institutional investors for broadly syndicated new issue loan transactions and secondary trading for performing and distressed loans. Clients included CLO managers, mutual fund companies, loan ETF’s, banks and various specialty lenders. Will actively solicited new CLO mandates and assisted in warehousing and sourcing for CLO clients.
Will earned a BA in Economics from UNC Chapel Hill and an MBA with honors from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He holds Series 7 and Series 63 licenses.
Bob Kleinert runs the Capital Raising Group at Sandler O’Neill Partners, L.P., responsible for capital raising across debt, equity, trust preferred securities and structured finance. Prior to this, Mr. Kleinert was Chairman of CSJ Investments and, before that, was Head of Debt and Syndicate at Salomon Brothers during his nearly 20-year career with the company.
John Thomson has a 30+ year career that spans investing across the middle market, private equity and real estate.
From 1984-2011, Mr. Thompson was a partner of Norwest Equity Partners and instrumental in raising six PE and three mezzanine partnerships.
Mr. Thomson is currently Chairman of the Investment Committee at Stonebridge Partners, and Harkness Capital Partners, as well as Chairman of Thomson Equity Partners, and additionally, a board member of Dermot Companies, a NYC – based real estate firm.
Vivian Garcia-Tunon brings years of experience in executive coaching, as well as a successful career as a Human Resources leader within financial services, private equity, and investment banking. Her specializations have included mergers & acquisitions, talent, and building high performing teams in fast paced growth organizations.
Ms. Garcia Tunon founded VGT Consulting Group, a human capital consulting firm, to work with executives and teams to provide leadership, management, and training services, helping them achieve individual goals and corporate objectives.
Christopher Grunewald is a Director on the Investments team at Sagehall, a real estate private equity firm in New York City, where he focuses on acquisitions and asset management.
Previously, Christopher was at Spear Street Capital in San Francisco and at Westbrook Partners in New York City. Christopher began his career at Eastdil Secured in the Real Estate Investment Banking Division.
Christopher received his B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.
