Abacus Finance Group said Jan. 10 to promoted Aized Rabbani to managing director, Timothy Wong to senior vice president and Jonathan Choa to senior associate.
PRESS RELEASE
NEW YORK, NY, January 10, 2018 – Abacus Finance Group, LLC, a leading direct lending company based in New York that provides cash-flow senior financing for private equity-sponsored, lower-middle market companies, is pleased to announce the following promotions:
• Aized Rabbani from Director to Managing Director
• Timothy Wong from Senior Vice President to Director
• Jonathan Choa from Senior Associate to Vice President
“These three partners are key members of the Abacus team and have helped us complete over 60 investments since our launch in 2011, putting us past the $1.7 billion mark in total financings,” said Tim Clifford, Co-Founder and CEO of Abacus. “When we set out to build a sponsor-focused leveraged lending business for the lower-middle market, we knew the demand was there, and over the past seven years we have been on a growth path that has made us the lower-middle market financing leader. Our value proposition goes back to that interaction with our private equity clients and wanting to make sure that they are at the forefront of everything we do. As we look forward, we will continue to put our sponsor relationships first and provide them with the level of service they have grown to expect.”
“In addition to an exclusive focus on financing smaller buyouts,” added Sean McKeever, Managing Director, COO and Co-founder of Abacus. “The principal factor contributing to our growth is ourTotal Partnership Approach TM, which is a passionate commitment to serving our clients and delivering on what we promise. Execution of this would not be possible without talented partners like Aized, Timothy and Jonathan.”
Mr. Rabbani joined Abacus Finance in 2014 as a Senior Vice President on the investment team, responsible for originating, structuring, underwriting and executing new investments. His sponsor coverage area includes the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states. Previously, he was an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan in the investment banking Corporate Credit group. Prior to that,Aized was a Vice President in the JPMorgan Mezzanine Capital group and an Associate in the Leveraged Finance group at J.P. Morgan. He began his career with General Electric’s management program followed by technology roles at MicroStrategy. Aized earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Math at Lafayette College.
Mr. Wong joined Abacus Finance in 2013 as a Vice President on the investment team, responsible for originating, structuring, underwriting and executing new investments. He also performs various portfolio monitoring activities. His sponsor coverage area includes the mid-West and West Coast. Previously, he was a Vice President and a founding member of the Leveraged Finance team at US Bank in New York. Prior to US Bank, Timothy was an Assistant Vice President at CIT Asset Management and a Senior Associate at American Capital. He began his career as an investment banking analyst at JPMorgan. He earned a BA in Economics and Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mr. Choa joined Abacus Finance in 2015 as an Associate and works as part of the investment team in structuring, underwriting and executing new investments. He also fulfills various portfolio monitoring and valuation roles. Previously, he was an Associate at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the Leveraged Finance group. Prior to that, Jonathan was an Associate at Jefferies Group LLC in the Leveraged Finance group. Before transitioning to the private sector, he spent six years as an Army Infantry Officer. He earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point.