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"Institutional investors are allocating to private credit strategies at a robust pace, and we are building a strong team to provide our clients with the type of credit exposure they seek," said Peter Wilson, Managing Director, HarbourVest. "Karen's 20 years of credit experience will enable HarbourVest to continue adding to our private credit capabilities in both commingled fund and separate account formats."

The credit business leverages HarbourVest's decades of experience and relationships with private equity general partners to offer tailored financing solutions. HarbourVest's private credit program complements the firm's existing business practices, offering investors access to a new asset class characterized by differentiated credit deal flow, capital preservation, and current income.

Prior to joining HarbourVest, Karen was a Managing Director at TCW Direct Lending (formerly Regiment Capital's direct lending arm), where she was responsible for all aspects of investing in secured debt to middle-market borrowers, including sourcing, evaluating, structuring, underwriting, and managing secured loans. Karen's previous experience includes middle-market debt investing at Stairway Capital and positions in the leveraged finance and high yield groups at J.P. Morgan. Karen received a BS from Georgetown University and studied at the London School of Economics.

"Karen's industry perspective, network and expertise in senior credit and restructuring rounds out our private credit business across the credit stack," said Peter Lipson, Managing Director, HarbourVest. "The private credit asset class continues to grow in size and scope, both industry-wide and at our firm, and Karen's experience will complement well what we have built with our credit team thus far."

"I'm thrilled to be joining such a talented and growing team that is well positioned for expansion," said Simeone. "This is a great opportunity to continue to build a platform that benefits investors through access to differentiated deal flow and offers private equity sponsors tailored debt and equity financing solutions. Given its breadth of relationships with buyout sponsors, I believe HarbourVest offers a unique model within the private credit universe."

The combination of private equity sponsors' need for lending partners to complete deals and institutional investor appetite for private credit allocations to capture yield has led to growing demand for this asset class. HarbourVest has committed more than $550 million to 32 private credit direct investments since 20031. In 2014, after years of making private credit investments through various programs with broader mandates, HarbourVest created a dedicated program focused on junior credit investments complemented by an equity component. HarbourVest closed this dedicated private credit fund, Mezzanine Income Fund I, at its hard cap of $375 million in April 2017.