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"[Private credit] provides great risk adjusted returns but it is not fundamentally liquid." - Ken Kencel
Takeaways
- Monitor private credit market developments
- Private Credit is reshaping middle market financing
- Consider diversification with private credit and private equity
- Stay informed on AI's impact on markets
- Now is a good time to look into municipal bonds
Ken is the President and CEO of Churchill Asset Management, an affiliate of Nuveen, the asset manager of TIAA, a Fortune 500 financial services company. He also serves as Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Nuveen Churchill Direct Lending Corp. (NYSE: NCDL) and Nuveen Churchill Private Capital Income Fund (PCAP), Churchill’s publicly registered business development companies.
Previously, Ken served as a Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, where he also served as President and a Director of Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. Prior to that he founded and was President and CEO of Churchill Financial Group, served as Head of Leveraged Finance for Royal Bank of Canada and was Head of Indosuez Capital, a leading middle market merchant banking and asset management business in partnership with Credit Agricole Group. Ken was also a founder of the high yield finance business at Chase Securities (now JP Morgan Chase). He began his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Drexel Burnham Lambert. He regularly appears as a guest commentator on private credit markets on Bloomberg, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. In 2023, Ken was named by Private Debt Investor as “One of the 30 ChangeMakers” who helped shape the private debt industry over the past decade. And in 2025, Ken was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The M&A Advisor and inducted into their Hall of Fame.
