Private Credit

As a member of the firm’s portfolio specialist team, Phil focuses on our private market strategies. He is responsible for communicating our investment process and strategy, asset-class perspectives, strategy performance and positioning to clients. In addition, Phil works closely with investors on private markets research, education, and portfolio construction. Phil has more than 13 years of industry experience, including roles at Fort Washington Investment Advisors and Mercer. Prior to joining Calamos in 2024, Phil served as Principal, Private Markets at Mercer where he led coverage of private credit and helped manage the firm’s institutional private markets fund-of-funds offering. Before embarking on his corporate career, Phil played professional baseball with the Cincinnati Reds organization. Phil graduated from Xavier University with a BA in Accounting. In addition to being a CFA charterholder, he holds the CAIA designation.

Mr. Cragg is Head of Capital Solutions at Third Point.

Mr. Cragg joined Third Point in 2025 as part of Third Point’s acquisition of Birch Grove. Previously, Mr. Cragg was the Head of Private Credit at Birch Grove and led the build out of its private credit strategy from 2018-2025. Prior to Birch Grove, Mr. Cragg spent nearly 19 years in a variety of investment and advisory roles including as Managing Partner of Trevi Health Capital, a healthcare-focused investment management firm and as an investment banker at Groton Partners, Wasserstein Perella and Prudential Vector Healthcare.

Mr. Cragg received a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of St. Thomas.

Brett is a Managing Director on the Pan-Alts team in the Americas and has over 14 years of industry experience. Brett works with Aksia’s global institutional clients on private markets portfolio strategy and construction and related investment advisory activities.

Prior to joining Aksia in 2023, Brett was the Associate Director at Marquette Associates, where he was a member of the Research Team, and led coverage of private credit, private equity, growth equity, and venture capital investments for the firm’s institutional clients. Prior to joining Marquette, Brett was a director at a New York City-based financial technology start-up. He previously held roles in the Institutional Groups at Invesco, Deutsche Bank, and Sentinel Investments where he led relationship development for the firm’s largest clients. Prior to embarking on his corporate career, Brett played professional baseball with Chicago White Sox.

Brett graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BA in History and holds an MBA from Yale School of Management. He holds the CAIA designation.

Mr. Long is the CEO for StepStone Private Wealth.

Mr. Long has three decades of experience in the private markets and has led investment teams for global firms in both the general partner and limited partner role. He has served as the CEO of two publicly-traded companies focused on expanding private market access for high net worth investors.

Prior to joining StepStone, Mr. Long was the CEO of OHA Investment Corporation, a publicly-traded specialty finance company. Previously, he co-founded Conversus Capital, the largest publicly traded fund of third-party private equity funds with $3 billion of AUM and served as its CEO. Previously, Mr. Long led Bank of America’s $7 billion strategic capital division. Early in his career, Mr. Long served as the lead in-house counsel for a large portion of Bank of America’s Investment Banking Division and worked as a securities lawyer for a major law firm.

A recognized industry leader, Mr. Long was named one of 50 “GameChangers” by Private Equity International, has been profiled in the WSJ, and hosted CNBC Squawk Box Europe on numerous occasions. He is a founding Director of the Defined Contribution Alternatives Association and chairs its Public Policy Committee.

Mr. Long received his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Virginia. Mr. Long has served on the board of the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina and is an active supporter of adoption organizations.

Mr. Schindler leads StepStone’s global private debt activities. He is also involved in various investment and management activities.

Prior to StepStone, Mr. Schindler was CFO at a publicly held financial company in Switzerland where he focused on equity investments. Before that he was a member of the European risk management team at Arthur Andersen. Previously, Mr. Schindler focused on commercial and mortgage lending at UBS.

Mr. Schindler received his MBA from the University of Zurich and is a CPA in Switzerland.

Chris Taylor joined Third Point in 2023. After starting his career at Deloitte, Mr. Taylor joined New York Life Investments (NYLIM) in 2005 as a credit analyst and rose to CEO of Madison Capital Funding LLC, its private lending boutique, where he helped build the platform to over $15.0 billion in assets and oversaw a team of over 100 employees. Mr. Taylor was also the founding CEO of Apogem Capital, which merged Madison Capital and two other investment boutiques owned by NYLIM to create a single, fully integrated, alternative investment boutique focused on middle market private capital solutions, with ~$40.0B of AUM and over 200 employees. Mr. Taylor earned a Master of Science in Taxation and B.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.