James E. Keenan, CFA, Managing Director, is Chief Investment Officer and Global Head of Private Debt for BlackRock, and Chairman and interim Chief Executive Officer of the BlackRock Capital Investment Corporation.

Mr. Keenan leads BlackRock's Private Debt platform that includes infrastructure, real estate debt, private credit, asset-based lending, and securitized credit ranging from investment grade, performing, and opportunistic & mezzanine strategies. He oversees both business and investment strategy across the platform including investment committees, investment processes, risk management & performance.

For nearly 20 years with BlackRock, Mr. Keenan has been instrumental in expanding investment solutions for clients across liquid leveraged finance, private credit, hedge funds, and multi-alternative strategies. Prior to his current role Mr. Keenan was the CIO and Global Head of Credit for BlackRock Alternatives. He previously built and led the firm’s public market credit and leveraged finance business and has been a portfolio manager across a range of liquid, private, hedge funds and multi-strategy credit funds since 2004 alongside private credit businesses.

Mr. Keenan is a member of BlackRock's Global Operating Committee, Portfolio Management Group Executive Committee, and the investment subcommittee of the firm’s Global Executive Committee. He serves on the Investment Committee for BlackRock’s Private Equity Partners, Long-Term Private Capital, and Transition Capital, alongside all the Private Debt strategies.

Mr. Keenan began his career in credit research and trading with UBS Global Asset Management and Columbia Management Group. He earned a BBA in finance from the University of Notre Dame in 1998. He is a member of Notre Dame's Wall Street Committee, its Athletic Advisory Council, and the Board of Directors of Good Shepherd Services, a service and advocacy partnership in New York City.

Jose Aguilar, Managing Director, is a portfolio manager on the Credit Enhanced Strategies Europe team and co-manages European High Yield strategies.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2009, Mr. Aguilar was an Associate and research analyst at R3 Capital Partners. He began his career at Lehman Brothers in 2005 working in the Global Principal Strategies and Financial Institutions Groups.

Mr. Aguilar earned degrees in business administration and law from Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain.

Jeff Cucunato is the lead portfolio manager for the Multi-Strategy Credit platform within BlackRock's Global Credit group. Mr. Cucunato is responsible for managing portfolios that allocate to opportunities across the global credit markets. He also chairs the credit platform's Investment Strategy Group, which focuses on evaluating investment opportunities across global investment grade, high yield, bank loans and illiquid credit.

 
Previously, Mr. Cucunato was Head of Investment Grade Credit where he lead the firm's U.S. fundamental investment grade credit effort for over 10 years and spent 15 years as the lead portfolio manager for BlackRock's investment grade credit and long duration portfolios. He began his investment career in 1997 focusing on interest rate products, including management of BlackRock's inflation-linked bond portfolios. Mr. Cucunato joined BlackRock in 1995 as an analyst in the Institutional Client Business group, working with international clients and alternative investments. 
 
Mr. Cucunato earned a BA degree, cum laude, in history from Dartmouth College in 1995.

Mitchell S. Garfin, CFA, Managing Director, is the Co-Head of U.S. High Yield within BlackRock's Global Credit team. He is also responsible for managing Global High Yield strategies. 

Mr. Garfin joined BlackRock in 1997 as an analyst in the Account Management Group working with taxable financial institutional clients. He joined the Portfolio Management Group in 2000 as a credit research analyst and in 2005 moved to portfolio management.  Mr. Garfin moved to his current role in 2007 and serves as Head of the Global Credit Human Capital Committee.

Mr. Garfin earned a BA degree, with distinction, in finance from the University of Michigan in 1997, and an MBA degree in finance and economics from New York University in 2005.