Howard Gellis is a retired Senior Managing Director and head of Blackstone’s Corporate Debt Investment Group which he co-founded in 1999. He was also a member of Blackstone Debt Advisors’ Investment Committee and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Gellis was a Managing Director and head of Nomura Holding America Inc.’s Leveraged Capital Group, which he founded in 1994. Previously, Mr. Gellis headed mezzanine and institutional marketing activities for Alliance Capital Management, L.P.’s corporate finance group (and its predecessor, Equitable Capital Management Corporation) from 1987 to 1994. Prior to that, Mr. Gellis was a Vice President and General Manager of GE Capital’s Western Corporate Finance. Mr. Gellis’ leveraged finance career has spanned over 30 years. Mr. Gellis graduated cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.