To mark International Women’s Day, the ION Analytics team, including reporters and analysts at Creditflux, Debtwire, Mergermarket, Dealreporter, Cybersecurity Law Report, Hedge Fund Law Report, Private Equity Law Report, and Anti-Corruption Report have interviewed outstanding women in their respective jurisdictions and fields. 

It is our honor to highlight these women and their accomplishments and contributions to their industries and share some of their insights and perspectives. These lawyers, advisors, investors and consultants from around the world specialize in private equity, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, hedge funds, anti-corruption, data privacy, and more. We hope these remarkable women inspire you as much as they do us. 

In this article, Madalina Iacob, Co-Managing Editor at Debtwire profiles notable women in the credit investing and special situations field, including (i) Surbhi Gupta, Managing Director in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group (ii) Richa Tandon, Managing Director and Co-Head of Origination at Benefit Street Partners, and (iii) Carly Gross, Managing Director & Head of Investor Relations at Mudrick Capital. 

Richa Tandon

Managing Director and Co-Head of Origination, Benefit Street Partners

Richa Tandon is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Origination at Benefit Street Partners (BSP). She plays a key role in leading the sourcing and execution of private debt transactions for middle-market borrowers for BSP’s USD 26bn private credit platform. In her role, Richa oversees a team of 25 investment professionals on the US private debt team, with a strong focus on origination. Prior to joining BSP in 2014, Richa was an associate at Trilantic Capital Partners, where she worked on private equity investments in the business services and consumer sectors. She began her career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Ms. Tandon received a Bachelor of Science from the Stern School of Business at New York University. 

What leadership qualities do you think female investors/analysts bring to the profession that are sometimes overlooked?

Private credit is a relationship-oriented business – you are partnering with companies, private equity funds and management teams through years of cycles, amendments, M&A upsizes and sometimes underperformance. 

Relationship building is often labeled as a “soft skill,” but in private credit it is one of the hardest things to do well and can directly impact successful credit outcomes. Women tend to play the long game and truly invest in relationships, and I believe in an illiquid, sponsor-driven market, that is a genuine edge. 

What advice do you have for younger women starting out their career in investing/restructuring?

The best advice I have for women starting out their career is to build your professional network early. In private credit, your network is infrastructure – it affects deal flow, your market intelligence and how you navigate complex transactions. 

Lawyers, advisors, sponsors, bankers, consultants, and restructuring advisors will all become part of your long-term ecosystem. Young women should start building relationships early and authentically. This is a small world, and careers are built on trust that compounds quietly over time.  

What are the major themes shaping your investment strategy right now – such as tariff uncertainty, AI-driven disruption, or other macro and structural forces – and how are they influencing how you position your portfolio/private credit investments?

Our investment strategy is anchored in navigating a market defined by elevated capital costs, geopolitical complexity, and accelerating technological disruption. 

The higher-for-longer rate environment remains the dominant force in credit – particularly as we move through a meaningful maturity wall over the next several years. Many capital structures were built for a fundamentally different cost-of-capital regime, and that the reset will create risk and opportunity. 

Tariff uncertainty and broader geopolitical fragmentation are amplifying earnings volatility in select sectors, making granular supply chain analysis and rigorous downside underwriting even more critical. 

Overlaying these macro dynamics, AI-driven disruption is widening dispersion within industries – strengthening competitive leaders while impairing at-risk business models. In this environment, positioning is less about broad sector bets and more about disciplined credit selection – structural protections, capital structure seniority, and situations where we are being appropriately compensated for complexity and risk. 

At BSP, that discipline is reinforced through a rigorous investment committee process and a consistent focus on downside-first underwriting across cycles. 

 Surbhi Gupta

Managing Director, Houlihan Lokey Financial Restructuring Group  

Surbhi Gupta is a Managing Director in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group, with experience in a wide variety of engagements, including Chapter 11 and out-of-court restructurings, debt-for-equity exchanges, and raising capital. She joined the firm in 2005, working on numerous European restructurings at the firm’s London office before transferring to New York. 

Ms. Gupta has worked on transactions across various industries, including but not limited to automotive, real estate, and retail. In recent years, she has provided restructuring advice to a major party of interest in transactions, such as Barneys New York, Hancock Fabrics, Delta Air Lines, Mark IV LLC, Extended Stay Hotels, and Herbst Gaming Inc., among others. 

Ms. Gupta holds a B.A. in Economics from Swarthmore College and an M.S. in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

What leadership qualities do you think female investors/analysts bring to the profession that are sometimes overlooked? 

I believe that women are particularly suited to the world of distressed for several reasons, but I think two qualities stand out: high emotional intelligence and strong listening skills. In what can be challenging situations, involving challenging personalities and challenging deal dynamics, the right answer isn’t simply what’s on the page or what the analysis indicates. It is oftentimes based on “reading the room” – watching for visual cues, listening carefully and trying to thread the myriad views into a consensus building idea or transaction. Being aggressive is important, no doubt, but women also have an exceptional ability to be inclusive and build consensus among disparate stakeholder groups: perhaps a testament to our ability to multitask and manage stress more effectively!  

What advice do you have for younger women starting out their career in investing/restructuring?

The five-second answer: Believe in yourself, network, and ultimately lean into your strengths. I know those sound trite, but they work.  People say those things all the time because they really work and will deliver meaningful value to your career. 

But it all first starts with being a ’sponge’ for technical knowledge. Restructuring is one of the more intellectually demanding niches in finance, and deep technical expertise is critical. However, these skills alone aren’t enough. You must also be your own best advocate. Don’t wait for your hard work to be ‘discovered.’ Find a mentor or sponsor who can provide visibility into the rooms where decisions are made. In an industry where women still only make up a fraction of senior leadership, building that ‘internal board of advisors’ early on is critical for long-term career resilience. 

As a corollary to the technical knowledge, hard work is table stakes, as it only gets you so far. Those long hours spent working on a deal mean relationships forged with counterparts on the other side. Stay connected. The same goes with work colleagues in other disciplines to enhance internal visibility and create a collaborative atmosphere. And mentorship is important – in both directions. 

Lastly, the most effective leaders I have seen lean into their strengths and build teams that complement their expertise, ensuring that the best advice is delivered to the client. That means having self-awareness of what you’re good at and, more importantly, not so good at so you can strategically add the appropriate talent. A collaborative, client first culture in which everyone leans into their strengths will lead to superior outcomes for our clients, which is why we’re here. 

To what extent do you think litigation challenging cooperation agreements will impact lenders’ strategic decisions or facilitate liability management exercises?

Candidly, the litigation is unlikely to make a meaningful dent. It may force certain market participants to reconsider whether to join a coop and the terms of such agreements (depending on the situation). However, against a backdrop of flexible credit agreements and a still somewhat elevated rate environment, sponsors will need to continue to find ways to preserve equity value, especially for those LBOs done post Covid in 2020 and 2021, and lenders will need to stay coordinated to ensure the group isn’t fractured and their recoveries impaired. Moreover, with private credit markets awash with capital, the deal away is still a credible threat for sponsors to use to get lenders to the table. 

At our firm, year-to-date activity in liability management has continued unabated across sectors, including most notably, healthcare, software and industrials. And existing coops for deals that have not yet been finalized have not been revisited or modified as a result.   

Carly Gross

Managing Director & Head of Investor Relations, Mudrick Capital Management 

Carly Gross is a Managing Director & Head of Investor Relations at Mudrick Capital Management, where she oversees all client relationships globally. Previously, she was on the Global Credit Investor Relations team at Carlyle and worked in Investor Relations at Och-Ziff Capital Management (now Sculptor Capital Management). Carly graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Joseph Wharton Scholar and a Ben Franklin Scholar. She was named to 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds by The Hedge Fund Journal in 2023. 

What leadership qualities do you think women in finance bring to the profession that are sometimes overlooked?

Women have numerous leadership qualities pertinent for careers in finance that I believe are undervalued. To start, women often possess high emotional intelligence, a skill that is critical in building culture, in conflict resolution, and in stakeholder management. Secondly, I find that women tend to be more collaborative, which is a beneficial trait for decision-making to optimize an output or result. Lastly, women are incredibly resilient. Notwithstanding the structural biases in place in this profession, female leaders are often equipped to handle high pressure environments, to manage multiple priorities simultaneously, and to adapt to a constantly shifting market environment. 

What advice do you have for younger women starting out their career in credit investing?

Be a sponge! Write down anything and everything, especially that which you don’t understand, and go look it up afterwards. This way, you will constantly be building and expanding your knowledge repository and over time, will be able to participate in the conversation more and more. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. It’s easier said than done, but the worst thing someone can say is no! 

Confidence and a clear, articulate perspective are half the battle. Studies show that confident individuals are perceived to be more competent, and you want to make sure that your voice gets heard. Read The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman! 

What themes matter most to investors right now, for example tariff uncertainty or AI disruption?

While tariff uncertainty and AI disruption are certainly macro themes impacting investors today, in our space, we see clients increasingly focused on liability management exercises (LMEs) and the large quantity of corporate debt maturing over the next several years. Nearly 100 LMEs took place over the last two years, and we expect that the looming maturity wall will continue to be a powerful catalyst for this type of restructuring activity. Clients want to see managers taking an active role in these situations with a seat at the negotiating table and with the ability to structure creative outcomes.

Madalina Iacob is a seasoned financial journalist with more than a decade of experience covering complex restructurings and event-driven credit across the high-yield and leveraged finance markets. She holds a Master’s degree in Business and Economic Reporting from New York University and a Master’s in European Politics & Policy from the University of Manchester in the UK. Prior to her U.S.-based financial journalism career, Madalina worked as a broadcast journalist covering geopolitical developments and policy across global markets, reporting live from Afghanistan, Belgium, Cuba, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.