Saffet Ozbalci, Managing Director, Global Head of Structured Credit within BlackRock’s Fundamental Fixed Income platform. He is responsible for leading BlackRock’s CLO investing and broadly syndicated CLO management businesses.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2012, Mr. Ozbalci was Head of CLO Trading at BNP Paribas. Previously, Mr. Ozbalci was a portfolio manager at Barclays Global Investors (BGI), primarily responsible for investments in securitized assets including ABS, RMBS, CLO and CDOs. In his previous role, he was the lead portfolio manager at Securities Finance Trust Company, primarily focusing on securitized assets and portfolio structuring.

Mr. Ozbalci earned a BS degree in Civil Engineering from Middle East Technical University and an MBA/MS degree in Finance from Boston College.

Peter Hirsh, Director, is a member of BlackRock’s Fundamental Fixed Income platform. He is a portfolio manager for CLOs, responsible for the structuring and execution of CLOs as well as managing third-party CLO tranche portfolios.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Hirsh was a product strategist where he led the product development and structuring efforts for BlackRock CLOs. Prior to that, while in the Special Opportunities Group within BlackRock Alternative Investors (BAI), he was responsible for managing investments, marketing and structuring opportunities driven by dislocations in the global financial markets with primary responsibility for marketing and structuring BlackRock's structured transactions, including CLOs.

Mr. Hirsh’s tenure with the firm dates back to 1999 when he joined the Portfolio Administration Group and was responsible for fund administration of BlackRock's CDO products, including general portfolio management support. Previously, Mr. Hirsh was an associate at JP Morgan developing and managing financial reporting systems and a financial consultant with Price Waterhouse.

Mr. Hirsh earned a BS in Economics and Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nidhi Patel, Director, is a member of BlackRock’s Fundamental Fixed Income platform. She is a portfolio manager for CLOs, responsible for research, selection, and trading of third-party CLOs managed on behalf of client separately managed accounts and CLO allocations for various BlackRock funds.

Prior to joining BlackRock, she held a similar role at MKP Capital Management where she worked for 9 years in various securitized asset classes. Earlier in her career, Nidhi worked at Deloitte & Touche where she was a Senior Auditor focused on CLO/CDO advisory and, prior to that, was an Auditor at Arthur Andersen.

Ms. Patel earned a BS degree in Accounting from Binghamton University School of Management and is a licensed CPA in New York.