What’s new?
After managing SBIC funds for 23 years, I finally decided to launch my own credit platform with another woman partner, Liddy Karter, whom I have known for 20 years, and Annie Li, who has worked with me for 13 years. We are focused on investing as senior secured debt in lower middle-market companies with under $10 million of Ebitda. We want to be more senior in the capital structure since we’re concerned we could have a downturn in the economy in the next year or two

How are you a champion for change?
It takes a lot of courage to resign and go out on your own but I felt that this was the right time in my life to do it. In a human resources exercise, I was asked to pretend it’s 10 years from now and you look back on your life and ask: “Is there something you will regret that you have not done?” At that moment, I realized I would regret it if I didn’t try to launch a woman-owned fund. Out of 305 SBICs across the country, there is only one SBIC more than 50 percent owned by women. I hope to change that statistic. We decided on the name of our fund as Mizzen Capital because the mizzen sail is the stability sail on a sailboat that keeps you heading in the right direction. We also liked the play on the word (MIZZ) with Ms. Adler, Ms. Karter and Ms. Li.

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