September 1, 2009 (FinancialWire) — Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NYSE: FSC) announced that Casey Zmijeski has joined the firm as a Managing director.

Zmijeski will be based in Fifth Street’s New York office and will be responsible for developing and maintaining private equity sponsor relationships and sourcing debt financing opportunities in the Eastern Region of the U.S., similar to his role at Churchill Financial.

“With our recent equity raise, we have significant cash on hand and are expanding our team with talented senior people,” said Juan E. Alva, Partner & Head of Origination at Fifth Street. “Casey, who will lead our origination efforts in the Eastern Region, is a key addition. His knowledge and expertise will be tremendous assets as we continue to deepen our sponsor coverage and expand our national footprint.”

Zmijeski joins Fifth Street from Churchill Financial where he served as a Managing director responsible for originating and underwriting middle market loans. Previously, he was a director at CapitalSource Finance and served in senior roles at GE Global Sponsor Finance and Heller Corporate Finance. Zmijeski has more than 20 years of leveraged lending experience, primarily to the middle market private equity community. He is a graduate of Duke University and received his MBA from Emory University.

Leonard M. Tannenbaum, Fifth Street’s CEO said, “While several of our competitors are capital constrained and retreating from the market, Fifth Street is in a strong financial position as we are unlevered and have substantial cash in the bank. We are eager to grow our team and continue to serve our sponsor partners making investments alongside them. We think there has never been a better time to invest.”

FinancialWire(tm) is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service. FinancialWire(tm) is not a press release service, and receives no compensation for its news, opinions or distributions. Further disclosure is at the FinancialWire(tm) web site (http://www.financialwire.net/disclosures.php). Contact FinancialWire(tm) directly via inquiries@financialwire.net.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.