Canyon Partners

Co-Founders, Co-Chairmen, and Co-CEOs Josh Friedman and Mitch Julis share ultimate investment and strategic authority. The firm has operated under this dual-CEO structure since 1990, with day-to-day portfolio decisions delegated to sector heads across corporate credit, structured credit, real estate, and liquid strategies.

Canyon operates a hybrid model that spans hedge-fund-style open-ended vehicles, closed-end drawdown funds, and a CLO issuance platform. Because it manages commingled capital across liquidity profiles — and since Dai-ichi Life Holdings took a 19.9% stake in September 2023 — the firm blends elements of an alternative asset manager with a permanent capital base.

The September 2023 strategic agreement with Dai-ichi Life Holdings gives Canyon a permanent capital anchor. Dai-ichi allocates to Canyon's funds and CLOs while gaining distribution rights for Canyon's products in Japan, creating a balance-sheet partnership that reduces redemption risk relative to purely market-funded credit managers.

Canyon originates senior mortgages, mezzanine debt, and structured equity on transitional and value-add commercial real estate. The firm launched its first commingled real estate debt strategy to pool institutional capital alongside deal-by-deal co-investments, targeting properties where a credit-intensive underwriting process can extract better terms.

Canyon formalized an ESG-focused strategy and became a UN Principles for Responsible Investment signatory, later replacing its initial ESG approach with a broader Responsible Investment Policy. The firm integrates environmental, social, and governance factors into its credit analysis where data is available, treating governance and climate risk as inputs to default-probability assessment rather than as a separate screening exercise.

Canyon typically originates and underwrites its own transactions rather than relying on co-invest offers from private-equity sponsors. Its capital-solutions strategy, launched as a commingled vehicle, invests in dislocated and complex private-credit situations where Canyon's own restructuring and legal expertise gives it a sourcing advantage, minimizing dependence on syndicated co-investment tranches.

Josh Friedman and Mitch Julis remain Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs with active portfolio and strategic involvement. The firm's governance document designates both founders as the senior investment committee, meaning no singular succession event has occurred; the dual-leader model distributes key-person risk across two principals.