Czech Asset Management

Founder Steven Czech chairs the investment committee and sets macro portfolio allocation. The senior team includes Jonathan Lewis and Robert Jackowitz, who oversee origination and underwriting respectively. The firm's CLO portfolio management and restructuring decisions run through a centralized credit committee that meets at least weekly, per the firm's standard operating model.

Deal flow originates primarily through private-equity sponsor relationships, restructuring advisory firms, and direct corporate outreach. The firm's CLO issuance activity provides a second channel — relationships with arranging banks generate visibility into secondary loan trades and portfolio sales. Czech's energy practice sources directly from project developers and independent power producers rather than through traditional advisor-led auctions.

The firm runs its own commingled vehicles and managed accounts, but it does not act as a fund-of-funds or allocate to external managers as a principal strategy. Capital is deployed primarily through proprietary direct-lending funds, CLOs, and separately managed accounts. The firm retains CLO equity positions through its own CLO Equity Fund, which co-invests alongside institutional limited partners.

The lending platform focuses on established mid-market companies generating $10 million to $75 million in EBITDA, with a preference for cash-flow-positive businesses. The distressed and special-situations vertical acquires loans and claims at various points in the capital structure of companies in or near bankruptcy. The CLO platform invests across the broadly syndicated loan market, which is predominantly large-cap.

Founder Steven Czech was a senior executive at RBS Greenwich Capital before its post-crisis wind-down, where he built and ran the CLO platform. Czech Asset Management is not a direct corporate successor; it is a new platform that Czech launched in 2013, drawing on the structuring expertise and market relationships developed during his RBS tenure.

Yes. The firm has been certified as a minority-owned business enterprise, with founder Steven Czech's Hispanic heritage forming the basis. This designation is a fact of the firm's organizational structure rather than a marketing claim, and some public pension plans have cited it in documentation explaining their allocation decisions.

The firm does not actively market co-investment opportunities alongside external private-equity managers. Its model is to originate and lead credit transactions directly. The CLO Equity Fund represents a form of co-investment, but the co-investors in that vehicle are limited partners investing alongside the general partner's retained equity, not alongside a third-party GP.