Kristen Holihan is a Senior Vice President, Senior Business Development Officer for Bank of America Business Capital (BABC), the asset based lending team at Bank of America. Kristen is responsible for identifying and engaging new ABL opportunities and working with potential borrowers to get a new ABL revolver structured and closed. She is focused on covering private equity groups, advisors, middle market companies, and large corporate companies, in both Metro New York and Upstate New York, to deliver these solutions. Kristen has also spent significant time as an ABL underwriter, as well as on the Leveraged Finance Origination and Capital Markets teams. Kristen graduated from Babson College in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science (concentration in finance). She will also be starting the Executive MBA Program at Columbia University in August 2021. Kristen is a member of the Diversity Equity and Inclusiveness Committee for the Secured Finance Network, as well as a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Council at Bank of America.

 

Please provide a bit of background. How did you get into the industry? What is involved in your current role?

I interned with Bank of America Business Capital during the summer after my junior year at Babson, and then started full time after I graduated. During my first two years at the bank, I developed a strong connection with the ABL team and products we offered through the BABC platform. BABC is the leader in the syndicated ABL market, with 39% market share as of Q1 2021. Being a part of this top-tier team launched my career with both a solid foundation in underwriting and structuring best practices and provided the opportunity to see many diverse deals in a short period of time. This role also allowed me to get connected with our Leveraged Finance team and partner with them on a number of deals. Eventually, I transitioned into leveraged finance. In leveraged finance, I focused on the Consumer & Retail sector, and worked to raise both high yield bonds and institutional term loans to support buyouts, acquisitions, refinancings, and recapitalizations. During my four years in this role, I developed an expertise in the various non-investment grade debt options, as well as many relationships in the investment bank. In 2017, there was an opportunity to take this new knowledge back to the ABL team and eventually transition into a business development role. Today, I work with middle market and large corporate companies across a number of industries to pitch, structure, document, and often syndicate asset-based revolvers from $10 million up to $2 billion+. BABC is leading the charge in creative structures, international capabilities, and resilient partnerships with borrowers, sponsors, and advisors.

Why did you join the Committee?

The Diversity, Equality and Inclusiveness (DEI) Committee is responsible for understanding specific challenges and opportunities within their communities of interest and articulating the case for change. The Committee complements and refines existing SFNet and Foundation policies and programs and supports their member’s initiatives. I decided to join this effort in order to learn more about what other institutions in the industry are doing to make diversity and inclusion a focal point at their firms, and then to hopefully bring these best practices and new ideas back to Bank of America. Bank of America and many other firms in the secured lender space are leading the charge in making diversity and inclusion a priority, and it is imperative that we all do what we can to support this effort.

What do you think the industry can do to increase diversity, equity and inclusiveness?

We can give our colleagues, external networks, and clients the freedom and support to bring their whole selves to work. By facilitating this environment, we will create diverse and inclusive teams, which will encourage innovation, new perspectives, and top-tier business outcomes. 

Editor's Note: To see all the DEI resources, click here.

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