Mr. Collins is a Managing Director in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Sponsors Group and focuses on assisting the firm’s hedge fund and financial sponsor clients with distressed and special situations investment opportunities. He is based in the firm’s New York office.
Before joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Collins headed Collins Investments LLC, an investment firm he founded in 2008, where he managed private equity and debt investments in small- and mid-cap companies. Prior to Collins Investments, Mr. Collins served as a portfolio manager and Head of Distressed Private Equity and Special Situations Private Equity at D.E. Shaw, during which he built a team of investment professionals and operating partners focused on distressed investments and rescue finance.
Mr. Collins began his career at Kroll Zolfo Cooper before moving to Morgan Stanley. He then moved on to Merrill Lynch, starting in high-yield research and moving to the distressed trading desk. He then moved to London to become the head trader and head of Merrill Lynch’s European distressed trading desk. Mr. Collins was a portfolio manager at London-based Mizuho International PLC, where he headed a global distressed debt and special situations team.
Mr. Collins holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems from the University of Dayton and an MBA in Finance and International Business from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.