William Jenkins Managing Director Alvarez & Marsal

William Jenkins is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Restructuring in London. He brings over 20 years of experience in restructuring, corporate finance and private equity / venture capital – from investing in and working closely with SMEs to large cap cross-border M&A, restructuring and debt-for-equity transactions.

Mr. Jenkins has worked with clients across a wide range of industries, including financial institutions, retail, industrials, healthcare, infrastructure, waste management, transport and shipping.

Andrew Wilkinson Senior European Partner - Restructuring Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Andrew Wilkinson is the Senior European Partner in Weil’s restructuring team. He has over 35 years restructuring experience as a lawyer in private practice and banker advising bondholder groups, other lenders and large corporates and governments on debt restructuring. Before joining Weil, Andrew was European Head and co-Head of Restructuring at Goldman Sachs. His experience includes many significant public, creditor and private company restructurings, representing debtors on major restructurings, working on securitisations and structured deals, financial institution restructurings and insolvencies, and advising government bodies and financial institutions. He pioneered the use of schemes of arrangement for high yield bond restructurings in Europe.”

Merlin Piscitelli Chief Revenue Officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Datasite

Merlin Piscitelli is Chief Revenue Officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Datasite.

In his role, Merlin is responsible for setting and managing the sales strategy and its deployment across this diverse and complex region, including coordinating and managing teams and sales representatives across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is based in London.

Merlin has been driving the M&A digital transformation in EMEA since joining Datasite in 2006. He has served in several leadership roles within the organization, including Head of Sales, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Director of Sales, helping drive technological innovation and deal velocity across the region.

Prior to joining Datasite, Merlin served as a sales and business development professional for Infotrieve, now part of Copyright Clearance Center, a global licensing technology content solutions business and document delivery provider.

Merlin holds a BS in Business/Marketing from Florida State University.

Find Merlin on LinkedIn.

James Slessenger European Managing Director Xtract Research

James spent 22 years as a finance lawyer, 12 as a partner, at Herbert Smith LLP, a leading City of London-based international law firm. His long experience includes acting for borrowers and lenders in new money, refinancing and restructuring work in the syndicated loan, bond, private equity and project finance markets. He joined Xtract Europe in October 2010 as the senior English covenant analyst on high yield bonds and syndicated loans.

Chiara Elisei Senior Editor Debtwire

Chiara Elisei is Co-Deputy Editor at Debtwire Europe and heads up the restructuring desk. She started at Debtwire in 2008, focusing on restructuring and expanding Debtwire’s Southern Europe coverage. Prior to joining Debtwire, she worked as a reporter at Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera and Il Messaggero, and national broadcasting company RAI, covering current news and international affairs. Chiara graduated in Classics at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, where she also got a PhD in June 2010.