Colleague Spotlight: Akilah Moore, Director, Business Development

Akilah specializes in providing critical appraisal, valuation and field exam work for a diverse clientele—including bank and non-bank lenders, private equity, debt capital markets providers, and companies—who are looking to secure or provide financing using a company's assets as collateral.

She emphasizes that her team performs the necessary due diligence in a timely manner, keeping all stakeholders updated and limiting execution risk.

Her journey into the sales side was sparked by curiosity; she began her career as an appraiser for the Industrial Inventory team. Her motivation to switch was fueled by wanting to understand the "why" behind deal movements—the financial landscape and strategy motivating clients to shuffle credits between lenders.

Akilah is particularly excited by the fundamental shift brought on by the massive influx of capital from private credit funds.

She notes that private credit funds entered the market with a huge appetite for yield and a more flexible mandate. They often offer a package that simplifies the capital structure for the borrower, providing convenience and speed to close. This trend has, in turn, forced all lenders to evolve and become more creative, even if just in the interim.

This shift has the ability to reshape the competitive landscape and the nature of ABL deals or validate the model as it stands today. It is a rapidly changing landscape and interested parties including GA Group, are waiting with bated breath to see where the chips land.

Akilah's passion for solving challenges extends to mentorship. She is passionate about giving colleagues who are just starting out a safe space to grow. Akilah positions herself as the "dumb question button," noting that without it, there are missed opportunities and rarely second chances for those opportunities to be seized in the future. This strategy offers new colleagues a judgment-free zone to leverage her experience.

One of the biggest questions Akilah gets from subject companies revolves around the "how" of the valuation process. She explains that company nuance, market implications, and the competitor landscape often define the art of the valuation approach and dictate the end result. And, while the goal is to always maximize lendable value, our firm ensures that we are issuing credible, supportable appraisal reports.

Akilah's approach to market intelligence is two-fold:

• Client-Facing Insight: Gathering constant, real-time intelligence on market conditions and credit strategies directly from clients.
• Internal Collaboration: Leveraging internal expertise, collaborating with liquidation teams, and using detailed monthly monitors to track trends across every industry and asset class.

Looking ahead, Akilah is focused on growing her market footprint. She sees that banking moves in waves and believes being able to see the tide as it turns is helpful. She hopes our firm will continue to grow as the "go-to valuation and analysis firm" for large, complex deals, supporting our clients along a smooth road to close.

Outside of work, Akilah has a strong interest in health and wellness, which heavily influences her approach to work-life balance. She lives by the quote "health is wealth and everyone deserves to be rich."

She views balance not as a perfectly equal scale, but as managing a finite resource. She explains that everyone only has 100% to give, and if that is all given to one aspect of life, you operate at a deficit elsewhere. To give her best self to work every day, she makes sure to take care of her physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

A unique part of her mindset is her perspective on daily challenges. She believes nothing that happens is inherently good or bad; it simply matters how it is perceived, internalized, and reacted to. As a result, instead of having a "bad day," she is having a day where her focus needs to be shifted, and something momentarily unpleasant has occurred to help her to realign focus.

Thank you, Akilah, for your dedication to our clients, your commitment to mentorship, and for leading with such a focused and insightful approach!