Charles M. Trunz is a Managing Director and senior credit executive with more than 20 years of experience spanning leveraged finance, high-yield and distressed credit, credit risk, underwriting, portfolio governance, and credit transformation across major financial institutions. He combines first-hand experience in the leveraged-credit markets with more than a decade of senior leadership across enterprise credit, providing a distinctive perspective on complex capital structures, downside risk, recovery, documentation, and credit quality.
Currently a Managing Director and Head of Strategic Credit Solutions at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Charles leads a nearly 100-person credit strategy, quality assurance, and portfolio governance organization across the Americas. His responsibilities span underwriting standards, credit-risk frameworks, portfolio oversight, quality assurance, watchlist and early-warning capabilities, and credit training. He serves as a senior credit authority across leveraged lending, corporate, hedge fund, fund finance, and structured credit portfolios, while also serving as Global Business Owner of Credit Transformation and Innovation, leading initiatives focused on improving credit processes, policy efficiency, and analytical effectiveness through emerging technology.
Charles brings substantial experience navigating stressed and distressed credit situations, including restructuring and workout processes, downside and recovery assessment, documentation risk, and the development of underwriting standards designed to strengthen credit discipline. His earlier advisory leadership at Promontory Financial Group and Berkeley Research Group further broadened his experience in credit analytics, risk modeling, leveraged-lending frameworks, portfolio management, and institutional risk strategy.
His foundation in the leveraged-finance markets was established through senior roles at Barclays Capital, Scotia Capital, and Clark Dodge & Co., where he worked across high-yield, distressed debt, bank debt, leveraged finance, and structured credit. He helped establish leveraged-finance and distressed-debt platforms, developed relationships with institutional investors and hedge funds, structured credit products, and served on an investment committee. This market-facing experience continues to inform his approach to credit judgment, capital-structure analysis, and risk assessment.
Throughout his career, Charles has built and led analytical teams, developed credit professionals, chaired cross-functional governance forums, and advised senior executives on complex credit and risk decisions. He regularly engages Chief Risk Officers, business leaders, and global counterparts across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, and brings established credibility with issuers, private-equity sponsors, arranging banks, institutional investors, and other sophisticated market participants.
Charles holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance & International Business from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
Chas grew up as the oldest of four boys and attended Chaminade High School, where he lettered in football, wrestling, and lacrosse. An avid golfer, tennis player, platform tennis player, and Ironman competitor, Chas’ true passion is coaching children in sports — he coaches field hockey, ice hockey, wrestling, and boys’ and girls’ lacrosse for Manhasset’s PAL sports program. Chas and his wife, Kristin, live in Manhasset, New York, where they are raising three children: Holly (12), William (11), and Charlotte (9).