Overview

The River Canyon Total Return Bond Fund is a credit-oriented mutual fund that seeks to maximize total return via income and capital appreciation.

The management team employs a bottom-up credit selection process with a top-down overlay and aims to identify securities that exhibit upside optionality with downside protection. The fund does not seek market-directional risks and instead focuses on selecting securities with a likelihood of outperformance across a wide range of macroeconomic and market scenarios. This strategy is designed to provide investors with exposure to securities and sectors that have historically low correlation to traditional asset classes.

Currently, the fund has a bias toward higher quality, more liquid securities amidst the backdrop of increasing market volatility and relatively low additional return per additional unit of risk.

The investment team relies upon its specialized knowledge and experience to navigate credit and interest rate cycles. Investable sectors include:

Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) – Auto, Aircraft, Credit Card, Student Loans, etc.
Corporate Debt
Agency & Non-Agency Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS)
Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS)
Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs)
Re-Performing Loans (RPLs) / Non-Performing Loans (NPLs)
Agency Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs)

Todd Lemkin

Partner, Portfolio Manager

Todd Lemkin is an Investment Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Canyon Capital Advisors. Mr. Lemkin joined Canyon in 2003 and is responsible for the efforts of CCA’s portfolio team to develop, analyze, and implement investment ideas across the firm’s global platform. Mr. Lemkin has extensive investment expertise across the cable, media, telecom, satellite, industrials, real estate, gaming, and packaging sectors. Prior to this role, Mr. Lemkin focused on Canyon’s European investment effort and the firm’s London office. Prior to joining Canyon, Mr. Lemkin worked at Scoggin Capital Management, where he focused on analyzing securities of distressed and bankrupt companies. Mr. Lemkin was also an Investment Banker in the Healthcare Group of Banc of America Securities and the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of Lehman Brothers. Mr. Lemkin is a member of the Board of Governors of Cedar Sinai Hospital as well as a Director of Atlas Crest Investment Corp. (“ACII”). Mr. Lemkin is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (B.A., English).

Sam Reid

Partner, Portfolio Manager

Sam Reid is an Investment Partner at Canyon. Mr. Reid joined Canyon in 2008 and is a Portfolio Manager for River Canyon funds. Prior to this role, Mr. Reid was Head Debt Trader for Canyon’s investments across the firm’s global platform. Prior to joining Canyon, Mr. Reid worked at JPMorgan Chase as a sell-side High Yield Credit trader, where he traded CDS and high yield bonds in both a market making and proprietary trading capacity. Mr. Reid is a graduate of Georgetown University (dual B.S., International Business and Finance). Mr. Reid is a CFA^® charterholder.

ADAM RIZKALLA

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT

Adam Rizkalla is a Senior Vice President within the Investment team at Canyon. Mr. Rizkalla joined Canyon in 2022 and primarily focuses on structured products including asset-backed securities, residential mortgage-backed securities, and commercial mortgage-backed securities. Prior to joining Canyon, Mr. Rizkalla worked at Thornburg Investment Management, where he invested in a variety of structured products. Previously, Mr. Rizkalla worked at J.P. Morgan as an investment banker in the Structured Products Group. Mr. Rizkalla is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University (B.A., Accounting). Mr. Rizkalla is a CFA^® charterholder.

Mitch Julis

Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer

Mitch Julis is Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Canyon Partners, LLC. Mr. Julis is a graduate of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), Harvard Law School (J.D., magna cum laude) and Harvard Business School (M.B.A., honors). He received an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University of New York in 2011. Prior to forming Canyon, Mr. Julis directed a group of professionals responsible for a portfolio of distressed and special situation securities at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Prior to working at Drexel, he was a bankruptcy and creditors’ rights attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York. Mr. Julis has authored a number of articles published in law journals and other periodicals on the subject of bankruptcy, distressed credits and special situation investing.

In 2014, Mr. Julis, along with Co-Founder Josh Friedman, received Institutional Investor’s “Lifetime Achievement” Award. Mr. Julis serves as a Trustee of the Brown University Corporation, on the Board of Governors at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, on the Board of Trustees at Yeshiva University and as Trustee Emeritus at the Asia Society. He previously served on the Board of Trustees at Princeton University. He is currently a member of the Advisory Council for the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and a member of Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science Leadership Council. Furthermore, he sits on the Lincoln Center Theater Board of Directors. Also noteworthy is his active role in establishing the Harvard Law School Program on Jewish and Israeli Law. In 2019, Mr. Julis received an Honorary Fellowship from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Mr. Julis and his wife, Joleen, reside in Dallas, TX and have 4 children.

Josh Friedman

Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer

Josh Friedman is Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Canyon Partners, LLC. Mr. Friedman is a graduate of Harvard College (B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Physics), Oxford University (M.A., honors, Politics and Economics, Marshall Scholar), Harvard Business School (M.B.A., Baker Scholar) and Harvard Law School (J.D., Sears Prize, magna cum laude). Prior to forming Canyon, Mr. Friedman was Director of Capital Markets for High Yield and Private Placements at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Prior to working at Drexel, Mr. Friedman worked in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department of Goldman Sachs in New York.

In 2014, Mr. Friedman, along with Co-Founder Mitch Julis, received Institutional Investor’s “Lifetime Achievement” Award. Mr. Friedman is a member of the George W. Bush Presidential Center Executive Advisory Council. Additionally, Mr. Friedman serves on the boards and/or investment committees of a number of endowments and foundations including Harvard Management Company, Harvard Committee on University Resources, California Institute of Technology, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Broad Foundation, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). Mr. Friedman previously served on the investment committee of the J. Paul Getty Trust and Board of the Dean’s Advisors for Harvard Business School, as well as the boards of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the UCLA Hospital Department of Neurosurgery, the UCLA Anderson School of Management, The California Science Center, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Mr. Friedman and his wife, Beth, live in Dallas, Texas and have three sons. Mr. and Mrs. Friedman co-endowed the Star-Friedman Challenge for Promising Scientific Research at Harvard University and are 2019 recipients of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

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