Key Takeaways
- Geography: United States.
Analysis
Churchill Asset Management has appointed Brynjar Agnarsson as a Managing Director and Senior Investment Strategist, a hire designed to deepen distribution of U.S. middle-market private credit across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He will report into Michael Foley, Head of Institutional at Churchill, and will work across Nuveen’s integrated private capital platform.
In his new role Mr. Agnarsson will focus on structuring and promoting access to Churchill’s U.S. senior-lending and junior-capital strategies for EMEA investors. Churchill, which markets itself as a leading direct lender to private equity-backed middle-market firms, manages roughly $56 billion of committed capital and is among the most active U.S. direct lenders over the past two decades.
Before joining Churchill, Brynjar Agnarsson served as a Managing Director at PJT Park Hill Group advising European institutions on private placements and spent nearly a decade at The Carlyle Group where he led private credit fundraising across EMEA. That background positions him to translate U.S. deal flow and capital structures for European allocators seeking higher income and diversification.
The appointment underscores a broader trend: European institutional demand for private credit has risen steadily as pension funds and insurers hunt for yield outside traditional fixed income. Managers offering U.S. middle-market exposure argue those strategies can deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns and resilience across cycles. Nuveen Private Capital — created after Nuveen’s majority acquisition of Arcmont in March 2023 — now sits behind Churchill as part of an $86 billion private capital platform.
Churchill and Arcmont together have deployed more than $20 billion supporting private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in the recent 12-month period to 30 September 2025, a sign of scale that sales teams can point to when engaging larger EMEA accounts. Mr. Foley said the move aims to broaden tailored solutions for institutional clients in the region and to leverage existing relationships.
Market dynamics are supportive: private credit fundraising and allocations have been buoyed by a sustained investor search for yield, while direct lenders continue to increase market share in middle-market financing. That said, rising competition, fee compression and growing regulatory scrutiny in EMEA mean managers must demonstrate differentiated sourcing and robust risk controls.
In short, Churchill’s appointment of Brynjar Agnarsson is a tactical response to growing EMEA interest in U.S. private credit. It strengthens NPC’s distribution muscle in Europe and signals that major asset managers continue to invest in senior commercial capability to capture cross-border flows.