Moody's Announces Senior Management Appointments

Moody's Investors Service named new global ratings heads. The rating agency appointed Noel Kirnon as executive vice president responsible for global structured and U.S. public finance ratings. Michel Madelain was named executive vice president responsible for global fundamental ratings while Andy Kimball was appointed chief credit officer and chairman of credit policy at Moody's Investors Service. Kirnon is now responsible for the global structured finance ratings business, including asset finance and derivatives and U.S. public finance ratings. Most recently, Kirnon was senior managing director in the structured finance group, responsible for global derivatives, managed funds and U.S. commercial real estate. Previously, he was a group managing director responsible for Moody's mortgage rating business and prior to that he was a managing director responsible for Moody's structured finance ratings throughout Europe, Australia and Asia Madelain will assume responsibility for all global fundamental ratings, including corporate finance, banking, insurance, financial guarantors and non-banking finance. Previously, Madelain was group managing director with responsibility for global banking. He also focused on Moody's corporate ratings in Europe, Middle East and Africa and held several managing director positions in the U.S. and the U.K. fundamental rating groups. In his new role, Kimball will assume responsibility for guiding and coordinating all aspects of the firm's credit policy framework, including credit policy research, ratings system process management, performance measurement and oversight of the respective credit committees for the fundamental, public finance and structured finance ratings groups. To further enhance the independence of the credit policy function, Kimball will have responsibility for communicating to the Moody's Corporation board of directors concerning developments in credit policy on a regular basis. Previously, Kimball was senior managing director, with responsibility for Moody's global corporate finance group. Before that, Kimball held senior management positions in Moody's risk management services, information technology and structured finance groups.