06-11-2026
At one point, Simon Crocker, the Daniels School’s new Business Fellow, thought he was heading to law school, then his trajectory veered into finance.
“I 100% thought I wanted to be a lawyer,” Crocker says. “I didn’t really consider anything else.” A legal internship while attending Georgetown University changed his perspective of the profession and ultimately redirected his career path toward finance.
That shift proved fortuitous. In 2011, he joined BDT & MSD Partners as an intern during a challenging post-financial crisis hiring environment. He entered a small team managing roughly $2.5 billion. Today, the broader organization covers multiple strategies, with Crocker helping to oversee a credit platform that has grown dramatically alongside the rise of private markets.
That growth mirrors a broader transformation taking place across finance. Private credit — once a niche market — has become one of the most influential forces in corporate lending.
In its simplest form, private credit involves lending money directly to companies outside traditional public debt markets and banks. Rather than issuing publicly traded bonds or relying solely on banks, businesses increasingly seek financing from investment firms and private lenders.
As managing director and head of research for corporate credit, Crocker focuses on providing capital to companies seeking funds for acquisitions, growth initiatives or strategic priorities. But unlike many lenders focused primarily on private-equity-backed firms, he says his team often specializes in family- and founder-owned businesses.
“We really believe in relationships,” Crocker says. “That less transactional nature, more relationship-based nature of doing business resonates with family and founder-owned business owners much more.”
Private credit has expanded rapidly because it can provide flexibility and speed often unavailable through traditional financing channels. Yet as the industry grows, Crocker sees important changes ahead.
According to Crocker, the top trend in private credit is the rise of asset managers who aggressively gather massive amounts of capital.
As firms accumulate enormous pools of institutional and retail capital, the pressure to deploy that money can create incentives that prioritize scale over diligence. Crocker warns that this environment can weaken loan quality and reduce protections for investors.
“People just want to put money to work,” he says. “They’re not actually focusing on the quality of the documentation, on the quality of the business.”
Another trend involves growing concerns surrounding software and technology companies financed based on revenue growth rather than cash flow.
During recent years, lenders increasingly made loans to fast-growing technology companies based on annual recurring revenue metrics despite limited or nonexistent profitability. “One of the first things you learn in finance class is that the value of any company is the present value of its future cash flow,” Crocker says.
A third trend centers on consumer spending patterns and economic divergence. Understanding which customer segments support a business, he argues, increasingly shapes lending decisions and risk assessment.
Crocker says interest rates and capital availability tell only part of the story. For organizations seeking private credit, “The key consideration you should think of is: who is my partner?” says Crocker.
He argues that companies often overlook the importance of lender relationships because financing can seem straightforward during favorable conditions. But difficult moments reveal whether a lender serves as a strategic partner or merely a source of capital.
Crocker advises companies to evaluate three key considerations:
As private credit continues reshaping how companies access capital, Crocker sees an opportunity to help students connect classroom concepts with real-world decision-making. His experience spans a period of dramatic change in finance — from traditional public credit markets to today’s relationship-driven private lending environment — giving him a front-row seat to the forces transforming business.
At the Daniels School, he hopes to help students understand not only how markets work, but how to think critically about careers, industries and opportunities. “I like demystifying the industry for people,” Crocker says. “Everything we do is just common sense. You just have to be able to break it down to its component parts.”
A Daniels School Business Fellow is a senior industry leader with more than 20 years of experience or a significant contribution to their field. Fellows serve as an extension to the Daniels School’s strategy, representing the school in their industry, engaging with students, faculty, and curriculum, and providing thought leadership to guide our future direction.
