Skip to main content
Visit the Canyon Partners Website
Visit the Canyon Partners Website

Criteria and Evaluation

The Canyon Catalyst Fund identifies and evaluates emerging manager candidates that fit the following profile:

  • Developers, owners and operators with less than $1 billion assets under management
  • Up to three institutional commingled fund and/or separate account investments
  • Investments in urban markets throughout California, as well as the key western submarkets of Seattle, Portland, and Phoenix metro areas
  • Principals with a demonstrated track record
  • Expertise in specific property sectors

Emerging managers are evaluated across several categories, including their fund strategy, current deal pipeline and deal flow. The Canyon Catalyst Fund also considers the profiles of the management team and ownership structure in evaluating potential partners.

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, PORTFOLIO MANAGER

Mr. Rizkalla is a Senior Vice President within the Investment team at Canyon. Mr. Rizkalla joined Canyon in 2022 and is a Portfolio Manager for River Canyon funds 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® charter holder.

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.

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. Mr. Julis 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 Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute Advisory Council and the Lincoln Center Theater Board.  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, live in Dallas, Texas and have four 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, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, California Institute of Technology, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Broad Foundation, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Committee on Collections at 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, and the California Science Center.

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.

You are now leaving the River Canyon website.