Mr. Helander is a Partner in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on European direct lending and covers the Northern European markets. Mr. Helander also is a member of the Ares Credit Group's European Direct Lending Investment Committee. Prior to joining Ares in 2008, Mr. Helander was a Director in the Financial Sponsors Leveraged Finance Origination Group at Barclays, where he focused on covering the Nordic and Germanic (DACH) markets. Previously, Mr. Helander was a member of the pan-European Leveraged Finance Group of Mizuho Corporate Bank, the Equity Research Group of CSFB Technology Group and additionally worked at SEB Debt Capital Markets. Mr. Helander holds an undergraduate degree from Uppsala University, Sweden, in Finance and Economics and an M.Sc. from Uppsala University in Business Administration, where he earned a scholarship to study at Illinois State University in the U.S.