Mr. Cooney is a Partner in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on European direct lending and covers the French and Southern European markets. Mr. Cooney serves as a member of Ares Credit Group's European Direct Lending Investment Committee and the Ares Sports, Media and Entertainment Investment Committee. Prior to joining Ares in 2009, Mr. Cooney was a Managing Director at HSBC France, where he focused on managing the Paris leveraged finance team. Previously, Mr. Cooney was a Director with the Paris-based teams of Barclays Capital, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Societe Generale. Mr. Cooney holds a B.A., summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Political Science and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics in Economics. He has additionally completed graduate coursework at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.