Mark Shenkman ’65 (CLAS), H ’07, an emeritus member of the UConn Foundation Board of Directors, received the Museum of American Finance’s Lifetime Achievement Award during a gala celebration in New York City on Monday, March 13. Shenkman, founder and president of Shenkman Capital Management, was honored for his outstanding career in the investment industry.

With 54 years of investment experience and 46 years of high yield investment experience, Shenkman is considered one of the pioneers of the high yield bond and loan markets. He established Shenkman Capital Management, Inc. in 1985 and is the firm’s founder and president. Earlier in his career, Shenkman was president and chief investment officer of First Investors Asset Management. He also was co-manager and vice president of the High Yield Bond Department at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb in New York, where he established one of Wall Street’s earliest departments dedicated to researching, distributing, and trading high yield securities. Shenkman is a co-author of two textbooks on the high yield market, entitled “High Yield Bonds: Market Structure, Portfolio Management and Credit Risk Modeling” (McGraw Hill, 1999) and “Leveraged Financial Markets” (McGraw Hill, 2010).

Shenkman has long been involved with nonprofit and philanthropic activities, including his 18-year tenure on the UConn Foundation’s Board of Directors, three of those years as chairman. He currently serves as a senior advisor on the UConn School of Business Advisory Board. He is a trustee emeritus at The George Washington University; vice chairman of the Board at Wilbraham & Monson Academy; and an emeritus member of the Board of Advisors at the College of William and Mary, Mason School of Business. He also serves on the Boards of the Museum of the American Revolution, Business Executives for National Security (BENS), and the Museum of American Finance.