Raising the Brand with Josh Clarkson, Managing Director at Prosek
Welcome to Private Equity Marketeer’s Raising the Brand, where we highlight the creative minds and strategic thinkers redefining how private market firms connect with their audiences, build trust, and tell their stories.
Today we’re sitting down with Josh Clarkson, Managing Director at Prosek Partners. Josh advises many of the most prominent names in alternatives on brand, communications, and strategic positioning.
With a background spanning crisis and transaction communications, corporate governance, investor relations, and high-stakes financial storytelling, Josh brings a perspective shaped by advising firms such as Oaktree, GTCR, HPS Investment Partners, New Mountain, and BlackRock. His career has been defined by navigating complexity, whether through building compelling narratives in private credit or helping firms prepare for moments of challenge and change.
We spoke with him about what makes private credit such a dynamic asset class to communicate, how managers can differentiate their market presence, and why authenticity and preparedness are central to building resilient brands in the private markets.
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Josh Clarkson counsels clients across alternative asset management on a wide variety of financial and strategic communications matters. His expertise spans corporate and executive positioning and messaging, shareholder activism and corporate governance, investor relations, friendly and contested transactions, restructuring and bankruptcy, and crisis and issues management.
Josh rejoined Prosek in 2019 after serving as a Vice President at Gladstone Place Partners, a boutique financial communications firm where he worked with clients across industries with an emphasis on activist preparation and engagement, corporate governance and M&A. Josh first joined Prosek in 2013 and during his career has worked with numerous leading financial services companies and executive teams across the private and traded credit, private equity, hedge fund, insurance, banking, and asset management sectors. Specific clients he has advised include Oaktree, Walleye Capital, GTCR, HPS Investment Partners, New Mountain, Blue Owl, BlackRock, Beach Point Capital Management, Palmer Square, Waterfall Asset Management, Castlelake, Ambac, Franklin Templeton, and Davidson Kempner, among others.
Josh earned a JD, cum laude, from the Florida State University College of Law and a BA in Government and World Affairs from the University of Tampa.
Getting Started
You’ve worked with many of the biggest names in private credit. Take us back, what first drew you to this asset class, and what keeps you engaged with it today?
Josh: I first came to private credit through my work on distressed debt and representing creditors in complex bankruptcies, which gave me a strong grounding in credit investing. But between 2019 and 2022, when distress largely receded, I shifted to working with more performing managers—right as private credit entered a period of tremendous growth. That timing allowed me to be at the forefront of the asset class’s expansion.
What keeps me engaged today is how dynamic the space has become. Innovation is constant, whether through the rise of asset-based finance or other specialized strategies. And of all private market strategies, I believe private credit is the most broadly relevant. From institutions to individual retirees, there is a universal need for high current income with strong downside protection. That means there is always a new strategy to explain to a new audience, which keeps the work fresh. Most importantly, I see the broader impact—helping investors build stronger portfolios, enabling borrowers to access more flexible capital, and supporting a healthier financial system by moving lending into duration-matched structures outside of the traditional banking model.
Having worked across PE, hedge funds, and credit, what’s unique about telling the private credit story?
Josh: Building on my earlier comments, what makes private credit unique is its broad applicability. It truly can add value to portfolios from $100K to $100 billion and beyond. At the same time, while credit at its core is simply lending, it often appears more complex than other strategies because of the many structures and approaches involved. From CLOs and BDCs to unitranches, non-pro-rata uptier exchanges, and forward flow agreements, the diversity of tools can make it harder to explain than, say, private equity, which is also complex in execution but more straightforward at a high level.
That combination—enormous utility for a broad universe of investors paired with inherent structural complexity—means there’s an even greater responsibility to make the story clear, engaging, and accessible. The better we can explain these strategies, the more investors can capture the benefits they offer.
Building a Brand in a Complex Space
Private credit can be complex and highly technical. How do you turn that complexity into a clear and compelling story without oversimplifying it?
Josh: The first step is always to understand your audience—which means doing a lot of listening before you start talking. You need to know their level of familiarity with the space so you can strike the right balance: educating without repeating what they already know and simplifying without losing them in excessive technical detail.
Equally important is having a deep command of the product or strategy yourself. That allows you to fine-tune the delivery to the audience and frame the investment in the context of who it’s best suited for. For example, CLO equity strategies, which generate high yields primarily as current income, may be particularly attractive to non-taxable investors, while certain real estate–related credit strategies, such as net lease strategies, can be more efficient for those in higher tax brackets.
So, in practice, it comes down to three things: know the strategy inside and out, know what your audience needs, and then be creative and thoughtful in bridging the two.
What’s an example from outside financial services that you think mirrors how private credit operates or presents itself?
Josh: This might sound like a reach, but high-cushion shoes like Hokas that are designed for ultramarathons. They started as a very small part of the broader sneaker market focused on providing a niche solution for a subset of users (like how private credit was originally almost exclusively used by very small borrowers or others who for whatever reason couldn’t access the much larger syndicated loan or HY bond market). Then, through improved product development, growing awareness and smart marketing—which had a much bigger impact on shoes than private credit given the latter is much easier to objectively compare to alternatives than shoes—it slowly at first, then rapidly, gained broader acceptance and a larger and larger part of the market started realizing the benefits for them.
So, just the way you’ll now see plenty of ultra-cushioned running shoes at your neighborhood 10K or marathon, in addition to the most grueling 50–100K+ ultramarathons, you now see direct lending being utilized for larger transactions that could have issued syndicated debt. Similarly, whereas 20 years ago private credit was a niche, specialty investment that was mostly a small allocation for institutions and some others who saw the merits in publicly traded BDCs, now it is a core allocation for investors ranging from the largest institutions to individuals who can access some of the best direct lending strategies in the world with an initial investment of as little as $2,500 or less (meaning that $2,500 is usually the minimum for non-traded BDCs that offer superior fees and some strategies not available in traded form; investors can of course buy traded BDCs for as little as $20 a share).
Standing Out
From your vantage point, what separates the good from the great when it comes to a manager’s market presence?
Josh: What elevates a manager’s market presence from good to great is not just being recognized as a capable investor but being known for clear differentiators that others can’t easily replicate. That might mean particular subsectors where they have deep expertise, assets they can uniquely originate, or a distinctive approach to situations such as distress—or, in the case of BDCs, use of their nonqualifying assets bucket or dividend or funding policy. Landmark transactions that showcase a manager’s capabilities or philosophy also serve as powerful proof points.
This kind of differentiation can be more difficult in credit, especially in direct lending, where investing strategy, portfolio composition, and returns are generally more bounded than in equity and you can’t fundamentally reshape the asset in the same way an equity owner can. That means it takes more effort and creativity to define what sets a manager apart—but those who do it successfully stand out in a meaningful and lasting way.
Messaging Under Pressure
What lessons from crisis or transaction communications translate directly into making a brand stronger in good times?
Josh: I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to begin my career focusing on transactions, crises and other special situations working under great mentors, such as Brian Schaffer and Andy Merrill, who still lead our special situations group today. The level of urgency, intentionality, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail they taught me to bring to working with clients has always stayed with me.
So, for me personally, that manner of approaching all client engagements and assignments has served me very well. It drives me to dig deeper into situations, think things through and pressure test our work from every possible angle, and strive to always be available when a client needs you. Similarly, being able to rapidly pivot from advising on promotional brand-building PR to managing an issue, crisis, or transaction is vital to being a well-rounded advisor in my view. Especially in a field like private credit, there are inevitably portfolio company issues, including restructurings, to deal with, and you need to be able to handle that for your client with as much aplomb as you would a fund close or other positive milestone.
From a brand point of view, it brings a valuable lens of “how could saying this now hurt us later.” For instance, when you’re investing in a new space, or a shifting market regime, the first instinct can be to exuberantly share your success in deploying capital. However, the real success is when a few years later you successfully realize the investment, so preaching some self-restraint, especially with something that has wider tails in terms of outcomes.
Also, preparedness: all organizations should have some type of crisis plan and practice it regularly. This also applies to other reasonably likely situations they might confront such as an activist for a non-controlled public company. While it is true that most plans will change a lot upon contact with the proverbial punch to the mouth, the preparation, if done well, makes the key principles and actions like muscle memory that can be adapted to a rapidly evolving situation.
For firms who eschew the spotlight in favor of letting their results do the talking, I would caution them that having minimal media coverage or relationships is in some ways a failure to prepare for a crisis. Even if your firm does not want to grace the pages of the WSJ on a regular basis, building relationships with relevant reporters and securing several positive articles over the years has tangible benefits. Specifically, it means if something does go wrong you have influential journalists with whom you have already built a relationship and trust, greatly increasing your ability to effectively tell your side of the story. Similarly, even a handful of positive stories means a negative one won’t land on an empty canvas and take over your entire Google profile.
Executive Visibility & Leadership Voice
Some investment leaders thrive in the spotlight, others avoid it. How do you coach executives to show up authentically in media or on stage?
Josh: The key word there is authentically. With any external engagement—whether with the media, investors, or the broader public through social media—authenticity is critical. Most straightforwardly, that means showing true conviction in the message you’re sharing and your belief in the platform, strategy, or whatever it may be you are engaging on.
Beyond that, what can help folks go from good to great is authentically enjoying the engagement. That doesn’t come naturally to everyone. We work with lots of executives to prep and train them to be better in all forms of public speaking, but part of it also is finding the platforms and mediums that resonate best with them.
Some will naturally take to the rapid back-and-forth of broadcast TV and thrive on the high velocity and energy of the conversation and the potential for the news of the day to reshape a previously planned discussion. Others prefer the longer form opportunities afforded by podcasts, while others prefer the written form—whether memos such as Howard Marks’ famous ones or shorter formats such as LinkedIn newsletters and even, in some rare cases, Twitter.
These are hardly mutually exclusive. When we work with clients, we seek to triangulate around 1) the most effective ways to reach their audience, 2) which of those they need help with, and 3) how to get them that help to improve their comfort and capabilities as quickly as possible. From there, we also look at what feels most natural on day one and how to capitalize on that immediately as part of a consistent, integrated, multimedia program designed to drive progress against the client’s business objectives.
What’s the most underutilized platform or channel for private credit leaders right now?
Josh: That’s a tough one. As quickly as the definition of media is expanding, executives are embracing these new platforms. One truth of today’s media landscape is the number of high-quality business journalists and outlets is declining for many of the reasons plaguing the broader media sector. In response, companies from all industries, including alternative asset management, have been embracing “owned content” ranging from whitepapers to LinkedIn newsletters to company-run podcasts and video series. These are all excellent tools and I’m very proud of the best-in-class capabilities Prosek has invested in across the space to support clients in these efforts.
However, what the shift from earned to owned often loses is that critical (meant both ways) investigative and fact-seeking element journalists bring to an engagement that a regular podcast or video host doesn’t necessarily offer. I think there is a huge opportunity for firms—whether on their own or with partners such as Prosek, where we employ many former top journalists—to produce owned content where their executives are asked the hard questions. In the case of private credit this might be on rising PIK levels, spread compression, or other hot-button topics. That lets executives communicate their views on what are likely investors’ biggest concerns, and I suspect when done well would do more to drive dollars in the door than a paper, podcast, or video that just extols the benefits of the asset class or fund without addressing today’s top risks and concerns head-on.
I would also add what I think is a very underutilized channel for those interested in private credit to consume content: the Quartr app (no “e”). The app lets you listen to earnings calls the way you would a podcast with easy controls to speed them up, a live transcript, etc., and do away with the days of clunky webcast sign-ons that would drop when you opened another window or went through a tunnel. Or worse, people thinking they had to sit at their desk to watch one of these calls, which can be so rich in insight and information. People always think I’m a paid promoter for these guys or something but I’m not—I wish I could find a way to be—just a very satisfied user who loves listening to BDC earnings calls while trail running.
Lessons Learned & Advice
If an emerging credit fund came to you tomorrow and said, “We want to build our brand,” what’s the first thing you’d tell them to do, and the first thing you’d tell them not to do?
Josh: I would tell them they should figure out what is most differentiated about their firm and approach relative to the competition, and think about what they want the firm to be known for in 5, 10, 20+ years, and develop a strong narrative and value proposition that is based on that. I’d also tell them I am more than happy to help them do that!
I would caution them against rushing to get media and public exposure based on messaging that is generic across the industry and doesn’t explain what unmet need in the market they are addressing or why an investor or borrower should work with them instead of the $100B+ firms in the space. As the market has matured it has become that much more challenging for new entrants to carve out a lane where they bring something different and valuable to the table for both investors and borrowers.
What’s a piece of conventional PR wisdom you’ve ignored, and been glad you did?
Josh: I’m not sure I’d say this is “conventional wisdom,” but I think early in your career you are taught a very rigid, formulaic way to “pitch media” with a scripted email and a big media list. I think the sooner you can start building real relationships and start “pitching” by just calling a few journalists for a chat, the sooner you will be much more effective in your role. You’ll both be getting better results for clients and you’ll be enjoying it a lot more and learning a lot more.
On that point of learning, I probably place an unconventionally high priority on understanding your clients’ businesses, products, and markets at a very granular level. I am biased here as learning this stuff is one of my favorite parts of my job, but I firmly believe you should know as much or more as any of your clients’ beat reporters in short order after starting with them and build from there to be the most effective advisor and advocate you can be.
Looking Ahead
What’s a trend in private credit communications you think will define the next five years?
Josh: Increased retail engagement. The direction of travel in terms of private markets serving broader categories of investors is clear. I think the next few years will see the pace accelerate and private credit will increasingly be thought of as a core portfolio component for everyday investors just as stocks and bonds are now.
This will require new approaches to communications to meet those investors where they are with educational and engaging content across more mediums.
I would not be surprised if you saw frequent alternative asset management Super Bowl ads five years from now.
If you could retire one overused phrase forever, what would it be?
Josh: “Shadow Bank” to refer to any non-bank financial institution. This nefarious-sounding term does have real application to a narrow subcategory of institutions that engage in maturity transformation and change information-sensitive securities into information-insensitive ones, but that largely disappeared after the crisis. For example, no one is treating private credit CLO AAAs as a stand-in for Treasury bonds or agency mortgages the way some parties did with similarly rated CDOs and other overlevered structures pre-GFC.
In fact, today’s private lenders generally have duration-matched assets and liabilities and raise money from investors who are aware of the risks presented by their investment and do not treat them as analogous to cash or government securities. This fundamental difference means that rather than being some type of “Shadow Bank,” today’s private credit providers are more often very transparent, lightly levered vehicles that are matching assets and liabilities with similar durations, outside of the banking system to reduce any contagion from defaults and accordingly enhancing the robustness of global financial markets.
Bonus Round
What’s your favorite brand outside of the private markets and why?
Josh: Great question! So many spring to mind, but I’d have to say Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, assuming a sub brand like that is a valid submission here. For those who may not be familiar with it, Skunk Works is a group within Lockheed that has come up with many of the most innovative, high-performance, top-secret, and often world-changing planes of the postwar era. These include the SR-71, F-117 Nighthawk (the first operational stealth aircraft), and critical elements of today’s world-beating F-22 fighter and F-35 multirole platform.
Not only did Skunk Works develop all these amazing platforms, but they did it with a level of creativity, commitment, speed, and focus that is truly awe-inspiring. It was founded and long led by Kelly Johnson, a unique leader who was an incredible player/coach who was on the floor working on projects and managed his team of big intellects and personalities in a way that got the most out of a tough-to-manage group.
This combination of intelligence, drive, and creativity marshalled to solve complex problems others can’t in many ways reflects the best of the alternative asset management industry, especially in credit where structuring and transaction design can be so vital to the outcome. Admittedly, a perpetual non-traded BDC, a rated feeder note, a collateralized funds obligation, or an annuity backed by higher-returning private assets may not be as breathtaking to the average person as the Blackbird or the U-2. However, I think they are both highly technical innovations, that required input from dozens of different highly committed experts, that can have a huge positive impact on society