Exiled: Kam Hessling, Loan Market Association
Today’s guest is Kam Hessling, managing director at the Loan Market Association, with over 20 years of experience in the loan markets under her belt. Kam is inspired by people from her professional past, and from her family. Her Exile credits the people around her, from within the industry and wider, who provide inspiration, encouragement and lead by example.
Welcome to Exiled: The Real Assets People, a podcast where we ‘strand’ a guest on a desert island and ask them who from their professional past, present, and future they’d choose to be stranded with. After all, it’s people that make a profession.
From her past
Kam’s first pick is previous colleagues at law firm Slaughter & May, including her early mentor, Paul Stacey, someone who didn’t just teach the technical ropes but showed the importance of building trust and community in high-stakes markets. Kam credits this foundational relationship for setting the tone of her career—not just in technical skills, but in working with integrity and kindness under pressure.
From her present
From the present, Kam would want to be stranded with her husband, Raoul Hessling, who is a director in syndicated loans at BNPP. Kam credits Raoul’s calmness and problem solving abilities, and excellent negotiation skills, as well as being a huge support and encouraging her to seize exciting and ambitious opportunities when she needed a friendly nudge.
From her future
Looking to the future, Kam spoke about how much she enjoys the nimble nature of working at the LMA, which means that she is constantly coming across new people within her day to day job. An example of this is the new work the LMA has been doing in fund finance, which has opened her network to a whole new market.
Tune in next week, where we’ll be speaking to Yinghuang Ji, Vice President, Power Markets from MN8 Energy.
