Mr. Zalewski, who joined Third Avenue in 2009, was a distressed debt and special situations portfolio manager at Credit Suisse Securities. Prior to that he was a senior distressed debt and special situations analyst at investment firm 3V Capital, which he helped build out as the spun-off proprietary trading group of Libertas Partners. He has served on the board of EasyLink Services International Corp., and on the creditors committee for Interstate Bakeries Corp. Mr. Zalewski has a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Political Science from Duke University and is a member of the board of directors of New York’s Red Fern Theatre Company.

Mr. Kirk joined Third Avenue in 2011, after seven years at J.P. Morgan. While at J.P. Morgan, he was most recently in high-yield research, specializing in health care and covering over 80 issuers. Earlier in his career, Mr. Kirk worked on J.P. Morgan’s emerging markets trading desk where he traded Mexican, Turkish and Russian sovereign bonds and options as well as corporate debt for issuers, including Pemex. He also worked with J.P. Morgan’s Principal Finance team performing due diligence for purchasing and securitizing non-performing loans in the United Kingdom and Germany. Mr. Kirk holds an M.A. in Economics from Cambridge University, where he wrote his thesis on the causes as well as the probability and severity of international financial crises. He holds dual undergraduate degrees in Economics and Political Science from Yale University.

Thomas LaPointe, helped launch the Fund with his arrival at Third Avenue Management in 2009. Previously, Mr. Lapointe was senior vice president, co-manages the Boston high yield group for Columbia Management, where he serves as a senior high-yield portfolio manager. Before becoming a portfolio manager in February 2003, Mr. LaPointe served as a high-yield analyst for four years at Columbia Management. He currently co-manages the High Income Portfolio and manages the high-yield sector of Nations Bond Fund and Nations Strategic Income Fund and may also manage other investment products for both BA