First Eagle Private Credit Fund Names Patrick Coyne Board Chair as Nancy Hawthorne Retires

The chairmanship stays in independent hands at a perpetual-life BDC whose trustees control valuation, repurchases and distributions.

August 13, 2026

Nancy Hawthorne has retired from First Eagle Private Credit Fund, stepping down from both her seat on the board of trustees and the chairmanship. The board has handed the chair role to Patrick Coyne, one of the fund’s sitting independent trustees, with the changes effective August 12, 2026.

The fund said Hawthorne’s decision was unrelated to any disagreement over its operations, policies or practices. Coyne, in remarks accompanying the announcement, thanked her for her service and her contributions to the fund and said he was grateful for the confidence his fellow trustees had placed in him.

The chair stays in independent hands

Because the role passes from one independent trustee to another, the fund keeps its board led by someone outside the adviser’s organization. Both Hawthorne and Coyne joined the board in 2023, the year the vehicle elected to be regulated as a business development company. Hawthorne had also sat on the audit committee and the nominating and governance committee alongside holding the chair.

Board leadership carries more weight at a perpetual-life, non-traded BDC than at an exchange-listed lender, because no market price is doing the work of valuation. The trustees oversee a set of decisions that shape the investor experience directly:

• the fair-value process under Rule 2a-5, where the adviser serves as valuation designee;
• the terms of the quarterly share repurchase program, the fund’s only routine source of liquidity;
• the monthly distributions that are the product’s central selling point;
• the annual renewal of the advisory arrangements.

A Delaware Investments veteran takes over

Coyne brings a long career in asset management to the chair. He retired as president and chief executive of Delaware Investments in 2015, having joined the firm in 1990 and worked through a series of investment roles ranging from co-head of fixed income to chief investment officer of the equity department.

The vehicle behind the board

First Eagle Private Credit Fund is a Delaware statutory trust that elected BDC status in May 2023 and is treated as a regulated investment company for tax purposes. First Eagle Investment Management is the adviser, with the firm’s alternative credit arm, First Eagle Alternative Credit, serving as subadviser and administrator. The strategy centers on directly originated, senior secured first-lien loans to U.S. middle-market borrowers, and the fund commits to holding at least 80 percent of total assets in private credit.

Its registered continuous offering opened in March 2025, covering up to $5.0 billion of common shares across Class S, Class D and Class I tiers. The fund remains an emerging growth company, and its shares are not listed on any exchange.