Rick Van Zijl, a managing director in Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG)’s credit-lending business, has left the New York-based investment firm.

“After two terrific years at Fortress I am departing the firm,” Van Zijl said in an e-mail to colleagues last week, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. Van Zijl, reached by telephone, confirmed the e-mail and said he left earlier this month.

Van Zijl was based in the firm’s New York office, said Gordon Runte, a spokesman for Fortress. Runte declined to comment further on the departure.

Fortress’s credit business manages about $12.3 billion across private equity and hedge funds, investing in areas such as distressed assets, real estate, natural resources and other opportunistic lending situations.

Van Zijl previously worked at Barclays Plc in New York, where he ran U.S. leveraged loans and mezzanine financing, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), where he was a managing director in leveraged finance.

To contact the reporters on this story: Devin Banerjee in New York at dbanerjee2@bloomberg.net; Bradley Keoun in New York at bkeoun@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net