A Chicago Transit exit, a new high-yield muni firm and other career moves to watch

September 23, 2024 12:59 PM

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

Career moves are still heating up even as the fourth quarter approaches, and the industry gets more settled following Citi's exit from the municipal bond market and UBS's exit from the negotiated underwriting business at the end of 2023.

Chicago Transit Authority Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Jeremy Fine left the organization in July to join the Illinois Institute of Technology. Prior to joining CTA, Fine was deputy CFO and deputy comptroller for the city of Chicago. He has also been a board trustee and chair of the investment committee for the CTA Employees' Retirement Fund and as a board member for the Municipal Employees' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago.

"While I'm departing CTA, it remains in my heart," Fine told the committee at the July meeting announcing his departure. "Serving with such a great team has been the honor of a lifetime. I'll be a phone call away, and also a quick Green Line ride just further down the system."

Miller Canfield has hired five public finance attorneys from Ice Miller in July, and they will work out of the Chicago office. Miller Canfield public finance group leader Tom Colis said the firm's goal has always been to strengthen and broaden its presence in the Illinois market.

"A lot of our culture here is, we like to practice together; we don't like to be on islands," Collis told The Bond Buyer's Jennifer Shea. "So we're a very collaborative group. And over time, in working on various transactions across the country, we've actually worked with a lot of the folks at Ice Miller, and had the opportunity to work with a number of the [people who are] joining us. So we had some familiarity already, with respect to the people and their quality."

Also in July, First Eagle Investments hired Purva Patel as managing director and senior investment specialist on its high-yield municipal credit team.

Patel called the decision to accept a role at First Eagle "an easy choice," stating that the firm is well-regarded by clients. Its commitments to building municipal exposure and increasing assets under management from the ground up were also attractive, she told The Bond Buyer's Jennifer Shea.

"Our team has an opportunity to build a fresh municipal investment lineup at First Eagle," she said. "The expertise each team member brings to the business puts us in a distinct position to create, manage and distribute municipal investment strategies that are beneficial to our clients."

Read for more coverage on these recent career moves within the industry.

Charlie Visconsi, formerly of Preston Hollow and Morgan Stanley, has formed high-yield muni shop V2 Municipal Capital.

V2MC

Former Preston Hollow employees form new high-yield muni firm

Charlie Visconsi and Ron Van Den Handel, formerly of Preston Hollow Community Capital, announced the formation of V2 Municipal Capital in July as an independent firm that will partner with New York-based Fundamental.

The new firm will work with broker-dealers, municipal advisors and other market participants to source deals that "achieve borrowers' objectives, while also incorporating highly customized and robust protections for invested capital," the firms said in a release.

"There is a clear gap in funding in the municipal bond market, across both tax-exempt and taxable projects," said Visconsi in the release. On its website, V2MC identifies the gaps as existing between three areas: the traditional capital public market, commercial bank funding and other forms of agency financing such as Housing or Urban Development debt. "We look forward to leveraging our deep relationships across the market to structure solutions that benefit borrowers, while offering strong protections for our investments," Visconsi said.

Read more:

Preston Hollow pair leave to form new high-yield muni firm

Purva Patel

First Eagle Investments

Purva Patel joins First Eagle’s high-yield municipal team

First Eagle Investments hired Purva Patel as managing director and senior investment specialist on its high-yield municipal credit team. Patel started July 18 and is based in Chicago. She joins First Eagle from Nuveen Investments, where she was senior vice president for over two decades and managing director since 2019.

Patel's hire boosts First Eagle's distribution efforts; she will be partnering with the firm's distribution teams across its U.S. wealth solutions, institutional, international wealth solutions and retirement channels, the firm said.

"First Eagle has significantly expanded its distribution capabilities over the last several years and the sales force has embraced the high yield municipal bond strategy," John Miller, chief investment officer and head of First Eagle's high-yield municipal credit team, told The Bond Buyer's Jennifer Shea.

Read more:

First Eagle adds Purva Patel to its high-yield municipal team

CTA CFO Jeremy Fine is leaving the agency, CTA President Dorval Carter, Jr., announced.

Chicago Transit Authority CFO join’s Illinois Institute of Technology

Jeremy Fine, formerly the Chicago Transit Authority Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer will join the Illinois Institute of Technology, according to CTA spokesperson Manny Gonzales.

"The city of Chicago owes a great deal of gratitude to Jeremy for his leadership," CTA President Dorval Carter, Jr. said at the July 17 meeting announcing the news. He called Fine "the kind of professional who … is not easy to replace."

Carter said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the CTA lost almost 1.8 million riders, Fine was "the person who I relied on to explain to federal officials what our financial impacts and realities were going to be when we were trying to get the emergency relief funding that ultimately kept us alive."

Read more:

Chicago Transit Authority CFO Jeremy Fine leaves agency

Raymond James hires their 12th former Citi public finance employee

Raymond James hired George "Jay" Wheatley as a managing director and municipal underwriter in July. Wheatley joins Raymond James from Citigroup's municipal bond department. He was the firm's 12th hire from Citi this year, following the 11 former Citi public finance employees who moved to Raymond James earlier in the year.

Wheatley worked in Citi's municipal bond department for more than 35 years, with leadership roles in sales and trading before transitioning to underwriting; there, he led the national syndicate desk until the firm exited the muni market late last year.

A former Citi "lifer," Wheatley is looking forward to helping expand Raymond James' practice. "Raymond James is a wonderful, wonderful firm to work for. I knew that during my discussions with them over the last four months," he said. "And being here for just for three days, I've been able to see the immediate impact, and that there's a lot of quality people. It's a wonderful platform, and it's a great opportunity, both for me and for Raymond James."

Read more:

Raymond James hires another Citi veteran

Five public finance professionals from Ice Miller join Miller Canfield

Miller Canfield's hiring of five public finance attorneys from Ice Miller, James Snyder, Austin Root, Mark Huddle, Shelly Scinto and Kathleen Thomas aligns with the Detroit-based international law firm's growth strategy: in specific practice areas, such as school districts, and a geographic expansion, including into the competitive Illinois market.

"This group, based out of Chicago, fits the mold of our public finance group," Miller Canfield CEO Mike Palizzi told The Bond Buyer. "We hit it off both in terms of their expertise and practice, and we also hit it off on all cylinders when it came to their culture and approach to things. They're the same type of people we are. So it was an easy call."

The new hires have already expanded opportunities for other groups in the Chicago office, adding "connectivity and more discussions" beyond what was possible before, Miller Canfield public finance group leader Tom Colis told The Bond Buyer's Jennifer Shea.

Read more:

Miller Canfield hires five public finance professionals from Ice Miller