An in-depth look at the 2020 Rising Stars

November 30, 2020 2:45 PM

Hear from some of the 2020 Rising Stars about diversity issues, the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affected their work, and their thoughts about the future of the public finance sector. We also link to all the profiles, in case you missed them.

Jonathan Azoff

Title: Chief of Finance and Senior Counsel
Firm: Office of the Ohio Treasurer
Age: 35

Over the course of his roughly nine-year career as public finance attorney, Jonathan Azoff has rapidly ascended in the field.

He is now chief of finance and senior counsel at the Office of the Ohio Treasurer. Among his current duties are overseeing the $12 billion investment and $11.5 billion debt portfolios of the state.

Read the full profile here.

Giedre Ball

Title: Debt Program Manager
Firm: Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Office of Finance
Age: 39

Giedre Ball has lived in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area since leaving her native Lithuania to attend American University as an undergraduate.

As debt program manager for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Giedre manages a $7.6 billion debt portfolio that includes around $500 million in swaps. She also manages the authority’s investor relations and continuing disclosure compliance.

Read the full profile here.

Hear her views on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected municipal finance here.

Barry Carrigan

Title: Partner
Firm: Nixon Peabody
Age: 35

Rising Star Barry Carrigan finds time not only to work on complicated and ground-breaking financings, but also to volunteer for several charitable organizations and mentor associates at Nixon Peabody.

Barry led the Nixon Peabody team serving as counsel to BNY Mellon Capital Markets, LLC, the bank that was the bidding agent, underwriter, and settlement agent for the Federal Reserve’s $500 billion Municipal Liquidity Facility program, wrote Nixon Peabody partner Kenneth Lind, who nominated Barry as a Rising Star.

Read the full profile here.

Kimberly Mitchell

James Carter

Title: Director and Head of the Central Region Public Finance Group
Firm: Academy Securities
Age: 38

As a teen, James Carter had wanted to be an engineer. “I had always been a tinkerer,” the Chicago-area native said.

Then a field trip to New York tinkered with his career and steered it toward public finance.

On the final stop of a sightseeing day, James visited Goldman Sachs at its former 85 Broad Street headquarters in Lower Manhattan. “We got a talking-to from three investment bankers about finance and investment banking. I was sitting in the front row and my mouth was wide open.”

Read the full profile here.

Hear his views on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected municipal finance here.

Andy Templeton

Rachel Chang-Kwei

Title: Senior Vice President
Firm: Fieldman, Rolapp & Associates Inc.
Age: 38

Public education has been at the forefront of Rachel’s life and led her to a fruitful career in public finance.

When she was 16 years old, she moved from Taiwan to Southern California to attend San Marino High School as a sophomore. She enrolled in the English as a Second Language program and to finish her school curriculum and satisfy graduation requirements, she took classes at a local community college.

Read the full profile here.

Hear her thoughts on diversity and inclusion in municipal finance here.

Rena Connor

Title: Executive Director
Firm: UBS
Age: 36

Rena Connor, executive director at UBS, is a municipal bond veteran with 13 years of experience.

Since joining UBS in 2018, she has demonstrated leadership in her role as a top-producing salesperson and as an advocate and mentor for younger employees.

Rena is a municipal institutional salesperson at UBS who covers key accounts such as JPMorgan, Cumberland Advisors, Breckinridge Advisors, First Financial Bankshares and Liberty Mutual.

Read the full profile here.

Denise Sweet-Edwards

Chintan Dholakia

Title: Vice President, Public Finance Investment Banking
Firm: Wells Fargo Securities
Age: 34

Chintan Dholakia made his mark in the municipal finance industry by delivering to clients creative and effective financing solutions and bringing people in the business together.

As a San Francisco-based public finance banker at Wells Fargo Securities, Chintan is credited with playing a key role in the origination and execution of over $7 billion of senior-managed financings nationwide.

His abilities were underscored by his work co-leading a San Diego Association of Governments deal that was named The Bond Buyer’s 2019 Far West Deal of the Year.

Read the full profile here.

Melissa Dubowski

Title: Deputy finance director
Employer: Houston
Age:

As deputy finance director for Houston, Melissa Dubowski is tackling the most severe financial crisis in a generation at the nation’s fourth most populous city.

Melissa, who came to Houston in 2014 after working for New York City, leads the Finance Department's liquidity management, debt issuance, and property and sales tax forecasting and collections. She also oversees the city's $9.2 billion five-year capital plan and had a key role in developing the Houston Pension Solution that required approval of $1 billion of pension bonds in 2017. She also serves as a Trustee for the Houston Police Officers' Pension System.

Read the full profile here.

In this podcast, Melissa discusses her job, how it's been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and her vision for public finance after the pandemic.

Michelle Estes

Title: Head of U.S. Public Finance Origination
Firm: Rothesay Asset Management
Age: 31

Michelle Estes has an extensive array of experience in the municipal bond market and is currently using that to hone her position as head of U.S. public finance origination and portfolio manager for the municipal credit portfolio at Rothesay Asset Management North America.

Michelle assists in developing and scaling investment theses in U.S. public finance and originating unique market opportunities for Rothesay Life, a U.K.-regulated insurance company.

Read the full profile here.

Ester Flores

Title: Director
Firm: Hilltop Securities
Age: 36

As the first member of her family to earn a college degree, Ester Flores knows the value of higher education. Today, she works for some of Texas’ top universities — including her alma mater the University of North Texas — as a director for municipal advisor Hilltop Securities.

As higher education faces a severe financial shock, Ester and her associates at Hilltop are adapting to a new way of advising clients, working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full profile here.

David Gallin

Title: Executive Director
Firm: Morgan Stanley
Age: 38

These days it’s unusual for anyone to stay with one company for their whole career. But David Gallin has been with Morgan Stanley’s not-for-profit healthcare public finance group since he began his career in 2004, and after being promoted to co-head of the group last year, he seems set.

David decided in the middle of his college days at the University of Pennsylvania that he wanted a career in finance. After earning his degree, he interviewed at banks, and he “really liked the people at Morgan Stanley.” They offered him an analyst position, and “I haven’t really looked back.”

Read the full profile here.

Tyler Kalachnik

Title: Partner and vice-chair Municipal Finance Group
Firm: Ice Miller LLP
Age: 38

Early on Tyler Kalachnik had an interest in real estate. Now 50% to 60% of his work at Ice Miller LLP is on affordable housing transactions.

Affordable housing gave Tyler a sense of doing good.

“It’s probably pretty cliche, but in our practice, you can do well by doing good,” Tyler said. “There is at least some component of you’re helping people hopefully at the end of the day while still making a good living.”

Read the full profile here.

Tanya Boggs

Allison King

Title: Partner
Firm: Tiber Hudson LLC
Age: 39

Allison King parlayed a career in real estate development into a career as an affordable housing bond attorney, after working on bond-financed housing projects in the Southeast.

She leads Tiber Hudson’s Charleston, South Carolina, office most often serving as underwriter’s counsel and has participated in the issuance of about $4.5 billion of bonds, including those involving the Federal Housing Administration, Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and private placements.

Read the full profile here.

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Adebola ‘Bola’ Kushimo

Title: Vice President/Senior Analyst
Firm: Moody’s Investors Service
Age: 37

Bola Kushimo, vice president/senior analyst Moody’s Investors Service, is a seasoned credit analyst who specializes in local government ratings. She’s 37 years old and is based in Texas.

She is in charge of a portfolio of high-profile issuers in the region and collaborates regularly with other local government analysts at Moody’s around the nation.

Read the full profile here.

Hear her thoughts on diversity and inclusion in municipal finance here.

Jeffrey Lack

Title: Director
Firm: Fitch Ratings
Age: 39

Jeffrey Lack has established himself as leading credit analyst for the transportation sector during his nearly 10-year run at Fitch Ratings. He was formerly the senior transportation analyst in Fitch's Chicago office and in 2019 moved to the rating agency’s Austin, Texas, office to grow the company’s global infrastructure coverage.

Jeffrey has taken an elevated role in Fitch’s airport sector during the last five years as lead analyst on a number of high-profile hub airports throughout the U.S. including Atlanta, Houston, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and San Francisco.

Read the full profile here.

In this podcast, Jeffrey explains what drew him to public finance, his motivations and who inspires him.

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Kimberly Magrini

Title: Partner-Elect
Firm: Ballard Spahr LLP
Age: 38

Kimberly Magrini has handled a variety of complex transactions and financings during her nine years at Ballard Spahr LLP. She serves as counsel to investment banking firms, investors, municipalities and trustees in a number of different public finance and municipal securities transactions.

Kimberly has established herself as one of the top young public finance lawyers in the Philadelphia region as evident when she was named to The Legal Intelligencer's 2018 list of leading attorneys under age 40 in Pennsylvania.

Read the full profile here.

John Markowitz

Title: Assistant Treasurer
Firm: Transurban — North America
Age: 37

John Markowitz, a 2005 graduate of the University of Virginia, started his career in commercial credit at SunTrust Bank. He was about to go to law school when a colleague contacted him about working in a unique and growing form of infrastructure financing, value capture bond underwriting, at Stone and Youngberg (later acquired by Stifel).

He worked on financing infrastructure for municipalities and real estate developers across the U.S. to stimulate economic development and redevelopment for seven years. Then in 2015, he had an opportunity to help the public directly at the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency in Boston where he was vice president of infrastructure and governmental finance.

Read the full profile here.

In this podcast, John discusses his job, how it's been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and his vision for public finance after the pandemic.

Rick Schwab e:rick@rickschwab.ne

Glenn McGowan

Title: Director, Senior Municipal Underwriter
Firm: RBC Capital Markets
Age: 36

After a college internship with a major Wall Street firm gave Glenn McGowan a glimpse of the intricacies of the municipal finance industry, he scrapped his previous plan of attending business school and becoming an accountant.

“Once I got to know this industry and see how my career progressed, frankly I didn’t want to leave,” the 36-year-old director and senior municipal underwriter at RBC Capital Markets said. “I grew to like the client base and work we did.”

Read the full profile here.

Genevieve Lee

Cameron Mock

Title: Chief of Staff for Deputy Governor
Employer: State of Illinois
Age: 32

From Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s constitutional amendment proposal to move to a progressive income tax to consolidating the state’s public safety pension assets, Cameron Mock leaped head first into roles that are helping shape the administration’s strategy to stabilize state finances.

Cameron joined the state in February 2019 as chief of staff and senior fiscal advisor to Deputy Governor Dan Hynes after four years with the Chicago Public Schools in various fiscal and policy roles. He was tapped immediately to work on the new governor’s proposal to move to a progressive income tax structure that will appear on the November ballot. He then served on the consolidation task force that led to legislation in 2019 to combining more than 650 local funds into a single firefighters’ fund and single police fund.

Read the full profile here.

In this podcast, Cameron discusses his job, how it's been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and his vision for public finance after the pandemic.

ERICK JOHNSON

Oscar Padilla

Title: Associate Director
Firm: S&P Global Ratings
Age: 34

Oscar Padilla is an associate director on the U.S. states team at S&P Global Ratings.

His undergraduate studies during the Great Recession, work with the Texas Legislature in 2009, and an internship at the White House helped build a foundation for his career.

Read the full profile here.

Hear his views on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected municipal finance here.

Nathan Perez

Title: Managing Director
Firm: DTA (formerly known as David Taussig and Associates) San Jose office
Age: 37

Nathan Perez is licensed to practice law in California and Massachusetts, but his work as a managing director for DTA based in San Jose, Calif. mostly involves public finance that is location-specific.

During the 10 years that he’s worked at DTA, Perez estimates he has built up a clientele of 150 private developers and 250 municipal agencies, cities, counties, school districts, and special districts.

Read the full profile here.

Vanie Poyey

Roberto Ruiz

Title: Director
Firm: Stifel
Age: 37

Roberto Ruiz, a director in Stifel’s San Francisco office, was drawn to public finance by time spent studying in China after he earned his undergraduate degree in psychology.

While teaching English and studying Mandarin, Roberto took notice of the infrastructure popping up around him, which sparked an interest in how such projects got done.His interest shifted to school district finance after he accepted a position at Stone & Youngberg, later acquired by Stifel.

Read the full profile here.

Hear his thoughts on diversity and inclusion in municipal finance here.

Abbie Miller

Aycha Sawa

Title: Comptroller
Employer: City of Milwaukee
Age: 37

After making a shift to virtual campaigning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Aycha Sawa won her first political campaign in April when Milwaukee voters picked her to serve a four-year term as their next comptroller.

“It was uncharted territory,” Aycha said of running a virtual campaign.

Aycha is the first woman elected to the post that serves as the city’s chief financial officer and provides an independent check on city fiscal management.

Read the full profile here.

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Rich Simon

Title: Director, Public Finance, Western Region
Firm: Assured Guaranty
Age: 36

Since joining Assured Guaranty 13 years ago, Rich has blossomed into one of the strongest credit analysts at Assured, his colleagues said.

His coverage area includes most sectors in public finance and he has gained the utmost respect from his peers and from Assured’s internal credit committees.

Read the full profile here.

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Matthew Stephan

Title: Head of Municipal Credit Research
Firm: Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Age: 34

Matthew Stephan had already mastered the learning curve as Columbia Threadneedle Investments' head of municipal credit research, a position he has held since December 2018.

He drew on that when COVID-19 hit.

Matthew quickly assembled his team virtually through daily meetings and impromptu check-ins as the markets seized.

Read the full profile here.

Gittings Photography

Amanda Stephens

Title: Senior Associate
Firm: Orrick
Age: 34

In six years working on municipal finance legal issues Amanda Stephens has gained substantial experience developing innovative charter school financing programs.

One of Amanda’s clients is the Equitable Facilities Fund, “a first-of-its-kind nonprofit social impact fund that leverages private charter loans to the public market,” said Orrick Partner Todd Brewer. EFF operates in 13 states so Amanda has her hands full creating appropriate legal documents for each client.

Read the full profile here.

In this podcast, Amanda explains what drew her to public finance, her motivations and who inspires her.

Collin Teague

Title: Director
Firm: BofA Securities, Inc.
Age: 37

“Being from Texas and attending the University of Texas, my focus initially was Texas. And coming out of college, I always wanted to do investment banking, working with a team to help governmental issuers. That always felt like the bread and butter of municipal finance,” said Collin Teague, director at BofA Securities.

At 37, he’s lived in New York and New Jersey during his career but has executed deals across the country in muni finance.

Read the full profile here.

Alexander Vaisman

Title: Vice President and Head of National Higher Education Practice, Public Finance, Western Region
Firm: Build America Mutual
Age: 34

During the past six years, while being employed at Build America Mutual, Alex Vaisman has distinguished himself as a rising star among municipal analysts by developing a deep record of expert analysis in a wide range of sectors and geographic areas.

One of his most memorable and meaningful accomplishments has been serving the industry as a co-founder of California Muni Pride (CAMP), the first professional networking group for LGBTQ+ individuals working in the California municipal finance industry.

Read the full profile here.