Faye J. Boatright, a veteran municipal banker, has joined Blaylock Beal Van where she's expected to be instrumental in expanding the investment banking firm's municipal business.
Boatright will be an assistant director of municipal banking at the nation's oldest continuously operated African-American-owned investment bank, the firm said in a press release Monday.
She joins the firm after her departure as managing director at U.S. Bancorp, where she developed the Midwest commercial bank's public finance business in its Northeast region, St. Louis, and Florida.
Prior to joining U.S. Bancorp she served as the chief operating officer of BondFactor, a bond insurance startup.
Ms. Boatright will bring over 20 years of investment banking experience to her new position at Blaylock, where she will report to chairman Bernard Beal and be based in its New York office.
The firm was founded by Eric V. Standifer in 1991 as Robert Van Securities, an Oakland, Calif.-based investment bank, and it has been evolving and expanding ever since.
"BBV is poised to undertake a major expansion of its municipal bond business, and Faye will play a major role in executive our ambitious growth strategy," Beal said in the release.
Also a veteran investment banker, he oversees municipal banking, underwriting, sales, and trading activities.
He marks his second year with the firm after he closed up his own shop, African-American-owned municipal finance firm M.R. Beal & Co., in Jan. 2014 to join forces with what was then Blaylock Robert Van LLC.
After more than a quarter century and management of municipal financings that totaled more than $400 billion, he shuttered his firm amid a wave of departures linked to challenging market conditions, such as shrinking underwriting fees, and increased competition and regulatory mandates.
The two firms initiated an expansion plan for the municipal operations when they pooled their operations. Since Beal's arrival Blaylock Beal Van has served as senior manager or co-manager of 125 transactions totaling nearly $50 billion, according to the firm.
Ms. Boatright will draw from her past experience as lead banker on transactions for large issuers from the East Coast through the Midwest, including states and big cities, as well as state and local authorities.
"The hiring of Faye Boatright is a major coup for Blaylock Beal Van," Beal said. "She is well known and well regarded in the municipal bond industry and her track record developing and serving clients is unparalleled."
She has a particular expertise in special tax bonds as well as the transportation and water and sewer sectors. Her prior investment banking experience includes senior positions at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where she was a vice president in the capital markets' group; Morgan Stanley, where she was an executive director in the municipal bond department; and at Rice Financial Products Co., where she was the director of the Northeast region.
She received a bachelor's of arts degree in public policy from Stanford University and received a master's of business administration from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in finance. She serves as treasurer of The Municipal Forum of New York.
