BondLink, the Boston-based financial technology company that provides cloud-based debt management software solutions to issuers, has hired three new public finance professionals to its issuer success team to bolster issuer transparency efforts.
Emina Masic, Ted Damutz and Robert Smith joined BondLink as regional directors in the past few months, tasked with educating the buy-side and sell-side about best practices in the bond market and how to use BondLink's platform.
The new hires join Alex Palazzolo, who was brought on in October. Palazzolo is regional director of issuer solutions in the Southwest, primarily with Texas-based issuers and entities.
“They bring an incredible breadth of knowledge and experience and already are providing new perspectives on how we can leverage our capabilities to better serve our clients,” BondLink CEO Colin MacNaught said in a release.
MacNaught said BondLink’s investor
“This is the type of environment where issuers should be more transparent with investors,” MacNaught told The Bond Buyer. “And we're here to help. This is the challenging market where software and technology that enhances investor engagement becomes even more valuable.”
Masic joins the firm as the new regional director for the Northeast, with a focus on education and healthcare. Her almost decade long experience in the muni industry has spanned across several states in the region and both sides of the bond deal, the firm noted.
Masic began on the sell-side as a graduate intern for the Philadelphia Treasurer’s office. She also spent time on the buy-side as a public finance investment banker in New York for Siebert Williams Shank and a charter schools banker, focusing on deals primarily in Michigan.
“I've been able to see a lot of room for innovation and room for growth and room for where we can make things more efficient and take the load off of issuers,” Masic said. “And so being able to kind of be in the trenches, so to speak, has really given me a broader perspective of how we're helping our clients.”
Masic hopes to bridge the gap between investors and issuers.
“The story of 2022 is the story of volatility, a lot of investors have pulled back out of our markets,” Masic said. “And so to the extent that issuers can adopt best practices around being very transparent… That's going to make a huge difference in helping them stand out from the crowd when it's time to go to market and when investors’ attention is also limited. They only have so many hours in a day, and we want to make it easy for them to get information and get access to our issuers.”
Damutz is taking over as BondLink’s regional director in the Southeast. For over two decades, Damutz worked as a team leader and senior credit officer for Moody’s Investors Service. He serves as a member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts Board of Governors.
“I know, from first-hand experience, how many municipalities have been under-staffed the past few years and how urgently enhanced transparency is needed for the buy-side,” Damutz, who was also a former treasury manager for Raleigh, North Carolina, said in the release. “I’m excited to be part of BondLink and help issuers stand out in the muni-bond market by promoting their strengths beyond SEC-required disclosures.”
Smith enters his new position as regional director of the west coast with 40 years of experience in public finance, working at Moody’s for seven years as a senior vice president of relationship management. His decades of experience also include tenures as an executive vice president at HRF Associates and managing director for ACA Financial Guaranty Corporation.
BondLink was co-founded by MacNaught and CTO Carl Query and went live in 2016. Since its inception, the company has received the backing of muni investor giants and ranked for four consecutive years on the GovTech 100, an annual list of companies that work with state and local governments nationwide.
