Meghan Burke, Boston-based public finance section head at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC, and Carol Kostik, New York City deputy comptroller for public finance, will receive the Freda Johnson Award for Trailblazing Women in Public Finance.
Northeast Women in Public Finance will present the awards at The Bond Buyer's Deal of the Year ceremony in New York on Dec. 3. This is the fifth year of the award and the second in which the organization is honoring two public finance professionals, one each from the public and private sectors.
Both were praised in nominating petitions for their professional contributions to the field, volunteer work and mentorship.
Johnson, a founding board member of Northeast Women in Public Finance, was executive vice president and public finance division head at Moody's Investors Service from 1979 through 1990.
“I’m honored and humbled to be receiving the Freda Johnson Award. Freda is truly a pioneer in the industry with whom I had the pleasure of working on a number of transactions,” said Burke. “She, along with so many others, have forged a path for me and other women across the country who have been able to build fulfilling, successful careers in public finance.”
Burke, who also chairs Mintz Levin’s education practice, has extensive experience as bond counsel and as counsel to underwriters, borrowers, trustees, and purchasers in connection with general obligation and revenue financings for transportation, higher education, health care, economic development, project finance, water, and wastewater.
She also has vast experience with interest rate swaps and other hedging transactions for governmental, 501(c)(3) and corporate clients, and is a frequent panelist at industry conferences. Mintz Levin was bond counsel for the 2014 Bond Buyer Deal of the Year, awarded to Massachusetts for its MassDirect Notes program.
Burke earned her bachelor’s degree at Oberlin College and her law degree at Northeastern University.
Kostik, since her initial appointment to the New York City comptroller’s office in 2006, has managed the issuance of more than $90 billion of debt to fund capital projects and to refinance bonds for budget savings.
Working under comptrollers William Thompson, John Liu and incumbent Scott Stringer, Kostik has led municipal market initiatives that brought greater competition to city bond sales, enhanced the diversity of the city’s finance teams and built an extensive investor information website.
Previously she was senior vice president and chief financial officer of the New York City Housing Development Corp. Before that, she was the founding chief financial officer of the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority and a vice president in Merrill Lynch & Co.’s public finance department.
She holds a bachelor of arts degree in political economy from Williams College and a master’s in business administration from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Last year’s Freda Johnson Award winners were Chicago chief financial officer Lois Scott and veteran New York banker Kym Arnone. Prior recipients were Connecticut Treasurer Denise Nappier, Rhode Island general treasurer and current Gov. Gina Raimondo, and Philadelphia city Treasurer Nancy Winkler.
The organization also gave a posthumous award in 2013 to Muriel Siebert, a founding partner of Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC.
