Cabrera Capital Markets is welcoming three new public finance hires who are joining the firm from UBS.
Shawn Dralle, Shawnell Holman and Chris Bergstrom together bring more than 75 collective years of investment banking experience to Cabrera Capital.
The hires are part of Cabrera Capital's nationwide growth, with Dralle working out of Los Angeles as managing director and head of West Coast public finance, Holman based in Houston as executive director and Bergstrom taking the new head of public transportation finance position in New York, the firm said.
"Our goal in public finance is to be smart and calculated regarding our growth," Mario Carrasco, the firm's managing director and head of public finance, told The Bond Buyer. "[Last year] was the firm's best year in public finance by a large factor, and we will leverage this by building on and expanding our sector focus. We are beginning this effort with Chris Bergstrom and Public Transportation Finance. Our book of business, historically, in the airport/public transportation sector, has been robust nationally, so adding Chris to our team will elevate our profile in what has been a successful practice for us. We plan to expand to other sectors nationally soon."
Dralle most recently was an executive director in public finance at UBS,
Cabrera Capital is the latest stop in a 30-year public finance career that also included stints at RBC Capital Markets and J.P. Morgan. Her specialty is capital infrastructure financing, having worked with local governments in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico.
Holman brings a dual perspective to Cabrera Capital, having previously worked as both a banker and an issuer. Before spending six years at UBS, she was a director at Siebert Williams Shank, and before that, she was deputy City of Houston controller. She worked for the City of Houston for 16 years in various roles.
Carrasco noted that both Texas and California are among the largest economies in the world and have shown resilience in recent years. He said the new hires' "proven history of success" in those states will aid Cabrera Capital's "continued expansion in a growing region."
And Bergstrom offers Cabrera Capital 20 years of experience in the public transportation municipal sector, having gained expertise at both UBS and J.P. Morgan. In particular, his knowledge of airports, surface transportation and transit will add breadth to his new employer's team.
"Chris has such a great reputation in our business," Carrasco said. "We believe, in speaking to multiple airport and transportation-related clients, that this year and 2025 will be banner years for the public transportation sector. As we return to pre-pandemic levels of surface and air traffic, the needs are evident and funding is inevitable."
He added: "Cabrera Capital's recent expansion nationwide is a testament to our firm's commitment to Public Finance and we could not be happier to continue the firm's growth with proven Municipal Finance professionals such as Shawn, Shawnell and Chris."
Also joining the firm as licensed consultants are former Citi bankers Steve Dworkin and George Leung, both seasoned municipal finance pros who each have over 40 years' experience. Dworkin and Leung will help to deepen the public finance offerings at Cabrera Capital, Carrasco said.
These hires come on the heels of other strategic additions. In 2022, Cabrera Capital hired Carrasco himself away from Citi, where he was head of southwest public finance. It then hired the Dallas ISD Treasury's Ricardo Salazar, municipal bond trader Alberto Puentes and Raquel Tello, who signed on as public finance coordinator.
Carrasco predicted bond volume will expand by 10% in 2024 — "commensurate with the economic expansion and level of locally based planned infrastructure expansion at a myriad of large and small issuers alike," he said.
"As ARPA money begins to dwindle, the need for funding mechanisms will almost certainly make its way to the bond market," he added. "While defeasances have been, and will continue to be, a valuable and important tool for our public finance clients, as rates begin to presumably settle in the latter part of 2024, the opportunity for current refundings should buoy the market."
This year will be a transition year for Cabrera Capital. Between the new hires in 2024 and a 57% increase in public finance deal flow last year, Carrasco said the firm is well-positioned to grow further this year.
"Since reestablishing our Texas practice in mid-2022, we have priced or been hired on over $12 billion in negotiated Texas financings, an endeavor our team is very proud of," he said. "Our backyard, Chicago and the Midwest, will always be a growth target for us. We continue to make inroads not only with clients in Illinois such as the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, Illinois Tollroad Authority, Chicago Public Schools, Cook County, Chicago Parks District, Met Pier Exposition, but also in the City of New York, City of Philadelphia, State of Connecticut, Washington, D.C. and other areas in the Northeast/East."
And the firm's team of proven public finance vets will enable it to build on its 23-year history in the public finance space.
"This is going to be an expansive year for our Public Finance Team," Cabrera Capital Founder and CEO Martin Cabrera said in a statement. "Bringing Chris, Shawnell, Shawn and all the Municipal Finance hires since 2022 onto Cabrera's Public Finance platform creates more opportunities to better serve our clients and forge new relationships to continue the upward trajectory of Cabrera's future."
