Connecticut sold a routine $214 million general obligation deal last week, with Wells Fargo placing the winning bid. Although the deal was unremarkable, Assistant Treasurer for Debt Management Bettina Bronisz made sure the occasion didn't go unnoticed.
"She invited all the interns and other members of our executive staff to participate and learn about it and to be part of seeing how the result would come out," Connecticut Deputy Treasurer Sarah Sanders said. "She even had us all guess on what the [true interest cost] would be, like a game." Spoiler alert: it was 2.9221%.
After the competitive sale, Bronisz attended her retirement party, which had 100 attendees, some of whom came from as far as Chicago or Florida, Sanders said.
What Bronisz finds noteworthy is her longevity in the industry. "I don't have anything spectacular, headline-making for you," Bronisz said. "Just, I guess, that I'm still here after 40 years."
When Bronisz retires on August 1, Assistant Treasurer Kimberly Mooers will step into the role of assistant treasurer for debt management. Mooers joined the treasurer's office last year after serving as executive director of the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp. Before that, she worked at UniBank Fiscal Advisory Services and BayBank.
Bronisz has lived many lives, in and out of the industry — an investment banker in the 1980s, a keyboardist in a rock band in the 1990s, and a single mother working in the Connecticut Treasury.
Bronisz moved to New York in 1984. She'd worked two years in commercial banking in Connecticut, but a headhunter said investment banking would be a better fit, and Bronisz started as an analyst at Bear Stearns, before moving to Ehrlich Bober, then A. G. Edwards.
Every bank on her resume is defunct, Bronisz noted.
"This was a time when a lot of firms were contracting, or getting out of the business, or merging. So being an investment banker, you had to really be nimble," Bronisz said. "It was like walking through a minefield."
David Brownstein, a co-worker at the latter two banks, remembers Bronisz's personality, although the projects they worked on have faded from memory. She was engaging, fun and "the type of person you always loved being around."
"We had to work on request for proposals responses together, and I'm sitting there dreading having to just write these pages," Brownstein recalled. "And she's just having fun, enjoying it."
But the stressful and intimidating parts of the industry wore on Bronisz, she said. For one, the finance industry still had a glass ceiling for women.
"Most of the major Wall Street firms were partnerships," Bronisz said, "and the partners were actually pretty vocal that they did not foresee any woman breaking through the glass ceiling within the 20th century. So clearly, I was a woman working in a man's world."
Eventually, Bronisz burned out and departed A. G. Edwards for what she planned as a brief sabbatical — three or four months, maybe. It ended up being four years.
First, she went on "adventures" in Europe, backpacking across the continent with the help of a Eurail pass and a Let's Go Europe book. When she returned to the states, she co-founded an all-female rock band called Puss in Boots.
The five-member group only covered songs from females: The Bangles, The Go-Go's, Bananarama, Madonna. Bronisz played the keyboard and sang backup vocals.
"We weren't the best band out there, but we made up for it with lots of sass and plenty of attitude," Bronisz said.
After her rock-and-roll star, Bronisz became a mom. As a single parent, she needed a source of income, so she joined Advest in Hartford.
"I had been out for four years, and I was a little concerned about getting back into the field, but the industry welcomed me back with open arms," Bronisz said.
But being an investment banker and a single mom was hard, Bronisz said, and moving to the issuer side of the industry offered more stability.
"The state of Connecticut's not going to go out of business," Bronisz said.
Bronisz spent 11 years at the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, a quasi-state agency that has also since shut down, and then jumped at a rare job opening in the Connecticut treasurer's office.
"We were thrilled to be able to attract her into our [staff]," Sanders said. "And she was excited to come on, we were surprised that she was so excited."
In the ensuing 12 years, Bronisz was promoted from debt manager to assistant treasurer for debt management, and now oversees a bond portfolio of $26 billion. Her division
Bronisz worked on the team that earned Connecticut a
Bronisz was also a leader in the treasury's environmental, social, and governance bonds, Sanders said. She took an interest in the concept as soon as she learned about it and developed a green bonds issuance for a clean waterfront project and a social designation for Connecticut's local school construction program.
"Bettina is a legend in public finance and a transformative figure within state government," Connecticut Treasurer Erick Russell said via email. "Her work has saved millions of taxpayer dollars, helped finance historic investments in Connecticut's future, and inspired those around her to aspire to a similar level of excellence. I will miss having her as a colleague but am so thankful to have worked alongside her."
Bronisz will find other ways to occupy her time. Her husband, whom she married three years ago, is the lead guitarist in a rock band. Bronisz recently joined the band, once again playing keyboard and singing backup vocals.
Sanders said she'll miss Bronisz's presence in the office. Bronisz served as a sounding board for ideas, mentored new employees and threw themed parties for her team.
"She's just always got a really good sense of humor, and you can always hear laughing coming out of her office," Sanders said. "She would be uplifting for the group and keep us from taking ourselves too seriously."
Brownstein said Bronisz made him enjoy his job more.
"I definitely have never worked with anyone like her," Brownstein said. "You don't find people who start every day excited about the day. [You] have a bad day, once in a while. And I just never saw them."
