Title: Managing Director, Municipal Research
Firm: Janney Montgomery Scott
Age: 38
Erin Ortiz started her career in the higher education sector and soon became a respected and preeminent analyst in that space.
While at New York University for graduate school, Ortiz took a municipal finance course with the managing director of Moody’s Investor Service’s higher education, healthcare and hospital team. There she became inspired to pursue a career in public finance.
In the class, students would do mock credit reviews and provide opinions on credit ratings.
“We could all have different opinions on what a credit rating for an institution may be, but it’s fun coming to that point,” Erin said. “That was my first realization that it could be something that would be challenging and something that I’d really enjoy.”
Once she became interested in municipals, she became aware of the importance of public finance.
“When you’re at school, you see construction cranes or when you’re driving down the road, you’re not cognizant of it,” Erin said. “But once you get into municipals, you’re very aware of the importance of public finance issuing and what the market does for municipalities in terms of that ability to make communities and institutions better.”
After graduate school, Erin herself went to Moody’s for the next seven years as a higher education and not-for-profit ratings analyst.
Erin has been with Janney for the past two years, where she works across various business units of the firm including underwriting, sales and trading by providing credit analysis on any sector in the municipal realm and publishing external and internal research on various topics.
At Janney, she uses her experience from Moody’s to work with the public finance bankers and the higher education and not-for-profit financial advisory group to assist with rating agency strategies and credit views.
“My job is a lot of fun and I love working with the different areas of the firm. I feel like I am a jack of all trades,” Erin said. “There is never a dull moment.”
