Title: Assistant Vice President/Analyst
Firm: Moody's Ratings
Age: 34
Gregory Sobel was in college studying economics when Jefferson County, Alabama, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011. Fast forward a dozen years, and he was lead analyst for Moody's Ratings when it granted a Baa1 rating to the county's sewer revenue warrants, the firm's first rating on the credit since the historic bankruptcy.
Sobel, who said he may have been "remotely aware" of Jefferson County's plight while in college, joined Moody's in 2014. He quickly gained a reputation for expertise in distressed and transitional credits, while covering a diverse portfolio in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Alabama. He began to hone those skills as a junior lead analyst assigned to school districts in Pennsylvania, where he found there were more distressed and speculative credits than in the rest of the U.S. as a whole.
According to Moody's Senior Credit Officer Orlie Prince, Sobel has become a thought leader within the rating agency, writing research on emerging areas of credit risk and opportunity, including cyber security, artificial intelligence, decentralized finance and digital assets, as well as revenue trends in the cannabis and gambling sectors. "Increased revenue from marijuana and gambling is a modest credit positive for municipalities taxing those activities," Sobel said.
Sobel said his interest in economics, which entails study of the allocation of scarce resources, dovetailed with his role as a public finance analyst, which deals in measurable outcomes.
"What's great about the industry is there is always more to learn," he said. "What makes a successful credit analyst is keeping your ear to the ground and keeping an eye on how macro trends might affect credits in the future. A successful analyst is forward looking."
