Title: Managing Director, Public Finance
Firm: KeyBanc Capital Markets
Age: 38
Columbus, Ohio-native Sam Adams says he was drawn to public finance as it marries finance and public policy. His interest in the field dates back to his youth when his father was a municipal banker who spent years working with Ohio school districts.
Sam said he loves to talk public finance with his dad at family gatherings, but “the rest of the family finds the conversations very boring.”
Sam found his passion in the affordable housing sector. “After working for a mortgage bank, following graduate school, that had a small affordable housing practice, I found my love for the industry,” he said. Sam went on to work at PNC in their public finance investment banking group and moved to KeyBanc Capital Markets in 2016 to build out their affordable and social housing investment banking platform.
Sam, who is based in Columbus, says the law degree he obtained from The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law helps in that role. After law school, he returned to study toward an MBA. “I find that my legal background is very helpful in understanding how to meld the many affordable housing programs and rules with the requirements of municipal finance to benefit clients and the industry at large,” he said.
“Sam has grown the use of public housing authority supported-debt to support workforce and tax-credit projects in a time when the need for affordable housing is increasing amidst limited resources,” said Kent Neumann, of Tiber Hudson LLC, who nominated him. “Given the novel nature of these financings, Sam has built trust with his clients as well as led them through the issuance process internally and externally. Sam excels at bringing governmental, non-profit and other private participants together to reduce the total need for subsidies from governmental sources.”
Since spearheading KBCM’s affordable housing capital markets group, he has helped clients issue $1 billion and finance more than 7,500 units.
In his spare time, Adams is a big movie fan who made the adjustment to television during the COVID movie-house shutdown and enjoys golf, discussing current events, reading/learning about anything new and interesting, particularly psychology and sociology and looks forward to traveling again with wife Megan and their kids, Ethan, 2, and Andrew, three months, in tow.
