Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co., one of the top municipal bond firms in the United States and the largest African-American, Latino and woman-owned investment bank in the nation, celebrated its 20th anniversary on Thursday.
As part of a series of events to mark the anniversary, the firm hosted a reception Thursday evening at the New York Public Library with government and finance leaders that included New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Other notables in attendance were Alphonso David, Counsel to the New York Governor, U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-Queens, N.Y. Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez, D-East Harlem, former N.Y. Gov. David Patterson, former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Pennsylvania State Sen. Vincent Hughes, San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor, Bexar County, Texas, Commissioner Paul Elizondo and former Houston Controller Ronald Green.
Co-founder Suzanne Shank is Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer of the firm and is its majority owner. The company was started in 1996 by Shank and the late Muriel Siebert, the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, along with former chairman Napoleon Brandford III, who is now retired.
"This is certainly a momentous occasion for us," Shank said. "Today the firm is stronger than ever. We have been through volatile markets, economic downturns and regulatory changes and I'm proud to say we have gotten through all of it and even thrived in spite of it."
Henry Cisneros, former U.S. Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and former Mayor of San Antonio, is an equity partner in the firm whose interest in the company is the second largest.
Shank announced the firm's new corporate structure last November when Cisneros became a partner along with former New York City Comptroller William Thompson, who is the firm's Chief Administrative Officer and a Managing Director; Sean Duffy, Managing Director of Institutional Sales; and equity partner Victor Miramontes, previously CEO of the North American Development Bank.
"Personally, I would like to extend my thanks to all the partners – both past and present – and to all our employees, who have really been the key to our success," Shank said.
"I just want to say that this is a firm ... that operates with transparency, honesty, integrity and effectiveness," Stringer told the audience.
Since its founding in 1996, the firm has conducted over $1.2 trillion of municipal bond transactions and $1 trillion of corporate bond and equity deals. The company's business includes municipal bond underwriting along with corporate debt and equity underwriting, investment banking and execution services.
"Siebert Cisneros Shank has already made its mark as one of the most successful, most formidable corporate and municipal bond firms in the country and I see that that every day as I travel from coast to coast and recognize the critical infrastructure projects that we have financed," Cisneros said.
"The company has had an impressive track record with both municipal and corporate clients," DiNapoli told the audience. "It's a tribute to the firm's former and current leadership and to everyone that's contributed over the years, that in the last 18 years, this firm has been America's top ranked MWBE firm.
In 2010, the company became the first minority-owned firm to rank among the top 10 senior managers of municipal bonds. And every year since 1998 it has been ranked as the number one minority and woman owned municipal finance firm.
"SCSCO is built for the challenges and the opportunities of the 21st century," Thompson said. "We are a company that looks like the country at large and our diverse set of backgrounds and experiences uniquely positions us to understand and anticipate the needs of the marketplace everywhere we do business."
With dual headquarters in New York and Oakland, SCSCO has 17 offices in the United States, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Antonio, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
