CHICAGO – Veteran Chicago-based banker Elizabeth Coolidge is leaving PNC Capital Markets LLC to lead UBS Wealth Management’s Midwest effort to revive a public finance business that was shed in 2008.
Coolidge resigned this week and will start the new position on Aug. 7, according to a person familiar with the situation. The firm declined to comment on Coolidge’s hiring. Market sources said Coolidge told them she decided to make the move because it afforded her a greater leadership opportunity and building a business up from the ground was appealing.
Coolidge joined Pittsburgh-based PNC’s group in 2013 as a managing director to help bolster its business in the Midwest. At PNC, Coolidge led the firm’s banking efforts in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Missouri.
On Coolidge’s departure, PNC’s public finance head Rob Dailey said: “PNC has an experienced team based in Chicago who serve our government, higher education, housing and redevelopment, and healthcare public finance clients. We are deeply committed to Chicago and the Illinois market, and we will continue to invest in our employees, products, and services as part of our continued growth efforts in Illinois and the Midwest.”
Coolidge left Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. after five years to join PNC. At Siebert, she served as head of the office that she had helped establish a decade earlier. Her first stint there ended in 1999, when she decided to make the leap to the former Banc One Capital Markets Inc., which later merged with JPMorgan. She then moved to the former Lehman Brothers. She returned to Siebert in early 2008.
UBS had moved municipals into the investment bank in 2006 from its traditional spot in its wealth management unit. A round of layoffs hit the group hard in 2007 and the firm then exited the business amid the 2008 financial crisis. It has continued to underwrite competitive deals.
In the Midwest, UBS can make inroads quickly with some local and state governments but with others it will take time. Chicago has a revolving qualification process that firms must go through to join its list of prospective underwriters, while the state picks firms qualified from a list established after a formal request for proposals process completed every couple of years.
UBS most recently hired Angelia Schmidt, a veteran of 19 years at JPMorgan Securities, to serve as head of public finance underwriting at UBS. She was the first hire by Peter Hill, who left Wells Fargo in April to rebuild UBS’ public finance practice. She will report directly to Hill, head of the public finance team, and starts in September.
