Infrastructure 2023 Opening Remarks

Introductory remarks provided by the Bond Buyer and conference chairs.

Transcription:

Michael Ballinger (00:09):

Good afternoon. Hello. Good afternoon. I'm Mike Ballinger, Publisher of the Bond Buyers. My pleasure to welcome you to the Bond Buyers Second Annual Infrastructure Conference. This infrastructure conference is well timed to discuss the critical issues surrounding infrastructure needs and challenges facing state and local governments in face of building it, and in many cases, rebuilding it. For the second year in a row, the Muni Bond issuance has fallen amid uncertain interest rate, environment and concerns surrounding inflation, and rising goods and construction costs has weighed on our industry, but many opportunities exist via federal programs, the P3 market, as well as the traditional tax exempt market to address our country's growing infrastructure needs that you'll hear from our experts over the next two days. This conference also marks the eighth year of our Rising Stars Program and the second year of our Bond Buyers Hall of Fame honoree dinner tomorrow night.

(01:04)

We're very pleased to have an outstanding lineup of speakers and delighted to close the conference tomorrow with a fireside chat with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and moderated by Chicago CFO, Jill Jaworski. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors and speakers for the conference, particularly our conference co-chairs, Beth Coolidge from UBS and Matthew Neuringer from Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, who are very instrumental in helping us put together such a strong program agenda. I also want to take this opportunity to thank all the Bond Buyer employees for outstanding work in this program, particularly Amma Sebacic, Dan Hoskins, and Sarah Barringer, who were handling all the speaker coordination agenda and marketing for the events. Please join me in a round of applause for the reference.

(01:48)

The Bond Buyer editorial team is also well-represented here, led by Michael Scarchilli editor-in-chief, as well as Lynne Funk, Kyle Glazier, and Caitlin Devitt. I urge you to reach out to our editorial and conference teams during the course of the conference to kick off the conference and my pleasure to introduce our conference co-chairs. Matt Neuringer is a partner of Orrick Herrington and Sutcliffe and his practice focuses on complex, innovative social transportation and infrastructure projects across the United States, particularly public-private partnerships, design build and progressive design build. Matthews advised clients across a full spectrum of energy and infrastructure assets, including telecom, rail, highways, airports, intermodal transit, combined heat and social infrastructure, and waste to energy.

(02:39)

Beth Coolidge joined UVS in 2017 as Managing Director and headed the Public Finance Midwestern Region. She began her career in public finance more than 35 years ago during your career about to serve as lead banker and underwritten over 45 billion of tax exempt and taxable security for such issuers as the state of Illinois, state of Ohio, state of Wisconsin, state of Indiana, state of Michigan, cook County, Chicago, and Milwaukee. To name a few. She served as lead banker for the Indianapolis Bond Bank community Justice Center revenue bonds, which was awarded the Midwest deal of the year by the bond buyer in 2019. In January 20th, 2023, Beth served as a lead banker for the city of Chicago's inaugural social bond, which achieved the first pricing benefit for an ESG designated bond in the marketplace. Please join me in a warm welcome for Beth Coolidge.

Beth Coolidge (03:34):

Well, thank you everyone. I am thrilled to welcome you to my hometown Chicago. I think it's only fitting that the second annual Bond Buyer infrastructure conference be held in Chicago, first and foremost, because Chicago has a long history in the development of our nation's infrastructure both past and present. Not only is Chicago home to one of the nation's largest airports, which for those of you who flew in either last night or this morning, is undergoing a multi-billion dollar reconstruction program, but it is also home to the second oldest running transit system and the largest water treatment facility on the planet. It should also be noted though that Chicago has also suffered a number of challenges as it's gone on to build its infrastructure over the last 160 years. On October 8th, 1871, as legend goes, the O'Leary cow kicked over a lantern and started one of the most catastrophic fires of the time.

(04:37)

The fire destroyed over 17,000 buildings, killed over 300 people and displaced more than a hundred thousand others. The cost of the be blaze in today's dollars would be over 4 billion. Unfortunately, the Chicago fire bearers many of the same traits, I guess, as the Lena Fire that was just experienced in Maui most recently. In the case of the Chicago fire. From this tragedy came major innovation in architecture, infrastructure, construction, and urban planning. The fire allowed the city to start with a clean slate and begin to rebuild in a way that many other urban areas could not. The efforts to rebuild Chicago after the fire led to the development of the first modern skyscraper. It also allowed the city to reimagine the downtown business district, turning it from a once residential area to a dedicated business space. With this new business district came innovations in public transit via streetcar and light rail.

(05:41)

If you have time while you're here, I would highly suggest you take an architectural tour along the river. It is fascinating to see the evolution the city has undertaken over the last 160 years. My prayer is that Lana will also experience a post-fire renovation, which allows its citizens to build back better, and I know a number of folks in this room are working to help them do just that. When developing the agenda for this conference, we discussed the innovations and infrastructure that we as an industry can look forward to over the next 160 years. What role will ESG, both as label for issuance, but also as a model for sustainable infrastructure play? How can P3 be best utilized in vital projects such as water treatment and delivery, and how are large cities and states viewing and prioritizing infrastructure projects in a post covid world?

(06:37)

As we wind down the conference, we will celebrate the rising talent of our industry along with those who have worked diligently to get the municipal finance industry to where it is today, knowing it will be our own rising stars that tackle many of these issues facing our industry with originality at the forefront of their endeavors, reading the resumes of this year's rising stars, I have no doubt in my mind that this group is more than capable of braving the tasks at hand. As we kick off our agenda, I'm looking forward to the thought leadership and innovation that will take place in this room over the next two days. I know that these innovative discussions will advance new initiatives in our industry for many years to come. I would now like to invite the panelists of the leaders in the infrastructure, finance and Economic Development panel to the stage, and it will be led by Kristin Stephens, who is a Managing Director at UBS and head of the Credit Strategies Group. Thank you very much.