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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Biographical Information for the Field Hearing on the State of the Municipal Securities Market

July 29, 2011
Homewood, AL

The Honorable Elisse B. Walter
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Elisse B. Walter was appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was sworn in on July 9, 2008. Under designation by President Barack Obama, she served as Acting Chairman during January 2009. Prior to her appointment as an SEC Commissioner, Ms. Walter served as Senior Executive Vice President, Regulatory Policy & Programs, for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). She held the same position at NASD before its 2007 consolidation with NYSE Member Regulation. She served on the staffs of the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 1977 to 1986. She graduated from Yale University with a B.A., cum laude, in mathematics and received her J.D. degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School.


The Honorable Spencer T. Bachus, III
U.S. House of Representatives

Congressman Spencer Bachus is serving his tenth term in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 112th Congress. As the congressman for the Sixth District of Alabama, Bachus represents all of the counties of Bibb, Chilton, and Shelby, and parts of Coosa, Jefferson, St. Clair, and Tuscaloosa counties. Bachus earlier served in the State Senate where, prior to his election in 1982, no Republican had served in the body since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican ever elected to the State School Board.

In the State Senate, Congressman Bachus received the Legislator of the Year Award from the Department of Human Resources. He was the author of state domestic abuse statutes and wrote the first law in Alabama that penalizes repeat DUI offenders.

In the U.S. House, Congressman Bachus reflects the views of the people of the Sixth District. He is a conservative who supports tax relief, fiscal responsibility, a strong national defense and traditional values. He has been named Guardian of Small Business by the National Federation of Independent Business, Friend of the Taxpayer by Americans for Tax Reform, Friend of the Family by the Christian Coalition and has received the Spirit of Free Enterprise Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The legislative accomplishments of Congressman Bachus include the establishment of the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge, protecting Alabama's longest free-flowing river and one of the most biologically diverse waterways in the nation. Recognizing the importance of good highways to economic development and safety, Congressman Bachus helped rewrite the federal funding formula on how gas tax dollars are distributed to the states. Alabama now receives an average of $200 million more per year in federal transportation funds for projects like Corridor X and the Northern Beltline. On health care, Bachus stopped a Clinton administration plan that would have cut Medicaid payments to Alabama by $300 million a year and wrote a law permitting Medicare coverage for prostate cancer screenings. An advocate of tornado safety, Bachus passed a law permitting federal block grant funds to be used for the construction of storm shelters. Congressman Bachus played a prominent role in bringing the National Computer Forensics Institute to Hoover and received the Liberty Legacy Award for his successful work on behalf of the state's veterans to establish the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo.

In the 112th Congress, Congressman Bachus is serving as of Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which holds jurisdiction over the banking, securities, insurance, housing, and domestic and international monetary policy sectors. He served as Ranking Member on the Committee during the previous four years.

Congressman Bachus authored the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, which contains powerful identity theft protections and entitles consumers to a free copy of their credit report. Other major bills include deposit insurance reform, which increased FDIC coverage levels for account holders; regulatory relief legislation that will help eliminate unnecessary and duplicative paperwork costs placed on banks and credit unions; and Check 21, which modernized the check clearing process. The long campaign of Congressman Bachus to ban illegal internet gambling - an industry that preys on minors and gambling addicts - culminated in October 2006 when President Bush signed a law barring the use of credit cards and financial instruments on gambling websites.

A native of Birmingham, Congressman Bachus graduated from Auburn University and the University of Alabama School of Law. He and his wife Linda live in Vestavia Hills. They are the parents of five children and attend Hunter Street Baptist Church. Prior to his public service career, Congressman Bachus was a practicing attorney.


Robert W. Cook
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Robert W. Cook holds the position of Director, Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Cook became the Director of the Division of Trading and Markets on January 4, 2010. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Cook was a partner at the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.
Mr. Cook graduated from Harvard College in 1988. He received his Master of Science in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from the London School of Economics in 1989. Mr. Cook received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1992.


Dave Angelo Sanchez
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Dave Sanchez is an Attorney-Fellow in the Office of Municipal Securities, Division of Trading and Markets, at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He joined the Commission staff in 2010 after practicing municipal finance law for more than 17 years at the law firms of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Sidley Austin as well as for the City of San Francisco. Just prior to joining the Commission staff, Mr. Sanchez was an associate general counsel for Financial Security Assurance. Mr. Sanchez received his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico and his law degree from Harvard Law School.


Amy Starr
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Amy Starr is Chief, Office of Capital Market Trends, a new office in the Division of Corporation Finance at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously, Ms. Starr was a Senior Special Counsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel in the Division and from 2003-2008 was Senior Special Counsel to the Director of the Division. She also has been a Special Counsel in the Division’s Office of the Chief Counsel and in disclosure operations. Ms. Starr has been involved in many Commission rulemakings, including Securities Offering Reform, Regulation FD, the Commission’s 1994 Municipal Securities Interpretive Release, the 1994 Amendments to Rule 15c2-12, and the recent actions in the OTC derivatives arena. Prior to joining the Commission in 1992, Ms. Starr practiced corporate and securities law for 11 years in New York City.


Alicia F. Goldin
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Alicia F. Goldin is Special Counsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel of the Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where she focuses on the municipal securities market, broker-dealer sales practices, and securities arbitration. Ms. Goldin previously served as counsel to Commissioner Elisse B. Walter, whom she advised on such issues as equity market structure and regulation of broker-dealers, exchanges, and self-regulatory organizations. Ms. Goldin remains actively involved in managing the ongoing review of the municipal securities market led by Commissioner Walter. Before joining the Commission, she was a corporate associate at the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, LLP. She received a B.A. in French from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.


Robert E. Brooks, Ph.D.
University of Alabama

Robert E. Brooks is the Wallace D. Malone, Jr. Endowed Chair of Financial Management at The University of Alabama, founding partner of BlueCreek Investment Partners, LLC, a money management firm, and president of Financial Risk Management, LLC, a derivatives consulting firm. He is the author of more than 60 articles appearing in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Fixed Income, and others. He is the co-author of “An Introduction to Derivatives and Risk and Risk Management “(Seventh and Eighth Editions) with Don Chance and author of “Building Financial Derivatives Applications with C++.” Mr. Brooks has consulted with major public utilities, energy companies, auditing firms, corporations, investment bankers, elected municipal officials, and commercial bankers regarding managing financial risks, derivatives valuation, and software development. He also conducts professional development seminars on various aspects of financial risk management, including energy derivatives valuation and energy risk management.


J. Foster Clark
Balch & Bingham LLP

J. Foster Clark is a Partner in the Birmingham office of Balch & Bingham LLP and serves as Chair of the firm's Public Finance Practice and is a member of the firm's Executive Committee. He also served as Chair of the Corporate, Finance and Securities Section and as Chair of the firm's Recruiting Committee. He has extensive experience in the roles of bond counsel, underwriter's counsel and disclosure counsel in taxable and tax-exempt bond financings, including state, county, and municipal obligations, private activity bonds and revenue obligations of state and local corporations and instrumentalities. Mr. Clark has served as bond counsel or underwriter's counsel in the financing of programs and projects by the State of Alabama and its agencies and instrumentalities including: single- and multi-family housing programs of the Alabama Housing Finance Authority; general and limited obligation debt financings of the state; financing and refinancing of the Gordon Persons State Office Building; financing and refinancing of the Alabama Supreme Court building; financings and refundings by the Alabama Highway Authority for public roads and bridges; issues by the State Industrial Development Authority to provide funds for industrial development programs; new money and refunding obligations issued by the Alabama Public School and College Authority to finance capital improvements to the elementary, secondary and post-graduate education facilities in the State of Alabama; financings by The Alabama Public Health Care Authority to provide public health facilities throughout the State; revolving fund loan programs by Alabama Water Pollution Control Authority and Alabama Drinking Water Finance Authority for water and sewer projects throughout the state. He also has served as bond counsel in numerous tax-exempt and taxable bond issues for industrial plants, air and water pollution control facilities, and sewage and solid waste disposal facilities in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee.


Philip Dotts
Public FA, Inc.

Philip Dotts is the president of Public FA, Inc., an independent Financial Advisor to public, non-profit, and corporate debt issuers. He formed Public FA in 2000 after 25 years in corporate and public finance where he worked with bank holding companies in North Carolina and Alabama and as a shareholder in a regional investment banking firm. Public FA has clients in more than 30 states including states, state agencies, local governments, public utilities, higher education, airport authorities and public housing authorities in addition to several corporate clients. Mr. Dotts is a past chairman of the Business Council of Alabama, which represents more than 5,000 businesses in the state, and currently serves on the Executive Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, Exchange Bank of Alabama, First Commercial Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, and InfoPro Corporation. Other boards he serves on include: Leadership Alabama, the A+ College Ready Governing Board, Neighborhood Concepts, Inc., a Huntsville-based non-profit affordable housing development corporation, and the Episcopal Diocese Foundation. He is a 1972 graduate of Davidson College with a degree in economics, and a 1980 graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University. He received a National Science Foundation award to study economics at the University of Minnesota, and is a Certified Independent Public Financial Advisor.


William C. Fallon
MBIA, Inc.

William C. Fallon is president and chief operating officer of MBIA Inc. and CEO of National Public Finance Guaranty Corporation. Mr. Fallon is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of MBIA Inc. and its subsidiaries. Previously, Mr. Fallon was head of Global Structure Finance having joined the Company in 2005 as a managing director and head of Corporate and Strategic Planning. Prior to joining MBIA, Mr. Fallon was a partner at McKinsey & Company, which he joined in 1991. Most recently at McKinsey, Mr. Fallon specialized in consulting with financial institutions and was co-leader of the firm’s Corporate Finance and Strategy practice and a key member of the North American Wholesale Financial Institutions and Risk Management practices. He also worked extensively with financial institutions in the areas of value-based management, valuation, mergers and acquisitions, securitization and risk management. Previously, Mr. Fallon was a financial consultant with Stern, Stewart & Co. From 1989 to 1991, he was a senior analyst at General Motors in the Treasurer’s office, where he did corporate and international finance as well as mergers and acquisitions for the group. Mr. Fallon has a BA in economics from the College of William and Mary and an MBA from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth, where he was elected a Tuck Scholar.


James E. Spiotto
Chapman and Cutler LLP

James E. Spiotto is a partner of the law firm of Chapman and Cutler LLP. He has represented issuers, indenture trustees, or bondholders in litigation, bankruptcy or workouts of more than 400 troubled debt financings in more than 35 states and foreign countries. Strategies for avoiding or minimizing municipal defaults are a specialty of Mr. Spiotto. He has lectured at academic institutions, professional associations, and governmental bodies regarding unfunded pension liabilities, municipal defaults, bankruptcy, and disclosure issues. He testified before the United States Senate and House Judiciary Committees in conjunction with the amendments to the Bankruptcy Code including those involving municipal bankruptcy and the advisability of extending the applicability of the Bankruptcy Code to states. He has written numerous books and articles on municipal defaults and bankruptcy, and he is a co-author of the volume “The Law of State and Local Government Debt Financing” (Thompson West) and author of the book, “Defaulted Securities: The Prudent Indenture Trustee’s Guide,” published by the American Bankers Association. He is past president of the Society of Municipal Analysts. Mr. Spiotto has been awarded the National Federation of Municipal Analysts’ Municipal Industry Contribution Award. In addition, the National Association of Bond Lawyers has presented him with the Carlson Prize for the best Scholarly Article for his presentation on Municipal Defaults and Bankruptcy to the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee Hearing on the Orange County Crisis. He authored chapters on municipal defaults and bankruptcy in “The Handbook of Municipal Bonds,” Sylvan Feldstein and Frank Fabozzi, editors, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and a chapter on financial emergencies: default and bankruptcy in the upcoming Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School.


Scott Beardsley
Crews & Associates, Inc.

Scott Beardsley joined Crews & Associates in 2004 and is currently the Executive Managing Director of the firm’s Capital Markets Group. The Capital Markets Group offers issuers nationwide a full range of underwriting, financial advisory, and analytical services tailored to the unique circumstances of each issuer. Crews & Associates, Inc. is a wholly owned, non-bank affiliate of First Security Bancorp. Mr. Beardsley also serves as President of First Security Finance, a non-bank affiliate that specializes in tax-exempt municipal leases. Prior to joining Crews & Associates, Mr. Beardsley worked with his family’s independent municipal financial advisory firm. Mr. Beardsley has worked on more than 500 Arkansas school bond issues totaling in excess of $2 billion. Mr. Beardsley has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas (1990) and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Southern Methodist University (1991).


William P. Henderson
Piper Jaffray & Co.

William Henderson has 28 years experience providing financial advisory and underwriting services to governmental and non-profit entities throughout the Midwest. Bill is a Managing Director of Piper Jaffray and oversees the activities of the Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Des Moines Public Finance offices. He serves on the operating committee for the Public Finance Services Group of Piper Jaffray. Mr. Henderson graduated magna cum laude from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, with a major in Public Administration and from the University of Kansas, where he received his Master's Degree in Public Administration. He presently serves on the steering committee for the Donald V. Adams Leadership Institute at Drake University. Mr. Henderson has been an active in the professional qualifications area of the securities industry. He currently serves on the Sales Supervisory Exam Review Committee (Series 9/10) of FINRA. He also completed a three-year term on the Continuing Education Content Committee of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and a six-year term on the Professional Qualifications Committee of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB).


Alexandra M. MacLennan
Squire Sanders and Dempsey LLP

A partner in the Tampa office of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey (US) LLP and chair of the firm’s national disclosure group, Alexandra M. (Sandy) MacLennan has focused on public finance her entire legal career and has extensive experience as bond and disclosure counsel. She has a diverse practice, representing small and large issuers, conduit borrowers, public hospital districts and housing authorities, among others. She speaks frequently on municipal disclosure matters, both nationally and locally. For four years she served on the Steering Committee for the National Association of Bond Lawyers’ (NABL) annual Bond Attorneys’ Workshop. She also has served as a panelist at the Tax & Securities Law Institute presented by NABL and was the chair of the 2009 Institute. She was an active participant on the NABL committee that drafted and submitted comments to the amendments to SEC Rule 15c2-12, and she prepared Squire Sanders’ comments on the proposed SEC municipal advisor regulations. Ms. MacLennan received her undergraduate degree in journalism in 1980 and her law degree, with honors, in 1984, both from the University of Florida. She was elected to the honor societies of Phi Kappa Phi (undergraduate) and the Order of the Coif (law school). She served as student works editor of the Florida Journal of International Law in conjunction with the publication’s inaugural issue in 1984. Ms. MacLennan is a former chair of the City, County and Local Government Law Section of The Florida Bar, has been named in The Best Lawyers in America each year since 2006 and, in 2010, was recognized in Chambers USA for banking and finance. In September 2007, she was one of the first Florida women elected as a Fellow to the American College of Bond Counsel.


J. Hobson “Hobby” Presley, Jr.
Presley Burton & Collier, LLC

J. Hobson "Hobby" Presley, Jr. founded Presley Burton & Collier, LLC in 2004 and has practiced public finance law for more than three decades. Often serving as bond counsel or underwriter's counsel, Mr. Presley has worked on hundreds of transactions for governmental and nonprofit borrowers. In addition, he has served in various other roles in bond financings, including counsel to credit enhancers and counsel to issuers. A significant portion of his practice is devoted to healthcare finance for nonprofit and governmental hospitals and systems. Complementing his work in healthcare finance, his transaction portfolio also includes significant merger, acquisition and joint venture structuring and documentation. He also advises public finance clients on post-issuance tax compliance, including change in use rules, arbitrage rebate compliance, and tax controversy and audit representation. Mr. Presley also helps clients use swaps and other derivative products to hedge against various risks. He represents both swap market makers and users of derivative products. A Birmingham native, he is a 1972 magna cum laude graduate of Birmingham-Southern College. He was named a Patrick Wilson Scholar at Vanderbilt School of Law, receiving his J.D. in 1975. In law school, he also was an editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. In college, he was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa. He is a member of the Birmingham and American Bar Associations and the Alabama State Bar. He also is a former President of the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL) and has served as a member of the NABL Board of Directors and various committees and task forces. In addition to conducting frequent seminars at NABL educational events, he has served as Chair of the NABL Bond Attorneys Workshop.


Robert B. Scott, CPA
Carrollton, Texas

Robert B. Scott is Chief Financial Officer/Assistant City Manager for the City of Carrollton, Texas, where he has responsibility for all aspects of the City’s financial operations. He has a Masters degree in Accounting and a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from Texas Tech University. Mr. Scott began his career in public accounting, ultimately serving as an audit manager with responsibility for a large number of governmental clients. Mr. Scott has extensive experience in accounting and financial reporting issues having served on various Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) review committees and taskforces. He has been a reviewer for the last three editions of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA)’s “Governmental Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting” (known as the “Blue Book”) and other GFOA publications. He is a past chair for GFOA’s Committee for Accounting, Auditing and Financial Reporting (CAAFR) and he currently serves on the GFOA’s Executive Board. He also is active with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), having served on the Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee and more recently on the taskforce for the Audit Committee Toolkit for Governmental Organizations. While in public accounting, he served as a Practice Fellow for the GASB and later as representative to the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Committee. In 2008, the AICPA named him the outstanding CPA in local government.


Joseph P. Borg
Alabama Securities Commission

Joseph P. Borg has been Director of the ASC since 1994. Mr. Borg is twice past president of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and serves as a member of its Board of Directors and Chair of the International Committee. He has testified before various committees of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives including recent testimony on such areas as microcap fraud, criminal elements in the financial markets, information sharing among financial regulatory agencies, risks posed to investors in initial public offerings of private equity and hedge fund firms and illegal investment sales practices that victimize senior citizens. Mr. Borg served as a U.S. delegate to an Intergovernmental Expert Group for the United Nations Commission on International Trade and Law (UNCITRAL). From 1979 to 1984, he was in-house corporate counsel to First Alabama Bank (n/k/a Regions Bank). He also has been an adjunct professor of law at Faulkner University Jones School of Law teaching securities law and banking (1982-2002), and a partner in the Montgomery law firm of Capouano, Wampold, Prestwood & Sansone (1984-1994). He is admitted to practice in Alabama, Florida, New York, U.S. Federal District Courts in Alabama and Florida, the 5th and 11th Circuit Courts of Appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court.


Charles M. Duggan, Jr.
Auburn, Alabama

Charles M. Duggan, Jr. was appointed City Manager by the Auburn City Council on February 1, 2006. He holds Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics (1990) and a Masters of Business Administration (1994), both from Auburn University, and has additional doctoral coursework in Public Administration and Public Policy. His career with the City of Auburn began in the Parks and Recreation Department in 1989, where he served as Director of Special Programs before transferring to the Information Technology (IT) Department in 1998. As a member of the IT staff, Mr. Duggan served as Network Administrator, Assistant Director, and Deputy Director for five years before being joining the Office of the City Manager as Assistant City Manager in August 2005. During his tenure as City Manager, he has overseen the construction of a new, state-of-the-art joint tennis facility shared with Auburn University; the completion of infrastructure and Phase I of the Auburn Research Park, a joint-initiative between the City of Auburn, Auburn University, and the State of Alabama; a 10,000+ square foot expansion of the Auburn Public Library; and construction of Auburn Technology Park West, a new 400+ acre technology park dedicated to industrial recruitment. Recent citizen surveys indicate high levels of citizen satisfaction, most notably in the areas of overall image of the City; overall quality of City services; overall value received for tax dollars; satisfaction with Auburn as a place to live, work, and raise children; and effectiveness of the city’s communication with the public. In commenting on his abilities, Mayor Bill Ham, Jr. said, “Charlie’s vision for the City, coupled with his excellent management skills and organization, will take Auburn well into the next decade.”


Jennifer L. Johnston
Franklin Templeton Investments

Jennifer L. Johnston is a Vice President and Research Analyst in Franklin Templeton’s Municipal Bond Department. Ms. Johnston joined the company in 1993 and has focused on the municipal tax-backed sector with an emphasis on general obligations, leases/COPs and dedicated tax bonds issued by state and local governments and school districts. She covers local governments of all sizes nationwide and her areas of expertise include California, New York City, New York State, Illinois and Puerto Rico. Ms. Johnston also covers municipal tobacco securitization bonds and has experience with higher education bonds and money funds. Ms. Johnston earned a Bachelors of Science in Political Science and a minor in Business from Santa Clara University and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of San Francisco. Ms. Johnston is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts and was the co-chair of its 2010 and 2011 annual conferences. She is a member and former chair of the California Society of Municipal Analysts and a member of the San Francisco Municipal Bond Club. Ms. Johnston is also President-elect of The Junior League of San Francisco.


Edward “Ned” Mudd, Jr.
Investor

Edward “Ned” Mudd, Jr., is a long-time resident of Birmingham, Alabama. He attended the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and has a M.A. degree in history. He also earned a law degree from Cumberland School of Law in 1984 and later served as the staff attorney of the Biodiversity Legal Foundation. As a side project, he has been composing soundtracks for High Plains Films since the early 1990s. Mr. Mudd regularly invests in securities, including municipal bonds.


Paul Nolan
Asset Preservation Advisors

Paul Nolan joined Asset Preservation Advisors in June of 2011 and has nearly 14 years of investment industry and related experience. His primary responsibilities include assisting with portfolio analytics and investment research. Prior to joining APA, Mr. Nolan was employed by McDonnell Investment Management, where he was responsible for providing both the municipal and taxable portfolio management teams with fixed income credit and market research, with an emphasis on health care credits. Previously, he was employed by Moody’s Investors Service where he performed municipal credit analysis including general obligation, essential service, and special tax backed securities. He earned a Master of Science in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from the Milano New School University (formerly the New School For Social Research) and also holds a B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of Buffalo.


J. Ben Watkins, III
State of Florida

J. Ben Watkins III was appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Cabinet as Director of the State of Florida Division of Bond Finance in July of 1995 and reappointed by Governor Bush in January 1999. The Division of Bond Finance is responsible for issuing bonds for the State of Florida and advising on debt management policies for the State. The Division administers bonding programs for the Departments of Education, Transportation, Environmental Protection and Management Services, as well as borrowings for the State University System, Florida Turnpike System, Florida Prison Financing Corporation, and the State Comptroller’s consolidated equipment financing program. The Division also is responsible for allocating the private activity bond volume cap, maintaining a local government reporting system for bond issues, calculating federal arbitrage rebate liabilities and developing a system to insure compliance with the SEC’s secondary market continuing disclosure requirements. Mr. Watkins advises on legislative and financial issues involving various new financing programs such as the securitization of the tobacco settlement payments, leveraging the state revolving loan fund for wastewater facilities, financing the underground storage tank clean-up, Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, and privatizing the Special Disabilities Trust Fund. Prior to joining the Division, Mr. Watkins practiced law with Asbill & Brennan in Atlanta, where he concentrated on public finance. He has extensive experience as bond counsel, bank counsel and underwriter’s counsel on taxable and tax-exempt financings. Mr. Watkins received his undergraduate degree in accounting from Auburn University in 1979 and worked as a Certified Public Accountant with Peat Marwick. He attended the University of Florida’s College of Law and has been a member of the State Bar of Florida and Georgia since 1987.


Mary-Margaret Collier
State of Tennessee

Mary-Margaret Collier is the Director of the Office of State and Local Finance for the State of Tennessee. Her responsibilities include the issuance and management of the state’s general obligation debt, the debt of the Tennessee State School Bond Authority, the Tennessee Local Development Authority, the issuance of debt for the Tennessee Housing Development Agency and the administration of the loan program for the State Revolving Loan Funds. She also has responsibility for the approval of budgets and debt obligations of certain local governments, reviewing the statutory bonds for county officials and fiscal officers of school systems, and approving certain investments authorized for local governments. In her role as the Assistant Secretary to the State Funding Board, the Tennessee State School Bond Authority, the Tennessee Local Development Authority and the Bond Finance Committee of the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, she serves as the senior staff member responsible for planning and administering the activities of those governmental entities. Ms Collier previously served as the Assistant Director for Debt and Investment Management for the City of Houston. In 2008, she served as President of the Tennessee Government Finance Officer’s Association. In 2004, she served as Chairman of the State Debt Management Network, an affiliate organization of the National Association of State Treasurers. Ms. Collier has served on the Executive Board of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and its Committee on Retirement and Benefits Administration and Debt and Fiscal Policy Committees. She is a graduate of Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, Texas and received her M.B.A. degree from the University of Kentucky.


Andrew Kalotay, Ph.D.
Andrew Kalotay Associates, Inc.

Andrew Kalotay, Ph.D., is an authority on the valuation of municipal, agency, and corporate bonds, and a noted expert on the practice of debt management. He is a prolific contributor to the literature on fixed income topics such as bond refunding and the use and misuse of interest rate derivatives. Before founding Andrew Kalotay Associates in 1990, Dr. Kalotay was with Salomon Brothers and Dillon Read. Prior to working on Wall Street, he was at Bell Laboratories and AT&T. Dr. Kalotay’s innovations include the Ratchet Bond (automatic no-cost refunding feature) and the Volatility Reduction Measure for hedge effectiveness testing. He invented the concept of refunding efficiency, a widely used tool in the management of callable debt, and holds several patents for the valuation of complex debt instruments. Dr. Kalotay is an ardent advocate of option-based refunding in municipal finance. As a public service, he created the Advance Refunding Calculator on the Bond Buyer website to assist municipal issuers. He also serves on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) committee to develop the certification examination for municipal advisors, as stipulated in the Dodd-Frank bill. On the academic side, he directed the first graduate Financial Engineering program in the U.S. at Polytechnic University, from 1995 to 1997. Previously he taught at Wharton, Columbia and Fordham University. Dr. Kalotay holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Queen's University and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, all in mathematics. He was inducted into the Fixed Income Analyst Society’s "Hall of Fame" in 1997 and he is a Charter Member of Risk Who’s Who.


Paul E. McElroy
JEA

Paul E. McElroy was appointed Chief Financial Officer of JEA on January 1, 2006. His direct responsibilities include all accounting, treasury, financial planning and rate making functions, as well as corporate capacity planning, enterprise risk management and strategic partnerships. Prior to holding the CFO position, he served as JEA’s Vice President Financial Services. Mr. McElroy is a member of The Energy Authority’s Board of Directors and sits on the Finance/Audit Committee. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, a certificate from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Advanced Management Program and pursued graduate level studies at the University of Bridgeport and the University of New Haven in Connecticut. Before joining JEA, Mr. McElroy served as a Vice President and General Manager for Bombardier Capital Corporation in Jacksonville, Florida, and Colchester, Vermont. Prior to that, he served in a variety of management positions with Pitney Bowes Credit Corporation, including Controller, Director – Marketing and Vice President, Internal Finance Division in Norwalk, Connecticut.


Steven I. Turner
Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP

Steven I. Turner has been a public finance attorney for his entire professional career, for the last nearly 20 years as a partner in Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP, in the firm’s New York Office. He has extensive experience as both bond counsel and underwriters’ counsel with revenue bond financings for integrated public utilities (including electric, water and sewer) and joint action electric utilities, with general obligation bonds and with bonds to fund various loan programs. He has participated in transactions for new money and refundings, and that have employed a variety of financing techniques including call rights sales, interest rate swaps, and other derivative products. His swap experience has been in New York, California, North Carolina and other jurisdictions with various legal requirements.


Jon. K. Barasch
Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data, Inc.

Jon K. Barasch is a Senior Manager in Interactive Data’s Evaluation Services (EVS) Division, where he manages the Quality Assurance Group, which covers municipal evaluations and municipal credit analysis. He managed the high-yield evaluation desk for the past eight years. Mr. Barasch has a research background and previously worked as a senior credit analyst for Muller Data Corp., which was acquired by Interactive Data in 1999. He has been working in the municipal bond industry for the last 17 years. Prior to joining Muller Data Corp. he worked as a high-yield credit analyst at Rickel Securities, Tucker Anthony, and Gardnyr, Michael Capital. Mr. Barasch received his MBA from Rutger’s Graduate School of Management and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland at College Park.


Ernesto A. Lanza
Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board

Ernesto A. Lanza is Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, (MSRB), the federal self-regulatory organization that regulates broker-dealers, banks and municipal advisors engaging in municipal securities and other public sector financial services activities. He oversees the MSRB’s market regulation activities, including rulemaking, professional qualifications, regulatory support and research. Previously, Mr. Lanza conceived, designed, and then led the development and launch of the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system. which serves as a free Internet-based centralized source for primary market disclosures, continuing disclosures, real-time trade price and interest rate data, market statistics, and investor education for the municipal securities market. He also led the MSRB’s initial rulemaking and interpretive initiatives relating to broker-dealer activities in 529 college savings plans and has worked on a broad range of fair practice, suitability, pay-to-play and disclosure issues relating to municipal bonds. Prior to joining the staff of the MSRB in 1997, Mr. Lanza was in private practice at Ballard Spahr in Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, and at Greenberg Traurig in Miami. He received his law degree in 1988 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his B.A. degree in Government from Harvard University in 1985.


Johnny Lessley
Duncan-Williams, Inc.

Johnny Lessley has been with Duncan-Williams, Inc. since 1993. After graduating with a Corporate Finance degree from the University of Alabama, he continued his education in the Masters Program at the Fogleman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis. Mr. Lessley oversees the primary and secondary municipal desks for retail and institutional clients by providing a daily inventory of both tax-free and taxable municipal bonds in excess of $50 million.


John J. Lynch, Jr.
Hartfield, Titus & Donnelly, LLC

John J. Lynch, Jr. is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Hartfield, Titus & Donnelly, LLC. He has been with the company since January 1977. His responsibilities include administration, compliance, finance, information technology, and trade processing and settlement. Mr. Lynch currently serves on the Professional Qualifications Committee of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), and the following committees at the Securities Industry Financial Markets Association (SIFMA): Municipal Executive, Municipal Operations and Municipal Securities Broker’s Broker. He is a past Chairman of the Municipal Securities Brokers committee at SIFMA. He is also a past Chairman of SIFMA’s predecessor association the Securities Industry Association’s (SIA) Operations Committee. In addition, he served as President of Securities Operations Division of SIA. Mr. Lynch is co-author of SIFMA’s (SIA’s) publication “Standard Securities Calculation Methods.”


Richard Y. Roberts
Roberts, Raheb & Gradler LLC

Richard Y. Roberts is a principal at Roberts Raheb & Gradler, LLC, a regulatory/legislative consulting firm that he co-founded in February 2006. From 1997 to February 2006, he was a partner at Thelen Reid & Priest LLP in Washington, D.C. From 1990 to 1995, Mr. Roberts was a Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and in this capacity, he was actively involved in, and testified on, a wide range of subjects affecting the capital markets. Since leaving the Commission, Mr. Roberts has been a media commentator and writer on securities public policy issues. While working under a USAID contract from 1995 to 1997, he assisted the Governments of Romania and Ukraine in the development of a securities market. From 1987 to 1990, he served as the chief of staff and the legislative director for United States Senator Richard Shelby. Mr. Roberts is a graduate of Auburn University where he earned a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering. He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Alabama School of Law and his Master of Laws from the George Washington University Law Center. He is a member of the Alabama Bar and of the District of Columbia Bar. Mr. Roberts also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Cullen Agricultural Holding Corporation and YA Offshore Global Investments, Ltd. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Securities Regulation & Law Report, of the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, of the Editorial Board of the Municipal Finance Journal, and of the Commissioners’ Council of the SEC Historical Society. Mr. Roberts served as a member of the NASD’s District 10 Regional Consultative Committee from 2002-2004, as a member of the NASD’s Market Regulation Advisory Board from 1999-2001, and as a member of the NASD’s Legal Advisory Board from 1996-1998.

 

http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/municipalsecurities/hearingparticipantbios072911.htm


Modified: 07/28/2011