Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Florence Zeman manages the Public Finance Housing Finance & State Revolving Funds team at Moody’s which is responsible for providing ratings for the state and local housing finance agency single and multifamily bond programs and for state clean water and drinking water revolving funds.  Under Florence’s direction the team developed new rating products for various housing finance areas including low income housing tax credit funds, military housing and privatized student housing. She has also been involved in the ratings of other public finance credits,  real estate and asset backed transactions and sovereigns and sub-sovereign credits.  Florence is a member of the Public Finance Credit Committee and is responsible for much of the Housing team’s research activities. She frequently represents Moody’s at industry conferences and is often quoted in the media.Prior to joining Moody’s in 1994, Florence was a Vice President in the Structured Finance Department at AMBAC. She has a master’s degree in Public Finance and a bachelor’s degree in history, both from New York University.

With more than thirty years of corporate and real estate legal practice, Robert E. Tritt brings a broad spectrum of experience to public-private partnerships.  He is Co-Chair of the Military Base and Communities Practice of McKenna Long & Aldridge.  He is actively engaged in the representation of the private sector and local redevelopment authorities in the redevelopment of closed and realigned military bases.  Military base projects include representing the private sector or other end users of redeveloped bases at:Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, Texarkana, TXKansas Army Ammunition Plant, Parsons, KSRiverbank Army Ammunition Plant, Modesto, CAFort Gillem, Forest Park, GANAS Brunswick, Brunswick MEMCAS Tustin, Tustin CANavy Supply Corps School, Athens GAHe has skill in assisting the private sector in investments in and around expanding military bases, including renewable energy projects.  He also represents governmental entities and the private sector in other forms of public-private partnerships, including privatization of educational facilities for K-12 schools and higher educational purposes.Mr. Tritt is experienced in complex real estate development and redevelopment and the financing of those efforts through private and public finance and through tax incentives.Mr. Tritt has further extensive experience in project development in the energy field and has represented independent power producers in the development and financing of merchant power plants.  He is a frequent speaker and panelist on BRAC and public-private partnerships related issues and has served as a mentor for local communities at workshops sponsored by the Association of Defense Communities.

John M. May, Managing Director splits his time between the firm’s St. Louis and Chicago offices. He is responsible for developing and growing the firm’s Renewable Energy Practice.  He is a seasoned project finance investment banker who has financed over $1 billion in loan and par values for over 100 clients in his 15-year banking career.  In the past three years, he has become one of the top renewable energy bankers in the country, having developed a national practice in renewable energy finance focusing on biofuels, biomass and coal gasification.  He is financial advisor to numerous renewable companies and has placed senior and subordinated debt financing for new projects, expansions and acquisitions.  He has also been placement agent to companies raising debt through the issuance of tax-exempt and taxable bonds in the ethanol industry.  He was responsible for developing one of the first tax-exempt subordinated bond structures sold to major U.S institutional investors to fund ethanol projects.  He has also pioneered the use of State guarantees of debt for biofuels financings.  He secured a $15 million full faith and credit guarantee from the State of Illinois for a biodiesel project.  He also underwrote one the country’s first tax-exempt bond issues to fund a landfill gas-to-electricity project.  One of his current interests is in the development of tax-exempt solid waste bonds for use in funding gas to liquids projects.  He has been involved in financing renewable projects in ten Midwestern and Western states. John’s renewable energy clients include public companies such as Pacific Ethanol, GTL Resources PLC, Rentech, Ethanex Energy and Four Rivers Bioenergy; and private companies such as Biofuels Company of America (in which Bunge of North America was an investor), Whitewater Ethanol and Nexsun Energy.   He is a frequent speaker at national conferences, and has given recent presentations on financing cellulosic ethanol and the history of lending to biofuels by the commercial bank and bond markets.  He presented at the Platts Cellulosic Ethanol Conference held in Chicago in November 2007, and at the Future Fuels Conference in Washington, D.C. in December 2007.  He has provided counsel on financing options and the credit markets to such government and association industry participants as the Staff of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, U.S. Department of Energy/NREL, Missouri and Illinois Corn Growers Associations and the Illinois Finance Authority.  He has been featured in recent articles and web seminars on biofuels finance authored or sponsored by Biofuels Journal and published on Grainnet.com.Prior to beginning his investment banking career, John practiced law at two national firms in Kansas City and Dallas.  He received his J.D. and M.B.A. (with Concentration in Finance) degrees from the University of Kansas, and his B.A. With Honors Cum Laude from Brown University. 

Jim has 30 years of experience in the public power arena specializing in the finance area. He has been employed by MEAG Power since 1997 and currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Authority. Prior to joining MEAG Power, Jim worked for the Massachusetts Municipal Electric Company in various positions of increasing responsibility in the finance and audit area.Jim is a Certified Public Accountant and received his undergraduate degree from Western New England College and holds a Master’s degree in Taxation from Bentley College. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for The Energy Authority and as MEAG Power’s representative on the Vogtle Project Management Board. He recently served as the Chairman of the Large Public Power Council’s Tax and Finance Committee.

Karl H. Pfeil, III is a managing director in Fitch Ratings’ public finance group. He is primarily responsible for managing the Public Power Group, but also participates in credit decisions involving other segments of the public finance and energy marketplace. Karl is also a member of Fitch’s public finance executive committee and credit policy board. At Fitch Karl’s experience also includes the analysis of investor-owned utilities and project financings. Additionally, Karl actively participates in updating existing ratings criteria and the development of new ratings guidelines. Prior to joining Fitch in 1996, Karl was an Assistant Vice President at AMBAC Indemnity Corporation, where he was responsible for the surveillance and underwriting of public power, water and sewer, airport, and tax-backed issuers for bond insurance. Karl earned a BS in finance from Rowan University (formerly Glassboro State College) and received an MPA from New York University.

Elizabeth Columbo is a partner in Nixon Peabody’s New York office. She represents governments and public authorities, issuers, and financial institutions, serving as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, or bank counsel for a variety of tax-exempt and taxable financings.� She devotes a substantial amount of her time to financings for public power, transportation, multi-family housing facilities, and sports stadiums and arenas. She also advises clients on regulatory developments and their compliance requirements and has served as disclosure and/or bond counsel for some of the largest issuers of municipal debt throughout the United States.�

Kathy has a B.A. from Boston University (1974), and a law degree from Harvard Law School (1982). After law school, she clerked one year for the Massachusetts Appeals Court, worked for a Boston firm primarily in real estate litigation, and worked as a staff attorney for the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals. Kathy moved to California in 1986 and joined the Sonoma County Counsel’s office in 1987. One of her primary assignments is advising the Sonoma County Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector. She has been an active participant in property tax and assessment litigation such as County of Sonoma v. Commission on State Mandates and more recently participated in writing an amicus brief on behalf of the California State Association of Counties in Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, Inc., v. Santa Clara County Open Space Authority.

Travis Gibbs has extensive experience as bond counsel and tax counsel in public offerings of municipal securities, including general obligation bonds, certificates of participation, school district bonds, hospital issues, variable rate financings, cash flow financings, small issue industrial development bonds, nonprofit corporation equipment financings, tax allocation bonds, refunding bonds, and rebate excepted financings. His experience includes serving as counsel in complex structured transactions with a focus on maintaining the integrity of the tax-exemption on the bonds being issued. Mr. Gibbs has represented a number of municipal electric and water utilities as bond counsel, including serving as special tax counsel in connection with bonds issued for purposes of prepaying for electricity.  He has also acted as counsel in numerous transactions which involved derivative products such as SWAPS, CAPS, and the sale of stripped call rights. A representative list of clients includes: the Southern California Public Power Authority, Douglas County PUD No. 1, WA, the County of Los Angeles, CA; the Port of Oakland; The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; the State of California; the County of Riverside, CA; as well as other counties, ports, water districts, transportation authorities, airport authorities and schools districts.In addition to tax-exempt financing, Mr. Gibbs has had experience in a variety of other tax law matters for corporation, municipal, nonprofit, and individual clients. He received his J.D. from the University of Texas, J.D. and B.A. from University of Florida His affiliations include: Member and Secretary, Board of Directors and Chair of Finance Committee of Barlow Respiratory Hospital, Los Angeles; American Bar Association; Member and Secretary, United Way of Greater Los Angeles; Section of Taxation, Tax-Exempt Committee (past Secretary); Past Member, Steering Committee for the Bond Attorneys Workshop sponsored by the National Association of Bond Lawyers; National Association of Bond Lawyers.

Johanna Gregory Partin serves as Director of Climate Protection Initiatives in the office of Mayor Gavin Newsom, where she advises Mayor Newsom on citywide sustainable energy, climate, transportation, green building and other programs promoting sustainability for San Francisco. From 2006-2009, Ms. Partin served as Renewable Energy Program Manager at the San Francisco Department of Environment, where she worked to help the City meet its renewable energy targets, focusing on the residential and commercial sectors. Ms. Partin has over 14 years' experience in the fields of renewable energy, microfinance, gender equity and sustainable development, and has worked both locally and in more than 14 countries around the world. Johanna has a Master’s degree in Energy & Environmental Policy from the University of Delaware and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara.

Bill Andrews concentrates his practice on the commercial and financial aspects of energy, capital-intensive industrial, and infrastructure projects. During the past several years, Mr. Andrews has been responsible for leading project teams representing the CapX 2020 Utilities, E.ON U.S. LLC, Wisconsin Power and Light Company, the Indiana Municipal Power Agency, the Florida Municipal Power Agency, the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission, among others, in connection with the development, construction or financing of large scale energy generating or transmission facilities, sports venues, and other industrial facilities. In the last year, Mr. Andrews has been engaged by clients in connection with engineering, procurement and construction contracts for wind, coal and gas-fired energy generating facilities and transmission assets valued at more than $10 billion.Mr. Andrews is project counsel to the 11 load serving entities that are participants of the CapX 2020 Transmission Expansion Projects.  In that capacity, Mr. Andrews is leading the negotiation among the participants of key project agreements including the Construction Management Agreement, the Operation and Maintenance Agreement among others. The CapX projects are designed to substantially enhance the transmission grid in Minnesota and surrounding states.Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, both investor-owned utilities located in Kentucky, engaged Mr. Andrews during 2004 to negotiate the terms of their participation with the Indiana Municipal Power Agency and the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency in connection with their joint development and ownership of the new 750 MW Trimble County 2 coal-fired electric generating facility. During 2006, Mr. Andrews successfully completed negotiating the engineering, procurement and construction contract for this new coal-fired power plant which is now nearing completion.  In the past five years, Mr. Andrews has also represented E.ON U.S. in connection with the engineering, procurement, and construction of six other power plants located in Texas, Georgia, and Kentucky as well as participation agreements with municipalities for joint ownerships of generating assets. Mr. Andrews is currently representing LG&E and Kentucky Utilities in connection with the procurement of major engineered equipment and construction of pollution of control facilities for the generating units in the LG&E and Kentucky Utilities coal fleet.In May 2007, Mr. Andrews concluded the successful negotiation of the engineering, procurement and construction contract between Trans Bay Cable, LLC, Siemens Power Transmission and Distribution, Inc. and Prysmian Construction Services, Inc. for a 55-mile HVDC sub-marine transmission cable under the San Francisco Bay capable of transmitting 400 MW between Pittsburg, CA and the City of San Francisco. Mr. Andrews currently represents the Prairie State Generating Company LLC in connection with the development of a new approximately 1600 MW, mine-mouth, pulverized coal-fired power plant now under construction in southern Illinois. During 2006, Mr. Andrews was counsel to the Indiana Municipal Power Agency, which led the team negotiating a participation agreement among six participants and Peabody Energy. Mr. Andrews was selected by the project participants to negotiate a Target Price Engineering, Procurement Agreement between the Prairie State participants and Bechtel Power Corporation for the Prairie State Energy Campus Project.  Mr. Andrews is currently engaged by Las Brisas Energy Center LLC to negotiate a fixed-price turnkey engineering, procurement and construction agreement with Bechtel Power corporation for the first phase of a 1200 MW two-unit, petroleum coke-fired energy generating facility to be constructed in Texas. Mr. Andrews has represented Green Rock Energy, LLC in connection with: the negotiation and drafting of an engineering, procurement and construction agreement for a new gasification polygeneration facility being developed by Faustina Hydrogen Products, LLC that will use pet coke and high sulfur coal as feedstocks to produce saleable anhydrous ammonia, methanol, industrial grade CO2 and sulfur.  The Project will be constructed in St. James Parish, Louisiana; and the negotiation and drafting of an engineering, procurement and construction agreement for a new gasification polygeneration facility being developed by Southeast Idaho Energy, LLC that will use coal as a feedstock to produce ammonia and urea.In April 2006, Mr. Andrews concluded the successful representation of the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission in connection with a participation agreement for and acquisition of an interest in, the Plum Point Energy Project.  The project is a 660 MW subcritical pulverized coal generating facility currently under construction in City of Osceola, Arkansas.  The Project was named Mid-West Deal of the Year by The Bond Buyer.Mr. Andrews also represents the firm’s investor-owned utilities, independent power producers and municipalities in the acquisition of power generation, air pollution control equipment, and long-term maintenance and service agreements. Mr. Andrews assists these clients in the developments of template procurement and construction documents and is often a key participant in the negotiation of these agreements.Mr. Andrews has represented clients in the structuring and financing of public infrastructure facilities, including a public/private partnership venture with the City of Anaheim, California to construct and operate the arena for professional basketball and hockey.  Mr. Andrews handled the lease negotiations with the facility’s anchor tenant, the NHL Mighty Ducks.  During 2006, Mr. Andrews was engaged in connection with the financing of the new Yankee Stadium and the New York Mets Stadium, both of which are currently under construction.Mr. Andrews has represented the governmental entities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in connection with the development, operation and maintenance of new entertainment and hospitality facilities, including the Coliséo de Puerto Rico in San Juan and the Puerto Rico Convention Center in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.  He also represented a public benefit corporation which was the first New York State entity actively seeking to create a public/private partnership with private independent energy developers and has been a consultant to the State of Florida regarding privatization of the state’s correctional facilities.Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Andrews served as Legislative Assistant and Administrative Assistant to U.S. Representative James M. Collins (Texas). He frequently is invited to make presentations to governmental entities and at conferences on the subjects of the EPC contracting, energy project development.Admissions Admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, New York and Florida.Education University of Virginia, J.D. University of Pennsylvania, A.M. Lafayette College, A.B.