Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Rodney Ellis was elected to the Texas Senate in 1990. During his tenure, Senator Ellis has earned praise as a leader on economic development, education, civil rights, responsible environmental policy, tax cuts for the middle class, criminal justice, and workforce development issues.Senator Ellis has passed over 500 pieces of legislation. One of his most notable accomplishments includes passage of the TEXAS Grant program, which has disbursed almost $1.8 billion in tuition and fees to over 207,000 students. The program continues to educate students for the improvement of the Texas workforce.Senator Ellis also passed a middle class tax relief bill that created a 3-day sales tax holiday and provided businesses franchise tax relief for job creation, capital investment, and research and development. The bill has saved taxpayers over $3.6 billion--$2.7 billion in sales tax savings on several items, including energy efficient appliances, back to school items, and nonprescription medicine--and over $827 million in franchise tax savings for job credits, research and development credits, and small business credits.Most recently, Senator Ellis passed an amendment to create a green jobs development and training program to help Texans prepare for employment in the burgeoning green technology industry and to usher the state of Texas into a environmentally responsible and secure future.

Corrine Steeger is Assistant Director/Treasury Manager in the City Controller’s Office, City of Dallas. Her responsibilities include supervision of the City’s treasury operations, including banking, investments, debt management, and deferred compensation plan administration. Corrine has also served as Treasury Manager for the City of Arlington, City Treasurer of Austin, and Associate Director for the Center for Public Management, a division of the Department of Public Administration at the University of North Texas. The Center for Public Management provides professional development programs for public sector officials and administrative services for organizations serving the public sector. Corrine currently serves as a board member of the Government Finance Officers Association of Texas and is an honorary lifetime member of the Government Treasurers Organization of Texas. She has actively promoted the passage of legislation to improve public funds management in Texas, often testifying before the State Legislature on these issues. She frequently speaks and writes on public funds management and has provided the investment training required by the Public Funds Investment Act for the Texas Municipal League, the Government Finance Officers Association of Texas, the Government Treasurers’ Organization of Texas, the Texas Water Conservation Association, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.Corrine received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Government from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University.

Peter Bianchini, located in San Francisco, serves as the senior municipal strategist for Mesirow Financial�s Institutional Sales and Trading department. He has more than 25 years of experience in the industry and is responsible for credit research support for the Global Markets Division. Prior to joining Mesirow Financial, Peter was a managing director and the head of West Coast Origination at XL Capital Assurance. Before that, Peter was a vice president at Charles Schwab, where he was responsible for research and analytical support for 10 municipal funds, totaling approximately $21 billion under management. Peter began his career in Public Finance at Standard & Poor�s in NY and San Francisco, working on a broad range of credits including Transportation, Infrastructure, Not-For- Profit and General Government. Peter is very involved in industry organizations, including the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, which he chaired in 2002 and the Society of Municipal Analysts. He holds many professional achievements, notably the National Federation of Municipal Analysts Meritorious Service Award (May 2005) and multiple-year recognition as a First Team or Second Team All-Star by Smith�s Research & Ratings Review. Peter earned his Bachelor of Science degree and Masters of Business Administration degree from New York University.

Paul is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Bracewell.� Paul’s career has intertwined with the SEC’s regulation of the municipal market from the very beginning, when as a young lawyer in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement he participated in preparing the SEC’s September 1977 and 1979 Staff Reports on New York City.� After practice as a securities, project finance, and bond lawyer in New York and Boston, �Paul returned to the SEC in 1994 to work for Chairman Levitt and serve as the first Director of the SEC’s Office of Municipal Securities. During that time, he participated in drafting the continuing disclosure amendments to Rule 15c2-12, oversaw SEC activity relating to Orange County California and advised the Commission on institution and settlement of over 100 enforcement actions in the municipal securities market.�Today, Paul defends states, local governments, and their officials, brokers, dealers, municipal securities dealers, municipal advisors, and their officers and employees, as well as individuals in investigations and enforcement proceedings by the SEC, Department of Justice, FINRA, and states Attorneys General.� Paul also serves as Counsel to a NRSRO, or Rating Agency, on regulatory and enforcement matters.� He advises clients on compliance with SEC and MSRB regulations, and corporate governance matters, conducts internal investigations, and serves as special disclosure counsel in securities transactions.Paul received the "Chairman's Award for Excellence" for his work in developing the amendments to Rule 15c2-12, while at the SEC, and received "The National Federation of Municipal Analysts�Industry Contribution Award" in 2001. Paul is listed in The Best Lawyers in America� in securities law, 2005 - 2010; in corporate governance and compliance law, 2006 -�2010;�and public finance law, 2005�- 2010.� Additionally, he is listed in Who's Who and What's What on Wall Street, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law,The Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2005 edition, and Washington D.C. Super Lawyers 2007 for securities and corporate finance.Paul is frequently interviewed and quoted as an authority on securities regulation in international news media including The National, FTSE Global Markets, BBC News, The Business Times Singapore, and The Singapore American, as well as U.S. media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, the Associated Press, Reuters, and The Bond Buyer.

Cassie Huggins is currently the Director of the Bond Guarantee Program and the Program Administrator of the New Instructional Facility Allotment in the State Funding Division of the Texas Education Agency (TEA). She administers all aspects of each of the programs, including determining eligibility and approving or denying applications.Ms. Huggins has worked for the TEA for over 26 years in the areas of school finance and financial audit.She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Lisa Dawn-Fisher is the Deputy Associate Commissioner for School Finance at the Texas Education Agency (TEA). She oversees the State Funding and the Forecasting and Fiscal Analysis Divisions. The State Funding Division administers the Foundation School Program, including wealth equalization and facilities funding programs, as well as the bond guarantee program. The Forecasting and Fiscal Analysis Division develops forecasting models and pupil enrollment projections and writes all fiscal notes for the TEA in addition to responding to a wide variety of ad hoc requests for financial data on public schools. Dr. Dawn-Fisher also works closely with the legislative process and directs rulemaking activities related to the implementation of state funding programs.Dr. Dawn-Fisher has worked for 13 years in the area of school finance and education policy, as a legislative aide in the Texas House of Representatives, as a researcher for the Equity Center, and as a private-sector consultant to school districts with Moak, Casey and Associates. During her career in the State Funding Division at the TEA, she served as the first program administrator for the Instructional Facilities Allotment program from 1997 - 1998. Returning from the private sector in 2002, Dr. Dawn-Fisher served as the division’s Assistant Director for more than three years before being appointed as the Deputy Associate Commissioner.Dr. Dawn-Fisher holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs and a doctorate in Educational Administration from University of Texas at Austin, where she specialized in Education Policy and Planning.

Dyer is a Senior Fixed Income Analyst at USAA. He joined USAA in 2000 after having been an analyst at Southwest Securities, Inc. and Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, Inc in Dallas. Greer currently analyzes municipal bonds for USAA’s mutual funds, insurance portfolios and bank and is responsible for all bonds in Texas and a variety of other Southern and some Midwestern states. He has a variety of experience in municipal bond analysis, trading, risk management and operations, as well as credit experience as a former national bank examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He received a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1983 and an MBA there in 1993. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2003. He is a three-time member of the Smith’s All-Star Research Team in the Senior Living and Airport categories. He is a member of the San Antonio Society of Financial Analysts and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.

Barry Smitherman is a fourth generation Texan appointed by Governor Rick Perry to the PUCT on April 21, 2004. He was reappointed on September 13, 2007 and promoted to Chairman on November 14, 2007. He was recently awarded the State Leadership award by the American Wind Energy Association for the PUCT’s pioneering renewable energy zone policy for proactive transmission development.  He was also recently selected one of the Energy and Utility Industry’s “Great Transformers” for 2010 by a partnership which includes Forbes magazine.Barry is a member of the State Bar of Texas, a member of the Governor's Competitiveness Council, an ex officio board member of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Texas Regional Entity (TRE), a member of the Regional State Committee (RSC) for the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment, served as one of 30 members of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Electricity Advisory Committee (EAC) and is Vice-Chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Panel on Federal Environmental Regulations. Barry grew up in Highlands, Texas; a working class neighborhood on the east side of Houston. He graduated from Ross Sterling High School in Baytown and continued his education at Texas A&M University receiving a BBA summa cum laude. He received his J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law while working at the State Capitol for Senator Lindon Williams. Afterward he received a M.P.A. at Harvard University and was awarded the first Joel Leff Fellowship in Political Economy by the Kennedy School of Government.Between 1986 and 2002, Barry was a public finance investment banker working with state and local governments throughout the South, Southwest and Midwest to build infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, airports, water and sewer systems, schools, hospitals, and sports facilities. During this time he held leadership positions with First Boston, Lazard Freres, JP Morgan Securities, and Bank One Capital Markets.  Beginning in 2003, Barry began a second career as a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney’s office.  During this time he successfully prosecuted many jury trials against defendants charged with DWI, assault, theft, possession of controlled substance, and numerous other crimes.  At the time of his appointment to the PUCT, Barry was part of the prestigious Family Criminal Law Division (FCLD) which prosecutes domestic violence cases, especially cases where the victim has recanted the occurrence of the crime.In 1990, Barry was a member of the American Center for International Leadership delegation to the former Soviet Union.  In 1996, Barry was a delegate to the State Republican convention in San Antonio.  Barry is also a former adjunct professor of public administration at the University of St. Thomas in Houston and a former member of the Boards of the Texas Public Finance Authority, and the Harris County Health Facilities Development Corporation.Since joining the PUCT in 2004, Barry has supervised in issuance of over $5.6 billion in “transition/rate recovery bonds” issued by various utilities operating in Texas.  These securitization financings have saved Texas ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars.