Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Robert has been with Moody’s since 1991, and is the Managing Director for U.S. State and Regional Ratings. He formerly was the Team Leader for the State & High Profile Ratings team as well as the lead analyst for New York City. He has also been the lead analyst for numerous other states across the country. Robert is also a member of Moody’s Public Sector Credit Committee.Prior to joining Moody’s, Robert served as Deputy County Executive for Finance in Suffolk County, New York. Robert also served in New York State legislative staff positions, including as the Director of Budget Studies for the New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee.Robert received his bachelor’s degree from Union College, and his master’s degree in public Policy from the University of Michigan. Robert is also a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York and the New York Municipal Forum.

Mark D. Zimring is a Program Manager in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Mark conducts research and analysis and provides technical assistance to utility commissions, state and local governments on energy efficiency and renewable energy, including policy, program design and financing. Prior to joining LBNL, Mark spent eight years working in finance at Deutsche Bank. Mark has a BA in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPP from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and an MS from Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group. Mark has a BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPP from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and an MS from Berkeley's Energy & Resources Group.

Benjamin Pickard heads the Utility & Outdoor Lighting Programs for the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, in partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative (C40-CCI). In this capacity, he pursues greenhouse-gas reducing infrastructure investment and policy opportunities tied to C40 Cities’ local distribution grids, prioritizing system reliability, ratepayer affordability, and appropriate investor return.Prior to joining C40-CCI, Ben was Chief Financial Officer of Senergy USA, a startup providing turnkey finance, installation, and risk management of LED streetlight retrofits for US municipalities and utilities. Originally trained in infrastructure finance and public-private partnerships, Ben closed over $4 billion in energy, transportation, and real estate investment with the Macquarie Group. Ben received an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard and lives in New York City.

Brent Ridge, vice president, Chief Financial and Risk Officer joined Energy Northwest in 2002. In this position he is responsible for finance, treasury, enterprise risk management, strategic planning, long-range planning and project controls for Energy Northwest. Prior to assuming his current position, Mr. Ridge was the Asset Manager Controller and Chief Risk Officer responsible for long-range planning, enterprise risk management, budget development, budget controls and project controls for Columbia Generating Station. He was also the Manager of Construction and Maintenance Services, responsible for plant modifications, outage and on-line major maintenance for Columbia Generating Station, commercial facilities engineering, commercial facilities maintenance, and facilities project management.Before joining Energy Northwest, Mr. Ridge was a manager for an industrial construction company specializing in municipal water treatment plants, waste water treatment plants, pump stations and industrial installations at U.S. military facilities.Mr. Ridge is currently the Vice Chairman of the Columbia Industries Board of Directors and a member the Tri-City Development Council Board of Directors.Mr. Ridge holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Idaho, a Master's in Business Administration from Regis University. He also completed the Reactor Technology Course for Utility Executives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Utility Executive Course at the University of Idaho.

Darin Lowder, an attorney with Ballard Spahr LLP, is experienced with energy project development and financing and coordinating novel financing structures for energy generation and energy efficiency projects, including incorporating Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds, Investment Tax Credits, 1603 Treasury Grants, New Market Tax Credits, and other forms of government sponsored or coordinated financing into privately owned energy projects. He has worked on projects using the following technologies: solar photovoltaic, onshore and offshore wind, biomass and biofuel, coal-fired generation, next-generation nuclear power, and other alternative energy technologies. Mr. Lowder's clients have included municipalities, housing authorities, utilities, energy project developers, tax equity investors, engineering and construction firms, project site owners, and power purchasers for renewable-energy and fossil-fuel power projects. Before joining Ballard Spahr, Mr. Lowder worked in the real estate, financial services, and nonprofit sectors, serving as an economist for a consulting firm, a strategic marketing director for a publicly owned home builder, a business strategist for a publicly held technology company, and an executive at a nonprofit educational organization. Mr. Lowder holds a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law, a M.A. from Stanford University in International Development Policy, and a B.A. in Economics from Brigham Young University.

Scott is a Senior Vice President and the Head of Municipal Bond Research for The Hartford’s Investment Management Company’s Municipal Group which manages over $15B of tax exempt and taxable municipal bonds across multiple client portfolios, including the general account of The Hartford, institutional client portfolios, and retail products including HIMCO’s Municipal Opportunities and Real Return Funds. Prior to joining HIMCO, Scott was a First Vice President at Ambac, and before that he was a Senior Securities Analyst for RiverSource Investments at Ameriprise Financial. Scott’s responsibilities included relative value analysis of primary and secondary bond issuance, credit selection and sector strategies for $13 billion of actively-managed municipal assets, and credit analysis of the power, land secured, hospital, senior living, and project finance sectors. Previously, Scott was a Director in Fitch Ratings’ Global Power Group. Based in Fitch’s San Francisco’s office, Scott led the western region’s public power effort with responsibilities that included credit analysis, business development, and ratings on electric utilities. Before following power, his main responsibilities included rating and credit analysis on tax-supported transactions in the western region of the U.S.Scott earned a BS from North Dakota State University and a MPA from the University of Southern California. He is a current board member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. Finally, Scott has over 17 years of credit experience and has published and spoken on industry and investments relevant to municipal securities.

Benjamin Cook is responsible for originating and structuring financing for SolarCity's residential and commercial solar projects. Benjamin joined SolarCity with more than fifteen years of experience in energy project financing and development for solar and traditional energy projects.Prior to SolarCity, Benjamin was vice president of finance at Recurrent Energy, a distributed utility-scale solar project developer. Prior to Recurrent, he served as director of structured finance and business development in SunPower Corporation's systems division. Prior to SunPower, Benjamin developed and financed projects for Bechtel Enterprises, the project finance and project development group of the Bechtel construction group. Earlier in his career, Benjamin started and ran SELCO, a solar power developer, financier, and operator focused on emerging markets.Benjamin holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and bachelors degrees in physics and economics from the University of Virginia.

Peter Hayes, Managing Director, is head of the Municipal Bonds Group within BlackRock Fundamental Fixed Income and a member of the Fixed Income Executive Committee. He leads the Municipal Bond Management Committee, which oversees municipal bond portfolio management, research and trading activities, and is a member of the firm's Leadership and Operating Committees. Mr. Hayes' service with the firm dates back to 1987, including his years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), which merged with BlackRock in 2006. At MLIM, he was head of the short term tax-exempt trading desk, and managed the CMA Tax-Exempt Fund and other short term municipal bond portfolios. Prior to joining MLIM, Mr. Hayes was a trader for Shawmut Bank. Mr. Hayes earned a BA degree in economics from the College of the Holy Cross in 1981.