Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Susan Collet is Senior Vice President of Government Relations for the Bond Dealers of America. She oversees advocacy efforts before Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and other agencies. Prior to joining the BDA, Susan served as Senior Principal for Government Relations for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, where she successfully led efforts to develop and enact tax credit bonds for financing utility infrastructure. In addition, she advanced the interests of municipal utilities for over a decade as an advocate at both the American Public Power Association and the Van Ness Feldman law firm, where she represented the Large Public Power Council. In these roles, Susan ensured that the tax exemption for municipal bonds would be preserved through new private use relief rules that reflected significant changes in the utility industry.

Chris Chafizadeh is Managing Director & Head of Origination at Assured Guaranty Municipal. Chris joined Assured Guaranty Municipal in 2012 following a 20 year career in Public Finance at MBIA. At Assured Guaranty Municipal, Chris is responsible for business development and origination in all municipal sectors covered by Assured. Mr. Chafizadeh is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is a Member of the Municipal Analyst's Group of New York (MAGNY), the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA), the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA), the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), the American Finance Association, the Municipal Bond Club of NY, NACUBO, the Municipal Forum of New York, the Fixed Income Analysts Society, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and the Education Finance Council. Mr. Chafizadeh earned a Bachelors of Science (BS) degree in Business Administration/Finance from Saint Michael's College in Winooski Park, Vermont and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Corporate/Investment Finance from Pace University's Lubin Graduate School of Business in New York.

Mr. Heidt has responsibility for the Accounting, Internal Audit, Treasury, Financial Planning, Grant Program Management, Human Resources, Corporate Training, Risk Management, IT, Procurement, Police, Fire, Safety and Environmental. Mr. Heidt began his 32-year career at the Port Authority in the Accounting Department, holding management positions in Payables, Customer Billing Services and Financial Accounting. From 1993 to 2005, Mr. Heidt was the Market Development Manager in the Trade Development Division with the responsibility of identifying the opportunities and vulnerabilities in the port�s markets. In 2005, Mr. Heidt became the Planning Manager � Container Terminals, where he oversaw the operating and capital budgets. In February 2009, he was made Vice President of Finance and Administration; then, in November 2012, was named to his current position. Mr. Heidt holds a bachelor�s degree in Finance from Michigan State University. He has received certification in the Professional Port Management (PPM) program from the American Association of Ports Authority (AAPA). He also belongs to numerous trade and traffic organizations.

Lincoln Chafee is a proud Rhode Islander, born and raised in Warwick. He graduated with a degree in Classics from Brown University, where he received the Francis M. Driscoll Award for leadership, scholarship and athletics. After graduating, he worked for seven years as a blacksmith at harness racetracks throughout the United States and Canada. When he returned to Rhode Island, inspired by the path of his father John Chafee, he entered politics. He won election in 1985 as a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention, and went on to serve four years on the Warwick City Council, nearly four two-year terms as Mayor of Warwick, and seven years as United States Senator. After leaving the US Senate, he disaffiliated from the Republican Party and became an independent. He spent two years as Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies, during which he wrote Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President.In November, 2010, with the help of an excellent campaign staff and a strong community of supporters, he was elected the first independent Governor of Rhode Island, and is currently the nation’s only independent Governor.

Thomas S. Vales, Chief Executive Officer for TMC Bonds (TMC), brings over 25 years of fixed income experience to the firm. In May of 2000, Mr. Vales started the company with backing from industry leaders including Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Assured Guaranty. The company has grown to become a market leader for electronic bond trading with over 1000 firms participating on the live trading platform.TMC has evolved from its original municipal bond exchange into a robust marketplace for trading fixed income product. The firm currently offers Municipal, Corporate, MBS, and Agency bonds trading in addition to primary market Medium Term Notes and CD’s. TMC overlays its marketplace with software designed to assist both traders and brokers with the decision making process for buying and selling fixed income product. TMC also provides firms with a private label service enabling customization of broker desktops for advisor services.Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Vales spent ten years with Bankers Trust where he was a Managing Director of the Relative Value Arbitrage Group and Senior Manager of the Tax-Advantaged Arbitrage desk. From 1989 to 1996, he worked as a Vice President at BT Securities in municipal trading, sales, and derivatives. Mr. Vales graduated in 1986 from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.

Vijay Kapoor is the Director of PFM’s Workforce Consulting practice in the firm’s Management and Budget Consulting group. Prior to joining PFM, he founded a company that provided operational and workforce consulting services to state and local governments. Previously, Mr. Kapoor also served in state government in positions including Executive Director of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Office of Management and Productivity. In this capacity, Mr. Kapoor was responsible for leading both enterprise-wide and agency-specific cost savings projects towards the goal of reaching $1.5 billion in annual savings from Commonwealth operations. He also previously practiced as a labor and employment attorney in Philadelphia, where he specialized in public sector labor relations matters. Mr. Kapoor graduated from the University of Chicago with degrees in economics and public policy studies (with honors) and received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he received the labor law prize and was Symposium Editor for the Journal of Labor and Employment law. He also received a certificate in Business and Public Policy from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) since 2008.

Mr. Morrison is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Texas Municipal Finance located in the Dallas Municipal Finance office of RBC Capital Markets. He has over 18 years of experience developing and implementing capital plans and financial structures for numerous issuers throughout the region. This has included the issuance of over $30 billion in financings either as Financial Advisor or Underwriter. His responsibilities include providing investment banking and financial advisory services to numerous municipal issuers in the Southwest Region including transportation, cities and counties, special districts and higher education issuers. He has worked extensively with revenue bond transportation issuers such as North Texas Tollway Authority, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Turnpike Authority and the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport as well as county clients such as Dallas County and city clients such as Austin, Fort Worth and Dallas. Mr. Morrison holds a BS and MS from Baylor University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a registered securities representative, currently holding Series 7, 27, 53, 63 and 79 licenses.

Brenda Ojendyk is a Vice President and Senior Research Analyst at Nuveen Asset Management in Chicago. She specializes in the analysis of tax-backed credits of state and local governments, although her research experience also includes the sectors of healthcare and higher education. Ms. Ojendyk holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, a Master of Arts degree from Miami University in Ohio, and a bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University.