Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Mike Newman is a Senior Vice President with FirstSouthwest Company. He joined FirstSouthwest in 2004 and has been in the securities industry since 1990. Mike’s areas of focus are transportation and healthcare finance, project finance, and variable rate indebtedness including all types of bank supported indebtedness. He has worked with transportation organizations including, but not limited to, Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, Regional Transportation District of Denver, Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, and Trustees for Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust.Mike previously served as a first vice president at George K. Baum & Company, where he was responsible for the provision of investment banking services to public sector and not-for-profit clients. Prior to working at George K. Baum & Company he served as a vice president in the public finance departments of Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen Girozentrale and National Westminster Bank Plc. where his principal responsibilities involved providing credit enhancement and liquidity support to a variety of tax-exempt and taxable indebtedness issued by public sector entities and not-for-profit institutions. ,br> Mike earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Case Western Reserve University, Master of Business Administration in Finance from State University of New York at Albany, and has completed studies in Industrial Relations at The London School of Economics in London.

Steve H. Murdock is the Allyn R. and Gladys M. Cline Professor of Sociology at Rice University. He previously served as Director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census having been nominated for the position by President Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2007 and serving until the change in administration in January of 2009.Prior to his appointment at Rice, he was the Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Demography and Organization Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and the Director of the Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research. Before UTSA, Murdock was a Regents Professor and Head of the Department of Rural Sociology at Texas A&M University. He was also the official State Demographer of Texas. He was appointed to this position by Governor Rick Perry and was the first person to occupy this position. Dr. Murdock earned his Ph.D. in demography and sociology from the University of Kentucky and is the author or editor of 13 books and more than 150 articles and technical reports on the implications of current and future demographic and socioeconomic change. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. These include the Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award in Research from Texas A&M University, the Excellence in Research Award and the Outstanding Rural Sociologist Award from the Rural Sociological Society, The Distinguished Alumni Award from North Dakota State University and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky. He was named one of the fifty most influential Texans by Texas Business in 1997 and as one of the twenty-five most influential persons in Texas by Texas Monthly in 2005. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and Phi Eta Epsilon national honor societies.

Eric Isban joined SMBC in 2011 as a Vice President in their Public and Infrastructure Finance Group, based in New York. In this capacity, Eric is a senior banker responsible for originating credit, liquidity and other products to support municipal issuers on a national scale. Prior to joining SMBC, Eric co-headed the Public Finance Group for Lloyds Banking Group. During his 6 year tenor at Lloyds, Eric was in charge of the Bank�s Municipal Finance business (in the US) with responsibility of setting the strategy and overall management of a $9.0 billion municipal portfolio. Prior to Lloyds, Eric has worked for a variety of bank institutions including TD Securities, HSH Nordbank AG, and National Australia Bank. Eric has over 14+ years of experience in the Municipal Finance arena and has worked with a variety of municipal issuers. Mr. Isban received his B.A. from Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y.

Brenda Eivens has served as City Manager of the City of Cedar Park since 2006. She joined the City over 16 years ago, at the start of unprecedented growth in the City. She has served as an Assistant City Manager, preceded by her role as the Human Resources Director. As Chief Executive Officer, Brenda has led the development of programs and implementation of projects that have improved the quality of life for the Cedar Park community. Fiscally responsible for an annual operating budget of more than $70 million and a team of 390 City employees, she manages the day-to-day operations of the City Government through the administration of the City’s Strategic Plan and Capital Improvements Programs.Brenda has an undergraduate degree from Sam Houston State University and holds a Master of Public Administration from Texas State University.

Devin Phillips is responsible for managing the region as well as underwriting municipal issues on a competitive and negotiated basis for the Southwest regional office located in Dallas. He has extensive knowledge and experience in trading and underwriting municipal securities in the Southwest region. His experience in municipal underwriting and trading spans over 29 years. Mr. Phillips was with Citigroup from 1986 to 2007 at which time he left the firm to run a municipal bond fund. He returned to Citigroup in 2011 to continue his role as an underwriter on the Dallas Syndicate Desk. Mr. Phillips has spearheaded Citi’s underwriting efforts in 2012.

Dana Levenson is the newly appointed Chief Financial Officer of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. He has oversight over the financial matters of the Commonwealth’s airports, commuter rail and transit operations the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, highways, and the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Most recently, he spent four years at The Royal Bank of Scotland as Managing Director in charge of the firm’s infrastructure banking business in the Americas. In this capacity, he lead the effort either: a) advising investors in large infrastructure assets of the most effective financing tools available and arranging the financing; or b) advising sellers of infrastructure assets as to methodologies to maximize value. Investors included global private equity sponsor funds, pension funds and international construction/concession companies; sellers included state and local governments and private corporations. Infrastructure assets transacted included: Airports, Harbors/Marinas, Lotteries, On- and Off-Street Parking Systems, Ports, Renewable & Contracted Power, Toll Roads & Bridges as well as social infrastructure such as Courthouses, Jails, Hospitals, and Schools, with geographic coverage: extending to Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. Transaction sizes ranged from $200 million to $10+ billion.Prior to joining RBS, Levenson was the City of Chicago’s Chief Financial Officer from 2004 to 2007 with responsibility for the City Comptroller’s Office, the Departments of Budget and Management, Procurement Services, and the Department of Revenue. In particular, he was responsible for the long-term lease concession sales of both the Chicago Skyway for $1.83 billion in 2005 and the Chicago Downtown Parking System in 2006 for $563 million. He also led the effort to raise the City’s bond ratings to their highest levels since 1978.While at RBS, Levenson suggested to Mayor Richard M, Daley that a bi-partisan commission be established to study the City of Chicago’s pensions, with the intention of supplying a solution to correct the under-funded status of the City’s retirement plans. The result was the report of the Commission to Strengthen Chicago’s Pensions, which Levenson co-chaired, which was released in March, 2010.Before joining the City of Chicago, Levenson was a Managing Director with Bank One in Chicago and with Bank of America in both Chicago and London. Prior to that, he spent more than 11 years at Kidder, Peabody in New York City, eventually running its Fixed-Income Syndicate Desk. Levenson began his career in New York at Chemical Bank. Levenson received his M.B.A. from New York University in 1985 and his B.A., with honors, in European History from Brown University in 1979. He is a past president of the Investment Association of New York and a former Governor of the Bond Club of New York. He served on the boards of the Chicago Low Income Housing Trust Fund and La Rabida Children’s Hospital and remains active on the boards of the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, and Worcester (MA) Academy. Levenson has also co-chaired the Chicago Gun-Turn-In and was a Commissioner of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Finance Commission as appointed by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.

Bill Rhodes is Chair of the Public Finance Department at Ballard Spahr LLP, and Practice Leader of the firm’s Municipal Recovery Initiative.He represents clients in the financing of public infrastructure, transportation, economic development, and other facilities for governments, nonprofits and utilities, with an emphasis on distressed municipalities and the offering of high-yield municipal securities.� Mr. Rhodes also advises clients in the evolving landscape of municipal securities regulation and enforcement, including regulatory compliance, primary and secondary market disclosure, and enforcement actions.Mr. Rhodes is a graduate of The Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University, Swarthmore College and Phillips Exeter Academy.

Tom Kozlik, Director and Municipal Credit Analyst, joined Janney Montgomery Scott, a regional broker dealer based in Philadelphia, PA in 2008 after eight years at UBS and Bear, Stearns. In his role as a municipal credit analyst Mr. Kozlik advises Janney’s retail and institutional clients about the strengths and weaknesses of municipal market credit profiles. He also follows and comments on municipal market trends and credit events in Janney’s menu of Fixed Income Strategy publications. His work has been quoted in various periodicals such as the Wall Street Journal and has appeared as a guest municipal credit expert on CNBC and Fox Business News. Mr. Kozlik graduated from the Schreyer’s Honors at the Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Political Science with Honors and earned a Masters of Governmental Administration from the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania. He co-taught a graduate level class at the University of Pennsylvania titled the Business of Public Finance Investment Banking which is offered to students at the Fels Institute of Government and Wharton Business School.

A.B. Stoddard, who has covered the U.S. Congress since 1994, rejoined The Hill newspaper in 2006 as an associate editor and columnist. After working as a congressional reporter for The Hill from 1995-1999, Stoddard was hired by ABC News to cover the Senate as a producer for World News Tonight and all other ABC News broadcasts. She then worked as a contributing editor for Congressional Quarterly, and freelanced at several publications including The Federal Paper and the Boston Globe.Since returning to The Hill in 2006 Stoddard has appeared regularly on FOX News Channel and MSNBC, as has also appeared on and CNN, NBC, CBS, PBS and BBC. Her column won first place Dateline Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists' Washington DC chapter in 2010 and again in 2011. It appears Thursdays in The Hill. Stoddard is a graduate of Connecticut College.

John Sugden is a Sr. Director in the U.S. Public Finance department and Sector Lead for Pensions at S & P Global Ratings in New York. John joined Standard & Poor’s in 2002, covering state and local credits along the east coast. He joined the U.S. States group in November 2010 and in 2013 became the team’s Analytical Manager. After managing the team for three years, in August 2016, he took on a new role as USPF Sector Lead for Pensions. In this function, John is responsible for USPF’s criteria development, analytical training, and market outreach related to pension and other long-term liabilities.�