Banco Popular de Puerto Rico is a full-service financial services provider with operations in Puerto Rico, the United States and Virgin Islands. Popular, Inc. is the largest banking institution by both assets and deposits in Puerto Rico, and in the United States Popular, Inc.
Latest NewsDavid Leifer is Senior Managing Director of KNN Public Finance, a Division of Zions First National Bank. Mr. Leifer has over 22 years of municipal finance experience, both as an attorney and financial advisor. He manages the firm's County and Transportation practices and serves aslead advisor to numerous counties, cities, transportation, higher education and state agencies in California as well as to the State of Washington.In the past five years, Mr. Leifer has served as advisor for approximately $12 billion in par amount for California issuers. This includes recent transactions for the Regents of the University of California, the State Public Works Board of the State of California, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, the Sonoma County Transportation Authority and the Counties of Fresno, Kern, Mendocino, Santa Clara, Sonoma and Tulare.KNN has a staff of 20. In January 2010, an article in the Bond Buyer, citing data provided by Thomson Reuters, listed KNN as one of the Decade's Top Financial Advisors: 2000-09.1 KNN providescomprehensive municipal finance advisory services including financial modeling, debt policy development and debt issuance services. Mr. Leifer assumed the responsibilities of Manager of KNN in 2009.Mr. Leifer earned his J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1988 and B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1983. Prior to joining KNN, David was Managing Partneran independent financial advisory firm based in San Francisco. Prior to 1993, he was a securitieslawyer at O'Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles as well as a bankruptcy attorney at Stutman, Treister & Glatt.
Frank P. Sulzberger is a Managing Director in the Corporate Trust Division of The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., a subsidiary of BNY Mellon. He is responsible for the delivery of public finance trust services to debt issuers throughout the western United States, managing professionals located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and Tempe. Frank also serves as on the Board of Directors for The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., where he chairs the Corporate Trust Oversight Committee. Frank has over 27 years experience in both public and corporate finance trust administration, management and new business development. Through the years, he has been an active associate member in several organizations in California and Arizona, including the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (Debt-Technical Advisory Committee), California Society of Municipal Finance Officers, California Municipal Treasurers, California County Treasurers and Tax Collectors, California School Business Officials and the Government Finance Officers Association of Arizona.Frank holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from San Diego State University. He was designated as a Certified Corporate Trust Specialist by the Cannon Financial Institute and the Institute of Certified Bankers.
Isaac Sine is a Vice President in the Public Power Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Based in San Francisco, he covers public power issuers in the western half of the country and is Bank of America Merrill Lynchs national expert on renewable energy financings for public utilities. Mr. Sine has ten years of experience in public finance. This experience includes financings for green energy facilities including, wind, solar, hydro, and biomass.
John H. Knox, a partner in the San Francisco office, is a member of the firm�s Public Finance Department. His practice focuses on local governmental infrastructure financing, primarily for cities and counties, including general fund financings, pension bonds, special assessment and other land-secured financings, redevelopment tax increment financings, enterprise revenue bonds, municipal lease transactions and general obligation bonds. He has also been involved in creating various statewide financing programs, including financings for governmental receivables, infrastructure and development impact fees. He also assists nonprofit institutions, including colleges, universities, and private K-12 schools with tax-exempt financings. Mr. Knox has also been involved in several municipal workout situations, representing the City of Vallejo, California in its chapter 9 bankruptcy case, the City of Richmond, California in a successful financial restructuring that allowed the City to emerge from a near bankruptcy situation to become a solid "A" rated credit, and the City of Half Moon Bay, California in connection with a very large judgment against the City that threatened to bankrupt the City.
Glenn Byers is Assistant Treasurer and Tax Collector for Los Angeles County. A graduate of California State University, Los Angeles, Mr. Byers has 26 years of finance and investment experience. He directs the operations of the Finance and Investments Bureau of the Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office, which includes the Public Finance, Investments and Deferred Income divisions. Public Finance manages all the borrowing needs of the County, special districts, school districts and community college districts within the County, with more than $6 billion in bonds and notes issued in the past year in approximately 40 transactions. The Investment Office manages and invests monies deposited in the County's $25 billion Treasury Pool. Deferred Income manages and directs investment related activities of four deferred contribution plans, comprised of more than 85,000 participants and $8 billion in assets.
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. Feigenson has spent more than 14 years in the public finance industry focusing exclusively on education and not-for-profit municipal market financings nationwide. He worked on the investment banking teams for education and 501(c)(3) borrowers at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Jefferies & Co prior to joining FirstSouthwest Co. Since 2000, Mr. Feigenson has served on financing deal teams for a broad range of higher education, not-for-profit and cultural institutions and has worked on more than 140 bond and bank financing transactions totaling over $7.1 billion in volume nationwide, including transactions for private colleges and universities such as Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Muhlenberg College, Elon University, Johnson & Wales University, American University, Marymount University and Virginia Wesleyan College, as well as for public colleges and universities such as the University of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Virginia Tech Foundation, Virginia Commonwealth University, Clemson University and The Ohio State University. He has also worked with prominent not-for-profit institutions such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, National Academy of Sciences, Public Broadcasting Service, the Guggenheim Museum, National Wildlife Federation, National Geographic Society, the American Red Cross and the National Jewish Federation Bond Program.He has developed a particular expertise in highly structured financings utilizing a variety of security features and asset/liability strategies. And he has focused specifically on the creation of long-term capital plan financing tools to stress-test operating forecasts, as well as to evaluate debt capacity and credit strength within the capital planning process. Mr. Feigenson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Georgetown University and FINRA Series 7, 53 and 63 licenses.
Ms. Currie joined Pasadena Water and Power as General Manager in April 2001. In this capacity she is responsible for providing electricity to the city of Pasadena, CA and water to residents of the city and portions of Altadena, an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County. Under her leadership, the utility constructed two new electric generation units (90 megawatts) at the city-owned power plant in 2004, embarked on multi-year infrastructure improvement programs to upgrade the citys water and electrical distribution systems, and a water treatment plant to clean up ground water contamination. During 2009, the utility developed an energy resource plan, which sets aggressive targets for greenhouse gas reduction and increasing renewable resources; and water conservation plans aimed at preserving and encouraging efficient use of dwindling water resources. A 25-year water resource plan was recently completed which aims for increasing local water supplies and decreasing the citys dependence on imported water. She previously held the position of Chief Financial Officer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power from 1992 to 1999, where she managed the financial affairs of the utility and its financial interests in joint ventures and partnerships, such as the Southern California Public Power Authority and the Intermountain Power Project in Utah. During her 30-year career with the city of Los Angeles, Ms. Currie also served as Assistant City Administrative Officer overseeing development of the annual operating and capital budgets and as director of the Los Angeles rent control program. Ms. Currie is on the boards of the Southern California Public Power Authority; the California Municipal Utilities Association and the American Public Power Association, of which she is chair-elect. From 2004 to 2009, she served on the board of directors of the Electric Power Research Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to research for the electric power industry, during which she chaired the audit committee. She is also a member of the American Water Works Association, the Government Finance Officers Association, the American Association of Blacks in Energy and the National Forum of Black Public Administrators. Past professional affiliations include the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, and the California Debt Advisory Commission. Her community affiliations include the board of directors of the Pasadena-Foothill YWCA; the board development committee of the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles; and Pasadena Rotary. Ms. Currie earned a bachelors degree in political science from UCLA and a master of business administration degree from UCLAs Anderson School of Business. She also completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Ana J. Matosantos was appointed Director of the California Department of Finance by Governor Jerry Brown in January 2011. Ms. Matosantos also served as Director of Finance from December 2009 to December 2010. She was the Chief Deputy Director for Budgets from April 2008 to December 2009. In 2007, she served as Deputy Legislative Secretary for Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs in the Office of the Governor where she worked on the Administrations comprehensive health care reform proposal. She was a member of the Health and Human Services Agency staff from 2004 to 2007 as an Assistant Secretary for programs and fiscal affairs as well as Associate Secretary for Legislative Affairs. Prior to her executive branch service, Ana worked for the California State Senate as a consultant to the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, as the human services consultant of the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. Ana received her bachelor's degree in Political Science from Stanford University in 1997.
Matthew Challis is a vice president and member of the local government practice within the public finance group at Piper Jaffray. Since joining the firm in 1999, Challis has structured and closed 60 financings for 20 California public agencies totaling more than $550 million for a variety of public infrastructure and facilities improvement projects. He handles every aspect of a transaction and works on both long- and short-term financings. Prior to joining the public finance group, Challis worked as an investment executive focusing on sales and marketing of California municipal bonds at Piper Jaffray. Challis graduated with a bachelors degree from Loyola Marymount University and received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of California at Davis. He holds the Series 7, 63 and 65 securities licenses.







