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 NewsMegan K. Reilly is theChief Financial Officerfor the Los Angeles Unified Public School District which is the second largest Kindergarten through 12th grade school system in the United States.� The Los Angeles Schools is an urban school district serving approximately 600,000 students and covering 710 square miles.� The District has a combined annual operating, debt service and internal service budget of approximately $11 billion in support of 932 K-12 schools and 97 other schools and centers and 60,000 employees.From 2000 through 2013 the Los Angeles Unified School District was the largest issuer of school district debt in the U.S, the 4th largest municipal issuer in California and the 29th largest municipal issuer in the nation. The majority of the long-term debt for capital projects fall within the new construction, modernization, technology and safety programs, which are financed with $20.6 billion of voter-approved General Obligation (�GO�) Bonds and $7.4 billion of State matching funds and other sources.The District also uses alternative finance structures to meet capital and operating needs.� Some projects are financed with Certificates of Participation ("COPs"), including some private placements. Short-term debt issuances include tax and revenue anticipation notes (�TRANs�) that finance temporary cash flow deficits. TRANs issuances have ranged between $300 million to $1.38 billion per year. The District has utilized special bond structures permitted under the ARRA: �BABs and QSCBs. As of September 1, 2014, the District had $10.3 billion of outstanding voter authorized GO Bonds and GO Refunding Bonds, with $7.542 billion of authorized but unissued GO Bonds. Over the years, the issuance of GO Refunding Bonds resulted in $405 million of savings to taxpayers.Prior to her work with Los Angeles Schools Megan served extensively in academic and research organizations with the Department of the Navy.� She served as theExecutive Director of Business Services & Comptrollerat the Naval Postgraduate School, located in Monterey, California. ��She was also the Comptroller at Fleet Numerical Meteorology & Oceanography Center. �The Center provides meteorology and oceanography support to U.S. and coalition forces worldwide.�Megan was a distinguished scholar in the Department of Defense Financial Management program.� She spent a year teaching English in southern Japan at the middle and senior high school levels.� Along with a B.A. degree in History from Loyola University, she has a M.S. degree in Management from the Naval Postgraduate School, a J.D. degree from the Monterey College of Law and is a member of the California bar.� She currently serves on Oversight Boards for Redevelopment Successor Agencies for Los Angeles and West Hollywood formed as a result of the recent dissolution of Redevelopment Agencies. She is a member of the Aspen Institute�s Education and Society�s Chief Financial Officers Committee that deals with educational reform initiatives and turnaround models for improving success in the public Kindergarten through 12th grade education system. �She serves on the Board of the Joint Powers Authority California Delinquent Tax Finance Authority that provides financing on behalf of ninety four participating school districts, community college districts and other local educational agencies.
Gary Gallegos is the executive director of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). SANDAG is the research, planning, and transportation agency for the region. Agency policymakers are elected officials from each of the area�s 18 cities and the county. SANDAG is responsible for numerous regional initiatives including population growth, transportation, transit engineering and construction, environmental management, economic development, municipal finance, binational and interregional coordination, and public safety.Under his direction, the agency is creating the first Regional Transportation Plan under new California legislative mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, developing a third international border crossing at the U.S.-Mexico border, and implementing more than $1 billion in transportation infrastructure projects in the San Diego region.Prior to joining SANDAG in 2001, Mr. Gallegos held the position of district director for Caltrans District 11, covering San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Mike leads Lillibridge's business development and strategic client management activities. In this capacity, Mike's team assists hospital and health system executives nationwide in reconciling growth and care delivery transformation changes with capital constraints. His responsibilities include the design, planning and execution of Lillibridge's go-to-market strategy. In addition he is responsible for the firm's customer experience and loyalty initiatives. Mike is also a member of the firm's executive management committee.Prior to Lillibridge, Mike was a founding member and Managing Director at General Electric's Healthcare Financial Services Strategic Relationship Group in Chicago. His 20 year financial service career also included 10 years at Bank of America (and its predecessor firms) in the areas of corporate finance, debt capital markets, derivatives and interest rate risk management. Mike began his healthcare career as a marketing representative for Baxter Healthcare and served as a licensed Emergency Medical Technician for over 10 years in Texas, North Carolina and Illinois.Mike holds a Master's of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and Bachelors in Arts in Political Science from The Colorado College. Mike is a member of the HFMA's First Illinois Chapter and the American College of Healthcare Executives. He is a frequent speaker to healthcare industry and real estate group on the topics of innovation, disruptive change and capital formation.
Robert Puentes is a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution�s Metropolitan Policy Program where he also directs the program's Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative. The Initiative was established to address the pressing transportation and infrastructure challenges facing cities and suburbs in the United States and abroad.Robert's work focuses on the broad array of policies and issues related to metropolitan growth and development including transportation and infrastructure, urban planning, growth management, suburban issues, and smart cities.Prior to joining Brookings, Robert was the director of infrastructure programs at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. He holds a master�s degree from the University of Virginia where he served on the Alumni Advisory Board, and is an affiliated professor with Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute.He serves on a variety of boards and committees including, most recently, New York State's 2100 Infrastructure Commission; the District of Columbia's Streetcar Financing and Governance Task Force; the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority's Technical Advisory Committee; the Tysons Corner Tomorrow Advisory Task Force; and the Falls Church, Virginia Planning Commission where he lives with his wife and three sons.Recent publications include: Have Americans Hit Peak Travel? A Discussion of the Changes in U.S. Driving Habits; Global Gateways: International Aviation in Metropolitan America; Banking on Infrastructure: Enhancing State Revolving Funds for Transportation; The Intersection of Place and the Next Economy; A Path to Public Private Partnerships for Infrastructure; Moving Past Gridlock: A Proposal for a Two-Year Transportation Law; Investing for Success: Examining a Federal Capital Budget and a National Infrastructure Bank; A Bridge to Somewhere: Rethinking American Transportation for the 21st Century; A Review of the Land Use Regulations in the Nation's Largest Metropolitan Areas; Prosperity at Risk: Toward a Competitive New Jersey; and One Fifth of the Nation: A Profile of Change in America�s First Suburbs.He is a frequent speaker to a variety of groups, a regular contributor in newspapers and other media, and has testified before Congressional committees.
John D. Porcari is Senior Vice President and National Director of Strategic Consulting for Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global professional services, planning, engineering and construction services firm. Services provided by Parsons Brinckerhoff Strategic Consulting include P3 public advisory and investor advisory services, value capture analysis, project development, asset management, policy and research. John previously served for the last 4 � years as Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation. As Deputy Secretary, John served as the department�s Chief Operating Officer, with day-to-day responsibility for DOT�s 10 operating administrations, 55,000 employees worldwide and a $77 billion operating budget. John chaired the department�s Credit Council, responsible for TIFIA, RRIF and Private Activity Bond allocations, as well as chairing the TIGER grant Senior Review Team and the Freight Policy Council. Porcari�s responsibilities also included serving as DOT lead in implementing NextGen�the next generation air traffic control system, America�s single largest infrastructure investment.Prior to being nominated by President Obama as DOT Deputy Secretary, John twice served as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, overseeing the only state-level DOT that includes statewide highway, transit, aviation, port, bridge & tunnel authority and motor vehicle licensing modes. Porcari�s previous positions also include serving as CFO and COO of the University of Maryland.
Brad Winges is the President and CEO of HilltopSecurities, a financial services firm and registered investment adviser in Dallas. Before joining HilltopSecurities, Winges was senior executive managing director at Piper Jaffray and a member of the company's leadership team.
Charlie Moore is a Director at MuniAxis Lebenthal, LLC, a newly formed broker dealer operating MuniAxis, a new municipal bond trading platform offering pre trade price transparency. Charlie has spent considerable time evaluating municipal trading in the secondary market. He concluded that existing bid-wanted alternatives were outdated and inefficient, and recognized a need for a more open, independently owned trading platform. With the encouragement of asset managers and dealers, he founded Axis Trading Solutions, Inc. and has brought the platform to market through MuniAxis Lebenthal, LLC. A seasoned entrepreneur, this is Charlie�s third new business. He got his start in corporate finance in the Financial Development Program at Digital Equipment Corporation. He holds his Series 7 & 63, an MBA from Babson College and a BA from Union College.
Rebecca Olsen is Deputy Director in the Office of Municipal Securities at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.� The Office of Municipal Securities is responsible for administering SEC rules on practices of broker-dealers, municipal advisors, investors, and issuers in the municipal securities area and coordinating with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) on rulemaking and enforcement actions.� The Office of Municipal Securities advises the Commission and other SEC offices on policy matters, enforcement, and other issues affecting the municipal securities market and oversees MSRB rulemaking and the SEC’s municipal advisor registration program.� Prior to joining the SEC, Ms. Olsen worked as public finance attorney at the law firm of Ballard Spahr LLP for over a decade where she served as underwriter’s counsel, bond counsel, lender’s counsel and borrower’s counsel on a wide variety of public debt offerings and private placements.� Ms. Olsen has a B.A. in Political Science from Boston College, a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and an LL.M. in International Business Law from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Paul Renken is the Director of Advisor Tools and Portfolio Analytics at Tradeweb direct and functions in a business development capacity. Prior to this role, Mr. Renken served as an Executive Vice President at E*TRADE Capital Management and Vice President for E*TRADE Securities. Mr. Renken was responsible for Fixed Income Trading, Sales and Product as well as heading the Sales Liaison, Syndicate and Capital Markets Desks. Prior to this Mr. Renken worked at Bank of Montreal, Credit Suisse, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette and Dain Bosworth in various capital market capabilities. Mr. Renken earned a bachelor�s degree in Business Administration from The University of St. Thomas. He holds the Series 7, 24, 53, 63, 66 and 99 licenses.
Sara Hailstone was named Director of Community and Economic Development for the City of Allentown, Pennsylvania, in March 2010. A senior member of the Mayor�s cabinet, Hailstone is responsible for a broad range of planning and organizational activities as well as directing the City�s Bureaus of Health, Building Standards and Safety, Planning and Zoning and Economic Development and their programs. She also coordinates economic development with other City departments, citizen groups, governmental and other public agencies, and private enterprise and oversees the City Community Development Block Grant Program.In April 2012, Hailstone was elected interim Executive Director of the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority, the nine-member City organization that oversees construction of the Allentown arena and evaluates applications from members of the private sector pursuing financing for development within the zone.Prior to her current position, Hailstone served as Regional Director for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) since 2007. In that role, she acted as DCED liaison to economic and community development projects in 15 counties in Northeast Pennsylvania and worked to improve neighborhoods with community-changing high-impact multifaceted development projects.From 2002 to 2007, Hailstone was Executive Director of the Office of Economic and Community Development in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where she directed the distribution and administration of $20 million in Community Development Block Grants as well as $5 million in small business loans that created more than 400 new jobs. During that time, she also oversaw the financing of the City�s new parking garage and marketed Scranton to new businesses and businesses wishing to relocate.Prior to that, Hailstone was Project Director for Scranton Tomorrow and First Night� Scranton from 1999 to 2002. She has also served as chairperson or co-chair of several additional major community celebrations and fundraisers in and around Scranton. Hailstone began her career as an Admissions Counselor for Marywood University in Scranton from 1996 to 1999.Active in the community, her current board memberships include the Allentown Economic Development Corporation, the Allentown Housing Authority and Allentown Parking Authority. �She previously served on the boards of Penns Northeast, Scranton Community Concerts, United Cerebral Palsy, United Way of Lackawanna County and Nay Aug Conservancy.Hailstone earned both a master�s degree in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit organizations and also a bachelor�s degree from Marywood University. She resides in Allentown.






