The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association announced yesterday that its board has appointed T. Timothy Ryan Jr., an executive at JPMorgan, to become its new chief executive officer.
Ryan, vice chairman of investment banking for financial institutions and governments at JPMorgan, where he has worked since 1993, plans to transition to the SIFMA job over the coming weeks and will be based at the association’s New York office.
“I’m flattered and excited to be selected to run an organization as important and respected as SIFMA,” Ryan, 62, said yesterday. He will succeed Marc E. Lackritz, who retired Dec. 31.
In a brief interview, Ryan said he is aware of concerns expressed by some muni market participants that SIFMA has not focused on municipal securities as much as it should since it was created in late 2006 from a merger between two predecessor organizations. He stressed, however, that he would spend the next several weeks meeting with SIFMA members to gauge the issues that are most important to them, adding that he is eager to hear from the group’s muni members.
“There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed and that was one that was mentioned,” Ryan said. “What I’m going to be doing is running around the country, and then around the world, to talk to people who are members of the association to get a sense of what are the issues that generate interest on their part, what are their complaints, what are their concerns.”
Blythe Masters, SIFMA’s chairman and head of global commodities at JPMorgan, said Ryan was selected after a six-month search. In a statement, Masters praised Ryan’s “hands-on industry and product knowledge, keen command of domestic and global public policy, and proven leadership skills.”
Market participants appeared to welcome the decision, noting that Ryan has market experience.
“He has a broad vision, gravitas, and a lot of experience,” said Peter Hill, executive vice president and head of public finance at ACA Financial Guaranty Corp., and former head of JPMorgan’s municipal finance group.
“It’s really outstanding that he is a market person, and not some political hack,” said a market source who did not want to be identified. “Some of the finalists were politicians, and it speaks to the organization that they chose someone with experience in the market.”
Prior to joining JPMorgan, Ryan was director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Thrift Supervision and a director at both the Resolution Trust Corp. and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. From 1983 to 1990, he was a partner in the Washington office of the law firm Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay LLP where he headed its pension investment group. From 1981 to 1983 he was solicitor of labor at the Department of Labor. He holds degrees from Villanova University and American University Law School.
