Fitch Muni Veteran David Becker Retires

BRADENTON, Fla. — After nearly 14 years with Fitch Ratings, David Becker retired Friday as managing director of public finance business development and Southeast regional manager in the agency’s Tampa, Fla., office.

“David put us on the map in the Southeast region,” said Michael Belsky, managing director for Fitch’s U.S. public finance group, who worked with Becker during his tenure with the agency.

Becker was business development manager for Fitch’s regional offices across the country the last four years, in addition to being Southeast manager.

“I think he had a management style that was very open and made people really comfortable doing their jobs,” Belsky said. “He’s trained and groomed other people in the group where we’ll able to continue providing good service to the market.”

Ron Halper, managing director of the investment banking group at M&T Bank in Baltimore, thought of Becker as the “Robert Moses of Florida,” referring to the mastermind of much of New York’s major public works projects, infrastructure, and parks.

“When I say that he’s the Robert Moses of Florida, I can think of no better analogy but with one significant difference,” Halper said. “Robert Moses was viewed as heavy-handed and David was anything but.”

From his office in New York, Halper worked a dozen years with Becker at Kidder, Peabody & Co.’s public finance department. Becker established Kidder Peabody offices in Tampa and Sarasota and worked with Halper on many public projects in Florida, particularly in the Tampa Bay area.

“If you look at the area surrounding David’s office in Tampa, you will see on a daily basis his fingerprints on most public projects,” Halper said. Those projects include resource recovery facilities in several cities and counties, Tampa Bay Water’s inaugural transaction, Tampa’s convention and performing arts centers, the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, and the city’s original football stadium — to name a few.

That was before Becker joined Fitch, but Halper said the two stayed in touch and remained friends.

“He always wanted to please everybody, he was always very responsive,” Halper said. “No phone call ever took more than a business day to return.”

He described Becker as subtly strategic on the job.

Reminiscing about his career with Fitch, Becker said: “It’s been a wonderful experience. It enabled me to interact with people in the industry that I’d known as clients in my previous investment banking role and friends that I’d developed throughout the years, and represent the really exciting and dynamic company that Fitch has become.”

Becker was born in Cincinnati. After graduating from the University of Kentucky, he went on to business school at the University of Michigan. His career began as an equity research analyst with Smith Barney in New York before he moved to Florida and opened Smith Barney’s first office in the state. Then he joined Kidder Peabody and helped the firm establish offices in Tampa and Sarasota. He was hired by Fitch in 1994 and remained in Tampa.

“I spent the rest of my career avoiding going back to New York,” he quipped.

Becker plans to remain in the Tampa area with his wife, Pamela, and continue to work with a number of civic and charitable organizations. He and his wife plan to travel around the country to visit their four children and five grandchildren, and they are also planning a trip to Europe.

As a parting reflection on the muni landscape, given today’s economic turmoil, Becker said, “I’m very positive on the muni market just because the capital needs everywhere are so huge and so significant.”

Martina Manning is replacing Becker as Southeast regional manager. She received a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and a masters of business administration from the University of West Florida. Prior to joining Fitch, Manning was chief financial officer for Captiva Ventures Inc. in Tampa. Before that she was an investment banker with Morgan Keegan & Co. in Pensacola, Fla.

John Tillapaugh, senior director of Fitch’s Western region, is taking over duties as the agency’s managing director of public finance business development.

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