Seattle-Northwest Vet John Rose Joins Leora Consulting

SAN FRANCISCO - John Rose, former chief executive officer of Seattle-Northwest Securities Corp., has joined the Leora Consulting Group LLC.

Seattle-based Leora is a financial adviser to nonprofit organizations, such as the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Country Day School, and the Snohomish CountyYMCA, as well as such municipalities as Salem, Ore., Tacoma, Wash., and the Tacoma School District No. 10.

Rose will serve as a financial adviser and consultant to municipal bond issuers. During his 24-year career at Seattle-Northwest, he worked on transactions for nearly every major city or school district in Washington. He retired from the firm in 2006 and is currently the mayor of Beaux Arts Village, a wealthy small town east of Seattle.

"One of the real benefits of the current environment is that you get really top-notch people," said Miriam Sevy, president and founder of Leora Consulting. "You can either look at this market as the end of the world, or you can look at it as an opportunity."

Sevy and Rose worked together at Seattle-Northwest for nine years. Sevy went on to manage public finance in the Pacific Northwest for O'Brien Partners before founding her own firm in 1999. She has developed a niche for the firm as an adviser to some of the region's biggest and most well-known nonprofit institutions.

While the number of municipal bond transactions being completed has fallen in recent months, the need for financial advice - especially creative ideas to get financing in a difficult market - has increased, Sevysaid.

"Our clients need more help than ever," she said. "Even things like lines of credit are very complicated to arrange nowadays."

John Dobrowolski has also joined Leora, as a senior consultant for portfolio and risk management. Dobrowolski is a managing partner at Black Tusk Capital Partners, a private equity firm.

Dobrowolski previously managed market risk for Washington Mutual's home loans division and was head of the portfolio management group at GE Financial Assurance. He has also worked for the World Bank, Greenwich Capital Markets, and National Westminster Bank in London.

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