Sterne Agee Adds Staff, Opens Office

BRADENTON, Fla. - Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. of Birmingham, Ala., said Monday that it has opened a public finance office in the state's capital, Montgomery, and hired four people in New York.

The continued expansion is a "show of Sterne Agee's commitment to municipal finance," the firm said.

The newcomers to Sterne Agee are Jim McGinley, senior vice president and general markets trader, Pat Tucci, senior vice president in institutional sales, John Donovan, who will work in institutional sales, and Mike Azzinaro, vice president of municipal desk operations.

McGinley has 26 years of experience in municipal trading and most recently was the head of municipal sales and trading at Hapoalim Securities USA Inc. He started in the business on Kidder Peabody's desk on the operations side after graduating from Elmira College.

After 10 years at Kidder, he joined UBS Securities, formerly PaineWebber, where he spent 14 years running the short-term desk before becoming intermediate trader and managing director in 2005. After UBS exited the municipal finance business, he worked briefly at M.R. Beale and then moved to Hapoalim.

Tucci has nearly 15 years of experience in municipal finance as a bond portfolio manager, trader, and salesman. Most recently he was with Dexia Credit Local. He also has worked at Salomon Smith Barney and MBIA Capital Management. He received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Villanova University. He also is a designated chartered financial analyst.

Donovan most recently worked in the municipal institutional sales group at Piper Jaffray & Co. Before that he was a commodities trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a municipal bond trader at Citi, and head of the municipal bond trading desk at Lazard Freres. He also was a municipal salesperson, trader and institutional sales manager at JPMorgan. He earned a bachelor's degree at Georgetown University.

Azzinaro has 29 years of experience in municipal syndicate operations and bond underwriting and most recently was with Banc of America Securities. He also worked at UBS Securities, EF Hutton, and its successor, Shearson Lehman Hutton.

Sterne Agee also maintains public finance offices in Houston, San Antonio, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, and Macon, Ga. It said it has served as an underwriter on more than 143 municipal financings totaling $17 billion in par amount over the last 12 months.

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