DALLAS — Dwight D. Burns, former executive director of the Texas Public Finance Authority, has joined TKG & Associates LLC as a principal at the firm’s Dallas office.
Burns will serve as financial adviser to public sector issuers in Texas. His clients will include the North Texas Tollway Authority and Houston.
TKG also maintains offices in Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, New York and San Francisco.
Burns said he enjoyed the challenges of operating a state agency charged with oversight of $4 billion of debt, but was ready for the opportunity to rejoin the private sector.
“I loved my time at the Capitol, but it was never my intention to stay until retirement,” he said. “I believe I achieved my main goals at the authority. I’m glad to get back to my hometown, which is the hub of public finance in the Southwest.”
Burns joined the TFPA in May 2009 and left early last month. Susan Durso is serving as interim executive director while the state searches for Burns’ successor.
As director of the authority, Burns was responsible for issuing bonds and short-term notes to finance infrastructure, capital equipment, and special programs for 23 state agencies.
The tollway authority was created by the Legislature in 1984 to provide financing to build and acquire facilities for state agencies.
Burns cited the TPFA’s positive review by the Legislature’s Sunset Advisory Commission and the $2 billion of bonds it issued for the Texas Workforce Commission as the most significant accomplishments during his two-year tenure.
“We got a successful report from the commission, and the authority was able to double the debt it handled in two years,” Burns said. “That would be a lot of work in a five-year period.”
Proceeds from the bonds issued for the Texas Workforce Commission in 2010 replenished the state’s unemployment trust fund, according to Burns.
The unemployment compensation obligation-assessment revenue bonds are rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, AAA by Standard & Poor’s and AA-plus by Fitch Ratings.
“We issued those bonds under the authority of a bill passed in 2003 but we had to do it differently than had been planned, and we had to do it in a very shaky market,” Burns said.
Before joining the TPFA, Burns was a senior bond credit analyst for eight years with the Moody’s office in Dallas and spent two years as a financial advisory professional with Southwest Securities Inc.
Burns has an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a masters degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at UT.
