Ex-Chicago Official Joins Mesirow as Managing Director

CHICAGO — Chicago-based Mesirow Financial Inc. has hired public finance banker and former deputy Chicago comptroller Brian King in part to aid its efforts in winning senior manager work outside of Illinois, sources said.

King, who resigned last week from Chicago-based Cabrera Capital Markets LLC, where he was a managing director, will start Monday at Mesirow as a managing director, Mesirow confirmed last week. It did not provide additional information about King’s role at the firm.

Neither King nor Cabrera chief executive officer Martin Cabrera Jr. could be reached to comment.

King joined the majority Latino-owned Cabrera as a senior vice president in 2006 after spending seven years as deputy comptroller.

He first joined the city to work in the comptroller’s office in 1991. King worked there until 1994 and then moved to the former Continental Bank, where he worked in the corporate trust department.

King left to return to city government in 1997, where he worked for two years in the Chicago Department of Housing before returning to the Finance Department as deputy comptroller until his departure in 2006.

Sources said the firm hired King to help with its goal of snaring more work from Illinois border states.

His hiring comes soon after the retirement of longtime Mesirow municipal professional and its one-time public finance banking manager Lawrence Morris, and management changes following the death earlier this year of Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc.’s longtime chief executive officer, James Tyree.

The firm’s reins went to president and close Tyree friend Richard Price. Tyree and Price both wanted to expand the firm’s municipal reach, sources said.

Steve Hoopes currently manages the municipal banking group at the 74-year-old employee-owned firm.

The municipal group employs 13 professionals and a sales team of 15 at offices in Chicago, New York City, Boston, Houston, Memphis, Pittsburgh, and Troy, Mich.

In the Midwest, Cabrera ranks 46th so far this year and was 25th last year as a senior manager, while Mesirow ranks 26th so far this year and was 28th last year, according to Thomson Reuters.

In Illinois, Cabrera finished 12th last year and is not ranked so far in 2011, while Mesirow is 13th so far this year and ended 2010 in 15th place.

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