Baird Gets Bigger in Texas with 5 New Bankers, 3 New Offices

DALLAS — Baird has added five bankers to its public finance team and opened three new offices in Texas, the firm announced.

The new executives are managing director Ajay Thomas, director John Hall, vice presidents Kirk London and David Tiffin, and assistant vice president Peter Lamar. Tiffin came from RBC Capital Markets, where he was vice president in public finance. The other four came from Raymond James & Associates.

Thomas and Lamar will work from Baird's new Austin public finance office. Hall will work from Baird's new San Antonio office, the firm said. London and Tiffin will work from a new Dallas public finance office, which also includes associates from Baird's wealth management, equity research, fixed-income sales and equity trading businesses.

"We see tremendous opportunity in Texas," said Baird chairman and chief executive Paul E. Purcell. "The region is culturally compatible with Baird — conservative, client-centric and community-oriented — and the state's robust economic activity, population and job growth makes it a great place to do business."

Headquartered in Milwaukee, Baird has handled competitive and negotiated financings for issuers around the state, including the Austin Independent School District, the city of Plano, the Clifton Higher Education Finance Corp. (IDEA Public Schools), the North Texas Municipal Water District and others. Since 2008, Baird has completed 113 Texas financings for an aggregate par amount of over $2.7 billion.

Thomas was a managing director and head of Southwest region public finance at Raymond James. Before that, he worked eight years at Morgan Stanley in different public finance roles including executive director and head of Southwest region.

Hall worked as a senior public finance banker at Raymond James. Previously, he spent two years at Morgan Stanley as a public finance banker and two years as a bond, underwriter and trustee counsel at Winstead.

London, a former Texas public school superintendent, helped establish a school district practice at Raymond James. He has 36 years of experience in the Texas public school system, more than 20 of which were in a superintendent and administrator role.

Lamar has worked as a public finance banker at Raymond James since 2006. Before that, he held a private-equity role at Clearbrook Capital Partners and a wealth management role at Merrill Lynch.

Tiffin also has extensive school administration experience, having served as an assistant superintendent of business and finance and chief financial officer of the Richardson Independent School District for 27 years.

"Ajay, John, Kirk, David and Peter will be valuable assets to Baird's Public Finance team as we continue to work with Texas issuers," said Keith Kolb, managing director and director of Baird's Public Finance group. "They have a great track record of success, strong client relationships and deep expertise that align perfectly with our business."