Bond insurer Assured Guaranty Ltd. announced two key promotions on Tuesday.
Mary Francoeur, previously the head of the eastern region group, will now lead project finance and utilities. James Doyle, formerly a director of the eastern region, will now lead the group as managing director.
The project finance and utilities position opened up earlier in the month when Olivier Garnier left Assured to become chief operating officer of North American projects for Meridiam Infrastructure, a Paris-based infrastructure fund.
Francoeur, who has 24 years experience in public finance, joined Assured in 2008 as managing director for U.S. project finance. Previously she worked at Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. and Moody’s Investors Service.
Francoeur also currently chairs the Municipal Analysts Group of New York.
Doyle began working for Financial Security Assurance, which Assured acquired last year, in 1993. In 17 years he served primarily as a municipal underwriter of transportation, utility and tax-backed securities.
Prior to joining FSA, Doyle worked at Moody’s as a credit analyst. He is a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.
Both Francoeur and Doyle will report to Bill Hogan, senior managing director of public finance.
“With a proven track record in our business and high industry profile, I believe that Mary is the right person to further develop our business in this growing segment of the public finance business,” Hogan said in a press release.
“As she takes over this position, we are fortunate to have Jim Doyle, a seasoned underwriter, who is well known in the marketplace, to take over the management of our core municipal business in the eastern region. Under their leadership, and with the deep bench of talent in both of these groups, we look forward to a smooth transition in serving the needs of our clients.”
Assured’s two subsidiaries, Assured Guaranty Corp. and Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., are currently the only two players in the municipal insurance market. To date this year, AGM backed 211 issues totaling $4.9 billion, while AGC guaranteed 123 issues worth $1.4 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
But the bond insurance industry itself is struggling. To date in March, less than 4% of the $39.5 billion issued in the month was backed by insurance, whereas before the financial crisis the market routinely saw half of all borrowing insured.
