Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot will speak directly to the municipal bond market's buyside at the city’s annual
The morning is reserved for tours of O’Hare International Airport, the Jardine Water Treatment Facility on the downtown shores of Lake Michigan, the Chicago Police Department Strategic Decision Support Center, the city’s River Edge development, and the Old Post Office which is under redevelopment.
Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett will open the formal conference agenda at 1 p.m. Central Time at the Chicago Art Institute’s Rubloff Auditorium followed by a keynote address by Lightfoot and then a “conversation” with Bennett.
Panel discussions and presentations will round out the afternoon.
The first topic is Securitization and Rating Criteria with Jefferies public finance banker Kym Arnone serving as moderator. Panelists include Nixon Peabody attorney Robert Peabody, Kroll Bond Rating Agency analyst Karen Daly, PIMCO municipal credit research analyst Matthew Sinni, and Assured Guaranty’s Francis Coughlin, a managing director.
Department of Aviation Commissioner Jamie Rhee will then provide an update on O’Hare’s capital development plans.
The final panel is titled Sweet Home Chicago: Why Companies Choose Us, during which Samir Mayekar, deputy mayor for economic and neighborhood development, will hold a conversation with Pallavi Verma, a senior managing director at Accenture.
Bennett will deliver closing remarks.
The conference represents an opportunity for the first-year mayor who took office in May and her CFO to speak directly to a roomful of investors as well as other market participants as bankers and advisors also attend. Lightfoot recently announced the city faces a more than $800 million deficit headed into 2020. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched the annual conference after taking office in 2011 with the first one held in October.
