WASHINGTON — Dan Black, the executive director of the Municipal Advisory Council of Texas since 1993, plans to step down Sept. 21 to become a senior director at Fitch Ratings, the Texas MAC announced yesterday. Market participants said they were surprised by the news, and praised Black for his work at the Texas MAC — a storehouse of issuer information for broker dealers in Texas that has served as a state information depository since 1995 and has operated the Central Post Office for the Muni Council since 2004. The CPO collects issuers’ secondary market disclosure documents and disseminates them to nationally recognized repositories. “Dan exemplified the best of what our market has to offer,” said Lynnette Hotchkiss, the executive director of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. “He is smart, dedicated, and devoted to insuring the continued integrity of our market.” Frank Hoadley, capital finance director for the state of Wisconsin and the new chairman for the Government Finance Officer’s Association’s debt committee, said Black would be “very difficult” for the Texas MAC to replace. Hoadley noted that Black had recently served as an adviser-member of the debt committee. “Texas MAC is a great organization and an example to the industry in terms of being able to organize disclosure for issuers of a very large state,” Hoadley said. “I’m glad that he’s going to be staying within the industry and we will still have the benefit of his knowledge.” At Fitch, Black will spearhead southwest business development out of the rating agency’s eight-person Austin office, said Michael Belsky, Fitch’s group managing director of U.S. public markets. The regional territory includes Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Black will report to John Tillapaugh, senior director and manager of Fitch’s public finance business development group in San Francisco. In a brief interview, Black said Fitch offered him an “great opportunity.” “It sounded very interesting and I thought I’d take it,” he said. Laura Slaughter, currently Black’s deputy, will serve as Texas MAC’s interim executive director, the council said in a release. Drew K. Masterson, chairman of the Texas MAC’s board of directors and a managing director with First Southwest Co., praised Black’s 14 years of leadership. “Because of the strong succession plan Dan has in place, we are in excellent shape to transition to a new executive director,” Masterson said, adding the group’s board plans to meet soon to discuss launching a search for a permanent successor. Yesterday’s announcement comes about three months after the Texas MAC settled a lawsuit brought by Digital Assurance Certification LLC, which alleged that the CPO infringed on a patent it obtained in December. As part of the pact, which was reached during the GFOA’s annual conference in June, the Texas MAC agreed to make technical changes to the CPO’s operations and neither party made any payments. Sources said yesterday that Black’s departure was unrelated to the suit. The Texas MAC hired Black in late September 1993, after its previous executive director, Danny Burger, announced his retirement. Prior to coming to the Texas MAC, Black was a manager of the Texas Water Development Board, where he was responsible for overseeing the state agency’s then-$1.3 billion portfolio and bond pool to provide cities, river authorities, and other agencies funds for water, sewer, flood control and other projects. Before that, he worked in the loan and trust departments at InterFirst Bank in Dallas and as a stockbroker at Rotan Mosle Inc., in Austin. Black holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Memphis State University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.
