Unlike many inductees to The Bond Buyer's Hall of Fame of municipal finance, whose careers are over, 59-year-old Gary Hall prefers to look ahead rather than dwell on his accomplishments.
As co-president of Siebert Williams Shank & Co., Hall acknowledges his status as one of the younger members of the distinguished group, viewing the honor not as a capstone, but as a challenge to continue his work.
"Being one of the younger members, I think I still have a lot to contribute to the industry," Hall said.
For him, the most significant professional milestone is invariably the next deal, a philosophy he instills in the junior bankers he mentors, counseling them not to rest on victories so they can "stay focused on the puck."
That forward-looking philosophy extends beyond Hall's approach to dealmaking. Through leadership roles in banking, market regulation, and industry organizations, he has come to view professional accomplishment less as a collection of titles than as an obligation to leave institutions stronger than he found them.
"Those are empty calories," Hall said. "At every juncture, I like to be able to look back and think about what I have done to make things better."
Suzanne Shank, chief executive officer of Siebert Williams Shank & Co. and a member of The Bond Buyer's inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2022, said Hall's career "reflects the full arc of what The Bond Buyer Hall of Fame was created to honor: sustained, influential leadership that has shaped the municipal finance industry over decades.
"As a partner, and co-president of Siebert Williams Shank & Co., Gary has helped build an increasingly influential non-bank financial firm into a national platform," Shank said, "while personally directing billions of dollars in public finance activity on behalf of state and local governments across the country."
Shank, who recruited Hall to the firm many years ago and promoted him last year — to co-president from national head of public finance — said his promotion "reflects the confidence the board places in his steady, enthusiastic leadership. Gary's regulatory and policy fluency has helped the firm structure deals, manage risk and advise clients appropriately."
Shank ticked off Hall's contribution to trade associations including the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's fixed-income advisory committee, the Milken Institute's public finance advisory board and the corporate affiliate board of the National Association of State Treasurers.
"Taken together, this record of regulatory stewardship, market leadership and institution building is precisely the kind of career the Hall of Fame exists to recognize," Shank said.
Hall, a Chicago native, has lived and worked in California for more than two decades.
His grandfather, Alderman Ernest Jones, served on the Chicago City Council from 1987 to 1990.
"Gary's relationship with public finance is not merely professional — it is deeply personal," said Lois Scott in nominating Hall for the award.
Hall attended Chicago Public Schools from kindergarten through high school, commuting daily by public transportation — riding the very transit systems whose capital programs he would one day help finance, Scott said.
"His path from Cabrini-Green [a public housing project] to the upper echelons of the public finance industry is a testament to both his personal determination and the promise of public investment done right," Scott said.
He earned his finance degree from Howard University, likely the most well-known historic black college and university. He also holds a law degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Before he committed himself to the muni industry, he was appointed a White House fellow by President Bill Clinton, "an honor reserved for the nation's most promising emerging leaders," Scott said.
During his fellowship, Hall was assigned to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he worked directly under Domestic Undersecretary Gary Gensler — an experience that Scott said, "deepened his understanding of public finance at the federal level and connected his work to the broadest dimensions of American economic policy."
In 2003, Gene Saffold, head of public finance at Bank One and at JPMorgan (after the banks merged a year later), convinced Hall, who had been working as a corporate finance attorney, that he should relocate from Chicago and blaze a muni-focused path.
"Gene wanted me to dive in and start from the ground up, so I would truly understand the mechanics and analytics of munis," Hall said. "And he thought that would come easier if I separated from my network in Chicago."
Hall said he made the right choice, as the muni industry has provided him access to "wonderful human beings who have collectively decided they want to contribute back to society by improving public infrastructure."
Though he said it was never his intention to work in public finance, he has played an outsized role in the industry, including serving as MSRB chair from 2018 to 2019.
During his tenure the trade association transitioned from storing data in physical centers to cloud computing, which he believes primed it for the onset of artificial intelligence.
Currently, he is working with the National Association of State Treasurers to "infuse younger people in the ecosystem; and we are thinking about who is going to be the next generation of treasurers."
