Gary Hall and Sobani Warner were named co-presidents of Siebert Williams Shank effective Sept. 1, as CEO Suzanne Shank, who also served as president of the firm, focuses her efforts on client relationships and strategic initiatives.
Southwest region chief Keith Richard will take over as head of public finance, also starting next month.
Ahmad Ismail and David Finkelstein will be co-heads of corporate finance.
"We are enhancing Siebert Williams Shank's capacity to balance key leadership functions and positioning the firm for its next stage of growth," Shank said in a statement Tuesday.
"Gary Hall and Sobani Warner have been key elements of growing the firm's platform and will provide our leadership and banking teams with even greater depth and expertise," she added. "I also have great confidence in Keith Richard and Ahmad Ismail, who will now step forward to play enhanced senior management roles with the firm."
Hall told The Bond Buyer the firm has "phenomenal leaders" in public finance, calling Richard a "stalwart" who is well-prepared to assume the public finance helm.
"We are so blessed to have a very, very deep bench in our leadership ranks," he said. "Our CEO is very committed to cross-pollination, making sure that the leadership track has a 360 perspective of all business lines."
To that end, he said, he has been asked to do a deeper dive into the firm's value proposition for its corporate clients, while Warner, a longtime corporate banker, will be focusing on public finance. The goal, he said, is "fresh look, fresh perspectives" and leadership development.
In the public finance department, Richard said his focus will be on continuing to chase large transactions, a space in which the firm has excelled; continuing to build the strength of the underwriting sales and trading platform, "which we believe is best in class"; expanding its footprint on a national basis — either regionally, or in specific sectors where it makes sense; and leveraging the firm's quantitative solutions group.
"It has both great talent and depth, and we want to make sure we're leading with ideas to our clients, and we're going to continue to do that," Richard said.
Following the 2019 merger of Siebert Cisneros Shank and Williams Capital Group, the firm increased its headcount by 80% and built its practices in infrastructure development and corporate liquidity management.
Hall said his focus will be to make sure that successful trajectory continues and "making sure that we provide best-in-class solutions to our corporate clients, in the same way that we have with our municipal clients over the years."
He added, "There's a tremendous amount of volatility in the fixed income market as well as equities and so we have to be nimble in making sure that we can address our clients' needs."
Hall is a former chairman of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board who has served on the boards of the Securities Industry and Financial Marketing Association, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's Fixed Income Advisory Committee, the Milken Institute Public Finance Advisory Board, and the Corporate Affiliate Board of the National Association of State Treasurers.
He joined Siebert Williams Shank in 2013 as its national head of public finance. Before that, he worked for JPMorgan's public finance-investment banking group and in the mergers and acquisitions group of Banc One Capital Markets, among other roles in investment banking, private equity, law and government.
Warner became co-head of corporate finance at Siebert Williams Shank in 2023 after serving as head of equities since 2015. She is a 30-year industry veteran who joined the firm from Bear Stearns, where she covered Latin American markets. Warner launched her career at JPMorgan. She is a member of the board of directors of the Jackie Robinson Foundation and president of the Siebert Williams Shank Foundation.
Richard has led Siebert Williams Shank's southwest region since 2016. He has served as lead banker on more than $20 billion in senior-managed par amount. With a broad range of expertise — from state agencies, cities, counties and school districts to higher education institutions and transportation entities — he has helped the firm become a highly ranked senior manager in municipal underwriting.
He previously held senior roles at Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers.
Richard said he expects to see a continuation of the trends in the muni market that have developed this summer: "a lot of market volatility; obviously inflation continues to be something everybody's keeping an eye on, how it moves the market; and volume has been robust this year, especially with new money issuance."
Refundings have picked up "and we're hopeful that that will continue through the remainder of the year," he added. "And we're preparing for 2026 — there's a lot of infrastructure challenges out there, and my goal is to position the firm to be in the right spot to take advantage of that and hopefully serve our clients in the best way we can."
