In its latest push to capitalize on the record volume of activity in the municipal market, Goldman, Sachs & Co. has transferred managing director Kathleen Brown from the firms investment management division to its municipal finance department.
Brown will set up a new public finance office in Los Angeles and serve as the head of Goldmans West Coast region. The firm already has an office in Los Angeles, but the office has not had a public finance group. Brown, a former California state treasurer and former president of the private bank at Bank of America, will work with state and local governments in the Golden State and other areas on the West Coast.
In an interview on Friday, Brown said the firm decided to establish a public finance presence in Los Angeles to help clients address unprecedented fiscal difficulties that state and local governments are facing. Goldman will bring smart ideas, capital and distribution to the table, she said. For now, Brown, who officially opens the office for business today, will be the only professional but will add more as the firm sees fit.
We have been very encouraged by the strong rebound in the municipal bond industry over the past few years, Richard Kolman, co-head of the municipal bond department, said in a statement. The addition of Kathleen Brown and many others that have joined us from within and beyond Goldman Sachs has positioned us to meet our clients growing needs.
Within the past year, Goldman has hired staff from other areas of the firm to build the group. It has brought over Richard Aks, vice president and head of higher education and cultural institutions, Mark Florian, head of the Midwest region in Chicago, and Jeffrey Brown, a senior project finance and infrastructure banker in Seattle.
Aks rejoined the municipal group in August in an effort to head up a refocused effort on higher education and cultural institutions.
Florian said that Goldman is expanding because the need for capital in the municipal industry is greater than ever. The Chicago office is looking to hire multiple bankers in the health care and higher education sectors, he added.
Aida Chinloy joined Goldman in February from Crae International, an investment consulting firm that she founded. The former Merrill Lynch & Co. managing director said she decided to join Goldman because I saw a big shift in public finance requiring more complex financings and that was interesting to me.
Over the past 18 months, Goldman also has hired Richard Ramirez from J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Terry Thornton, former director of finance for Harris County, Tex., to work in its Houston office.
