Moodys Investors Service announced yesterday that Linda Hird, a 19-year veteran at the rating agency, is leaving the firm Friday.
As a managing director for state and local government ratings, Hird co-managed credit analysis for the largest debt issuers in the public finance sector, including the 50 states and U.S. territories, along with Ken Kurtz, co-managing director for states and regional ratings in Moodys San Francisco office, the agency said in a statement.
Gail Sussman and Lisa Washburn will succeed Hird. Sussman, a managing director, is the current head of the public finance municipal structured products group. She will assume responsibilities as a co-managing director for the states and regional rating teams.
Washburn, the team-managing director in charge of new business development for public finance, will assume leadership of the municipal structured products group.
Hirds experience includes leadership of rating teams in the Eastern, Southern, Southwest, and Central regions of the U.S. Hird also oversaw considerable expansion of Moodys municipal franchise, including the development and opening of offices in Chicago and Boston. Beginning in 1998, she initiated the first strategic business plan for what became the charter school group, which rated charter schools nationwide, according to Moodys.
Hird joined Moodys in 1986 when she worked on the initial ratings of municipal bond insurers and the federal asset sales.
Lindas analytical skills and dedication produced many contributions to the public finance business and benefits for Moodys clients, said Dennis Farrell, group managing director for public finance at the ratings agency.
Farrell added that he has the utmost confidence in Gails and Lisas response to the new challenges, especially given their depth of knowledge of derivative products and the municipal industry.
Moodys said it does not comment on where former employers are going after they leave, and Hird could not be reached by press time.
