Chicago-based Loop Capital Markets announced last week that Rita Ho, a public finance veteran who most recently worked at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., has been appointed a director of the firm and manager of the short-term municipal bond desk.
Ho, who now works out of the Chicago office, has almost 20 years of municipal sales experience working with institutional investors, according to a prepared statement. She joined Loop Capital from J.P. Morgan. She was director, principal, and head of Banc One Capital Markets short-term municipal securities desk from 1999 until earlier this year, when Bank One Corp. was acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Ho left J.P. Morgan on Aug. 2 and started at Loop on Oct. 4, a spokesman said.
At Banc One and J.P Morgan, she covered auction-rate securities, variable-rate demand notes, competitive, and negotiated notes, and derivative products, such as tender-option bonds. Ho also served as a senior trader for tax-exempt securities short-term desk from 1996 to 1999.
Ho reports to Loop chief executive officer Jim Reynolds.
Reynolds said in the statement that Ho possesses a broad range of municipal bond experience, including sales, underwriting, trading, quantitative analysis, new product development, product training, and trading desk management.
We have known Rita for many years and have always been impressed by what she has accomplished, Reynolds said. He also lauded the breadth of her contacts and in-depth knowledge of municipal markets.
Ho has been a part-time college lecturer for 15 years, and also is the founder of the Pan Asian Networking group, which promotes diversity and provides a mentoring network for Asian employees. She is on the board of the Hong Kong Club, a group that facilitates trade between the U.S. and Asia, and in 2004 was named Leading Asian Woman of the Chicago-land Area by U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, the statement said. In addition, this year she was awarded the Leading Light for Asians by Chicago Comptroller Teri Balance.
Ho received her masters degree in finance and economics from the University of Chicago, and a masters in statistics from Emory University. Loop Capital Markets has offices in other areas including New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
