Morgan Stanley's David Tomson outran a Buffalo snowstorm to get home for Thanksgiving, Acacia Financial Group's Noreen White nursed her children while reading requests for proposals, and Jay Olson steered New York City's debt program through the COVID pandemic while his father was in the hospital.
The Municipal Forum of New York's 35th annual awards dinner celebrated titans of the municipal finance industry. Its awardees recounted how major life milestones ran hand-in-hand with career triumphs.
See also: The Municipal Forum of New York
The Carey Gabay Excellence and Innovation Award was presented to Lizbeth Ramirez, a Vanderbilt University student from the Bronx.
Ramirez leads financial literacy workshops in the Bronx, which she would like to expand into a national program.
Ramirez, who interned at RBC Capital Markets through the Urban Leadership Fellows program, recalled that her first experience on the trading floor made her doubt herself, but the ULF program helped her see that she belonged in the finance world.
"The same way ULF showed me that I belong in rooms I had never imagined, I now step into new spaces with the intention of making sure others can see themselves there, too," Ramirez said.
Daniel Tomson, strategic advisor at Morgan Stanley, won the Austin Koenen Career Achievement award, following his father, Lou, who was also honored by the Muni Forum in 1996.
"Of all his accomplishments, that recognition meant so much to him, because, like this room, he had a deep reverence for the extraordinary work that could be done by and with government for his people," Tomson said.
Tomson recounted an experience from early in his finance career, when he and his team traveled to Buffalo to pitch a plan for school district finances.
The trip was on the Monday before Thanksgiving, Tomson had infant triplets at home, and a massive snowstorm began during their last meeting of the day. In an attempt to escape the city before the roads were shut down, Tomson drove himself and his boss into a ditch.
"As I hit the gas, I was either going to launch a career or a job search," Tomson said. "Well, somehow we miraculously made it to the Thruway, stranded cars everywhere, and drove away from the storm. Ultimately, we went on to design and develop a multi-million dollar program that reshaped city school financing and project delivery across the state."
Noreen White, co-founder of Acacia, earned the forum's lifetime achievement award.
When White won the Freda Johnson Award eight years ago, she stressed in her acceptance speech the
White "stumbled into" public finance "decidedly by accident," she said.
"It makes perfect sense that a research analyst working for a Nobel laureate of biochemistry should become an associate of Bear Stearns, right?" White quipped. "Most natural thing in the world."
She also reflected on the relationships she's built in public finance and acknowledged the support she received from the community as she grieved her husband.
"I have learned something from every client, every attorney, every competitor, and yes, even the evil and always innovative investment bankers," White said. "Nobody succeeds in this business alone."
Jay Olson, New York City's deputy comptroller for public finance, received the public service award. Olson joked he's tried to keep a low profile in his work with the city and the award is proof that he's "failed miserably."
"At the risk of being crass, to simplify what we do, money is borrowed and repaid, ideally without incident or fanfare," Olson said.
Olson took over New York City's debt program on January 2, 2020, after
"It was an incredibly rough ride," Olson said. The city maxed out its debt limit, the fixed-rate market shut down. "I was pleading with management, 'Please stop spending money. I can't reimburse it.'"
Olson closed with a plug for the city's bonds. New York's latest executive budget has a financing plan with $95 billion of debt, available for the audience to "underwrite … buy, structure, bump, cut, you name it, all you can," Olson said.
