Honorees at the Municipal Forum of New York's 34th annual awards dinner came from many different corners of the industry, but they all had one refrain: municipal finance offers a chance to "build something meaningful."
There were three awardees at Thursday's dinner: Joseph A. Branca, managing director at BofA Securities, won the Lifetime Achievement Award; Jim Reynolds, founder and CEO of Loop Capital Markets, won the Austin Koenen Career Achievement Award; and Sarah K. Sanders, deputy treasurer at the State of Connecticut's treasurer's office, won the Public Service Award.
Branca was introduced by Jonathan A. Ballan, partner and head of infrastructure and P3 finance at Harris Beach Murtha.
Branca's career has spanned investment banking, rating agencies, real estate, insurance, and a stint as the CFO of the Long Island Power Authority. He's also expecting a grandchild this week, Ballan said.
Branca celebrated his colleagues in his speech, noting that "nobody works alone" in finance or in government.
"More than the deals, more than the numbers — and I love the numbers — it has always been about the people," Branca said. "About working with brilliant colleagues, great lawyers, dedicated public servants and committed financial professionals to create real, lasting impact in the communities in which we live and work."
Branca said he views the lifetime achievement award not as the end of a journey but a moment to look forward to what comes next.
"In finance, as in life, there's always another opportunity to build something meaningful," Branca said.
Bo Daniels, managing director and head of public finance at Loop Capital, presented the Austin Koenen Career Achievement Award to Reynolds.
Loop employs around 300 people, Daniels said, but it grows substantially every summer when the firm adds 40 to 50 interns.
"It's really important to Jim to give young people an opportunity to see how a $200 million-plus business operates," Daniels said.
Reynolds began his speech by recalling the atmosphere when he started out trading munis in 1981. The prime rate was around 20.5% and mortgage rates were around 16%. He worked for Smith Barney, Paine Webber and Merrill Lynch.
When Reynolds left Merrill Lynch to start Loop Capital, he said, the firm was just six people in folding chairs around a card table.
Loop has grown to encompass a debt capital markets platform, a global equity trading platform, an M&A platform, a wealth business, and more, Reynolds said.
"Running all those businesses, where people are doing all these big things, nothing at all compares to the feeling that you get in the municipal space," Reynolds said.
"We know each other, we recognize each other, we grow together, and we kind of grow old together," he said.
Loop's growth has required a shift in the industry's attitudes, Reynolds said.
"When I started Loop, it was a stretch for an issuer to let a firm like mine, a diverse firm, run a $50 million bond deal. That was a real stretch," Reynolds said. "$100 million? They didn't think you could handle it."
Now, it's routine for Loop to run deals worth more than a billion dollars, Reynolds said.
"And issuers in municipals care about the people in municipals. People who run municipal shops care about the people in municipals," Reynolds said. "Unlike any of the other businesses, and I can say that from experience."
Sarah K. Sanders was an unconventional choice for the winner of the public service award, according to John J. Puig, a Municipal Forum governor; to his knowledge, Sanders' win is only the fourth time the forum has chosen an award recipient outside of the New York region.
Connecticut Treasurer Erick Russell introduced Sanders.
"Sarah is the person that you go to when you have a difficult problem that you need to work through and try to figure out solutions that are good for people in our state," Russell said.
Sanders started out her career in the Connecticut utilities industry. After 15 years there, she joined the Connecticut treasury because she was "looking for a little more," she said.
"I was looking for something where we could have an impact on improving the life of our citizens through public service," Sanders said. "But through public finance, because I thought I was really good at public finance.
"Which I was," she added.
Sanders has spent 25 years in the Connecticut treasurer's office. She said she views herself as an engineer, building financial infrastructure for future generations.
Sanders helped create Connecticut's $2 billion
"It was the very first time that Connecticut used a bond covenant to instill fiscal discipline in the state legislature and executive branch," Sanders said.
Five years later, the treasurer's office used the tool again. This time, it addressed an accumulated deficit in the general fund that was impacting the state's liquidity. In 2017, the legislature followed the treasury's lead and created the fiscal guardrails, which now appear in the state's general obligation bond covenants as well.
Sanders found this process "awe inspiring."
Sanders also worked on Connecticut's
Sanders has also used the power of the Connecticut treasurer's office to "recognize high talent potential" in firms new to the muni industry.
"We were one of the first to hire a little-known printing company in Ann Arbor, Michigan, run by the Rodriguez brothers, called Image Master," Sanders said. "In 1999, we hired an up-and-coming minority-owned firm called Siebert Brandford Shank, now known as Siebert Williams Shank. They started senior managing Connecticut bond sales, which opened many doors for them."
The awards dinner raises funds to support the forum's Urban Leadership Fellows program.
Portia Lee, a Muni Forum governor, presented the Carey Gabay scholarship to Yasharbek Sabitov, a recent Swarthmore College graduate.
"When I first applied to the Urban Leadership Fellows program, [as] a first generation immigrant student, I understood little about how states and cities fund infrastructure," Sabitov said.
The ULF's workshops and mentorship program introduced Sabitov to the world of public finance, from credit rating agencies to networking strategies. Sabitov plans to take a gap year to explore the intersections of public finance and law before going to law school.
