Municipal Forum of N.Y. to honor 3 at Urban Leadership Fellows dinner

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The Municipal Forum of New York will present awards to three individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the municipal finance industry during long and distinguished careers and award two partial college scholarships to deserving high school students.

Patrick McCoy, director of finance at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, will receive the New York Public Service Award; John Bove, a retired lawyer at Nixon Peabody, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award; and Caroline Cruise, a portfolio manager at Loews Corp., will receive the Austin Koenen Career Achievement Award.

“I’m honored and humbled to receive the Muni Forum’s Public Service Award this year,” McCoy said. “Throughout my career I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with smart dedicated people who come to work every day focused on making the City and State of New York a better place to live. I’m proud to have played a role in that effort.”

Patrick J. McCoy

The awards will be presented at the Forum’s 29th Annual Awards and Urban Leadership Fellows Dinner on Thursday, May 10, at the New York Marriott Marquis.

The event raises funds to support the Urban Leadership Fellows program. The ULF program, managed by Futures and Options, was created by the Forum in 1992 to introduce high school students to the municipal securities industry. It provides a paid, mentored summer internship for graduating New York City high school seniors who are interested in careers in finance. The program places the students at banks, law firms, rating agencies, and public authorities across the city.

“On behalf of RBC Capital Markets, I’m delighted to serve as one of the co-chairs of this year’s Urban Leadership Fellows program, a valuable program that exposes graduating high school seniors to the municipal securities industry,” commented John Puig, Head of Northeast Municipal Finance at RBC Capital Markets and co-chair of the Urban Leadership Fellows program. “We look forward to seeing many of those in the industry who help the Urban Leadership Fellows program on May 10, as well as to offering a robust program this summer to our newest set of interns.”

Since the program began, over 90% of the Fellows have come from families with household incomes under $75,000 a year. The program also provides college scholarships for three years to ULF alumni who meet certain GPA requirements. Each Fellow also receives a book grant.

Over the past 26 years, 687 high school seniors have participated in the internship program and collectively received $737,250 in support of their studies.

“The Municipal Forum of New York and its Urban Leadership Program play an important role in the municipal finance community by providing internship opportunities to talented New York City high school graduates and introducing them to our industry," said Cruise. "I am deeply honored and could not be more thrilled to be recognized by the Municipal Forum of New York with the Austin Koenen Career Achievement Award.”

Also at this year’s dinner, the late Edward “Ned” Flynn of Jefferies will be remembered for contributions he made to the Forum, particularly the ULF program and its partnership with Futures and Options on whose board he served. Flynn, a muni banker for more than 30 years, died unexpectedly last October at age 60.

Flynn-Ned-2017

“The Municipal Forum Board wanted to honor Ned in way that would be meaningful and lasting," said Robin Prunty, President of the Muni Forum’s Board of Governors and managing director at S&P Global Ratings. "We ultimately settled on special recognition at the dinner to honor his service to the Municipal Forum, the Urban Leadership Fellows program and Futures and Options, along with establishing a named scholarship that will be awarded annually to a student in the program.

“The Forum Board is working with Ned’s family and colleagues to define the attributes of Ned that will guide the scholarship award and we are pleased to have an ongoing tribute to Ned’s contributions and enthusiasm for the program.”

And the Forum will continue to honor the memory Carey Gabay. Gabay grew up in NYCHA housing in the Bronx and went on to study government at Harvard University and then went to Harvard Law School. He was appointed as an assistant counsel for Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2011 and served as first deputy counsel for the Empire State Development Corp. until he was tragically slain in 2015 at age 43. The Forum established a scholarship fund in memoriam last year. The second Carey Gabay Excellence Award will be presented at this year’s dinner.

Gabay-Carey-2015
December 12, Albany - Governor Cuomo hosts a holiday party for Commissioners and Senior Staff at the Executive Mansion.

The Forum was formed 80 years ago over a series of informal lunches by a group of public finance professionals. Today, the Forum also hosts a robust program of lunches featuring prominent public sector and public finance community leaders from around the country, providing a platform for municipal securities industry participants to meet frequently, share ideas and network.

This year’s participating sponsors include: Academy Securities; Assured Guaranty Municipal; Bank of America Merrill Lynch; MUFG Bank; Barclays Capital; BlackRock; Build America Mutual; CaineMitter; Citigroup; and Empire State Development.

Participating sponsors also include Hilltop Securities; Fitch Ratings; Goldman Sachs; Hawkins, Delafield & Wood; Jefferies; Loews Corp.; Loop Capital Markets; Moody's Investors Service; Morgan Stanley; New York City Comptroller's Office; New York City Housing Development Corp.; New York City Office of Management and Budget; New York State Homes & Community Renewal; and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

In addition they include Public Resources Advisory Group; Prager; Ramirez & Co.; Raymond James, RBC Capital Markets; Roosevelt & Cross; S&P Global Ratings; Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co.; SIFMA; UBS Financial Services; U.S. Bank; Wells Fargo Securities; TD Securities; N.Y. Presbyterian; NYC Housing Authority; and PNC Capital Markets.

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Public finance City of New York, NY State of New York New York
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