Former UBS PaineWebber Inc. banker Frank Mahoney has joined Lehman Brothers' public finance group as a managing director.
Mahoney, 43, started at Lehman on May 22. He is based in its New York office and is a part of the Northeast team of the public finance unit, reporting to Sonia Toledo, who is also a managing director. In an interview on Tuesday, Mahoney said he decided to move because "Lehman had the best opportunities. I had always admired the work that they have accomplished and wanted to join that team."
At the time of his departure from UBS PaineWebber, he was reporting to Paul Atanasio, managing director.
Terry Atkinson, director in the public finance group at UBS PaineWebber, referred calls to a spokeswoman who confirmed Mahoney's departure, but declined to comment further.
Mahoney said he will have similar duties at Lehman that he had at UBS. He will be focusing largely on New York State and its issues.
Ron Stack, managing director and public finance department head at Lehman, said in an interview yesterday that he hired Mahoney because they worked together in the past and because Mahoney has a background in banking and law.
In the early 1990s, Stack and Mahoney worked on Gov. George E. Pataki's transition budget committee, which was headed by John Faso, a former candidate for state comptroller. "People that have worked in government have an appreciation for the other side," said Stack, who worked under New York's former Gov. Hugh L. Carey in the 1970s.
He noted that although Mahoney will concentrate on New York, he will have the opportunity to expand his scope beyond the Empire State. "It allows him to get his feet in other places," Stack said.
Before his move to PaineWebber in 1997, Mahoney worked for two years as an executive vice president at the Empire State Development Corp., where he oversaw all of the staff.
In early 1997, he was hired to help UBS PaineWebber -- then called PaineWebber -- to establish a dominant practice in New York, Atkinson said in a Bond Buyer interview in 1997.
Before the ESDC, Mahoney worked at Credit Suisse First Boston as a vice president in its public finance group. Stack said that Lehman originally tried to lure Mahoney after he left the ESDC, but he opted for PaineWebber instead. "I made him promise that if he left PaineWebber, he would call me first," Stack said.
Stack said he expects to make more hires in the near future. In February Lehman hired Robert Larkins, a senior vice president in California, and in April the firm hired Rocky Query, a senior vice president in Philadelphia.
The public finance group targets large issuers with large needs in areas around the U.S. and in Puerto Rico. Targeted states include Florida, Texas, and California.
In 2002, Lehman ranked third among senior managers in the underwriters' category, according to Thomson Financial. The firm was senior manager on 273 issues totaling close to $26 billion. Salomon Smith Barney, now Citigroup Global Markets Inc., ranked number one, while UBS was second.
Mahoney received his masters in business administration in 1990 from Pace University's Graduate School of Business and his law degree in 1988 from Pace University School of Law.
Mahoney, the father of six, is the brother of Kieran Mahoney, a Pataki adviser and principal of New York City-based Mercury Public Affairs.
