People: Saltzman Leaving TBMA for N.Y.C.-Based eSpeed

WASHINGTON - Paul Saltzman, executive vice president and general counsel of The Bond Market Association, plans to leave the trade group May 14 to become chief operating officer June 1 at eSpeed, Inc., an electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities.

The move was announced yesterday by eSpeed, a publicly traded company and subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald. Saltzman said he told TBMA president Micah S. Green about the move Sunday over dinner.

Green issued a statement yesterday praising Saltzman for serving "with vigor and distinction for almost ten years" at the association. "Under Paul's leadership ... the association has broadened across asset classes and across the globe. ... . I'm confident he'll do a magnificent job crossing over from being staff of the association to being a markets-oriented person at a member firm."

Saltzman said it was a "privilege and pleasure" to work with TBMA's team, but that the new job will be "a very exciting opportunity for me to challenge myself." Saltzman has been a major force in the association's growth. When he joined the group in April 1995, TBMA was a domestic organization representing three markets, with two other lawyers. Today it is a global trade group that has an office in London, represents all fixed-income markets, and has 16 other lawyers.

Saltzman established the organization's annual Legal and Compliance conference nine years ago. He also was key in crafting TBMA's Bond Markets 2000 mission statement, which outlined the group's basic positions and goals.

In addition, he stepped up TBMA's filings of friend-of-the-court briefs on behalf of the dealer community in major court cases, such as those involving the Orange County, Calif., debacle and yield burning. He also helped convince the Securities and Exchange Commission not to take enforcement action against dealers over bond financings for the Denver International Airport and successfully opposed the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's emergency shutdown proposal.

A TBMA spokeswoman declined to disclose if a decision on Saltzman's replacement has been made.