PFM Group has hired 16-year municipal finance veteran Damon Lee for its New York office as it continues to expand its national health care practice.
Lee, who arrived from Barclays, will work in client development, project management and financial analysis. He has served health care clients across the United States in a variety of capacities, including investment banking and interest rate and credit derivatives marketing.
“Health care institutions today need deeper advice on a much broader range of financial issues, as compared to their past needs. You need people with significant health care experience, and Damon is very experienced,” said Errol Brick, a PFM managing director in New York and health care practice co-head. “His talents, as well as his relevant experience, will be a very positive addition.”
Lee, a Princeton University graduate, also lived in London for two years.
Philadelphia-based PFM is expanding in health care as the sector faces myriad changes and uncertainty surrounding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Moody’s Investors Service last month maintained its negative outlook for not-for-profit health care, citing federal spending cuts, limited reimbursement increases from commercial health care insurers, and “a tepid economy that dampens demand for health care services.”
“Health care has become much broader than ‘let’s do a bond issue.’ It’s a complicated industry that has had to grapple with changes, and not just the Affordable Care Act,” said Brick.
Christine Doyle, a health care co-head who works out of Boston, said PFM’s heath care expertise extends well beyond sector knowledge.
“We have a very strong platform across the board,” she said, “In addition to our health care expertise, we offer clients a complete team of experts not just in bond transactions, but in strategic and investor relations advice, derivative analysis, post-issuance compliance, asset management and investment advisory services.”
PFM has 34 offices in the U.S. For the calendar year 2012, it advised clients on $56.9 billion of total debt issuances covering 900 transactions.
