DALLAS Piper Jaffray & Co. has hired two new bankers for its public finance services division, drawing former Moodys Investors Service analyst Helen Cregger over to its Denver office and bringing former Dougherty & Co. banker Ken Norwich to its home office in Minneapolis.
Cregger, a longtime analyst at Moodys, will join the Piper Jaffrays Denver office as a vice president on Aug. 17. She left Moodys on July 22.
Helen is a perfect fit for the Piper team and the Piper firm, said Linda A. Clark, a managing director at the firms Denver office. I think shell do a great job for us.
Clark said Cregger would like most of the firms public finance bankers in Denver handle a broad spectrum of public finance business rather than specializing in any one area.
She obviously brings to the firm her very strong analytic skills and an excellent knowledge of the bond market, Clark said. She also understands what constitutes a strong credit shell be able to tell us how to approach the rating agencies. As someone who has worked for a rating agency, she has an understanding of how rating agencies will view various credits. We believe that knowledge, combined with her other skills, will be very beneficial.
Cregger began her career as a municipal analyst with Moodys in 1996. Prior to that, she worked for the federal agency now known as the Government Accountability Office for three years and for the Manhattan district attorneys office from 1991 to 1992.
She has a bachelor of arts degree in Latin American studies from Northwestern University and a master of public administration degree from Columbia University.
The decision to become a banker really began a while ago when I decided to leave New York and move back to Colorado, Cregger said. I am originally from Colorado and wanted to be able to raise my children there. Moodys was very gracious to allow me to work from my home, but there was always the understanding that at some point I would have to start rebuilding my career outside of Moodys.
She said Piper offered her the perfect opportunity to do that with the public finance position in its Denver office.
I am familiar with the level of service they provide their clients, and am happy to have the opportunity to learn from people with such a strong knowledge of the industry, she said. My favorite part of the job at Moodys was working with issuers, and I look forward to working with them in this new capacity.
Cregger said that while she believes her ratings work was invaluable to issuers, she looks forward to being a bigger part of setting down bricks and mortar for state and local governments.
As early as my ninth grade Latin class, I learned that strong societies are built on good water systems and aqueducts, she said. Its exciting to be part of putting together those foundations. I hope to leave behind a few aqueducts that I had a role in building.
Norwich, who joined the firms Minneapolis office as a vice president on July 7, served as a public finance banker for Dougherty for nearly five years after a 20-year stint at the former Miller & Schroeder.
It was the size of Piper that attracted me to this firm its a big platform to work under, Norwich said. I started with Miller & Schroeder with tax-exempt mortgages, and have developed that to any type of real estate transaction you can put a mortgage on.
Norwich said he expects to concentrate on business in the West and Midwest.
Frank Fairman, manager of Piper Jaffrays public finance services department, said Piper continues to build its public finance group when the opportunity arises to hire people that complement the firms strengths.
We have strong franchises in certain regions and some specialty sectors, but we arent specifically targeting specific offices, he said. Theres also no absolute time schedule that we are adhering to. We continue to look for and find good people to join the firm.
