Ramirez & Co. has brought on two senior investment bankers to help expand the firm’s business across the country. Sarah Snyder has been hired as a managing director in the New York office, from Siebert Cisneros Shank and Co. LLC, and Sara Cheek as a senior vice president based in Dallas, Texas, coming from Hilltop Securities.
Snyder recently joined Ramirez with 14 years of municipal finance experience. She will be covering issuers along the East Coast for Ramirez, as well as water and sewer issuers nationwide. Snyder comes to Ramirez having previously been a managing director and water and sewer specialist at Siebert and prior to that, she worked at UBS. Before that, she was employed at Raymond James in Florida, where she started her municipal finance career. Snyder was also a Bond Buyer “Rising Star” in 2017.
“We are very excited about Sarah joining us as she is an excellent banker, wonderful person, and someone who we believe will greatly enhance our business,” said Sam Ramirez, founder and CEO of Ramirez.
Cheek joined Ramirez last week and is based in a new Dallas office. She will be focusing on bond underwriting services for issuers across Texas. She has 10 years of financial advisory experience at Hilltop, serving Texas municipalities, including hospital districts, not-for-profit healthcare entities, transportation authorities, development districts, school districts, utility districts, cities, and counties. Cheek graduated from Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance. She is a member and fundraiser for the Civic League serving the Farmers Branch-Addison-Carrollton area and is a member of both the national and Texas chapters of Women in Public Finance.
Sara will be joining the firm’s two Austin-based bankers – managing directors Robin Redford and Lorry Palacios – who have expanded the firm’s footprint in Texas over the past several years.
“We believe the addition of Sara to our Texas team will allow us to significantly increase our ability to serve issuers in Texas and build upon the great work the firm has recently been doing in the state,” Ramirez said. “Sara is the perfect banker to work with Robin, Lorry, and the rest of the Ramirez team to help fuel our growth trajectory.”
In addition to the two most recent hires, several bankers have joined Ramirez in areas over the past year. Twenty-six year industry veteran, Guy Nagahama was hired as a managing director, coming from Jefferies, as the lead Airport banker for Ramirez. He also focuses on State Revolving Fund issuers around the country.
Ramirez also hired Arthur Chan as a managing director, formerly at RBC Capital Markets, to bolster the quantitative team at Ramirez. Chan has focused on quantitative analysis for most of his 33-year municipal finance career.
“As the industry has evolved over the years, we think that the importance of strong quantitative analysis for our clients has never been greater,” Ramirez said. “Both Arthur and Guy bring that knowledge, as well as relationships with large issuers around the country.”
In 2018 Ramirez served as senior manager for $5 billion of transactions and participated in an additional $61.5 billion, ranking as the ninth most active underwriter in the country. The oldest and largest Hispanic-owned investment bank in the country, Ramirez was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in New York.
