Raymond James is adding a fifth public finance office in California with the hire of banker José Vera, who will open a Pasadena office.
The expansion represents the broker-dealer’s “continued commitment to building the leading public finance team in California,” said Gavin Murrey, executive vice president and head of Public Finance/Debt Investment Banking at Raymond James.
The broker-dealer has been building out its California practice since 2011 and still looks to add people to cover community college districts and local governments in the north and central part of the state, according to the bank.
Vera, who has 20 years of experience in municipal finance, moves over from Stifel. His focus will be on cities and special districts in Southern California, as well as land-secured transactions throughout the state.
Vera, who joins as a managing director, has worked as a senior manager on 330 bond financings totaling $6.5 billion for cities, counties and special districts in California. He holds degrees in economics and mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Vera also serves on the board of the Infrastructure Funding Alliance.
He specializes in financing infrastructure for new development projects through land-secured bonds.
Vera said he looks forward to working with Raymond James’ team to build the go-to local government franchise in California.
Raymond James now has 170 people working in 33 locations nationwide.
