Raymond James’ Rob Baird steps down as head of public finance

BRADENTON, Fla. – Rob Baird has stepped down as executive vice president and co-head of public finance/debt investment banking at Raymond James, the firm announced.

Baird, 65, will remain a senior managing director in the Memphis, Tenn. office.

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Baird, a 38-year-public finance veteran, worked at Morgan Keegan & Co. before it merged with Raymond James, and will remain active, said John Carson, president head of the Fixed Income Capital Markets division at Raymond James Financial.

“For 38 years, Rob has been a talented and trusted colleague to our entire organization,” said Carson, the former chief executive officer at Morgan Keegan. “His strategic counsel has been invaluable to clients and to the firm as he grew our public finance practice to become an industry leader and then successfully merged it into Raymond James in 2012.”

Baird joined Morgan Keegan as that firm’s first full-time public finance banker in 1979 and led the division for more than 20 years.

Throughout his career, Baird has been instrumental in the growth at Raymond James, shepherding its advancement to become a national practice, the firm said.

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Gavin Murrey, an executive vice president, will become the division leader of public finance/debt investment banking. He is also based in Memphis.

Murrey co-headed public finance with Baird, and also joined Raymond James through the Morgan Keegan acquisition in 2012.

Since joining Morgan Keegan in 1998, Murrey has remained an influential senior banker and manager who helped expand Raymond James’ public finance practice into 180 banking professionals in 26 locations nationwide today, Carson said.

St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Raymond James was the 10th-ranked senior manager in the country during the first half of 2017 with $6.4 billion in 300 transactions, according to Thomson Reuters.

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Career moves Public finance Raymond James Financial Florida Tennessee
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