Robert Bond has worked in municipal bond underwriting for more than 26 years. He joined R. Seelaus in March in what he anticipates to be his final career move before retirement.
Bond, 54, said his last name did not influence his decision to work in bonds, "but it has helped."
Bond, who is based in Denver, will serve as managing director at R. Seelaus, working on competitive deals.
"Robert's exceptional experience in competitive and negotiated underwriting, honed over many years at distinguished institutions like Hilliard Lyons and KeyBanc, perfectly aligns with our strategic growth initiatives," said Annie Seelaus, CEO of R. Seelaus. "His joining marks a significant step in our continued commitment to providing top-tier service and expanded capabilities to our municipal issuer and investor clients, and we are incredibly excited about the opportunities ahead."
Bond graduated from college hoping to work in mergers and acquisitions. But the team at Hilliard Lyons had other plans.
Bond worked at Hilliard Lyons for more than 20 years, managing negotiated and competitive underwriting and secondary trading. He moved to KeyBanc after Hilliard was bought by Robert W. Baird, and stayed there for six years.
"Each place, I started a competitive bidding process," Bond said.
Although Bond liked KeyBanc, he said he wanted to work at R. Seelaus because it was "a smaller, more focused firm," where he could once again start a competitive bidding process.
"I kind of felt, for the last stage of my career, that it was nice to come back to something more like what I had started with at Hilliard," Bond said, "and try to help them grow, and grow their footprint."
R. Seelaus has bought four deals since Bond started on March 9. All of the deals have been in the Midwest, but Bond will work on deals across the country.
Looking back, Bond described his decision to get into municipals as "a great career move."
"I love what I do, and it's good to be at a firm that wants to grow that aspect of their business and see it multiply," Bond said. "So I'm very happy to be here and able to be a part of that growth."
