After 15 years at the helm, Malcolm Rode retired as executive director of the VermontMunicipal Bond Bank and the Vermont Educational & Health Buildings Financing Agencyearlier this month, closing a chapter in which he saw issuance for each grow to morethan $1 billion.
Rode, 57, who said he retired in order to spend more time with family, will consult withboth the bond bank and the financing agency on a part-time basis. His retirement, whichfollowed a year of controversy, officially began on July 2, after the closing of twohospital deals.
"Just felt it was the right time," Rode said when reached at his home in New Hampshirerecently.
Before taking the positions at the agency and the bond bank in January 1988, Rode workedas the state's revenue forecast officer for 13 years.
He has been replaced by David Minot, a former financial adviser with Merrill Lynch & Coin Burlington with experience in investment banking, including publicly underwritingnegotiated offerings and privately placing debt securities.
Minot will also serve as Vermont's finance director of finance and investment underTreasurer, Jeb Spaulding - a job that calls for him to work on the state's generalobligation sales, such as the $39 million dealslated for late fall. All three positionsare located in the state capital of Montpelier.
Minot, a graduate of Middlebury College and Columbia University, where he earned amaster's in business administration, plans to follow the philosophy of his predecessor.
"My priorities are not far from his, which are to provide a cost-effective source offunds to municipal and not-for-profit entities that would find it harder and less cost-effective to borrow on their own," he said.
Minot also praised Rode for handling the responsibilities of the executive director'sjob largely on his own, without the help of a support staff.
"He really, as a single person, accomplished an incredible amount," Minot said,acknowledging that he would hire an administrative assistant.
Rode was head of the Educational & Health Buildings Financing Agency - the state'sleading tax-exempt issuer - during a difficult period in which state auditor ElizabethReady faulted the agency for its role on the Fletcher Allen Health Care debacle.
In a March report, Ready said the agency, which sold the hospital's bonds, approvedrequisitions in which Fletcher Allen reallocated more than $1 million of the $150million in bond proceeds to the construction of a parking garage "in direct violation oftheir financing agreements with the state."
At the time, Rode defended the agency, saying that Chittenden Trust Co., the bondtrustee, and state regulators at the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities andHealth Care Administration had more oversight powers of the state's hospitals.
Still, Ready, who has known Rode for many years, said he had "a great deal of experienceand respect" in the municipal bond arena. "He's going to be missed a lot," she said lastweek.
Rode noted that he enjoyed his tenure at both the agency and the bond bank.
"It's really been a labor of love," he said.
