Stern Brothers creates new transportation and infrastructure leadership post

St. Louis-based Stern Brothers has hired veteran transportation banking specialist Michael Placencia.

Placencia joined the firm earlier this month and will be based out of its Sherman Oaks, California, office. He will hold the newly established title of national head of infrastructure and transportation banking.

“It is always a goal of the firm to hire senior level bankers with deep expertise in particular areas of municipal finance,” said the firm’s chief operating officer, Linda Matkowski. “Mike has extensive relationships within the transportation and infrastructure space and also brings high level experience with the structuring and execution of both fixed and variable rate transactions and direct placement financings.”

Michael Placencia of Stern Brothers
© Zach Dalin Photography

Placencia spent the last six years at US Bancorp, “where he provided broad coverage of municipal infrastructure clients in the Western Region, and airports, transit, toll roads and other transportation clients nationally,” Stern Brothers said in its announcement.

US Bancorp earlier this year gutted its long-term municipal bond underwriting, sales and trading desks in New York City in a shakeup that also claimed banking and other positions nationwide with most remaining bankers looking to move elsewhere, market sources told The Bond Buyer at the time.

Placencia has also worked on the public finance teams at Goldman Sachs, William Blair & Co., UBS Securities and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Stern Brothers has offices in Atlanta, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey and St. Louis.

The firm rose in the ranks last year, finishing 49th among senior managers, up from 67th in 2016, according to data from Thomson Reuters. The firm ranked 28th last year among co-managers, up from 37th in 2016 and a 57th in 2015. The majority woman-owned firm said it ranked sixth last year among minority-owned U.S. municipal bookrunners, up from seventh in 2016.

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