Bond Dealers of America has tapped Susan Collet to become its senior vice president for government relations, starting July 9.
In her new post, Collet, 41, will lead BDA’s government relations and advocacy efforts.
She also will help the group expand its political activities and manage its federal political action committee, said BDA chief executive Mike Nicholas.
BDA’s PAC has not been funded since it was registered with the Federal Election Commission by the BDA in 2009, but its board recently decided to begin raising money for the fund, with an annual contribution goal of $50,000, Nicholas said.
Collet will also work to ensure BDA’s committees stay focused on legislative and regulatory policy work, and she will help committees draft comment letters.
Collet joins the dealer group from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, where she worked for eight years and was senior principal for government relations.
In that post, she helped develop and execute the group’s tax and finance advocacy efforts before the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, the Joint Committee on Taxation and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, according to a BDA release.
She also led NRECA’s efforts to promote the clean renewable energy bond program, which was created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and helped manage the group’s roughly $2 million political action committee.
“She brings a wealth of political fundraising experience” to the BDA, Nicholas said.
Earlier, Collet was senior government relations representative at the American Public Power Association, where she helped advanced the group’s tax agenda, advocating on issues such as private-use tax relief for public-power issuers of tax-exempt bonds, according to the BDA. Collet worked at APPA for three years.
She also represented public power clients, like the Large Public Power Council, as associate director of governmental affairs at the law firm Van Ness Feldman, where she worked for eight years.
Nicholas said Collet “knows the state and local issuing community very well,” and has years of experience working on tax- and bond-related issues in Washington.
He said she has been active in the Public Finance Network, a coalition representing the municipal bond issuer community, since at least 1996.
In addition, Collet has worked with state treasurers and collaborated with lobbyists from groups like the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and its predecessors, including the Bond Market Association and the Public Securities Association, Nicholas said.
Collet succeeds former head of government relations William Daly, who left BDA in March to become director of governmental affairs for the National Association of Bond Lawyers.
She has a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
BDA has four full-time staffers including Collet. Five others, including lobbyists, attorneys and public relations and survey executives, are on retainer.