Texas MAC Names 24-Year Veteran Laura Slaughter New Executive Director

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Advisory Council of Texas named Laura Slaughter as its new executive director, the organization announced yesterday. The Texas MAC’s board of directors unanimously voted to appoint her to the post at a meeting on Tuesday, after having named her interim executive director last week.She will succeed Dan Black, who is expected to leave the organization next week to become a senior director at Fitch Ratings, where he will oversee southwest business development for the rating agency’s from its eight-person office in Austin.Slaughter has served as the Texas MAC’s deputy executive director for 10 years, managing most of the day-to-day functions of the organization. She has been with the Texas MAC for 24 years, and has represented it at many conferences and industry meetings.The board said that its quick and unanimous support of Slaughter for the executive director post “resulted from her unique qualifications for the position and a long-standing succession plan of the organization.”“No one knows the Texas MAC better than Laura Slaughter,” said Drew Masterson, chairman of Texas MAC’s board of directors and a managing director at First Southwest Co. in Houston. “She is an excellent manager with vast knowledge of the data that drives our services. She is well known to many members and industry participants. She has the complete confidence of our board.”“Dan Black supervised the transition of the organization into the computer era,” Masterson added. “Laura will lead us into an exciting future that will benefit the municipal bond market in Texas and across the nation.”Municipal market participants praised Slaughter’s appointment.“The MAC board clearly chose the best candidate for this job,” said Lynnette Hotchkiss, executive director of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. “Laura is exceptionally competent, highly regarded throughout the industry, and holds herself to the highest ethical standards. She will continue Dan Black’s good work in leading this terrific organization.”“We wish Laura every success in her new role, and look forward to continuing to collaborate with the Texas MAC through our participation in the Muni Council,” said Leslie Norwood, managing director and general counsel at the Securities Industry Financial Markets Association.The Texas MAC was chartered by the Texas in November 1954 and began operating the following year to collect and maintain bond-related information from issuers in the state for broker-dealers. The organization has served as a Securities and Exchange Commission-designated State Information Depository Securities charged with collecting secondary market disclosure information from issuers in the state since 1995. Its operations became national in 2004 when it began operating the Central Post Office disclosure facility for the Muni Council, a group of muni market groups working to improve secondary market disclosure. The CPO collects secondary market from issuers all over the country and disseminates it to the four existing nationally recognized municipal securities information depositories.