CHICAGO – Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. has added former William Blair bankers Mark Morehouse and Chris Morse to its public finance ranks.
Morse joined the New York City-based firm’s Philadelphia office as a managing director and Mark Morehouse joined the firm’s Chicago office as a managing director.
Morehouse specializes in the public-private partnership sector and has worked on airport privatizations. He joined William Blair’s Chicago office in 2012 from Credit Suisse Securities and headed up Blair’s P3 investment banking business. At Oppenheimer, Morehouse will be responsible for originating and executing P3 advisory and capital-raising work in the transportation, social infrastructure, and water sectors.
Morse, a 20-year veteran of public finance, will focus on the higher education and healthcare sectors which he has specialized in especially in the high-yield space.
“We selected the new members of the team for their deep knowledge of this sector and experience working in public finance,” Bill Reisner, recently named head of public finance, said in a statement this week. Reisner said the firm, which has a municipal sales, trading, and banking team of 64 professionals in 13 offices nationwide, remains in growth mode.
The firm also said in its news release that Beth Wolchock, a managing director and head of municipal underwriting, had been named as a new board member at the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.
The two bankers were veteran members of Chicago-based William Blair’s municipal team that was left without a job when the firm shuttered its municipal division in July.
The two men said in a statement of their decision to join Oppenheimer: “The firm's long history, extensive geographic reach and expertise in investment banking and municipal finance combine to make an attractive platform for the P3 and higher education high-yield market, and we're excited to help the firm expand its capabilities.”
Other members of William Blair’s municipal group have landed at Mesirow Financial, Columbia Capital Management Raymond James, and D.A. Davidson.
