Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Jose Vera has 14 years of public finance experience and over his investment banking career, he has negotiated numerous bond issues for public agencies in California and Nevada. Jose's public financing experience includes land-secured / development finance, utility enterprise revenue finance, general obligation bonds and lease revenue financings for cities, counties and special districts. Jose is the Vice President of the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, one of the largest community service clubs in the United States. Jose earned his degree in Economics and a Minor in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and maintains FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses. Jose serves on Stifel's internal Credit Review Committee tasked with reviewing all non-rated and below investment grade municipal bond issues prior to sale.

Tom Weyl, Director, Barclays Municipal Research, is responsible for the municipal credit strategy and research efforts of the firm. He recently joined Barclays after sixteen years at Eaton Vance Management where he served as Director of Municipal Research overseeing a staff of ten analysts. Weyl has served in several prominent industry roles such as Chairperson of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, the Investment Company Institute�s representative to the Government Accounting Standards Advisory Council (�GASAC�) and as a member of the invitation-only Society of Municipal Analysts.Prior to Eaton Vance, he has municipal market experience in Commercial Banking, Bond Insurance, Investment Banking and Portfolio Management. Tom holds a B.S. and an M.B.A. from the University at Albany.

Alan W. Milligan was named Chief Actuary in June of 2010. He has been with CalPERS since 2001 and served previously as Deputy Chief Actuary. Mr. Milligan plans, organizes, evaluates, and directs the work of the actuarial staff. He also develops and implements actuarial policies and procedures; independently provides advice to the Board of Administration and the Benefits and Program Administration Committee; provides ongoing reports and presentations to the Board and the Committee on actuarial issues; coordinates the activities of the independent consulting actuary and acts as liaison between the consulting actuary and the Board. Mr. Milligan works in collaboration with the CalPERS Investment Office to provide a comprehensive asset allocation strategy. He recommends changes in the law, contribution rates and actuarial tables based upon the results of investigations and valuations; directs actuarial studies for the determination of the cost of proposed legislation; confers with public agency and State officials on actuarial matters and appears before elected boards and legislative committees. Mr. Milligan also serves as Chair of the California Actuarial Advisory Panel, which provides information on pensions, other postemployment benefits, and best practices to the Legislature, Governor, public retirement systems, and other public agencies. Prior to joining CalPERS, Mr. Milligan served as a consulting actuary for the Canadian firm of Leong & Associates Actuaries and Consultants, Inc. Mr. Milligan is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. Mr. Milligan earned his Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of British Columbia.

Mr. Ryffel is now a Private Banker with JP Morgan after a successful career as a public finance banker. Over 20 years at A.G. Edwards, Bank of America and Edward Jones, he senior managed hundreds of new money and refunding transactions for issuers as varied as states, cities, airports, universities and hospitals. His resume includes transactions employing all manner of financing vehicles, including fixed rate, VRDBs, auction rate, insured, letter-of-credit, direct placements, and interest rate swaps. In particular, he focused on the effective utilization of the retail market to distribute municipal bonds. Mr. Ryffel is an adjunct professor at the graduate level at the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster University and the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as at the undergraduate level at St. Louis University. He developed and teaches a course in public finance investment banking among others. He is also a published author on topics in public finance, as we'll as a frequent speaker on the topic at industry conferences. Mr. Ryffel received his undergraduate mechanical engineering degree, magna cum laude, from Tufts University and an MBA in Finance from Boston University.

Bob Cochran co-founded Build America Mutual Assurance Company, the first mutual municipal bond insurer, in July 2012. Prior to that, he was a co-founder of Financial Security Assurance (FSA) and was CEO from 1990 to 2009 (NYSE: FSA from 1994 to 2000). On joining FSA in 1985, he headed the Financial Guaranty Department and, in that role, led the Company in establishing its underwriting and risk management criteria. In 1990, the board appointed him Chief Executive Officer, successor to Jim Lopp, FSA's principal founder. He also chaired the Association of Financial Guaranty Insurers from 2001 to 2002. Mr. Cochran joined FSA from the law firm Kutak Rock, where he was a public finance lawyer and Managing Partner of the Washington, DC office. He graduated from Centre College (BA,'71) and Duke University School of Law (JD), followed by a federal judicial clerkship for Judge Pierce Lively (6th Circuit Court of Appeals).

Sarah Vennekotter is a not-for-profit healthcare analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, where she covers healthcare ratings in multiple states including Florida, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas. She has authored numerous special comments, including Moody’s 2011 not-for-profit healthcare medians report. Prior to joining the healthcare ratings team, Ms. Vennekotter worked as an analyst for over two years in Moody’s Municipal Structured Products Group, and before joining Moody’s she was an associate at Morgan Stanley Capital International. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and New York University’s Graduate School of Public Administration.

Saavan Gatfield is Senior Director in Fitch Ratings’ Global Infrastructure and Project Finance Group. His primary focus is on U.S. transport infrastructure and, in particular, on the toll roads sector, of which he is team head.� Prior to joining the U.S. transport team, Saavan worked for three years within EMEA transport and social infrastructure, covering a wide range of airport, port, toll road and rail transit credits as well as having responsibility for Fitch’s EMEA social infrastructure ratings portfolio.Saavan has worked at Fitch Ratings since January 2005. Before joining the infrastructure team, he was a member of Fitch’s structured finance group, working extensively on European commercial mortgage backed securities. Before Fitch, Saavan spent several years working in various business and operational positions in retail sales, distribution and logistics as well as education in both the UK and Japan.He has a Bachelor of Social Science degree in Economics from the University of Birmingham, UK. In addition, Saavan is a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York.

Neal has a 20-year track record of successful B2B product development and strategy. At Ipreo, he is responsible for the firm�s industry-leading suite of investor prospecting applications and institutional data offerings. Neal�s previous experience includes senior roles at such well-known firms as RiskMetrics, Computershare, and Thomson Financial (now ThomsonReuters), as well as a number of successful entrepreneurial ventures.Neal earned his BS in Finance from American University, and his MBA from Loyola College.