Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Sean L. Spear is currently the Executive Director of the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee (CDLAC) for the California State Treasurer’s Office, which administers the private activity bond program for California.  Each year, CDLAC distributes this allocation to privately-controlled projects and programs with a public purpose under  six program pools: Qualified Residential Rental (Multifamily Housing Development), Single Family Housing, Extra Credit Teacher Home Purchase, Industrial Development Bonds, Exempt Facility Bonds and Student Loan Bonds.  With more than $3.3 Billion in tax-exempt bond authority for California in 2009, this represents the largest allocation in the country.  Mr. Spear has over twenty years of experience in community development and housing finance.  Prior to joining the State Treasurer’s Office in August 2009, he previously served as the Director of Major Projects for the City of Los Angeles Housing Department; overseeing the operation of the five rental housing production-related units; including the $100 Million Affordable Housing Trust Fund.  He also served as the LAHD’s point person on public-private lending partnerships; leveraging the City’s capital funds for additional affordable housing development resources.  In this capacity, he lead the City’s effort to create the $100 Million New Generation Fund; an affordable housing acquisition and predevelopment loan fund which closed in May 2008.Prior to joining the LAHD, Mr. Spear was a Community Development Manager with Fannie Mae’s Housing and Community Development Unit, based in their Western Regional Office in Pasadena.  Responsible for Fannie Mae’s short-term direct community development financing business throughout California and other parts of the West, he closed important transactions such as a $30 million Line of Credit for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and a $1.5 million construction bridge loan for the Blackfeet Nation; Fannie Mae’s first direct affordable housing loan to a Tribal Entity.  Before joining Fannie Mae, Mr. Spear was a Senior Development Specialist (Housing) with the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and a Project Manager (HOPE VI/New Construction) with the San Francisco Housing Authority.  With the Redevelopment Agency, he implemented and oversaw San Francisco’s innovative Affordable Housing Preservation Program, which saved more than 1,700 units of low-income housing from conversion to market in San Francisco’s high-pressure real estate market.  He began his career with the New York City Department of City Planning, where he served as the City Planner for the Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods of Brooklyn.Mr. Spear holds both a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree from Cornell University.

Brian Thomas is the Assistant General Manager/Chief Financial Officer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the country's largest purveyor of treated drinking water. He is responsible for all of Metropolitan’s financial programs, including financial planning, investments, debt management, operating and capital budgets, and accounting operations and reporting. He is also responsible for developing and implementing Metropolitan’s water rates and charges. Thomas has participated in a wide range of water policy discussions and negotiations, ranging from the Colorado River to water markets and local conjunctive-use programs. Since his appointment in 2000, Metropolitan has issued over $5.1 billion of debt, including fixed rate debt, Build America Bonds, variable rate bonds, and SIFMA Index Tender Bonds. In addition, during Thomas' tenure, Metropolitan implemented its interest rate swap program, with $1.5 billion of swaps outstanding. Working with the General Manager and the executive team, Thomas manages a $1.8 billion annual budget. Most recently, Thomas has been working with other major California water issuers on alternatives to traditional municipal standby bond purchase agreements as credit support for variable rate debt.Thomas has worked in the power and water business for over 25 years, including experience at the cities of Anaheim and Riverside Public Utilities. He has Bachelors of Science degrees in Biology and Economics from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Riverside.Thomas has lectured in economics and environmental science and policy at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; and California State University, Long Beach. Thomas authored and co-authored numerous articles on water and power planning and finance, and is a frequently requested speaker at professional conferences.

Mr. Bellwoar has worked as an investment banker focusing on higher education finance since 1986. Prior to that time, Mr. Bellwoar worked as a bond lawyer at a national law firm. Mr. Bellwoar has served as senior investment banker on the full range of tax-exempt and taxable higher education bond issues. Mr. Bellwoar manages the higher education and non-profit public finance practice at BofA Merrill Lynch. BofA Merrill Lynch has 12 dedicated higher education and non-profit public finance investment bankers located in seven offices spread across the country. BofA Merrill Lynch has consistently ranked among the top firms in underwriting taxable and tax-exempt bond issues and structuring transactions for higher education and non-profit institutions.Mr. Bellwoar graduated with a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from Georgetown University.

David Kvam is the Director of Financing Coordination for the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. His responsibilities include the credit analysis of institutions seeking to borrow through the Dormitory Authority, the negotiation of the terms under which such institutions borrow, the production of disclosure documents used in connection with the sale of Dormitory Authority obligations and the ongoing monitoring of existing client institutions for financial health, continuing disclosure and covenant compliance. Mr. Kvam received his Bachelor’s Degree from the State University of New York at Brockport and holds a Master of Business Administration from the State University of New York at Albany. His entire 29-year public sector career has been with the Dormitory Authority.

Mr. Smalls joined Jefferies & Company in 2009 as a Managing Director, in the firm's Sacramento office. Mr Smalls brings 19 years of public finance experience notably in the state of California. Since March 2000, Mr. Smalls had day-to-day responsibility for 123 transactions representing $94.3 billion in par amount (including 10 deals for an aggregate par amount of over $2.0 billion where he served as lead banker for the book-running senior manager). Mr. Smalls has developed a strong experience base of state general obligation, revenue and lease financings, pension obligation bonds, tobacco securitizations, utility and complex refunding programs over the course of his career. In November 2009, Mr. Smalls led the firm’s contributions in the role of joint senior manager on a $743 million lease financing for the State Public Works Board. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Smalls was a Senior Vice President with M.R. Beal & Company for seven years, servicing state and local issuers in California as well as selective accounts across the nation. Some of the accounts, Mr. Smalls has served over the course of his career includes: the State of California, Alameda County, City of Oakland, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Los Angeles County MTA, Los Angeles County, and the City of San Diego, to name a few. Prior to M.R. Beal, Mr. Smalls served as the Executive Director for the California Pollution Control Financing Authority (CPCFA) in the State of California State Treasurer’s Office and before that, was a Senior Managing Consultant at Public Financial Management, Inc. where he provided a wide array of services to both general municipal and transportation clients. While at PFM, Mr. Smalls assisted in the structure and sale of over $4.7 billion in general obligation, sales tax revenue, lease revenue, tax increment, and toll revenue bonds. Mr. Smalls also served as an assistant vice president and assistant director of policy, research and planning with the Federal Home Loan Bank of SF where he evaluated new products and services for the Bank and FHLB system as well as help develop the Bank's strategic and business plans. Mr. Smalls received a BA with honors in Social Studies (Govt./Economics) from Harvard College and maintains FINRA licenses of Series 7, 53 and 63.

Ms. Greenberg is the National Chief of the Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission�s Division of Enforcement. She also serves as the Associate Regional Director for Enforcement in the SEC�s Philadelphia Office, where she oversees the SEC�s Enforcement program in the Mid-Atlantic region. Ms. Greenberg joined the SEC�s Philadelphia Office as an Enforcement Staff Attorney in 1987. She was promoted to the position of Branch Chief in 1994, to the position of Assistant District Administrator in 2001, and to the position of Associate Regional Director in December 2006. She has also served as the Co-Chair of the Enforcement Division�s national Municipal Securities Working Group. In January 2010, Ms. Greenberg was appointed to her present position. During her tenure with the Commission, Ms. Greenberg has brought many significant and groundbreaking cases, particularly in the areas of municipal securities and public pensions practices, revenue sharing between broker-dealers and mutual fund advisers, financial and accounting fraud, insider trading, best execution, market manipulation, offering fraud, and investment adviser and broker-dealer fraud. Ms. Greenberg, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate, received her B.A. and J.D. degrees from Temple University.

Mark N. Berman is a member of Nixon Peabody LLP�s Financial Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice Group resident in its Boston and New York offices.� In addition to a traditional bankruptcy practice, Mark also supports the Firm�s global finance and public finance practices. He has worked on the bankruptcy related aspects of financings for sports teams and stadiums, toll roads, housing, student loans, energy and manufacturing. He recently filed an amicus brief on behalf of SIFMA in the chapter 9 case of the City of Detroit.Mark is a 1976 graduate of Boston College Law School and a 1973 graduate of Northwestern University.� He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy where he currently serves as Regent of the First Circuit, and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1989 as well as in America�s Leading Lawyers (Chambers USA) for his proficiency in Bankruptcy Law. He has taught courses on Business Law and Credit Law for the National Association of Credit Management, a course on International Bankruptcy Law at Boston College Law School presented through the American College of Bankruptcy, was a Guberman Fellow at Brandeis University in 2008 and 2009 acting as an instructor for the Introduction to Law class and will be an adjunct professor in the Fall of 2014 at Northeastern University�s D'Amore-McKim School of Business where he will be assisting with an introductory business course titled �Experiential Entrepreneurship.�

David Álvarez is the Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnerships Authority. Mr. Alvarez has nine years of experience in economic and financial analysis. Prior to his appointment at the Public-Private Partnerships Authority, Mr. Alvarez served as Senior Advisor and Special Aid to the Chairman and President of the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico and as Chief Analyst at Santander Securities and Santander BanCorp Puerto Rico. Mr. Alvarez holds a Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida State University and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from West Virginia University.