Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Jon Barasch is a Senior Manager in Interactive Data’s Evaluation Services (EVS) Division.  Jon is currently tasked with managing the Quality Assurance Group which covers municipal evaluations and municipal credit analysis.  Jon recently managed the high-yield evaluation desk for the past eight years.   Jon has a research background and previously worked as a senior credit analyst for Muller Data.  Jon has been with the company for over ten years, having started at Muller Data Corp.  Interactive Data acquired Muller Data in 1999.  Jon has been working in the municipal bond industry for the last 16 years.  Prior to joining Muller Data Corp. he worked as a high-yield credit analyst at Rickel Securities, Tucker Anthony, and Gardnyr, Michael Capital.Mr. Barasch received his MBA from Rutger’s Graduate School of Management and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland at College Park.  Mr. Barasch is an active MAGNY and NFMA member.

Ted Sobel joined Ramirez & Co., Inc. in April 2009 as a Managing Director and Head of the Firm’s Public Finance Department.� Prior to joining Ramirez & Co., Ted was the Manager of the Utility and Energy Group at UBS.� In his career Mr. Sobel has been responsible for a variety of sector coverage, including electric utilities, water and sewer, state revolving fund, pension obligation, and general infrastructure projects.� Mr. Sobel has been a featured speaker before the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities and the American Public Power Association.� He received a B.A. in Political Science from Colgate University and a M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance.�

Alan B. Krueger was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Treasury on May 6, 2009.  He advises the Secretary on all aspects of economic policy, including current and prospective macroeconomic developments and the development and analysis of the Administration’s economic initiatives.  He is currently on leave from Princeton University where he is the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, where he has held a joint appointment in the Economics Department and the Woodrow Wilson School since 1987.  In 1994-95 Mr. Krueger served as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor.  Mr. Krueger has published widely on the economics of education, unemployment, income distribution, social insurance, regulation, terrorism, interest rates and the environment.  He has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the editorial board of Science, and has served as chief economist for the Council for Economic Education.   He is the author of What Makes A Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism and Education Matters: A Selection of Essays on Education, and co-author of Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage and of Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies?Prior to assuming his current position, Mr. Krueger was a member of the Board of Directors of the Russell Sage Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the American Institutes for Research.  He was named a Sloan Fellow in Economics in 1992 and an NBER Olin Fellow in 1989-90.  He was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 1996, a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists in 2005 and a member of the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association in 2004.  He was awarded the Kershaw Prize by the Association for Public Policy and Management in 1997 (for distinguished contributions to public policy analysis by someone under the age of 40) and the Mahalanobis Memorial Medal by the Indian Econometric Society in 2001.  In 2002 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.  He was awarded the IZA Prize in Labor Economics with David Card in 2006.  From March 2000 to February 2009 he was a regular contributor to the "Economic Scene" and Economix blog in The New York Times. Mr. Krueger received a B.S. degree, with honors, from Cornell University’s School of Industrial & Labor Relations in 1983, an A.M. in Economics from Harvard University in 1985, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1987.  He is married and has two teenage children.

Alexandra "SANDY" MacLennan is a partner with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P, in the firm's Tampa office. She received her B.S. in Journalism in 1980 and her J.D., with honors, in 1984, both from the University of Florida. She served as Student Works Editor of the Florida International Law Journal in conjunction with the publication's inaugural issue in 1984.Ms. MacLennan was elected to the honor societies of Phi Kappa Phi (undergraduate) and the Order of the Coif (law school). She joined the public finance practice of Squire, Sanders in 1989 after practicing for 5 years with Akerman, Senterfitt in the area of tax-exempt and bank financing. She is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and has specialized in the area of tax-exempt financing for 20 years. Ms. MacLennan is a former Chair of the City, County and Local Government Law Section of The Florida Bar and has been the Chair or Co-Chair of the Section's biennial seminar "Public Finance In Florida" since 1993. Ms. MacLennan has also spoken at the Annual Local Government Law in Florida Seminar and served on the Steering Committee for the National Association of Bond Lawyers annual Bond Attorneys' Workshop.

Michael Imhoff is a Managing Director of Fixed Income Capital Markets for Stifel Nicolaus & Co.  His responsibilities include Municipal Institutional Sales, Trading and Syndication, managing new issue pricing and secondary trading and distribution of tax-exempt debt securities.  Mike serves on the firms Board of Directors as well as the Commitment and Credit Committees. Prior to the firm’s merger with Legg Mason Capital Markets in December of 2005, he was also responsible for all Fixed Income Capital Market management.  Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. is a full service Investment Banking firm with 297 offices in 41 states.Mike served on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board from March 2006 thru September of 2009. The MSRB was established in 1975 by Congress to develop rules regulating securities firms and banks involved in underwriting, trading, and selling municipal securities. He Chaired the MSRB Regulatory Review Committee and the Finance Committee. Mike is a past Director of The Bond Market Association (now SIFMA) and a past Chairperson for The Regional Advisory Committee from 1999-2000.  He serves on the Associations Municipal Executive Committee and formerly on  the Regional Advisory Committee from 1999 -2006. He has been a member of the Colorado Municipal Bond Dealers Association since 1985. Mike was appointed by Governor Bill Owens on June 17, 2004 to serve on the State of Colorado Venture Capital Authority and previously served as the Chairperson for the Authority.  He serves on the University of Colorado Foundation Board, the University of Colorado at Denver Business School Advisory Board, Boy Scouts of America DAC Board and Colorado Concern. Mike also recently served on the Colorado Infrastructure Finance Taskforce and the Board of the Metro Denver Sports Commission. He is a past Co-Chair of the Children’s Hospital Annual Gala Corporate Committee and American Ireland Fund Gala.

Steve Pulley has over 30 years of experience in the fixed income institutional sales and trading arena. He joined Crews & Associates in 1984 working as an institutional salesman prior to taking on additional responsibilities as a trader of corporate bonds and CMO’s. He initiated an institutional sales group concentrating on larger tiered clients. In 2008, he began serving in an executive role with the firm promoting strategic development. In his current position he participates in industry discussion panels, roundtables and lobbying efforts as it pertains to fixed income securities. He has a degree in finance from Arkansas State University.

James “J.R.” Rieger is Managing Director and Global Head of Fixed Income, at S&P Dow Jones Indices. With over 30 years of fixed income experience, J.R. leads S&P Dow Jones Indices’ global fixed income efforts, overseeing a team of subject matter specialists tasked with the creation and management of fixed income indices around the globe.Under J.R.’s management, S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched a global suite of fixed income indices, which includes a focus on transparency for municipal, corporate, and high-yield bonds, senior loans, commercial paper, sovereign debt, credit default swaps, Sukuk securities, and the Australian bond market. Recent innovations include the S&P 500� Bond Index covering corporate bonds issued by the companies in the S&P 500, the S&P U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, as well as indices that track the global developed sovereign, China onshore, Pan Asia, ESG, Indian, and African bond markets.J.R. serves as the firm’s voice to media outlets on the bond markets, in addition to performance and attribution topics. His research and unique metric innovations are frequently cited in national publications, and he has contributed as a guest on CNBC’s Squawk Box and Bloomberg News. He frequently speaks to industry leaders at conferences around the world on the current state of the global debt markets.Previously, J.R. was vice president, global head of fixed income evaluations at Standard & Poor’s Securities Evaluations, Inc. Active in the financial community, J.R. is a member of the Municipal Bond Club of New York, New York Society of Security Analysts, Municipal Analysts Group of New York, and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. In 2012, J.R. also served as Adjunct Professor at Adelphi University’s Robert B. Willumstad School of Business, teaching Investments for the graduate school program.J.R. holds a B.S. from Widener University and an MBA from Adelphi University.��

Eric Friedland has over 20 years of municipal bond credit analysis experience, covering a wide range of sectors. Eric currently serves as Head of Municipal Credit research for Schroders Investment Management. In this role, Eric is a senior member of Schroders extensive global fixed income research team and oversees the fi rm�s municipal bond research and analysis. Prior to Schroders, Eric was a senior member of the public fi nance management team at Fitch Ratings, responsible for overseeing credit criteria and policy for the group. In his role, he had signifi cant interaction with investors in communicating Fitch�s view on macro issues affecting municipal credits and also served as a member of the firm�s global credit risk team which identified both economic and market risks across asset classes worldwide. Eric�s prior positions included Director of Municipal Research at Belle Haven Investments, Director in the Public Finance Group at Financial Security Assurance and Senior Analyst at Moody�s Investors Service. His analytical activities focused on securities issued to fi nance. Eric has experience with a diverse range of sectors, including health care, water, sewer, electric, airport, toll road systems, municipal project fi nance, tax-backed, redevelopment, Mello-Roos, higher education and lease-backed fi nancings. Eric began his career in the financial services industry as an auditor at Ernst and Whinney in New York. Mr. Friedland is a frequent speaker at industry events and has recently given presentations at conferences sponsored by the Bond Buyer, the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, Bloomberg, and the Bond Dealers Association. In addition, he is frequently quoted in the press, appearing in articles published by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, The Bond Buyer, Reuters, and Bloomberg. Eric is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany where he earned his BA. Eric holds an MS in Professional accounting from Northeastern University and an MBA in Finance from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. Eric is a CFA Charterholder. He served as Chairman of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts in 2006 and was a Board member for seven years. Eric currently serves as Treasurer and Board Member of the Municipal Analyst Group of New York Board (MAGNY).

James E. Spiotto is a Managing Director of Chapman Strategic Advisors LLC, the consulting subsidiary of Chapman and Cutler LLP.� Prior to retiring as a partner in the law firm of Chapman and Cutler LLP, he represented issuers, indenture trustees, bondholders, banks, insurance companies, institutional investors and funds in litigation, bankruptcy or workouts of more than 400 troubled debt financings in more than 35 different states and in foreign countries as well.� Mr. Spiotto represented clients in the resolution of troubled state and local debt financings, most recently in the Sierra Kings Health Care District, Jefferson County, Alabama and Mendocino Coast Health Care District Chapter 9 cases and has testified before the United States Senate and House Judiciary Committees in conjunction with the amendments to the Bankruptcy Code involving municipal bankruptcy.� He is a past president of the Society of Municipal Analysts and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Civic Federation of Chicago.� He is the author of Municipalities in Distress? available from Amazon.com and Primer on Municipal Debt Adjustment.� He has written numerous articles on municipal defaults and bankruptcy, and he is a co-author of the treatise The Law of State and Local Government Debt Financing (Thompson West) and author of chapters on municipal defaults and bankruptcy in The Handbook of Municipal Bonds, Sylvan Feldstein and Fran Fabozzi, editors, and on financial emergencies in the Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance, Robert D. Ebel and John E. Peterson, editors.� He is also the co-owner and co-publisher of MuniNetGuide.com, an online resource specializing in municipal-related research and information concerning state and local government, including public finance, infrastructure, job market data and economic statistics and analysis.

As Managing Analyst, Bob Nelson oversees the MMD analyst team as well as TM3 operations and is increasingly involved in municipal product management for Thomson Reuters. He got his start in the municipal market as an operations specialist on the MMD analyst desk in 1997, and joined the analyst team writing municipal yield curves and market commentary/research shortly thereafter. Initially, Bob’s focus was primarily on a handful of specialty states before moving into a generalist role focusing on MMD’s generic national yield curves, and writing intra-day as well as longer term market commentary for the MMD Fundamental product.He also worked briefly for Thomson IFR Markets covering taxable fixed income sectors, before rejoining the municipal group in late 2006 to oversee production of all TM3/MMD content and yield curves.  Most recently, Bob has been actively involved in broader municipal product management at Thomson Reuters.  Bob is a CFA charterholder and has a BS from Boston College.