Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Cassie Huggins is currently the Director of the Bond Guarantee Program and the Program Administrator of the New Instructional Facility Allotment in the State Funding Division of the Texas Education Agency (TEA). She administers all aspects of each of the programs, including determining eligibility and approving or denying applications.Ms. Huggins has worked for the TEA for over 26 years in the areas of school finance and financial audit.She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Lisa Dawn-Fisher is the Deputy Associate Commissioner for School Finance at the Texas Education Agency (TEA). She oversees the State Funding and the Forecasting and Fiscal Analysis Divisions. The State Funding Division administers the Foundation School Program, including wealth equalization and facilities funding programs, as well as the bond guarantee program. The Forecasting and Fiscal Analysis Division develops forecasting models and pupil enrollment projections and writes all fiscal notes for the TEA in addition to responding to a wide variety of ad hoc requests for financial data on public schools. Dr. Dawn-Fisher also works closely with the legislative process and directs rulemaking activities related to the implementation of state funding programs.Dr. Dawn-Fisher has worked for 13 years in the area of school finance and education policy, as a legislative aide in the Texas House of Representatives, as a researcher for the Equity Center, and as a private-sector consultant to school districts with Moak, Casey and Associates. During her career in the State Funding Division at the TEA, she served as the first program administrator for the Instructional Facilities Allotment program from 1997 - 1998. Returning from the private sector in 2002, Dr. Dawn-Fisher served as the division’s Assistant Director for more than three years before being appointed as the Deputy Associate Commissioner.Dr. Dawn-Fisher holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs and a doctorate in Educational Administration from University of Texas at Austin, where she specialized in Education Policy and Planning.

Dyer is a Senior Fixed Income Analyst at USAA. He joined USAA in 2000 after having been an analyst at Southwest Securities, Inc. and Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, Inc in Dallas. Greer currently analyzes municipal bonds for USAA’s mutual funds, insurance portfolios and bank and is responsible for all bonds in Texas and a variety of other Southern and some Midwestern states. He has a variety of experience in municipal bond analysis, trading, risk management and operations, as well as credit experience as a former national bank examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He received a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1983 and an MBA there in 1993. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2003. He is a three-time member of the Smith’s All-Star Research Team in the Senior Living and Airport categories. He is a member of the San Antonio Society of Financial Analysts and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.

Barry Smitherman is a fourth generation Texan appointed by Governor Rick Perry to the PUCT on April 21, 2004. He was reappointed on September 13, 2007 and promoted to Chairman on November 14, 2007. He was recently awarded the State Leadership award by the American Wind Energy Association for the PUCT’s pioneering renewable energy zone policy for proactive transmission development.  He was also recently selected one of the Energy and Utility Industry’s “Great Transformers” for 2010 by a partnership which includes Forbes magazine.Barry is a member of the State Bar of Texas, a member of the Governor's Competitiveness Council, an ex officio board member of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Texas Regional Entity (TRE), a member of the Regional State Committee (RSC) for the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment, served as one of 30 members of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Electricity Advisory Committee (EAC) and is Vice-Chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Panel on Federal Environmental Regulations. Barry grew up in Highlands, Texas; a working class neighborhood on the east side of Houston. He graduated from Ross Sterling High School in Baytown and continued his education at Texas A&M University receiving a BBA summa cum laude. He received his J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law while working at the State Capitol for Senator Lindon Williams. Afterward he received a M.P.A. at Harvard University and was awarded the first Joel Leff Fellowship in Political Economy by the Kennedy School of Government.Between 1986 and 2002, Barry was a public finance investment banker working with state and local governments throughout the South, Southwest and Midwest to build infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, airports, water and sewer systems, schools, hospitals, and sports facilities. During this time he held leadership positions with First Boston, Lazard Freres, JP Morgan Securities, and Bank One Capital Markets.  Beginning in 2003, Barry began a second career as a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney’s office.  During this time he successfully prosecuted many jury trials against defendants charged with DWI, assault, theft, possession of controlled substance, and numerous other crimes.  At the time of his appointment to the PUCT, Barry was part of the prestigious Family Criminal Law Division (FCLD) which prosecutes domestic violence cases, especially cases where the victim has recanted the occurrence of the crime.In 1990, Barry was a member of the American Center for International Leadership delegation to the former Soviet Union.  In 1996, Barry was a delegate to the State Republican convention in San Antonio.  Barry is also a former adjunct professor of public administration at the University of St. Thomas in Houston and a former member of the Boards of the Texas Public Finance Authority, and the Harris County Health Facilities Development Corporation.Since joining the PUCT in 2004, Barry has supervised in issuance of over $5.6 billion in “transition/rate recovery bonds” issued by various utilities operating in Texas.  These securitization financings have saved Texas ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Bob Collie has been a partner in the law firm of Andrews Kurth LLP since March 2001. Previously, he was a partner in the law firm of Mayor, Day, Caldwell & Keeton LLP for 18 years. Mr. Collie served as City Attorney of Houston from 1978 through 1980. He practices in the public law area, focusing on public finance, where he represents state agencies, local governments and other clients in the issuance of tax-exempt bonds. He has been active in education, transportation, general obligation, water and sewer utility, port and sports facility financings. Mr. Collie has represented local governments as special counsel in joint public/private developments, election, redistricting, annexation and other public law general counsel matters.

Robert A. Rich, a transportation specialist with over 25 years of municipal experience, joined PFM in 2001 after working as an investment banker, research director and ratings analyst. Mr. Rich has worked on in excess of $35 billion in financings with various transportation agencies and authorities.Prior to his career on Wall Street, Mr. Rich worked for the State of New Jersey and was a United States Presidential Management Intern. Mr. Rich served as a board member of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association’s Public-Private Ventures Division. Mr. Rich has also been involved in the design of federal innovative finance initiatives and has testified before Congress and State Legislatures on innovative finance. He is a board member of Autism New Jersey, an advocacy organization for individuals with autism. Mr. Rich received his AB from Brown University, MPA from Columbia University and JD from Rutgers Law School. He is a member of the bar in New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia.

James T Colby III, Senior Municipal Strategist/ Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income Investments, is responsible for the Municipal ETF investments, security transactions, market strategy, market analysis and product development for Van Eck municipal bond exchange traded funds. Prior to joining Van Eck, Jim was Senior Portfolio manager and Director of High Yield Municipal Fixed Income at Lord Abbett where he oversaw the creation and integration of this product line and managed the fund to the $Billion dollar threshold and top decile performance. Prior to that Jim was the Director and Senior Portfolio Manager for Municipal Fixed Income at John Hancock Funds, Director for Fixed Income Management for Old Harbor Capital, and co-manager/ Senior Portfolio Manager for municipal funds at Evergreen Asset Management in Boston. Jim has over 20 years experience of municipal fixed income portfolio management with both retail and institutional companies. He earned an MBA in Finance from Hofstra University and a BA in Economics and International Relations from Brown University.