Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Kimberly J. Cornaggia is an Associate Professor of Finance in the Kogod School of Business at American University. Professor Cornaggia�s research interests include financial distress, capital structure, credit ratings, and municipal finance.She has published in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and the Review of Financial Studies. Dr. Cornaggia earned her PhD in finance from the Krannert Graduate School at Purdue University, and has since enjoyed academic appointments at the Pennsylvania State University, the College of William and Mary, New York University, and Indiana University.Dr. Cornaggia has taught a wide array of courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels including corporation finance, corporate restructuring, equity valuation, multinational finance, and capital markets. Non-academic experience includes analyzing asset-backed securities markets and the credit ratings industry for the Office of Economic Analysis at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, first in 2003-04 and later in 2007-08. Since then, she provides the SEC with periodic lectures on credit ratings in Washington and abroad.

Dr. Vijayakumar (Vijay) serves as Professor of Accounting at Virginia Commonwealth University. He researches primarily in the areas of State and Local Government Finances and Accounting focusing on Municipal Bonds. He has published several articles in journals such as the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, The Financial Review, Municipal Finance Journal, and the Journal of Financial Services Research.Vijay has served the Government and Nonprofit Section of the American Accounting Association, as President, as Secretary / Treasurer, and as the Director – Research.  Vijay has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University, a Management degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and a Ph.D in Accounting from the University of Pittsburgh. He has also held various senior positions as an Assistant Commissioner in the Internal Revenue Service – Government of India.

Edward Rice is an Associate Professor of Finance and Business Economics in the Foster School of Business of the University of Washington. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles with specialization in Corporate Finance and Industrial Organization.  He received two degrees from the University of Rochester, an M.B.A. and a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics.Ed has published research in many areas of corporate finance and microeconomics, and served as a referee for many leading journals.  He is a past associate editor of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.  Ed has previously taught at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and the University of Chicago.  His research interests include corporate control, applied microeconomics, and general corporate finance.Ed has served on the committees of many Ph.D. students, at least three of whom became chaired full professors at major research universities.  At the University of Washington over the last several years, he has been the Finance area coordinator for the Ph.D. program, and has also won many MBA teaching awards.  He is past Faculty Director of the University of Washington E-Business Program.

Eric Toder is co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute. He has held a number of senior positions in tax offices in the United States and overseas, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department, Deputy Assistant Director for Tax Analysis at the Congressional Budget Office, Director of the Office of Research at the Internal Revenue Service, and consultant to the New Zealand Treasury. He has authored and co-authored numerous papers on tax policy issues, including papers on value added tax, tax expenditures, capital gains taxation, taxation of retirement savings, and the effects of proposals to replace the federal income tax with a consumption tax on the states. Dr. Toder received his Ph.D.in economics from the University of Rochester in 1971.

Andy Dillon was appointed as Michigan's 44th State Treasurer by Governor Rick Snyder in January of 2011. Dillon is responsible for overseeing changes made to the state's taxation laws, distributing revenue sharing monies, protecting the credit rating of the state and its local units of governments as well as managing the retirement funds of Michigan's state police and judges, and its state and public school employees. As Treasurer, Dillon championed legislation to ensure that financially troubled local municipalities and school districts have the necessary tools to provide the essential services residents deserve and avoid bankruptcy. As part of that effort, Dillon worked with locally elected officials to develop the Municipal Services Authority to provide the mechanism for local units to share services. He has also overseen the administration of a complete overhaul of the tax system in the state.Immediately preceding his time as Treasurer, Andy Dillon served three terms in the Michigan House of Representatives, and was elected by his colleagues to serve as Speaker of the House during his final two terms.In the Legislature, Speaker Dillon was a leading proponent of energy reform and was one of the chief architects of the 21st Century Jobs Fund, which was created to diversify Michigan's economy and make the state a magnet for the good-paying jobs of the future. Additionally, under Andy Dillon's leadership as Speaker, he led by example through enacting cost saving measures such as: voluntarily giving up his own legislative health care benefits and voting to reduce his own pay by 10% in an effort to help balance the state's budget. Prior to achieving elected office, Mr. Dillon served as the managing director of Wynnchurch Capital, vice president of GE Capital, and worked as a financial analyst at WR Grace. In addition, Mr. Dillon practiced law for seven years after graduating with his law and accounting degrees from the University of Notre Dame, and worked as an administrative assistant to U.S. Senator Bill Bradley.

Laura Porter is a managing director in Fitch�s public finance department, where she heads the States Ratings Group and is a member of the department�s executive and criteria committees.� Laura joined Fitch in 2005 and is based in New York City.�Laura�s previous public finance experience includes work in investment banking.� She was a vice president in the tax-exempt securities division at Morgan Stanley.� In addition, she has held senior administrative positions at New York City based not-for-profit institutions.�Laura earned a master�s degree in public and private management at the Yale School of Management, and a bachelor�s degree in economics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.� In addition, she is a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York.

Bob O’Brien is Senior Vice President heading Amalgamated Bank’s newly created Public Finance Division with an emphasis on lending to distressed municipalities as well as to those municipalities faced with diminished financing options. Established in 1923 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and now owned by its successor organization, Workers United, Amalgamated Bank is the largest union-owned bank in the United States. Amalgamated’s financing efforts in the distressed municipal space are designed to provide municipalities with breathing space while its leaders work through a recovery plan. Our view is that reducing a municipality’s immediate liquidity stress is an important step in potentially improving outcomes for local residents, municipal workers, and the community itself – a message consistent with Amalgamated’s history of being the bank of working families and local communities.Before joining Amalgamated, O’Brien started and headed the public finance group at LBBW, Germany’s fifth-largest bank, and he also led the municipal finance credit underwriting efforts of BluePoint Re, a start-up bond reinsurer owned by Wachovia.O’Brien’s experience includes time at Fitch Ratings where he analyzed local municipal issuers and rated municipal structured transactions. He earned an MPA from Columbia University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.