Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

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.

Christine C. Quinn has spent her career in public service, fighting for policies and services that are critical to the lives of New Yorkers. Chris started out as a housing organizer, helping low-income tenants stay in their homes and protecting affordable housing. As the director of the Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Chris worked closely with the NYPD against hate crimes.Since 1999, Chris has served Manhattan’s lower west side in the City Council. Elected Speaker in 2006, Chris has negotiated on-time, balanced City budgets, reducing government spending, and preventing firehouse closings, teacher layoffs and cuts to key services.Quinn has worked to find innovative and fiscally responsible ways to spark job creation. She has been a leader in the fight to eliminate unfair taxes, particularly the double taxation of freelancers and sole proprietors. She has fought to eliminate unnecessary regulation on small businesses, and created a program that has drastically reduced the average wait for government inspections for new businesses. She has worked to diversify our economy, investing in growing job sectors like health care and food manufacturing. And Chris has helped our City develop an economy of innovation through tax credits and initiatives to support new ventures in the five boroughs.A longtime advocate for affordable housing, Quinn renewed incentives for developers who build affordable units. Protecting tenants is a top priority – Speaker Quinn passed legislation to allow landlords to be taken to court for threatening tenants or interrupting essential services, as well as forcing landlords to repair dangerous apartments. Her innovative Housing Asset Renewal Program has turned unsold condominiums into affordable middle-income housing.Speaker Quinn has long advocated investment in early childhood education and has worked to expand the City’s universal Pre-Kindergarten program. She has also worked extensively to better our middle schools, and at her urging the Department of Education has funded innovative new programs at the highest-need middle schools in the city.Quinn and the Council led the environmental movement with legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, requiring manufacturers to collect and recycle electronic waste, and passed a bill establishing a plastic bag recycling program. And Quinn has passed bills to improve energy efficiency in large commercial buildings – a move that will reduce the city's carbon footprint.

Laure is currently the Director of Economic Development and Intergovernmental Affairs for the City of Stamford. Prior to coming to Stamford Laure has worked primarily in the private sector. She began her career at W. R. Grace where she was the assistant to the Chairman, J. Peter Grace; the Director of Business Development for Grace’s Southeast Asia Industrial Chemical Group, where she was based in Hong Kong and Vice President of International for Baker & Taylor, Grace’s book wholesale division. She spent 4 years at Ernst & Young as part of the business development group. Her other public sector experience was directly following 9/11 where she joined the Bloomberg administration as head of International Business Development for New York City at the New York City Economic Development Corporation.Laure is a graduate of Smith College, received a Masters in Psychology from Boston College and her MBA from Harvard University.