Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Lincoln Chafee is a proud Rhode Islander, born and raised in Warwick. He graduated with a degree in Classics from Brown University, where he received the Francis M. Driscoll Award for leadership, scholarship and athletics. After graduating, he worked for seven years as a blacksmith at harness racetracks throughout the United States and Canada. When he returned to Rhode Island, inspired by the path of his father John Chafee, he entered politics. He won election in 1985 as a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention, and went on to serve four years on the Warwick City Council, nearly four two-year terms as Mayor of Warwick, and seven years as United States Senator. After leaving the US Senate, he disaffiliated from the Republican Party and became an independent. He spent two years as Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies, during which he wrote Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President.In November, 2010, with the help of an excellent campaign staff and a strong community of supporters, he was elected the first independent Governor of Rhode Island, and is currently the nation’s only independent Governor.

Thomas S. Vales, Chief Executive Officer for TMC Bonds (TMC), brings over 25 years of fixed income experience to the firm. In May of 2000, Mr. Vales started the company with backing from industry leaders including Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Assured Guaranty. The company has grown to become a market leader for electronic bond trading with over 1000 firms participating on the live trading platform.TMC has evolved from its original municipal bond exchange into a robust marketplace for trading fixed income product. The firm currently offers Municipal, Corporate, MBS, and Agency bonds trading in addition to primary market Medium Term Notes and CD’s. TMC overlays its marketplace with software designed to assist both traders and brokers with the decision making process for buying and selling fixed income product. TMC also provides firms with a private label service enabling customization of broker desktops for advisor services.Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Vales spent ten years with Bankers Trust where he was a Managing Director of the Relative Value Arbitrage Group and Senior Manager of the Tax-Advantaged Arbitrage desk. From 1989 to 1996, he worked as a Vice President at BT Securities in municipal trading, sales, and derivatives. Mr. Vales graduated in 1986 from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.

Vijay Kapoor is the Director of PFM’s Workforce Consulting practice in the firm’s Management and Budget Consulting group. Prior to joining PFM, he founded a company that provided operational and workforce consulting services to state and local governments. Previously, Mr. Kapoor also served in state government in positions including Executive Director of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Office of Management and Productivity. In this capacity, Mr. Kapoor was responsible for leading both enterprise-wide and agency-specific cost savings projects towards the goal of reaching $1.5 billion in annual savings from Commonwealth operations. He also previously practiced as a labor and employment attorney in Philadelphia, where he specialized in public sector labor relations matters. Mr. Kapoor graduated from the University of Chicago with degrees in economics and public policy studies (with honors) and received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he received the labor law prize and was Symposium Editor for the Journal of Labor and Employment law. He also received a certificate in Business and Public Policy from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) since 2008.

Mr. Morrison is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Texas Municipal Finance located in the Dallas Municipal Finance office of RBC Capital Markets. He has over 18 years of experience developing and implementing capital plans and financial structures for numerous issuers throughout the region. This has included the issuance of over $30 billion in financings either as Financial Advisor or Underwriter. His responsibilities include providing investment banking and financial advisory services to numerous municipal issuers in the Southwest Region including transportation, cities and counties, special districts and higher education issuers. He has worked extensively with revenue bond transportation issuers such as North Texas Tollway Authority, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Turnpike Authority and the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport as well as county clients such as Dallas County and city clients such as Austin, Fort Worth and Dallas. Mr. Morrison holds a BS and MS from Baylor University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a registered securities representative, currently holding Series 7, 27, 53, 63 and 79 licenses.

Brenda Ojendyk is a Vice President and Senior Research Analyst at Nuveen Asset Management in Chicago. She specializes in the analysis of tax-backed credits of state and local governments, although her research experience also includes the sectors of healthcare and higher education. Ms. Ojendyk holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, a Master of Arts degree from Miami University in Ohio, and a bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Chris Mier is the Chief Strategist and Managing Director of the Loop Capital Markets' Analytical Services Division (ASD).� Loop Capital is a full-service institutional broker-dealer based in Chicago.� The ASD has five full-time professionals and is one of the largest analytics groups dedicated to public finance.Prior to joining Loop Capital, Mr. Mier was an institutional Portfolio Manager in the Municipal Bond Department at MFS Investment Management, where he was also on the Duration Committee. In addition, he has served as a Portfolio Manager of numerous municipal funds at Scudder Kemper Investments and Kemper Financial; prior to which he held several posts at Comerica Bank in Detroit, including credit analyst, portfolio manager and trader in the Funds Management Department.Mr. Mier speaks regularly at industry events.� He was the Keynote speaker at the National Federation of Municipal Analysts annual conference in 2009.� He has appeared on panels for the Government Finance Officers Association, Institutional Investor, Municipal Analysts Group of New York, Chicago Municipal Analysts Society, various Bloomberg Conferences, and was a discussant at the 2013 and 2014 Municipal Finance Conference presented by Brandeis University and the Bond Buyer; as well as many others.� Chris has appeared on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, and Fox Business TV as a commentator on municipal finance issues.� Mr. Mier has been published in the Municipal Finance Journal.Mr. Mier holds an MBA in Finance and Managerial Economics from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Michigan. Chris also received a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2009.� He received his Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the AIMR (now CFA Institute) in 1992. He also holds Series 7, 24, 53 and 63 licenses. Chris was elected to a 3-year term as a Director on the Board of the CFA Society Chicago the summer of 2014.

Richard “Dick” L. Sigal has extensive experience in areas of distressed state, local and programmatic restructuring, housing finance, public finance, public-private partnerships, securitization, special fund financings, transportation and validation. Mr. Sigal develops financing program plans and provides legal counsel and assistance once the plan has been instituted. He has drafted significant financing legislation in many states, including Alaska, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Montana, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia and Wyoming and for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Mr. Sigal has been a long-time Trustee of the Citizens Budget Commission contributing to several special committee reports and has chaired several Bond Buyer and other public finance conferences. During the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, he served as an unpaid consultant to the Department of Treasury meeting every Saturday one year during the summer months regarding the establishment of the centerpiece of the President’s urban agenda, the Urban Infrastructure Bank, the predecessor concept to the various proposals currently for a National Development Bank. Mr. Sigal has managed and structured a variety of (tax exempt, taxable, general obligation, revenue based, private activity, credit enhanced) bond and securitization issues as bond or finance counsel for various states, public authorities and local governments and as counsel for various investment banking firms, including extensive experience in working with state treasurers and budget officials, rating agencies, financial advisors and underwriters on complex and innovative new programs such as, state regulatory, financing and oversight statutes for its distressed municipalities. Mr. Sigal has been included in the 2013 Best Lawyers in America, 19th Edition, for his work in the practice area of Public Finance Law and was awarded a 2011 rating of AV Preeminent by Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell.

John P. McLaughlin is a partner in the Litigation Department and a member of the Labor and Employment Group, P3/Infrastructure Group, and Municipal Recovery Initiative. Mr. McLaughlin�s practice primarily focuses on representing cities and municipalities in labor and employment-related matters.Mr. McLaughlin represents management in collective bargaining and in a variety of litigation matters in court proceedings and before administrative agencies, including cases involving discrimination, unfair labor practices, pension and disability disputes, harassment, wrongful discharge, breach of contract, torts, and privacy. He advises clients on a day-to-day basis assisting them to proactively comply with employment and benefit laws and avoid and resolve disputes arising under such laws, including Title VII, ADA, ADEA, FMLA, and privacy laws.A significant portion of Mr. McLaughlin�s practice is concentrated on advising and representing municipalities and cities in grievance and interest arbitration arising under Act 111 and Act 195. He routinely sits as the management arbitrator in interest arbitrations, and litigates grievance arbitration matters. He also advises and defends employers in cases involving disability issues under the Heart and Lung Act and the Police Pension

Richard Ravitch is a lawyer/businessman/public official who has been engaged in both private and public business for more than 50 years. He began his career in the construction business as a principal of the HRH Construction Corporation. There he was responsible, among other things, for supervising the development, financing and construction of over 45,000 units of affordable housing in New York, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and other locations. In 1975, he was appointed by Governor Hugh Carey to serve as Chairman of the New York State Urban Development Corporation (�UDC�), a �moral obligation� financing and development agency with 30,000 dwelling units under construction, which had become insolvent and faced the first municipal bankruptcy since the 1930�s. Later in 1975 and during the following year Mr. Ravitch assisted New York City and State officials in resolving the City�s defaults. In 1979, Mr. Ravitch was appointed Chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (�MTA�), New York�s regional urban and suburban transportation system. MTA�s responsibilities include operation of the New York City subways and buses, the Long Island Railroad and MetroNorth commuter lines, and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. Mr. Ravitch completely reorganized the MTA and its functions. His restructuring changes and innovations included recruiting operating officials from the private sector with experience in marketing as well as management and operations. He developed a long-term capital plan and budget for a system wide upgrading of operating equipment, roadbed and signal capabilities, and he designed the financing plan for such improvements. For his MTA work, he was awarded the American Public Transit Association�s Individual of the Year Award in 1982. Following his MTA service, Mr. Ravitch led an effort to recapitalize The Bowery Savings Bank, once the nation�s largest mutual savings bank, involving his arranging for its acquisition from FDIC by an investor group and his serving as Chairman and CEO. Subsequently, Mr. Ravitch was retained by the owners of the Major League Baseball clubs to serve as President of the Player Relations Committee to advise them on the creation of a revenue sharing plan and proposal to the players. In 1999, Congress created the Millennial Housing Commission to examine the federal government�s role in meeting the nation�s growing affordable housing challenges. Mr. Ravitch was appointed to serve as Co-Chair of the Commission which led a diverse group to rethink America�s affordable housing policy. Mr. Ravitch recently served as Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York.Mr. Ravitch is currently co-chairing the State Budget Crisis Task Force with former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul A. Volcker.Mr. Ravitch is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Columbia College and received his LLB from Yale University School of Law.