News

Build America Mutual, the only mutual insurer of U.S. municipal bonds, today announced the formation of a new Strategic Advisory Committee that will advise BAM management on opportunities to build on the company’s five-year track record of growth. The founding members of the Committee will be Dan Keating (who will serve as chairman), Chris Hamel, Thalia Meehan, and Kenneth Williams.

“Actively soliciting input and feedback from people with a wide range of talents and experience has been a crucial part of our approach to building BAM in the past five years,” said Build America Mutual Chief Executive Officer Seán W. McCarthy. “Establishing the Strategic Advisory Committee formalizes that process, and this group in particular gives our management team access to a wide range of perspectives from people who have built impressive individual track records across their careers.”

The charter members of the committee include:

Dan Keating, a 35-year veteran of municipal finance with experience in sales, trading, underwriting, and public finance, who will chair the Strategic Advisory Committee. Mr. Keating served as Chief Operating Officer for Samuel A. Ramirez & Co., a full-service brokerage firm in Manhattan, and earlier was in charge of tax-exempt products for Bear Stearns & Co. He is a former chairman of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. Most recently, Mr. Keating was Senior Managing Director, Municipal Markets for BAM, and is retiring from that day-to-day role to join the Strategic Advisory Committee.

Chris Hamel, who will join the committee upon retiring from his role at RBC Capital Markets. For the past fifteen years Mr. Hamel has served as Head of the Municipal Finance Group at RBC Capital Markets. Mr. Hamel successfully grew its municipal business into a consistent top-five market leader and one of the largest municipal practices in the country, with operations based in New York and bankers in 27 cities across the U.S. Mr. Hamel is an active advocate for US infrastructure investment and he currently serves as Chair of SIFMA’s Infrastructure Policy Committee. He is also a member of SIFMA’s Municipal Securities Division Executive Committee.

Thalia Meehan, a Chartered Financial Analyst who has over 30 years of experience in the investment sector. Ms. Meehan retired in 2016 from Putnam Investments, where she served in multiple roles, including Team Leader and Portfolio Manager, and Head of Municipal Credit Research. Ms. Meehan currently serves on the Board of the Boston Women in Public Finance and was previously a Member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Investor Advisory Group.

Kenneth Williams, who retired last year as the Head of the Municipal Securities Group for Stifel Financial Group, a top 10 senior underwriter of municipal bonds nationwide. He joined Stifel in 2011, when the firm purchased Stone & Youngberg, where he was President and Chief Executive Officer. At the time, Stone & Youngberg was the largest California-based underwriter of municipal bonds. Mr. Williams is a former vice chairman of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, a former board member of The Bond Market Association (now SIFMA), and a past chairman of the Bond Dealers of America.

About BAM

Domiciled in New York, BAM is a mutual bond insurance company operated for the benefit of its members –cities, states and other municipal entities – that use BAM’s financial guaranty to lower their cost of borrowing. BAM is sponsored by the National League of Cities. Through December 31, 2017, BAM insured more than $45 billion of municipal bonds in more than 5,500 primary and secondary-market transactions, and delivered an estimated $550 million of savings for its members. BAM-insured bonds are rated AA with a Stable outlook by S&P Global Ratings.

For more information, please contact:

Michael Stanton, Head of Corporate Strategy and Communications
212-235-2575; mstanton@buildamerica.com