Banco Popular de Puerto Rico is a full-service financial services provider with operations in Puerto Rico, the United States and Virgin Islands. Popular, Inc. is the largest banking institution by both assets and deposits in Puerto Rico, and in the United States Popular, Inc.
Latest NewsLois Scott, President, Epoch Advisors, is a senior finance executive, entrepreneur and civic leader.� She serves on the board of MBIA Inc. (MBI - NYSE) where she is a member of the Audit Committee and the board of other privately held financial services companies.Lois’ functional experience includes financial and business strategy, driving revenue growth and profitability, investor relations, financial turnarounds, and asset and liability management in government and regulated industries.From 2011-2015, Lois served as the Chief Financial Officer for the City of Chicago, the first woman to ever serve in that capacity. With over 30 years of finance experience, Mayor Rahm Emanuel entrusted Lois and the City’s finance team with an annual budget of $7.5 billion and assets of $32 billion.� As CFO, she had financial oversight of essential City services as well as O’Hare Airport, Midway Airport, the City’s public-private infrastructure partnership contracts, and water and wastewater systems serving more than 5 million people. �Lois brought corporate-style investor relations and enhanced disclosure to municipal government, launching the City’s annual investor conference in 2011.� She served as trustee for public pension funds with assets of $5 billion and a $3 billion deferred compensation plan.� Lois oversaw bank relationships with the largest banks in the world, worked with 67 investment banking firms, was the most requested speaker of the Emanuel administration, including keynoting conferences in China, D.C. and serving as special advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative on infrastructure and finance.Lois has been an entrepreneur and builder throughout her career. �In 2011, Lois co-founded and chaired the Municipal CFO Forum with the Harris School of the University of Chicago.� The Forum convenes the CFO’s of America’s 30 largest cities for discussion at conferences twice each year and provides a powerful springboard for introduction of new ideas and adoption of best practices.From 2002-2011, Lois was CEO of a financial advisory firm with offices in New York, Chicago, Houston, Newark, Columbus and Anchorage that served large corporate and governmental clients.� The firm was acquired by PFM in 2011. Prior to that, she served as President and Vice Chair of a technology company that provided a family of services to schools.� In that role, she recruited the management team, led its efforts to raise $23 million in equity and was extensively involved in sales and marketing in 26 states.� The firm’s technology was sold to a publicly traded company in 2001.� Lois also helped launch Homeboyz Interactive in Chicago, a pioneering social enterprise that worked with gang-influenced youth, translating their street experiences into career success in the technology industry.�Lois is well known as one of the founders of Women in Public Finance, a professional organization started in 1995 that now serves 1,500 people in the finance industry through 12 chapters across the country.� She was also the driving force behind creation of the “Women of the Year” event honoring the accomplishments of women in the public finance field.Lois started her career at First Chicago (now JPMorgan), where she was responsible for governmental, health care and higher education clients in an 8-state region including California.� She quickly rose in the investment banking field to become one of the youngest Principals at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, (now Credit Suisse).� She helped relaunch Bank of America’s public finance efforts in the Midwest, gaining national attention and awards for her work.In 1997, Lois was selected to serve as one of 15 White House Fellows and tasked with advising President Clinton’s administration on the financial crisis in Southeast Asia. She later chaired the Management Committee of the Export-Import Bank, responsible for management issues affecting the 450-person, $800 million organization.�Throughout her career, Lois has helped those in need and been active in her community. She has served on the board and/or been involved with dozens of organizations, including Children’s Memorial Hospital (policy committee), Chicago Development Fund, Free the Children/We Day, IFF, The Chicago Network, Leadership Greater Chicago, White House Fellows Association, National Louis University, Better Government Association, North Avenue Day Nursery, City Lit Theater Company and The Bond Club of Chicago, among others.Lois’ work has been recognized by many, including Crain’s Chicago Business “40 under 40”, “Women in Black” for top women in technology, Today’s Chicago Woman’s list of “Most Influential Women in Chicago” and as a leading entrepreneur in National Journal, Forbes Small Business and BusinessWeek websites.� In 2011, she won lifetime achievement honors from the public finance industry and won the 2015 “Freda Johnson” award for trailblazing women in finance.Lois grew up in upstate New York in a family of four daughters that encouraged leadership, education and community service.�� At 17, she enrolled at Cornell University to study Labor Economics and completed her MBA in Finance from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Business at the age of 22.�Today, Lois divides her time between Epoch Advisors, corporate boards and leadership on key civic initiatives, philanthropic causes and social investments.�
Gary LaGrange has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Port of New Orleans since 2001. Under LaGrange’s direction the Port made great expansions in spite of great adversity.� During his tenure, the Port opened new, state-of-the art container, cruise and refrigerated terminals. LaGrange’s leadership brought the Port of New Orleans back into operation two weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the most extensive natural disaster in U.S. history. With over a decade of investment and expansion, the Port of New Orleans is now recognized as the #1 Port for logistics in America.�LaGrange serves on the Boards and Executive Committees of the Waterways Council, Inc., and National Waterways Conference where he is a past President. He also serves on the Board of the Gulf Ports Association of the Americas. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board.��A past Chairman, Mr. LaGrange still serves as a member of the American Association of Port Authorities Board of Directors. He is also past Chairman and past President of the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association.�He is a member of the Committee of 100 Louisiana. He serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Advisory Council on Trade and Transportation Committee, and the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration’s Port Subcommittee.�He was named the Maritime Person of the Year by the Propeller Club of New Orleans in 2003 and Maritime Person of the Year by the Propeller Club of the Port of Gulfport in 2001. He was named the “Man of Steel” by the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS).�Gary is also a member of the National Rivers Hall of Fame in Dubuque, Iowa and named to the Hall of Fame by the International Maritime Association at the United Nations in New York.�In 2012, he was the recipient of the Transportation & Infrastructure Summit Excellence in Maritime Transportation Award and the C. Alvin Bertel Award in recognition for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the Greater New Orleans port area. Mr. LaGrange also received the 2012 International Achievement Award.�In 2013, he was recognized by the University of Southern Mississippi for his support of the Center for Logistics, Trade and Transportation and is a 2013 Young Leadership Council Role Model Award winner.�Before taking leadership at the Port of New Orleans, LaGrange served as the Executive Director of the Mississippi State Port Authority in Gulfport, Ms., the Port of South Louisiana and the Port of West St. Mary.�LaGrange attended Louisiana State University. He received his B.A. in Geography/Economics from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He also completed a Master of Arts in Urban Planning, with honors from ULL, in addition to having earned the Professional Port Manager Certification (PPM) from the American Association of Port Authorities.
Chad Bianchi is an Assistant Vice President and portfolio manager at Associated Bank, N.A..� His responsibilities include management of the $6.2 billion taxable and tax-exempt fixed-income securities portfolio, with his primary responsibility being the +$1 billion bank-qualified (BQ) municipal securities portfolio.� He is involved in the credit, risk and overall strategy of the fixed-income securities portfolio, as well as trade execution.� In addition to investment management, Mr. Bianchi experience spans interest rate derivatives, bank asset-liability managements and capital stress testing.Mr. Bianchi has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and is pursuing his Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.� He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) candidate.
Peter Orr, CFA, is founder and president of Intuitive Analytics.
Frank Shafroth is the Director of the Center for State & Local leadership at George Mason University; he is an adjunct in the graduate School of Public Policy at George Washington University; he has previously served as Assistant Counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, where he focused on state and local municipal housing and development finance—as well as Director of Policy & Federal Relations for the National League of Cities, the National Governors Association, and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. He is the author of in-depth studies on municipal bankruptcy, and writes an eBlog focused on municipal finance. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the Georgetown Law Center.
Dave is Senior Counsel in the San Francisco office of Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP. He has more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of the municipal finance market. Previously, he was an Attorney-Fellow in the Office of Municipal Securities at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. During this time, he was a principal drafter of both the final Municipal Advisor rule, and the 2012 Commission Report on the State of the Municipal Securities Market which outlined the Commission’s ongoing agenda with respect to disclosure matters in the municipal finance market. Dave previously served as General Counsel to the investment bank De La Rosa & Co. Inc. and as a Deputy City Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco.A former Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown Law Center, where he taught “The Securities Law of Public Finance,” Dave continues to lecture at conferences across the country about the disclosure laws applicable in municipal finance. Dave earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Social Psychology from the University of New Mexico.
Andrew Kalotay is president of Andrew Kalotay Associates.
Nadia Sesay was appointed the Director of the Controller’s Office of Public Finance for the City & County of San Francisco by Mayor Gavin Newsom in March 2005. The Office of Public Finance manages the City’s $3.0 billion municipal debt portfolio, oversees the issuance of all new debt secured by property taxes and general fund sources, and initiates the City’s debt policies and procedures and provides technical expertise for the preparation and monitoring of the Ten-Year Capital Plan. In addition, Ms. Sesay and her staff provide financial analysis to the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, Commissioners and department heads.Ms. Sesay has been with the Office of Public Finance for nearly 17 years, serving as Financial Administrator and Bond Associate prior to her appointment as Director. Before joining the City, Ms. Sesay worked for Union Bank of California, N.A. in the Corporate Trust Department as Trust Administrator.�Ms. Sesay also sits on the San Francisco Community Investment Board and serves as Chair of the Oversight Board of the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency of the City and County of San Francisco. Ms. Sesay was awarded San Francisco’s Public Managerial Excellence Award for exemplary leadership, fiscal ingenuity and vision in 2010.
On January 6, 2015, Gina M. Raimondo became the 75th Governor of Rhode Island and its first woman governor.Gina grew up in Smithfield in a tight-knit Italian-American family, the youngest of Joseph and Josephine Raimondo's three children. Gina's family history and her childhood experiences shaped her core beliefs in hard work, opportunity for all, and the importance of financial security.After arriving from Italy at age 14, her grandfather learned English studying in the Providence Public Library, and later lived with Gina's family. Her father is a World War II Navy veteran from a family of butchers who was first in his family to attend college on the GI Bill. After working for 26 years at Bulova watch factory in Providence, her father lost his job, along with hundreds of others, when the factory moved overseas, and her family lost their sense of financial security.As a teenager, Gina rode a RIPTA bus to LaSalle Academy in Providence, where she was valedictorian of her graduating class. Gina went on to graduate with honors from Harvard, where she was recognized as the top economics student in her class. She won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where she earned a doctorate and met her husband Andy Moffit, and later graduated from Yale Law School. Gina clerked for US District Judge Kimba Wood, and served as founding employee and senior vice president at Village Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Williamstown, Massachusetts, that invested in high-growth start-up companies in at least 10 emerging cities across the country.Yearning to be back in Rhode Island and closer to family, Gina co-founded Point Judith Capital and was involved in dozens of successful start-up companies.Gina and Andy reside in Providence with their two children, Ceci and Tommy. Gina has been deeply involved in a number of local non-profits. She was Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Crossroads Rhode Island, where she played a key role in launching a new homeless shelter for women. She was also a trustee at Women and Infants Hospital and Chair of its Quality Committee, and board member of Family Service of Rhode Island and LaSalle Academy.After reading a news article in late 2009 about further cuts to public libraries due to state budget difficulties, Gina decided to run for public office for the first time. In November 2010, Gina was elected to serve as General Treasurer of Rhode Island, receiving the largest number of votes of any statewide candidate.When Gina took office as General Treasurer, she tackled the state's $7 billion unfunded pension liability and shepherded passage of the Rhode Island Retirement Security Act of 2011, which passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support in both chambers of the General Assembly, has been hailed as national model. Because of pension reform, Rhode Island now is poised to make investments in its future - in its economy, education and infrastructure, which are key to the state's success.
Mark Jennings is Senior Vice President and Head of Project Finance, North America for Balfour Beatty Investments.� Mr. Jennings and his team are responsible for the financial structuring of all project financed Balfour Beatty transactions throughout North America as well as the financial asset management of Balfour Beatty’s investment portfolio.Mr. Jennings has been with Balfour Beatty Investments for nearly a decade, first working out of the London head office and then relocating to the Philadelphia office four years ago.� In that time he has closed a number of transactions in different sectors including healthcare, student housing, roads, street-lighting, transmission, educational and multifamily.� Mr. Jennings also sits on the boards for closed projects.Mr. Jennings received a bachelor’s degree from Keele University, UK, a master’s degree from London Business School, UK and is a chartered accountant.




