Brad Bava is the Senior Vice President, Marketing Services Group at Arizent, leading the media and conference sales team across the business. He is focused on connecting our marketing services clients with our audiences through valuable experience that build strong relationships.
Brad joined Arizent in 2017, helping industry-leading brands like IBM, OneSpan, Tata Consultancy, and Temenos connect with our banking community. Brad then became the publisher of American Banker and National Mortgage News before being tapped to lead sales across our seven communities. Prior to Arizent, Brad spent 10 years at IKON Office Solutions where his outstanding sales performance was recognized with four straight President’s Circle awards. His successes culminated in his leadership of the NYC market across sales and operations.
Brad is an accomplished athlete and coach. He leads several youth athletic programs across a variety of sports and spends much of his free time mentoring the athletes in those programs. He graduated from Montclair State University with a B.A. in History.
Michael Wertz is a Vice President-Senior Analyst on the Eastern Local Governments Ratings Team. He is the lead analyst for local government credits in Connecticut, Mississippi, and Florida and was previously the state lead for California. Michael has published extensively on the credit impact of physical risks of climate change, aging infrastructure, and water challenges. He is also a senior member of the Physical Climate Risk Working Group and Environmental and Social Risk Task Forces, which support research and training in these areas.
Prior to joining Moody’s, Michael was a consultant specializing in policy analysis, program evaluation and governance for water utilities, cities, K-12 districts, community colleges, and nonprofits. Michael began his career in economic, affordable housing and community development in San Antonio and holds an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
As Executive Director of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, Melanie Walter leads the State’s independent agency responsible for affordable housing and homeownership production programs, overseeing a diverse portfolio of single and multifamily financing and policy initiatives.
During her 4 years in this role, Executive Director Walter has modernized and expanded NJHMFA’s operational, financial, and programmatic activities, using extensive stakeholder outreach and data driven decision-making to reshape and expand the state’s housing production capacity. Through this work, ED Walter and her team have substantially increased the availability of high-quality affordable housing across New Jersey, financing more than 27,000 new multifamily units and supporting >10,000 first-time and first-generation homebuyers. In fact, today, one in 10 NJ renters, and 1 in 6 NJ low and moderate-income renters lives in a building NJHMFA financed.
Immediately prior to assuming the helm at NJHMFA, ED Walter served as Director of the Division of Local Government Services and Chair of the State’s Local Finance Board, in which capacity she led New Jersey’s municipal finance and bonding oversight entity, providing technical assistance, regulatory oversight, and financial support to local governments and regulated local unit note, lease purchase, Redevelopment Area Bond (RAB), Qualified Bond, refunding, ESIP, Ibank, and other transactions.
Through this work she implemented policies and developed programs to enhance the financial health of municipalities, leading to improved credit ratings and reduced taxpayer burden. Before that, ED Walter, A William and Mary educated attorney, represented numerous state entities as a Deputy Attorney General in the NJ Attorney General’s Office’s Division of Law.
Linda joined Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) in March 2019 as a Senior Director. She performs municipal credit analysis for a broad portfolio of transportation entities, public utilities, state and local governments, and school districts.
Prior to joining KBRA, Linda worked in the public finance banking groups at UBS, JPMorgan, and Ramirez & Co. Over her 35-year investment banking career, she developed and implemented customized financing and refunding strategies for many of the nation’s largest and most active municipal issuers, serving as the lead banker on more than $30 billion in senior managed transactions in Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Linda is a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York (MAGNY), the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, and the National and Northeast chapters of Women in Public Finance. She has served on the Program Committees of both MAGNY and the American Public Power Association and has mentored women in the public finance industry for over 15 years.
Linda earned an MBA in Finance from the New York University Stern School of Business, and a BA from Muhlenberg College.
Chris Valentino joined the Public Finance Department at Stifel in October 2023, bringing with him more than 18 years in the municipal finance industry.
Mr. Valentino’s experience spans several sectors of public finance, including transportation, State Revolving Funds and water infrastructure, State governments, higher education, and clean and renewable energy. Mr. Valentino has worked with several of the largest infrastructure issuers in the country, including the New York City MTA, the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the State of Connecticut, and the State of Illinois. He has also worked closely with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (“NYSERDA”), where he was one of the initial architects of the Green Jobs – Green New York residential energy efficiency and residential solar loan programs.
Mr. Valentino holds a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from the Zicklin School of Business at CUNY Baruch College.
Sebastian represents issuers, underwriters, and borrowers on a variety of public finance transactions. He focuses his practice on providing legal advice to state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, investment banks, and financial institutions in connection with the financing of infrastructure projects that have a positive impact in our communities. Prior to joining the firm, Sebastian worked as a Senior Legal Advisor for the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (AAFAF) representing the Government of Puerto Rico and its instrumentalities on all matters related to PROMESA, including multiple debt restructuring and public finance matters, and was also General Counsel to the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA) during the issuance of its restructured sales tax bonds in 2019.
Joe Sullivan is a partner at Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP and a leader of the firm’s public contracts and infrastructure group. His practice focuses on representing municipal and local governments in connection with complex public infrastructure projects, including structuring procurements and negotiating contracts for the design, construction, operation, maintenance, management and financing of such projects. He has extensive experience in the transportation/transit sector, as well as in the water/wastewater, energy and social infrastructure sectors, and he has worked with virtually every method of alternative project delivery, including the CMAR, DB, DBOM and DBFO (P3) methods of project delivery. His experience includes representing governmental borrowers under the TIFIA and RRIF federal financing programs, and he leads the firm’s representation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency as lender’s counsel under the WIFIA program.
Kristin Stephens is a Managing Director and the Head of Credit Strategies for the UBS Public Finance department. In this capacity, she has a demonstrated track record of providing innovative credit and rating agency strategies, along with enhancing investor outreach, for a wide range of US public finance issuers. With over twenty years of experience in municipal credit analysis, Ms. Stephens applies a deep knowledge of the high-grade and high-yield sectors to apprise clients of industry trends and developments. Previously the Senior Municipal Credit Strategist for the UBS Chief Investment Office, Ms. Stephens has shared her knowledge of municipal credit with UBS clients and financial advisors since 2008. Ms. Stephens earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Northwestern University, is a former chair of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York (MAGNY), served as a member of the Board of Governors of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA) from 2015-16, and was named a Rising Star by The Bond Buyer in 2016.
Sarah Snyder joined Ramirez & Co., Inc. as a Managing Director in February 2019. She has nearly 20 years of public finance experience working with a proven track record of developing client relationships, winning new business opportunities, evaluating issuer credit profiles and tailoring financial solutions. She currently oversees Ramirez’s banking efforts in the southeast and various mid-Atlantic states. She has led as senior manager over $15 billion of municipal bond transactions for many of the largest issuers across the country. Throughout her experience, she has worked diligently with clients in presenting their credits which has led to numerous rating agency upgrades and introduction of credits to new investors. She works closely with issuers to finance resiliency projects and green infrastructure projects. Sarah is an active Board Member of the Pennsylvania and Florida chapters for Women in Public Finance. She was awarded the Bond Buyer “Rising Star” award in 2017 and the Northeast Women in Public Finance Trailblazer Award in 2021.