Speaker Bios
BLX Group LLC
Alan Bond
Managing Director – New York, NY
Mr. Bond serves as Managing Director of BLX’s New York office. In addition to overseeing the day-to-day activities of the BLX professionals located in New York, Mr. Bond is responsible for BLX’s Post-Issuance Tax Compliance practice. In this role Mr. Bond manages the business development and production efforts relating to Private Use and Schedule K related services. Mr. Bond has been a featured panelist at numerous conferences across the country discussing the importance of post-issuance tax compliance reporting requirements for 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. Mr. Bond has personally served as a project manager for many of BLX’s largest clients.
Mr. Bond joined BLX in 1997. Prior to joining BLX, he was an Assistant Vice President with the Public Finance Department of Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, Inc. (now RBC Capital Markets) in Dallas, Texas, providing Rebate Services to many large issuers in the Southwest from 1993 to 1997.
Mr. Bond is a graduate of Southern Methodist University where he received a BA in Finance, and is a member of the Government Finance Officers Association. Mr. Bond is an Investment Advisor representative holding the Series 65 registration.
Glenn Casterline
Managing Director – Los Angeles, CA
Mr. Casterline serves as Managing Director for BLX’s Los Angeles office. With 25 years of public finance experience Mr. Casterline applies his expertise to BLX’s financial advisory, investment advisory, interest rate swap advisory, and arbitrage rebate compliance services. He has served as financial advisor in connection with debt financings for the California Science Center, Colburn School of the Performing Arts, Sanford Burnham Prebys Discovery research Institute, Coastal Academy Charter School, and Camino Nuevo Charter School. During his 20+ years of public finance experience, Glenn has reviewed and reverse engineered just about every type of public finance structure: fixed rate, variable rate, variable rate swapped to fixed, fixed rate direct purchase, and variable rate direct purchase. Mr. Casterline also serves as manager for many of BLX’s largest compliance engagements including City of Long Beach, County of Riverside, and City and County of Denver including Denver International Airport.
Mr. Casterline is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton, where he received a BA in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance. Mr. Casterline is a registered Municipal Advisor representative and Investment Advisor representative holding the Series 50 and Series 65 registrations.
Jeff Higgins
Managing Director – Los Angeles, CA
Jeff serves as Managing Director at the Los Angeles office of BLX. With more than 24 years of public finance experience, Mr. Higgins currently serves as manager for many of BLX’s most sophisticated issuers, including Energy Northwest, Piedmont Municipal Power Agency, State of South Carolina, University of California, State of Hawaii and its agencies, and the City and County of Honolulu. In addition to heading up BLX’s Municipal Continuing Disclosure practice area, Mr. Higgins also has significant experience with financial advisory services for unique and complex transactions.
Mr. Higgins is a graduate of Arizona State University where he received a BS in Finance. He is a registered Municipal Advisor representative and Investment Advisor representative holding the Series 50 and Series 65 registrations.
Amy Kron
Senior Investment Officer – New York, NY
Amy is a Senior Investment Officer for the Structured Products Group at BLX. In addition, Amy has recently expanded her focus by assisting our Post Issuance Compliance Services Group (PIC) in New York. She joined the firm in 2000 upon BLX’s acquisition of Fund Service Advisors (FSA), where she began her career as an associate in 1993.
Amy’s structured product responsibilities include the preparation and distribution of the majority of BLX’s bid solicitation materials. She is the primary liaison with the investment provider community in New York and surrounding areas. She has extensive experience in determining investment suitability, and reviewing and drafting permitted investments language for a variety of transactions. Her connection to the provider community keeps her abreast of changes in the market, new investment opportunities, and current news relating to the municipal reinvestment market.
Amy’s responsibilities within the PIC group range from the preparation of Schedule K Forms (i.e., attachments to Form 990) to the measurement of private use over the term of tax-exempt bonds for 501(c)(3) organizations and municipalities to ensure compliance with the full spectrum of their post-issuance requirements.
Ms. Kron holds a BS in Business Administration from Ithaca College School of Business and a MBA from Fordham University. She is a registered Municipal Advisor representative and Investment Advisor representative holding the Series 50 and Series 65 registrations.
Caleb Lansky
Managing Director – New York, NY
Mr. Lansky joined BLX in January 2007 and serves as Managing Director of the New York office. He began his BLX career specializing in the preparation of complex arbitrage rebate analyses and providing tailored debt advisory services and calculations to state and local governments and 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.
Currently, Mr. Lansky is responsible for co-managing BLX’s Post-Issuance Compliance practice group. He also serves as project manager for BLX’s largest post-issuance compliance clients, including the Art Institute of Chicago, California Institute of Technology, and Pacific Retirement Services. He has played a key role in constructing the analytical and quantitative models used by the Post-Issuance Compliance group and led the development of BLX SKAN, a web-based service from BLX designed to assist nonprofit organizations in navigating the complexities of the new Schedule K of IRS Form 990.
Mr. Lansky holds a BA from Syracuse University and an MS from New York University.
Sandra Stallings
COO/Managing Director – Dallas, TX
With more than 28 years of arbitrage and public finance experience, Ms. Stallings is a senior member of the BLX management team, and serves as the Business Group Leader of BLX’s Compliance Services, which encompasses Arbitrage Rebate and Yield Restriction Compliance, Post-Issuance Compliance, Secondary Market Disclosure and Program Administration Services. She is responsible for all aspects of project management, client services, work quality and the overall operations of the compliance and consulting services nationwide, overseeing production in the Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Tampa, and New York offices.
In addition to her management responsibilities, Ms. Stallings is an industry leader in monitoring compliance as it relates to tax-exempt financings for all types of issuers of municipal bonds. Her expertise, which includes the highly complicated areas of student loan and housing bond structures, is enhanced by her close working relationship with Orrick Tax Partners.
Ms. Stallings joined BLX’s predecessor organization, the Financial Services Group of Orrick in 1999 as part of the acquisition of the Arbitrage Rebate Consulting Group of Dain Rauscher Incorporated (Dain). From 1994 through 1999, as Vice President and Manager, she was responsible for the oversight of the Dain Group. For the five years between 1989 and 1994, she directed the daily functions of the Arbitrage Rebate Services Group at First Southwest Company, and was instrumental in the establishment of that practice.
From 1986 to 1989, Ms. Stallings was associated with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. where she performed audits of bank holding companies and Federal Reserve branches respectively.
Ms. Stallings is a graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University where she obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business administration with an emphasis in Finance.
Ms. Stallings is a registered Municipal Advisor representative and Investment Advisor representative holding the Series 50 and Series 65 registrations. She has also previously served as a registered representative holding a FINRA Series 7 license from 1990 to 2015. Ms. Stallings is an associate member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and a member of the Government Finance Officers Association.
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Todd Brewer
Partner – Houston, TX
Todd Brewer has extensive public finance experience in all areas of tax exempt transactions. He has acted as bond counsel, bank counsel, underwriter’s counsel, trustee’s counsel, letter of credit providers counsel and borrowers counsel in transactions for traditional governmental entities, nonprofit organizations and private entities.
Todd also devotes a significant portion of his practice to the representation of banks and other financial institutions in connection with direct purchases of tax-exempt bonds and the issuance of letters of credit and other liquidity facilities in connection with tax-exempt transactions.
In addition, Todd has extensive experience in the representation of both governmental entities and private parties in connection with economic development projects and major sports and entertainment facilities.
Richard Chirls
Tax Partner – New York, NY
Richard Chirls, a New York tax partner, focuses his practice on the tax aspects of public finance transactions. He has served as the head of Orrick’s nationally recognized Public Finance Tax Group.
With over 30 years of experience, Richard is widely recognized as one of the nation’s foremost authorities, having broad experience with tax exempt financings and related transactions involving governmental and not-for-profit entities. His expertise and stature in the public finance community was recognized by the National Association of Bond Lawyers’ highest award for his career of distinguished service in public finance.
Richard focuses on new products, including the development of new and creative financing techniques for governments, non-profits and investment bankers. He regularly works on transactions throughout the country. However, in his home office in New York City, he leads the relationship with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, serving as counsel on well over 100 transactions over a period of more than 20 years and has headed the tax work in connection with every financing of a cultural facility relating to museums and performing arts in New York City over this same period. Richard has worked on the tax aspects of several of the largest and most complex public private partnership (P3) transactions in recent years. He frequently acts as special tax counsel to issuers and underwriters of municipal finance issues.
Robyn Helmlinger
Partner – San Francisco, CA
For two decades, Robyn has been advising issuers, borrowers and underwriters involved in issuing municipal bonds, with a focus in the healthcare industry throughout the nation. She is the lawyer to whom chief financial officers and treasurers turn when they require expertise in implementing complex financings and debt programs, and to whom investment bankers turn when developing new financial structures or facing challenging disclosure scenarios.
Robyn regularly works with both established borrowers and first-time borrowers to assist with structuring and restructuring debt programs that encompass a wide variety of debt and derivative products. In 2015, Robyn led the team that represented a private fund in connection with financing the management transfer of a multi-hospital nonprofit healthcare system to a subsidiary of the private fund, including negotiations with existing creditors. The financing involved an innovative bond structure that balanced current and future committed liquidity needs and debt burden. Robyn is also continually recognized for her excellent and sound judgment with respect to disclosure issues, including the difficult disclosure decisions caused by financial pressures from healthcare reform, affiliation activities, pension liabilities, governmental inquiries and investigations, labor disputes and qualified audit opinions.
In 2013, Robyn was elected a Fellow of the American College of Bond Counsel. She is one of the founding members of the Northern California Chapter of Women in Public Finance and currently serves as its Vice President (National Coordinator). As a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, Robyn has been a panelist on the Health Care Financing Panel at the annual conference in 2003, 2004 and 2006. She is also a member of the American Health Lawyers Association.
Barbara League
Tax Partner – Houston, TX
Barbara provides tax advice in connection with tax-exempt financing transactions for cities, counties, states, school districts, charter schools, housing authorities, higher education authorities, state agencies and other tax-exempt organizations.
She also has significant experience representing nonprofit organizations. Formerly an attorney with the Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, Barbara has represented clients before the IRS in a variety of matters involving tax-exempt bonds, including audits and private letter ruling requests. She has participated in all facets of the tax analysis associated with the issuance of governmental purpose bonds, certain tax credit bonds, qualified 501(c)(3) bonds, qualified residential rental bonds and qualified small issue bonds.
Barbara has served on the Steering Committee and has chaired the Working Capital panel and the Bond Direct Purchase – Advanced Tax Topics panel for the Bond Attorneys’ Workshop, the oldest and largest annual gathering of bond lawyers.
Jenna Magan
Partner – Sacramento, CA
Jenna Magan is the co-chair of Orrick’s Public Finance Department and is a partner in the Sacramento office. She has completed several hundred public finance transactions, providing her with a broad expertise in a number of public finance practice areas.
Jenna has worked on virtually all structures available in public finance, including fixed and variable, tax-exempt and taxable, insured (including FHA mortgage insurance), letter of credit (including FHLB wraps) and liquidity supported bonds, conversions, restructurings and reofferings, senior/subordinate, capital appreciation and convertible capital appreciation bonds, securitizations, project finance, direct purchases, bank-qualified transactions and 144A offerings.
Since joining Orrick in 1992, Jenna has acted as bond, disclosure, underwriter’s, bank/direct purchaser’s and issuer’s counsel for many types of transactions including: Healthcare, Senior Living and Other 501(c)(3) Financings; Local Government Lease, Enterprise (Water, Wastewater, Airport, Solid Waste), Pension Obligation and Short-Term Financings; State of California Bond Financings; Hotel Financings; Tobacco Securitization Financings; Swap Agreements; and Post-Issuance Compliance.
Ed Oswald
Tax Partner – Washington, D.C.
Edwin Oswald, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office, is a member of the Tax Group. Ed’s practice concentrates in the taxation of municipal finance including healthcare, charter schools, public power, higher education and non-profit issues, housing financing, airports and refinancings.
His practice also includes advising on post-issuance tax compliance matters including working with non-profit borrowers of tax-exempt bonds on new IRS Schedule K annual reporting matters.
He served in the Office of Tax Legislative Counsel at U.S .Treasury Department, where he developed policy, legislative initiatives and regulations affecting public finance and structured finance.
Aviva Roth
Senior Career Associate – Washington, D.C.
Aviva Roth is a career associate in the Washington, D.C., office and a member of the Tax Group. She focuses her practice on the taxation of municipal finance.
Aviva has experience in governmental and exempt facility bonds, including general governmental facilities, 501(c)(3) bonds, tobacco asset securitizations, capital funds financing, arbitrage and post-issuance compliance relating to private use issues.
Prior to joining Orrick, she was a docket attorney at the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel where she drafted regulations, notices and private letter rulings.
Larry Sobel
Tax Partner – Los Angles, CA/Houston, TX
Larry Sobel, is a tax partner in the Los Angeles and Houston offices. Larry has more than 35 years of experience in federal tax laws and regulations relating to all types of tax-exempt financings, particularly public power, private activity bonds such as airport facilities, colleges and universities and hospitals and exempt organizations and advance refundings issues.
As both bond counsel and underwriter’s counsel, he has been responsible for structuring and analyzing the tax aspects of many tax-exempt financings throughout the country.
Larry has extensive experience in handling IRS audits of bond transactions. He has represented issuers in dozens of audits all of which have ended favorably either with the IRS issuing a “no change” letter or by negotiating a reasonable settlement when needed. Larry also has handled a number of submissions under the IRS’ Voluntary Closing Agreement Program (or VCAP). The two most recent VCAP submissions represented cases of first impression for the IRS; one involving an issue of qualified energy conservation bonds relating to determining the amount of those bonds eligible for the federal subsidy; the other involved the plan to convert a “new money” bond issue into an advance refunding (which did not meet all of the requirements for a tax-exempt advance refunding). Both cases ultimately were resolved on the original terms proposed to the IRS.
Larry has also been instrumental in developing new financing techniques and structures. He first devised the tax structure and analysis for, and has served as tax counsel on, Orrick’s tax exempt tobacco revenue securitizations. He has developed the tax structure on numerous tax-exempt prepayments for natural gas for municipal utilities both within and outside of California.
Guest Speakers
Eileen Solla-Diaz
Managing Director – Debt Capital Markets TD Securities
Eileen is a Managing Director in Debt Capital Markets and responsible for the Public Finance and Supranational, Sovereign, Agency (“SSA”) Origination businesses. In delivering innovative solutions to clients, Eileen has been involved in a number of landmark transactions, including Sustainable Bond offerings and inaugural Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) index transactions from SSA and Municipal borrowers. Eileen has been a leader in the LIBOR transition efort, working closely to educate issuers, investors and internal partners.
She joined TD Securities in July 2009 as one of five people hired to build out the broker-dealer in New York. In her previous role at TD, Eileen managed a team in U.S. Rates Sales responsible for selling Fixed Income products (U.S. Treasuries, Agencies, SSAs, and Covered Bonds) to a variety of clients including Regional Dealers, Insurance Companies, Asset Managers, Central Banks, State Funds, and Middle Markets accounts.
Eileen began her career at J.P. Morgan in 1992 in Corporate Syndicate. She quickly became immersed in a trading career and was a U.S. Treasury and Agency Trader for several years. She also managed the Agency new issue books and traded callable Agency securities at the peak of the GSE market. Eileen joined Bear Stearns in 2002 to build out a Global Frequent Borrowers Debt Capital Markets business. She was the Senior Relationship Manager for all the U.S. Agency and the Supra / Sovereign clients for the firm.
Eileen was the founder and Chair for Women in Leadership (WIL) U.S. for TD Securities for several years. She also is an active member of TD Securities’ Minorities in Leadership (MIL) organization. Eileen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance from Pace University. She is married with two children. Eileen recently founded a non-profit called Partners in Hearing and has been an advocate and mentor for the Hearing Loss community for many years.
John C. Kotwicki, CPA
Assistant Vice President for Tax and Special Assistant to the Vice President for Finance – Georgetown University
John was appointed to this position in September 2012. In this role, John oversees the University’s tax reporting and communications, both internally to the University’s financial community, including the Financial Affairs website, as well as communications to Board committees, and project planning and management.
John joined the University in 1999, filling various positions within the Division of Financial Affairs, most recently as Director of Tax.
Prior to joining Georgetown University John worked in public accounting having started his career with Grant Thornton, LLP.
John received Bachelor of Science degrees in both Management and Accounting from George Mason University. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Stephen Gilmore (Steve)
Senior Director, Treasury – Ascension Health Alliance
Steve Gilmore leads the Treasury Center of Expertise for Ascension, as Senior Director, Treasury, with primary responsibility for the system’s centralized debt financing, equipment leasing and banking/cash management. Mr. Gilmore is responsible for the administration and ongoing development of the system’s $7.5 billion centralized debt program, including direct transaction team participation in the issuance of over $16 billion tax-exempt and taxable healthcare revenue bonds over a 25-year period. Other areas of responsibility include post-issuance compliance, lines of credit, self-liquidity, arbitrage rebate, commercial paper program, interest rate swaps, investor relations, centralized equipment leasing procurement, bank management, letters of credit program and overall debt compliance function.
After spending 5 years in the early to mid-1990s with regional investment banking firms focused on municipal bond origination and financial advisory services, Mr. Gilmore joined one of Ascension’s predecessor organizations, the Daughters of Charity National Health System, in 1995. He was closely involved in the formation of Ascension Health’s original capital structure, and has experienced increasing responsibility with the continued evolution of the system’s capital structure.
He earned a BSBA degree inf Finance-Economics from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, graduating with honors in 1989.
Thomas N. Tight (Tom)
Managing Director – Public Trust Advisors LLC
Tom is a Managing Director for Public Trust Advisors (PTA) where he leads the firm’s investment advisory practice. PTA provides short duration investment advisory and management services to State and local governments. PTA currently manages over $38 billion in assets on behalf of its public sector clients.
Tom works closely with clients to provide portfolio strategy solutions based on their unique investment guidelines, cash flows, and risk tolerances. He also serves as a liaison between the client and the Portfolio Management and Credit Research teams. His specific areas of expertise include investment program implementation with a full-scope treasury management approach; public finance debt transactions and bond proceeds investment strategies; development of customized cash flow models and creating tailored investment policies and guidelines for public sector clients.
Prior to joining PTA, Tom worked at Cutwater Asset Management for ten years where he was responsible for business development nationwide and specialized in public sector and insurance company asset management solutions. He also worked in the fixed-income sector for both UBS PaineWebber and A.G. Edwards & Sons where he specialized in fixed-income portfolio management, structured fixed-income products, and public finance transactions.
Tom received both a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Master of Business Administration from St. Louis University. He is a corporate affiliate member for the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST), a member of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), and a member of the State Finance Officers Foundation (SFOF). Tom most recently spoke about cash management and investments at the 2018 NAST Treasury Management Symposium and numerous 2019 GFOA chapter training seminars regarding Treasury and Investment Management.
