2016 Bond Summit Review

Chuck Samuels, Member
Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC
Washington, D.C.

Chuck is a member practicing in the firm’s Washington office and is counsel to NAHEFFA (National Association of Health and Educational Facilities Finance Authorities). Before joining Mintz Levin, he practiced regulatory law with a firm in Chicago and then worked in the Executive Office of the President before entering private practice in Washington. Chuck is engaged in federal regulatory, legislative, and litigation practice. He has been extensively involved in legislative and regulatory representation, counseling, and litigation concentrating in tax-exempt bonds, health care, biotechnology and energy, resource recovery, and solid waste for a variety of trade associations, corporations, local governments, and state agencies. His practice also encompasses work before the IRS, Treasury, Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense and Energy, the Centers for Disease Control, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, OSHA, and other federal and state agencies. In addition, Chuck engages in trade association representation and antitrust counseling. Chuck is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Illinois and is a member of the District of Columbia and American Bar Associations. He received his B.A. (1975) and LL.B (1978) from the University of Virginia.

Michael J. Rock, Senior Associate Director, Federal Relations
American Hospital Association
Washington, D.C.

Mike Rock worked on Capitol Hill as staff assistant to United States Senator Roman Hruska from 1975 to 1977. He served as legislative assistant to U.S. Representative Charles Thone from 1977 until 1978, when Thone was elected Governor of Nebraska. From January 1979 to November 1984, Rock was legislative staff director to U.S. Representative Virginia Smith. Rock joined the American Hospital Association as a lobbyist in December 1984. He has covered the budget and appropriations committees of both Houses, the House Commerce committee, and the SenateCommittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He is currently responsible for the House Ways and Means committee and the Senate Finance Committee, specializing in Medicare, tax, capital financing, and health system reform issues.

John Hallacy, Managing Director, Public Finance
Assured Guaranty Corp.
New York, New York

As a Managing Director in Assured Guaranty’s Public Finance department, John has responsibilities in several important business development areas. He is a regular contributor to the company’s weekly municipal publication, develops and enhances the company’s retail marketing effort and supports new business origination. John has an extensive professional history, which encompasses both investment banking and bond insurance. His most recent position was as the Managing Director, Head of Municipal Research with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In addition to his highly regarded accomplishments as a sell-side municipal analyst, he has significant experience in the bond insurance industry. He helped to establish two bond insurance companies and ran underwriting groups at both FGIC and MBIA. He started his career with Standard & Poor’s, focusing on credit rating analysis across multiple sectors. A well-known speaker on topics related to the municipal market, he has also been ranked frequently in the Institutional Investor poll. The National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA) granted him its’ Award of Excellence in 2001. He graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University and has done graduate work at the University.

Michael Sudsina, President & CEO
Sudsina & Associates, LLC
Vermillion, Ohio

Mike provides municipal advisory and deal structuring services, plays an active role in the preparation of official statements for clients and regularly prepares issuers for credit rating presentations. His most critical role is providing pricing and structuring oversight to ensure onmarket pricing with the most flexible terms for his clients’ financings. He has served as municipal advisor or lead banker to over 100 cities, counties, schools and special districts in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Overall, as an independent municipal advisor, he has participated in nearly 500 financings amounting to approximately $4 billion in par value. Mike is one of only two Certified Independent Public Municipal Advisors in the State of Ohio, a certification bestowed upon only highly qualified professionals by the National Association of Municipal Advisors (NAMA). He has published articles on the topic of municipal finance and lectured to numerous academic and professional organizations. He has served on the Debt Policy Committee of the Association of Public Treasurers of the US and Canada, is a member of that organization and of the Government Finance Officers Association, the Cleveland Chapter of the Municipal Finance Officers Association, the Ohio Association of School Business Officials. Sudsina & Associates is a firm member of NAMA and Mike serves on NAMA’s Board of Directors as Vice President and Treasurer. Mike formed Sudsina & Associates in 2002, after 10 years with A.G. Edwards & Sons public finance group and as head of Fifth Third Securities’ Cleveland, Ohio public finance practice. Prior to his investment banking career, he held positions with Price Waterhouse, the City of Cleveland’s Finance and Economic Development Departments and the firm of Deloitte & Touche. He received his B.S. in Business Administration from The Ohio State University and MBA, with a concentration in finance, from Cleveland State University, holds a CPA certificate and has passed a variety of securities exams including the new Series 50 Pilot Exam for municipal advisors.

Stephen D. Slifer, Owner
NumberNomics
Charleston, South Carolina

Steve is currently the owner of NumberNomics, an economic forecasting firm based in Charleston, South Carolina. From 1980 until his retirement in 2003, he was the Chief U.S. Economist for Lehman Brothers in New York City. In that role, he directed the firm’s U.S. economics group and was responsible for the forecasts and analysis of the U.S. economy. Prior to that, he spent a decade as a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., forecasting growth in the money supply. He has written two books about the various economic indicators and how they can be used to forecast economic activity. He also writes a regular bi-weekly economics column for the Charleston Regional Business Journal. He has been widely quoted in press and on television, was voted the top economist by Institutional Investor Magazine five years in a row and was named as one of the top 100 “Faces to Watch in the Next Millennium” in 1997.