PFM Group Names Seven New Managing Directors

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- PFM Group, one of the nation's leading providers of independent financial and investment advisory services to state and local governments as well as not-for-profit institutions, announced today that seven Senior Managing Consultants have been promoted to Managing Directors of the firm. PFM CEO F. John White announced the promotions of Mike Berwanger, Bob Cheddar, Todd Fraizer, John Molloy, Bethany Pugh, Peter Shellenberger and Dennis Waley. Mr. Berwanger is based in the firm's Los Angeles office; Mssrs. Cheddar and Molloy in Harrisburg, PA; Mr. Frazier is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina; Ms. Pugh works in the firm's Cleveland, Ohio office, Mr. Shellenberger is headquartered in PFM's San Francisco Office, and Mr. Waley is based in Austin, Texas.

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"This is a distinguished group of individuals who have proven their value to the firm by their outstanding contributions to our clients' success and to PFM's growth and development," Mr. White said. "We are certain they will continue to be major assets to PFM as we build for the future," he added.

Mike Berwangerjoined PFM's Public Power financial advisory practice in 2007 after working for several years as an investment banker in the public power area.  He is the firm's Public Power business leader on the West Coast and has made strong contributions to the development of a complementary water and wastewater practice in Southern California. In addition, he has become the firm's renewable energy expert on a national basis, based on PFM's experience with clients in the West who are the vanguard of this movement. He has expanded PFM's business with very high profile clients such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and City of San Diego water, and has formed meaningful relationships with clients in California and throughout the public power industry. Mike also assists general government clients such as the Cities of Anaheim, Long Beach and San Diego. Going forward, the firm expects that he will expand PFM's western power business geographically to areas such as the Pacific Northwest and Colorado, and also into the developing renewable energy businesses of wind power and solar development. A graduate of  Pace University in New York with a major in Finance and a minor in Economics,  Mike lives in Redondo Beach with his wife, Kelly.

Bob Cheddar, a Senior Portfolio Manager in PFM's Harrisburg, PA office, joined PFM six years ago and currently manages PFM client assets of over $6 billion, including operating funds, capital reserves, bond proceeds and post-employment benefit obligation (OPEB) funds. A holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation,  Bob also serves as PFM's Chief Credit Officer and Chairman of PFM's Credit Committee. He is responsible for managing client assets in separate portfolios for cities, counties, insurance and self-insurance organizations, school districts, state and local government agencies, public finance authorities and universities across the country, supporting client service efforts in 16 states from New York to California. He also makes frequent appearances at national industry workshops, speaking on topics such as managing credit risk, portfolio strategy and the economy. In 2008, Bob received the firm's Peter Dilks Hero Award for his work on PFM's Credit Committee.  Bob Cheddar holds his Bachelor of Science degree from Susquehanna University and an MBA from Pennsylvania State University and lives in Elizabethtown, PA with his wife Denise and daughter Cassidy.

Todd Fraizer leads PFM's Pricing Group, which provides pricing resources and negotiation support for PFM's clients nationwide to assure that clients receive the best service from Wall Street underwriting desks when they sell bonds. In this position, he helps PFM provide a significant edge over the competition in the larger, more complex negotiated transaction section of the tax exempt market. PFM's Pricing Group is involved in almost half of the nearly 1,000 transactions that PFM handled in 2010 as financial advisor, and since 2006, Todd Frazier has assisted in the pricing of transactions totaling over $100 billion of municipal bonds for PFM issuer clients. Prior to his leadership of the Pricing Group, Todd was a Senior Managing Consultant in PFM's Memphis Financial Advisory practice.  Before joining PFM in 2005, Todd was Vice President of Finance for the Kansas Development Finance Authority, serving as the primary project manager for over $2 billion of general purpose, higher education, pension obligation, and transportation transactions.  Previously, he was an options trader at the KansasBoard of Trade. Based in PFM's Charlotte, NC office, Fraizer has a BA in English Literature from the University of Kansas and an MBA in Finance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a CFA charter holder, as well as a member of the CFA Institute and the Charlotte Society of Financial Analysts.

John Molloy's career in finance and investment spans nearly 20 years. He joined PFM eight years ago as a Senior Managing Consultant in the Harrisburg office and is currently one of the lead professionals on both the Pennsylvania Local Government Investment Trust (PLGIT) and the MassDevelopment STAR Fund investment pools for PFM Asset Management (PFMAM). He also works closely with PFM's pension advisory business and serves as a member of the firm's Investment Committee.  John is charged with managing PFM's new PennsylvaniaOPEB (Other Post Employment Benefits) Trust Program, an extension of PFMAM's mature Pennsylvania

investment programs. PFM is among the nation's leading OPEB managers, with more than $1 billion in assets. Prior to joining PFM, John worked for twelve years in the institutional investment area. A holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, John received his Bachelor's degree with dual majors in Economics & Business and Government & Law from Lafayette College in Easton, PA, and his MBA from Cornell University. He lives in Enola, PA with wife Shannon and their three children.

Bethany Pugh leads PFM's Ohio practice, working with both the financial advisory and strategic consulting sectors. In addition, she serves clients in the higher education and cultural institution marketplaces, and has brought structured products to PFM clients in Ohio as well. In fact, through her work with PFM in Ohio over the past thirteen years, Bethany has built one of the most diverse practices at PFM, and the confidence clients place in her has led to PFM's being a lead advisor in the state of Ohio for the past eleven years.  Her clients include the Ohio Public Facilities Commission, the Treasurer of the State of Ohio, the City of Cincinnati, ToledoPublic Schools, Kent State University, Cuyahoga County, and the greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. She is an active participant in Women in Public Finance, having served as an Executive Board Member from 2003-2005 and is currently involved in the newly established Ohio chapter of the national organization.Bethany joined PFM in 1998 after receiving her BA in Economics from Harvard University. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Peter Shellenberger has been with PFM for nearly ten years, joining the firm in the Arlington, VA office and moving to California in 2005 to help develop PFM's West Coast transportation practice. As a senior member of PFM's national transportation team, Peter advises a wide range of clients throughout the U.S. These clients include the Transportation Authorities of  Sacramento, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin, the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, New Mexico DOT, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Caltrain, among others.  Over the last decade at PFM, Peter Shellenberger has managed over $8 billion in financings, involving new money issuance, refundings, fixed rate, variable rate and derivative product implementation. He joined The PFM Group from a major consulting firm, where he also worked in the transportation field. Peter received his Masters in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, and his BA in Philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley.  He lives in Oakland with his wife Johanna and daughter Isabel.  

Dennis Waley has worked in PFM's financial advisory business since 2005 and helps lead the firm's efforts in the Southwest. In addition to managing PFM's relationships with the City of Austin and the City of Oklahoma City, Dennis serves a wide variety of clients both in Texas and throughout the southwest, including the City of Bryan, Texas, Bryan Texas Utilities, the City of Phoenix, Arizona, and the Turlock, CaliforniaIrrigation District. In addition to his Financial Advisory clients, Dennis has also helped PFM provide strategic consulting services to his clients and has been involved in marketing PFM's services in the transportation sector as well, including the Austin Airport and the Lone Star Rail District. Dennis is a former Treasurer of the City of Austin, where he was responsible for their $1.2 billion investment portfolio. Waley is a CPA and is the former President of the Government Treasurers of Texas and Chairman of their legislative committee. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, he lives in Austin, Texas. 

"Each of these new partners moves into position as PFM is set to embark on another landmark year," Mr. White, PFM's CEO, noted. "In 2010, PFM successfully retained its position as the leading financial advisor in the nation, and it is expected that the new managing directors will enable PFM to continue delivering even better client service in the years to come," he concluded.

PFM's more than 430 employees serve a broad base of clients from 34 offices located in every region of the country. The firm is well respected for providing clients with independent advisory services free of conflicts in their dealings with the capital markets. At year-end 2010, Public Financial Management was the top ranked financial advisor in almost every major category nationwide, advising on $57.5 billion of total debt in 988 separate transactions. PFM Asset Management LLC at December 31, 2010 had $40.4 billion in assets under management for state and local governments and non-profit institutions, and provided non-discretionary advice for an additional $2.3 billion in fixed income securities.  

SOURCE The PFM Group