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Analyst Team

Thomas Doe
Founder, CEO

Matt Fabian
Managing Director

Timothy Holler
CFA, COO

Steve McLaughlin
Managing Director

Matt Posner
Director

Lisa Washburn
Managing Director


MUNICIPAL MARKET ADVISORS
Municipal Market Advisors (MMA) is an independent research firm based in Concord, Massachusetts, founded in 1995. MMA’s core business is to provide strategic analysis and commentary on historical and quantitative conditions of the US municipal market. The firm also provides in-depth analysis of critical issues confronting the municipal industry. MMA has played a prominent role in the media to inform the general public regarding issues in the industry as well as in Washington DC, interacting as an educational resource and consultant to lawmakers, lobbyists, regulators and think tanks.

Over 300 organizations receive MMA’s research. MMA’s clients include leading investment firms, banks, security dealers, financial advisors, issuers and regulators. MMA is proud to have the Securities Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Pew Foundation as clients. We also maintain relationships with staff members at a number of influential organizations including: National Governors Association, Government Finance Officers Association, Council of Economic Advisers, Government Accounting Standards Board, SIFMA and several regional Federal Reserve Banks.

MMA has regularly testified or presented on issues affecting the municipal market. In addition to many municipal industry sponsored events, MMA has testified or presented at the following recent events:

  • U.S. Senate Committee on Finance: Financing 21st Century Infrastructure (May 17, 2011)
  • U.S. Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, Subcommittee on Healthcare, D.C., Census & the National Archives: DC FY 2012 Budget: Ensuring Fiscal Sustainability (May 12, 2011)
  • National Governors Association: Economic Development & Commerce Committee (February 27, 2011)
  • U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Second Field Hearing on State of Municipal Securities Market (December 7, 2010)
  • U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs: Enhancing Investor Protection & the Regulation of Securities Markets (March 10, 2009)
Over 200 media outlets have cited MMA for its independent and credible assessment of market conditions and issues. Influential print, television and radio organizations such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg (print, radio and television), The Bond Buyer, CNBC, Fox News and NPR, routinely reach out to the firm for insights on key municipal issues and/or to better understand the impact of events on the market.

MMA personnel have been selected to a variety of leadership roles in the municipal industry including the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, National Federation of Municipal Analysts and Municipal Analyst Group of New York.

Thomas Doe Thomas G. Doe, Founder, CEO
Mr. Doe has addressed all the leading groups in the municipal industry. His insight, integrity, candor and historical context is sought to establish a clear perspective of current conditions impacting investors and issuers in the municipal cash and derivative markets. In March 2009, Mr. Doe testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the future of municipal regulation and the state of the industry and in December 2010, he appeared before the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide insight on the market’s stability and liquidity. On January 20, 2011, he represented the industry in a CNBC interview to accurately define market credit risks in response to Meredith Whitney’s dire municipal default projection. Also in 2011, Mr. Doe had the honor of addressing the National Governors Association’s winter meeting regarding the state of public finance. Mr. Doe writes MMA’s daily Strategist and monthly Advisor publications.

Between 2002 and 2005, Mr. Doe served a 3-year term as a public member on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), the regulatory entity of the municipal securities industry.

Prior to founding MMA, he managed Municipal Market Data (MMD), a division of the Thomson Corporation. Mr. Doe was an analyst at MMD from 1984 to 1994, where he specialized in the firm’s risk management consulting group.

Mr. Doe received his undergraduate degree from Colgate University in 1980 and a Master’s from Harvard University in 1984.  top

Matt Fabian Matt Fabian, Managing Director
Mr. Fabian is a Managing Director for MMA. Mr. Fabian has been a municipal analyst for eighteen years and is the lead author of MMA’s Weekly Outlook and a contributor to the Advisor.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Fabian spent two-and-a-half years as the lead municipal research analyst for UBS and headed up a group within UBS Wealth Management Research, the award-winning division of 150 analysts and economists supporting the company’s $1.3 trillion in invested wealth management assets. Mr. Fabian was the prime resource on municipal bond research for the UBS network of nearly 7,500 US financial advisors, while also advising the company’s institutional trading and investment-banking clients. Mr. Fabian was also a research analyst with the UBS Municipal Securities Group for three years, an underwriting analyst with a municipal bond insurer for four years, and a municipal rating analyst with Moody’s Investors Service for three years.

Mr. Fabian was chairman of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York (MAGNY) in 2010-2011 and is on the Board of Governors of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA). He has been a featured speaker at numerous industry conferences on a wide range of topics, including investing strategy, demographic trends, bond insurance, tax reform, derivatives, defaults, state governments, and tobacco bonds. He is also a contributing editor for the Municipal Finance Journal.

Mr. Fabian has a Master’s of Public Administration degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and undergraduate degree from Penn State. He has current Series 7, 63, and 16 NASD licenses.  top

Timothy Holler, CFA COO
Timothy R. Holler is head of quantitative research and technology and COO at Municipal Market Advisors (MMA).  Mr. Holler's primary responsibilities include researching portfolio and trading strategies, and ensuring the efficiency and integrity of MMA’s database and MMA’s Consensus yield data.

Mr. Holler also leads and develops the research used in risk management and trading modeling. Mr. Holler’s emphasis is on developing computer-programmed systematic trading/investment systems.  Mr. Holler places a premium on the rigorous historical testing of systems, a discipline that involves analyzing performance in the context of evolving market conditions.

Prior to joining MMA in July 1995, Mr. Holler worked at Municipal Market Data as a Research Analyst from June 1993.  Mr. Holler began his investment career in June 1992 in the mutual fund department of the Boston Company.

Mr. Holler holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and attained the CFA designation in September 2002. top

Steve McLaughlin, Managing Director, Business & Client Analytics
As Managing Director, Business & Client Analytics, Mr. McLaughlin is responsible for MMA's customer interaction functions with a primary focus on educating customers and market participants of the daily use of MMA's analysis and market coverage.

Mr. McLaughlin has over 21 years of professional municipal bond experience and expertise with proven success managing, selling, trading and marketing municipal, taxable fixed income and derivative solutions to the Nation’s top institutions and ultra high net worth families.

Prior to joining MMA, Mr. McLaughlin served a Director and Head of Institutional Municipal Bond Distribution at Bank of New York Capital Markets. Additionally, he has been affiliated with: First Union Capital Markets, New York, as Managing Director of Institution Municipals; Bank One Capital Markets, New York, as Managing Director in Municipal Debt Capital Markets; and JP Morgan, New York as VP of Municipal Capital Markets where he was responsible for cash and derivative solutions distribution. top

Matt Posner, Director, Legislative Coordinator
Mr. Posner produces MMA’s intraday INSIGHT report and the close of day EDGE report. INSIGHT, published three times a day, combines experienced observations of primary and secondary municipal market activity. The report provides candid coverage of the daily ebb and flow of activity presented both in a historical context and complemented by quotes from leading participants in the industry. INSIGHT is also Blackberry-friendly to provide timely and accurate reflection of market activity to keep money management and public finance professional’s current when meeting with prospects and clients. EDGE is presented at the end of each trading session in an easier-to-digest format on the day’s market events and is geared to those not involved in day-to-day market activity. The report also makes general predictions on the future of the market and sums up weekly statistics that affect market events. It is geared toward individual investors and the issuer community.

Since 2008, the municipal industry has seen extraordinary interest from the regulatory community and policymakers in Washington, D.C. To satisfy intelligent coverage of policy changes and how they affect the industry, Mr. Posner spends time meeting with members of Congress, the U.S. Treasury Department and those in the regulatory entities to help advise on proposals shaping the industry. top

Lisa Washburn, Managing Director
Ms. Washburn is a Managing Director for MMA. She has been a municipal analyst for over 20 years and leads the firm’s client credit education and screening services and is a contributing author to MMA’s Weekly Outlook.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Washburn was at Moody’s Investors Service for 20 years. From 2005 through 2011 she was a Managing Director in the Public Finance Group. Ms. Washburn has extensive experience in the analysis of municipal bonds covering a wide variety of sectors in the market. During her tenure at Moody’s, Ms. Washburn managed a number of ratings teams including Southwest Local Governments, Housing and State Revolving Funds, and Municipal Structured Products. She was a member of several senior level credit policy committees including Public Finance, Structured Finance and Public, Project and Infrastructure Finance. Additionally, Ms. Washburn led a number of the company’s high profile initiatives related to municipal bond default analysis and ratings comparability, including the 2010 Municipal Rating Recalibration and the rating agency’s first published municipal default study. She utilized her analytical and project management skills to work alongside Product Strategy to develop and launch the first generation of Moody’s Municipal Financial Ratio Analysis product (MFRA).

Ms. Washburn has been a member of the Board of Governors of the NFMA since 2008. She is a member of the organization’s Executive Board, Co-Chair of the Industry Practices Committee and an active member of the Education Committee. Ms. Washburn is also a member of MAGNY.

Ms. Washburn has an undergraduate degree in finance from Lehigh University. She also passed all sections of the Certified Management Accountants exam in 1989.  top

© 2012 Municipal Market Advisors: 978-287-0139