The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) announced recently that Gary Hall, Senior Managing Director, National Head of Investment Banking and equity partner at Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co., LLC, will serve as Chair of the Board of Directors of the MSRB. Edward J. Sisk, Managing Director, Head of Public Finance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, will serve as Vice Chair.
Chair-Elect Hall has been a member of the governing board of the municipal securities market regulator since 2015 and currently leads its Finance Committee and is a member of the Steering Committee. Hall will be the first African-American to chair the MSRB Board. He says his perspective on the municipal securities market has been uniquely shaped by his personal experiences.
“Growing up in public housing, attending public schools and receiving public grants to fund my college and law school education, I am a huge beneficiary of the public sector and public assistance,” Hall said. “As the self-regulatory organization that safeguards the $3.8 trillion industry that funds infrastructure projects for public housing, schools and universities, the MSRB plays a critical role in ensuring that this market continues to serve the public interest. Serving as the next MSRB Chair is so personally gratifying and a way for me to pay homage to the public sector that has served me so well.”
At Siebert, the largest minority-owned municipal finance and underwriting firm, Hall is responsible for managing all bankers and leading the firm’s execution strategy for business development with municipal bond underwriting, origination and financial advisory services nationwide. A Chicago native, Hall’s professional career spans over 25 years and includes positions in government, law and investment banking. Prior to joining Siebert, Hall was an executive director in the public finance – investment banking group of JPMorgan Securities LLC. Earlier he was a member of the merger and acquisitions group of Banc One Capital Markets Inc., and practiced law in the corporate finance department of Gardner, Carton and Douglas (now Drinker, Biddle and Reath). Hall worked for the U.S. Department of Treasury as a White House Fellow under President Bill Clinton and in the Mayor’s Office of Budget and Management for the City of Chicago. Hall is a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Chicago Harris Public Policy School’s Center for Municipal Finance, the Executive Committee of the Bay Area Council and a trustee for the Head-Royce School in Oakland. Hall received a bachelor’s degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Vice Chair-Elect Ed Sisk has been an MSRB Board member since 2017 and currently serves on the Nominating and Governance Committee, and chairs the Market Structure Advisory Group. He is Managing Director, Head of Public Finance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he leads a team of investment bankers responsible for municipal underwriting in the United States. Sisk has 30 years of municipal market and legal experience. He previously led municipal structured products, direct lending, money market trading and new product development at Merrill Lynch. Prior to those positions, he was an attorney at Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon working with municipal issuers and underwriters. Mr. Sisk received a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and a law degree from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law.
The MSRB Board of Directors, which has 11 independent public members and 10 members from firms regulated by the MSRB, including broker-dealers, banks and municipal advisors, establishes regulatory policies and oversees the operations of the MSRB, the principal regulator of the municipal securities market.