Stephen Hogan, Esq is a Senior Advisor of Saber Partners, LLC.

Mr. Hogan has been a practicing attorney for more than 40 years and brings his experience as a litigator in complex commercial matters to Saber Partners’ engagements in acting as an expert witness in securities dispute resolutions, particularly in the area of auction rate securities. While Mr. Hogan does not provide legal advice to Saber Partners or its clients, he adds a seasoned advocate’s perspective to the crafting of expert witness reports prepared for cases in Federal and State courts, as well as administrative proceedings, including FINRA arbitrations.

Being an expert witness in securities litigation requires having the unimpeachable knowledge and experience in difficult and complex areas of the law that can provide needed guidance to the triers of fact, be they judges, juries or arbitrators; and Saber Partners LLC is uniquely suited to this role by the combination of the unparalleled qualifications of its professionals coupled with its independence from larger institutions. But the arena for this particular work is the law, and it is here that Mr. Hogan adds his experience of years of dealing with complex commercial litigation, analyzing documentary evidence and witness testimony, and the crafting of legal advocacy.

Mr. Hogan began his legal career in 1975 at the New York firm Lord, Day & Lord as part of the antitrust department, working primarily on criminal and civil litigations. In 1986 the antitrust department left Lord, Day & Lord to join the litigation department of the New York office of the international law firm, Coudert Brothers. Mr. Hogan was a partner in the firm, specializing in white collar crime as well as commercial litigation. In 1995 Mr. Hogan left Coudert for the New York criminal defense firm Litman, Asche & Gioiella to specialize in the defense of white collar crime. In 2000 he co-founded the commercial litigation law firm Yeskoo Hogan & Tamlyn, LLP.

Mr. Hogan has been a member of the American Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, The New York State Bar Association, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he served on the Antitrust and Telecommunications Committees.

Mr. Hogan received a J.D. from New York University School of Law and was a cum laude graduate of Fordham College, with a B.A. in Philosophy. He and his wife live in Brooklyn and have two sons.

Senior Managing Director and Senior Advisor
Saber Partners, LLC
2003-Present

Energy Consultant
1994-2002
Member, Board of Directors of the California Power Exchange Corporation (CalPX).
Charter member of the American Arbitration Association’s National Energy Neutrals Panel.
Founding group and VP of Operations New Energy Ventures, the largest non-utility energy services provider.

Senior Vice President
Southern California Edison Company
1990-1993
Management Committee officer responsible for operations and support functions during a major strategic planning and re-engineering effort.

Vice President
Southern California Edison Company
1983-1990
Served in the following capacities:
• VP/Site Manager for the 3-unit San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
• VP-Advanced Engineering/R&D.
• VP-Customer Service.

Manager/Supervisor, Engineering & Construction and Fuel Supply Departments
Southern California Edison Company
1970-1983

Nuclear Submarine Officer
U.S. Navy
1963-1970

B.S., U.S. Naval Academy (Rickover selectee)
MBA, California State University, Fullerton (Phi Kappa Phi)

Senior Advisor
Saber Partners, LLC
2000-Present
Area of expertise and assignment responsibility includes financial modeling, and identification and quantification of transaction savings opportunities. Has provided expert sworn testimony on several transactions. Also, handles utility expense auditing where appropriate.

Board of Finance – Vice Chairman (elected)
Town of Ridgefield
2011 to 2016
The Board of Finance is responsible for protecting the financial integrity of the town by approving capital and operating budgets, and setting corresponding property tax rates. The town has an annual operating budget of over $126 million and over $90 million of AAA-rated municipal debt outstanding.

Member (elected) – Board of Education
2007-2011
The Board of Education presides over an operating budget in excess of $81 million. Mr. Sutherland served on various Committees, including Negotiating, Finance, Policy and Energy.

Director, Finance, Accounting & Systems
FPL Group and Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL)
FPL Energy Marketing & Trading
1997-1998
Created and implemented credit risk management procedures. Managed selection of trading and risk management software.

Assistant Treasurer and Manager of Corporate Finance
1991-1997
Wrote testimony and testified as expert witness in various regulatory proceedings. Completed over $2 billion of debt and equity financing for FPL, FPL Group, and FPL Group Capital. Executed various exotic and innovative financial transactions, such as an exchange offer of tax-deductible preferred stock for conventional retail preferred stock. Responsible for capital structure analysis, dividend policy and rating agency relations.

Interim Assistant Controller
1993-1994
Responsible for SEC and management reporting, and accounting research to ensure compliance with GAAP and other accounting standards.

Assistant Treasurer and Manager of Financial Analysis & Forecasting
1987-1991
Developed forecasting tools which saved FPL over $10 million in 1989 by identifying non-earning assets. Prepared testimony to the Florida Public Service Commission supporting cost of equity and financial integrity.

Manager of Utility Finance and Coordinator of Financial Systems
among other positions
1976-1984
Managed first electric utility use of variable rate tax exempt demand notes backed by bank letters of credit. Developed business plan and executed start-up of FPL Investments, an unregulated subsidiary engaged in leveraged leasing. Testified before subcommittee of U.S. House of Representatives regarding the economics of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion.

Controller, Industrial Products Division, Spain
The Singer Company
among other financial positions
1973-1975

Electrical Engineer, Brazil
U.S. Peace Corps
1969-1971
Rural electrification program. Fluent in Portuguese.

MBA (1973) in Finance from University of Chicago.
BS (1969) in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.

Senior Advisor
Saber Partners, LLC
2009-Present

Counsel to the Director/Chairman
Federal Housing Finance Board
2004-2009

Managing Director & Deputy General Counsel
Saber Partners, LLC
2002-2004

Associate Counsel
Pedestal Inc
2000-2001

Associate
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
1998-2000

Graduate Intern
World Trade Organization
1996

Assistant Economist
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
1992-1994.

Juris Doctor, Yale
Master in Public Affairs, Princeton
BA, Rutgers

Member of New York and District of Columbia bars
Lives in Alexandria, Virginia
Married to Julie Bosland, 3 children

Senior Advisor
Saber Partners, LLC
2011-Present

Vice President—Internal Audit
Maimonides Medical Center
2006-2018

Consolidated Edison Company, Inc.
1971 to 2006

Vice President—Corporate Planning and Investor Relations
2000 to 2006

• Strategic planning for corporation and its subsidiaries.
• Mergers and acquisitions assessments: due diligence, asset valuation, contract negotiations.
• Interacted with investment bankers on strategic planning issues and potential transactions.
• Testified before regulators in merger proceedings.
• New business development, including competitive generation, gas expansion and telecom development.
• Corporate spokesperson to investor community.

Vice President and Controller
1998-2000

• Financial reporting.
• Budgets and financial forecasting.
• Coordination of rate case filings.
• Testified before regulators in rate case proceedings.
• Reports to Board of Trustees.
• Investor relations.

Served on a variety of committees for the utility industry trade organization, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), including serving as Chairman of the Accounting Principles Committee.
1980’s and 1990’s

Member of Board of Directors Maimonides Medical Center
1999-2006

• Served on Audit, Finance, Investment, Pension and Medical Matters Committees.
• Vice Chairman of Finance Committee.

Board Member and Past President Guardians of the Sick: a health related volunteer organization with a $4 million budget.
1986-Present

MBA, BBA – Baruch College

Senior Managing Director and Senior Advisor
Saber Partners, LLC
2004-Present

Executive Vice President Seagate Technology
2000-2004
Responsible for business development, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital

Vice President
Wellington Management Company, LLC
1992-2000
Responsible for global coverage of automotive, capital goods, multi-industry, and imaging sectors and managed $850 million portion of research portfolio

Vice President
Salomon Brothers Inc
1986-1992
Served as new business specialist for mergers and acquisitions department. Began as an equity analyst covering defense electronics, computer services, and software.

M.S., Finance, Sloan School of Management, MIT (MBA equivalent)
B.A., Politics, Princeton University

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Michael L. Noël discusses why peer-to-peer evaluations are an important component of the board evaluation process.

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Indiana Bar Association
French Lick, IN
September 16, 2021
Speaker: Utility Securitization: See the Big Picture But Focus on the Details

National Association Of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) Annual Meeting
Virtual
November 9, 2020
Panelist: Accounting Committee: “Is Securitization the Answer? Maybe..But Only if We Do It Right”

National Association Of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) Accounting Committee
Webinar
July 17, 2020
Investor-Owned Utility Securitization Briefing

Society of Utility Regulatory and Financial Analysts (SURFA)
Webinar
July 8, 2020
Panelist: Getting Ahead of the Curve: Reducing Utility Rate Hikes Caused by COVID-19

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Committee on Electricity
Webinar
May 20, 2019
NARUC Electricity Comm 5-17-19 Slides

Society of Utility Regulatory and Financial Analysts (SURFA) Annual Meeting
New Orleans, LA
April 5, 2019
Lead Panelist Investor-Owned Utility Securitization

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Annual Meeting
Orlando, FL
November 13, 2018
Panelist, “Securitization: Is it the Right Tool for Me Today? (Session B3: Tuesday 2 PM)” Presentation Slides

Western Clean Energy Advocates with the National Resources Defense Council
Denver, CO
May 3, 2018
Panelist, “Stop Bad Stuff; Expand Good Stuff.”

Columbia Law School, Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership
New York, NY
June 18, 2015.
Panelist, “Corporate Transparency: What do shareholders (and their beneficiaries) need to know about their portfolio companies (environment, supply chain, political disclosure, privacy, and executive compensation)?”

Brandeis University International Business School and The Bond Buyer, Municipal Finance Conference
Boston, MA
2013
Speaker, “Build America Bonds: An Empirical Analysis of Characteristics and Issuer Benefits”

Brandeis University International Business School, Municipal Finance Conference
Boston, MA
2012

The Bond Buyer, Municipal Bond Summit
Miami, FL
2012

Bloomberg Link, Cities and Debt Briefing
San Francisco, CA
2010

Bloomberg Link, Boards and Risk Briefing
Washington, DC
2010

IMN, California Public Finance Conference
San Francisco, CA
2010

Bloomberg Link, Washington Summit
Washington, DC
2009

The Bond Buyer, Municipal Bond Summit
Miami, FL
2009

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Summer Meeting
Seattle, WA
2009

National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, Conference
Seattle, WA
2009

IMN, New England Public Finance Conference
Boston, MA
2009

The Bond Buyer, Municpal Bond Crisis
New York, NY
2008

The Bond Buyer, Municipal Bond Conference
New York, NY
2008

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), Summer Meeting
New Orleans, LA
2008

IMN, New England Public Finance Conference
Boston, MA
2008

Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs, Policy Institute for the Region
Princeton, NJ
2008

IMN, Asset-Backed Securities, ABS East
Miami, FL
2007

IMN, Asset-Backed Securities, ABS East
Miami, FL
2006

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), Winter Meeting
Washington, DC
2006

IMN, Asset-Backed Securities, ABS East
Miami, FL
2005

IMN, Asset-Backed Securities, ABS West
Phoenix, AZ
2005

Chief Executive Officer
Saber Partners, LLC
2000-Present

Life Member,
Council on Foreign Relations
2020-Present

Fellow
National Regulatory Research Institute
2018-2019

Senior Advisor
The Williams Capital Group, L. P.
2018-2019; 2010-2016

President / Manager
Saber Capital Partners, LLC (FINRA)
2003-2009

Visiting Lecturer in Public and International Affairs
Princeton University
Spring 2008, Fall 2011

Managing Director and Group Head
Investment Banking, Business Origination & Product Development,
Prudential Securities
1997-2000

Executive Fellow
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Princeton University
1995-1996

Managing Director-Principal
Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc.
1989-1995

Vice President
Smith Barney
1984-1989

Member, Board of Directors (Audit Committee)
Czech & Slovak American Enterprise Fund
by designation of President Clinton, 1994-96.

Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary
of Department of Housing & Urban Development
as political appointee in President Carter’s administration, 1977-1980.

Chairman, Advisory Council
Princeton University, Economics Department
1996-2004 (Chairman, 2003)

Member, Board of Advisors
Center for Economic Policy Studies (CEPS)
Princeton University
1999-Present

Member, Board of Directors
The Common Good
2007-Present

Member, Board of Advisors
QuestBridge

Member, Leadership Council
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

Licenses
Formerly FINRA/SEC Series 24: Securities Principal and Series 7: Registered Representative

Author of articles and publications concerning the interaction between corporate finance and public policy. Published in: The New York Times, Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Library of Investment Banking, Q2 Yale Management Magazine.

See articles by Joseph S. Fichera

BA, Princeton; MBA, Yale

Raised in Rochester, New York
Military – Catholic school education at Rochester’s Nazareth Hall.
Hobbies include: photography, writing, tennis and riding other people’s horses!

• Profile of Joseph S. Fichera
  Published in Bloomberg News, “Wall Street’s Customer’s Man Fichera Unmasked Auction-Rate Market in 1980’s”
• Profile of Joseph S. Fichera
  Published in Institutional Investor, “Fichera’s long hot summer: Joseph Fichera headed to Sacramento to help keep the lights on.”
• Profile of Joseph S. Fichera
  Published in The Wall Street Journal, “Smith Barney’s Fichera Winning Business Duels with His Sabres Issues, Including Exxon Corp.”
• Profile of Joseph S. Fichera
  Published in Yale Management Review magazine.

Paul R. Sutherland is a Senior Advisor to Saber Partners, LLC.

With over twenty-two years of corporate experience at Florida Power & Light (FPL), FPL Group and FPL Group Capital, Mr. Sutherland’s engineering background and quantitative skills bring depth to Saber’s analytical toolbox.

Since joining Saber Partners, Mr. Sutherland has provided quality control for the financial modeling of the three major investor owned utilities in California as part of the Governor’s financial team during the energy crisis of 2001. He authored the Governor’s position paper regarding Pacific Gas & Electric’s Plan of Reorganization to emerge from their Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In another Saber project, he developed the models that helped an electric cooperative convert to an investor owned utility. He has also audited utility expenses in two separate securitization transactions in Texas on behalf of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to ensure that the structuring and pricing of the $1.5 billion of asset backed “transition bonds” bonds resulted in the lowest transition bond charges consistent with market conditions. He has provided expert testimony on securitization bond financing for the Florida Public Service Commission and the District of Columbia Public Service Commission. In 2018, he provided expert testimony on behalf of the California Community Choice Association for the California Public Utility Commission on structuring and benefits of utility securitization under current market conditions.

Prior to joining Saber Partners, Mr. Sutherland held positions including Assistant Treasurer of Florida Power & Light and FPL Group Capital and, most recently, Director of Finance, Accounting & Systems for the Energy Marketing & Trading Division of FPL. In his capacity as Assistant Treasurer, he completed over $2 billion in refinancings for the utility. He wrote and gave testimony as an expert witness before the Florida Public Service Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on matters ranging from cost of capital to financial integrity and capital structure. He also managed the first ever electric utility issuance of variable rate tax exempt demand notes.

Mr. Sutherland accounting experience includes acting as Assistant Controller for FPL, with responsibility for SEC and management reporting as well as accounting research to assure compliance with GAAP. Prior to working for FPL, he was Controller, Industrial Products Division of the Singer Company in Spain.

Mr. Sutherland graduated from Cornell University with a BSEE degree and has an MBA from the University of Chicago. He served in the Peace Corps in Brazil and is fluent in Portuguese. He has also served as an adjunct professor of mathematics at Palm Beach Atlantic College in Florida. Mr. Sutherland served for 5 years (including as Vice Chairman) on the Board of Finance for the town of Ridgefield, CT. He previously served for 4 years on the Board of Education for the town.

Barry M. Abramson, CFA, is a Senior Advisor to Saber Partners, LLC. As a top-ranked financial analyst, he has followed the North American utility industry for more than 35 years. Mr. Abramson has provided in-depth research on electric, gas and water utilities, and pipeline companies. Following a 25-year career on Wall Street as an equity securities analyst for major firms like Merrill Lynch, Prudential Securities, PaineWebber and UBS Securities, he went into money management as a sell-side equity analyst and later as a portfolio manager.

At Saber Partners, LLC, Mr. Abramson uses his broad industry knowledge and equity investor perspective to advise companies and regulatory bodies about strategic moves, financing, mergers and acquisitions, dividend policy, and other corporate actions. He provides unbiased “second opinions” to companies and regulators about major strategic moves that are proposed by others. Because of his broad, in-depth experience with investors, Mr. Abramson is also uniquely qualified to advise CEOs and CFOs of utility and energy companies about dealing with divestiture threats from institutional investors that are concerned about climate change.

During his Wall Street years, Mr. Abramson was ranked as one of the top utility industry analysts 11 times in the annual poll conducted by Institutional Investor Magazine, including twice being ranked as the #1 analyst in his sector. He was known for his knowledge of the nuclear power sector and also for his early beliefs (in the early 1990’s) that deregulation of power production and retail customer choice were inevitable.

After leaving Wall Street, he worked for 7 years as a Senior Analyst for a large mutual fund company, Gabelli Asset Management. He was involved in three large utility equity mutual funds, totaling more than $1 billion in assets. He later worked for 7 years as a Senior Equity Portfolio manager for the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, where he managed a multi-billion fund that invested in North American utilities and pipeline companies.

By virtue of covering a large number of companies in the same sectors for such a long time, he has had the opportunity to meet with and build relationships with many of the senior managements in the utility and pipeline industries. He also has met with and developed professional relationships with numerous state and federal regulators over the years.

During his long career covering utilities and pipelines from an equity investor perspective, Mr. Abramson has analyzed numerous utility and pipeline industry mergers, spin-offs, asset acquisitions and divestitures. In the electric utility sector, he has evaluated the strategic decisions made by senior managements, such as whether to remain in power generation or divest power plants, whether to divest nuclear units or buy and/or build more nuclear assets, whether to divest electric transmission assets or invest more heavily in electric transmission. In the gas utility sector, he has evaluated decisions made by gas utilities to invest more heavily in natural gas transmission and in natural gas reserves. In the pipeline sector, he has analyzed strategic decisions by gas pipeline companies to move into liquids pipelines and into gas gathering and processing, and in the other direction he evaluated moves by oil pipeline companies to invest heavily in gas pipelines.

Mr. Abramson has seen the renewable energy industry in North America from its birth in the late 1970’s to its current state as a predominant source of new electric generating capacity. He also has seen natural gas return to being the dominant fossil fuel for new generation in North America.

Mr. Abramson is a native of Brooklyn, New York. He graduated 8th in a class of 866 from New Utrecht High School. With the help of generous financial aid, he went on to earn a B.A. in Economics from Yale University. He also has Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts.

Hyman Schoenblum is a Senior Advisor to Saber Partners, LLC. Previously, Mr. Schoenblum spent 35 years at Consolidated Edison Company, Inc. (Con Ed), where he served, at various times, as their Vice President and Treasurer; Vice President and Controller; and, Vice President of Strategic Planning. While in those positions, his responsibilities included serving as the company’s lead spokesperson in its investor relations effort. He recently served as Vice President of Internal Audit at Maimonides Medical Center.

As Vice President of Strategic Planning at Con Ed, Mr. Schoenblum was a lead financial person in identifying and investigating the potential value to shareholders of merger and acquisition transactions for Con Ed and completing such transactions, where appropriate. He was instrumental in Con Ed’s merger with Orange and Rockland Utilities and the announced, but uncompleted, merger with Northeast Utilities, as well as other potential mergers which were identified and evaluated but not pursued. Furthermore, Mr. Schoenblum had the responsibility of identifying and evaluating other operational investment opportunities for Con Ed to expand into unregulated and competitive businesses, such as power generation and telecommunications. In this capacity, Mr. Schoenblum worked closely with a wide variety of the financial community including investment bankers and institutional investors and was highly regarded by these individuals and firms.

As Con Ed’s Corporate Treasurer, Mr. Schoenblum oversaw the firm’s capital financing and cash management needs and work closely with its selected bankers to structure and secure appropriate and cost efficient financings. He was also a named fiduciary of Con Ed’s Pension Plan, responsible for the administration of the plan and the hiring of fund managers. Moreover, he supervised the company’s vast real estate portfolio and began the process of divesting significant unneeded parcels of property in midtown Manhattan, which later resulted in very significant gains to Con Ed and its shareholders.

As Con Ed’s Corporate Controller, Mr. Schoenblum played a central role in the coordination of numerous customer rate cases; testifying before the Public Service Commission on a variety of financial and operating matters. He was responsible for the preparation of the financial results, filing of Securities & Exchange Commission annual and quarterly reports and reporting to the Board of Directors on a monthly basis. Further, he was in charge of the company’s operating and capital budgets.

While serving in these positions, Mr. Schoenblum, for many years, played a critical role in Con Ed’s relationship with Wall Street. He met with institutional investors, fund managers, stock and bond research analysts and the media to present Con Ed’s financial position to the investment community and public. Mr. Schoenblum was widely respected by members of this community for his knowledge, expertise and candor.

In addition, during his employment at Con Edison, Mr. Schoenblum served on many committees and task forces of the Edison Electric Institute, the electric industry’s primary trade organization, and served as chairman of EEI’s Accounting Principles Committee in the early 1980s.

From 2000 to 2006 he served his community as a member of the Board of Trustees of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and was on their Audit, Finance, Pensions, Investments and Medical Matters Committees.

In 2006, Mr. Schoenblum became the Vice President of Internal Audit at Maimonides Medical Center. In that role, he is responsible for financial and operating audits and for investigating fraud. He reports quarterly to the Audit Committee of the Board.

For the past 30 years, Mr. Schoenblum has also been a volunteer for the Guardians of the Sick; a local health related volunteer organization in Brooklyn. He currently serves on their Board of Directors and for 2009-2010 was the group’s President.

Brian Maher is a Senior Advisor to Saber Partners, LLC. Mr. Maher’s career encompasses Exxon and post-merger ExxonMobil, where he rose from financial analyst to senior financial management. He served as treasurer or in senior finance positions at key Exxon subsidiary companies in North America, Latin America and Europe as well as the Assistant Treasurer of Exxon Corporation and subsequently Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Specifically, Mr. Maher oversaw the Corporation’s capital market debt financings; directed financing strategy for the Corporation and approximately 200 affiliates worldwide; headed the Corporation’s Financial Policy group with responsibilities for activities such as the annual Corporate Financing Plan and the multi-billion dollar share repurchase; oversaw global Insurance and Pension operations and served on the New York Stock Exchange Pension Advisory Committee. He also played a leadership role in key M&A transactions including heading the regulatory divestment Finance Team during the merger between Exxon and Mobil; supervised a broad spectrum of finance organizations ranging from small groups of Treasurer’s specialists to over 500 professionals from all of the main finance disciplines including Treasurer’s, Controller’s, Tax and Computer Systems; and played a central role in the recruiting and personnel development planning for the worldwide Treasurer’s organization.

At Saber Partners, Mr. Maher has provided expert testimony on investor-owned utility securitization before the Florida Public Service Commission. He oversaw the implementation of nuclear asset recovery bonds ($1.294 billion for Duke Energy Florida Project Finance, LLC (sometimes also called “rate reduction bonds” (RRB)) on behalf of the Florida Public Service Commission. He also led advisory services for the East Bay Municipal Utility District and Metropolitan Water Company in developing a syndicated line of credit to support the issuance of variable rate demand obligations on the utility’s stand-alone credit without a costly letter of credit or standby bond purchase agreement.

Mr. Maher began his career with Exxon Corporation in New York City in July of 1973 as Financial Analyst. In 1975 he transferred to Esso Inter-America in Coral Gables, Florida, as Senior Financial Analyst for Latin America. He then served as Treasurer of Exxon’s Central American operations, located in El Salvador. In 1980, he moved to Santiago, Chile, as Manager of Finance and Corporate Planning for Exxon’s petroleum operations and served as Board member of Exxon’s Chilean copper company. He returned to Coral Gables as Manager of Finance, Planning and Public Affairs for the Caribbean and Central American region. Mr. Maher’s next assignment was in Toronto with Exxon’s Canadian affiliate, Imperial Oil, where he worked as Corporate Finance Manager, returning to Exxon Corporation in New York City in September of 1987 to hold that same position for the parent Corporation. Following Exxon’s relocation to Irving, Texas, he was promoted to Assistant Treasurer of the worldwide Corporation in October of 1992. He also served as Finance Director of Exxon’s Italian affiliate, Esso Italiana SpA, in Rome from July 1994 until March 1998 when he moved to Exxon Company, International, as Treasurer. Mr. Maher returned to the Corporation as Assistant Treasurer in February 1999 and became Assistant Treasurer of Exxon Mobil Corporation in January 2000 following the merger of Exxon and Mobil. He retired from ExxonMobil in 2006.

Mr. Maher was born in Newark, New Jersey, and received his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1970, followed by an M.A. in International Economics from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy in 1973. He and his wife, Shelley, reside in Naples, Florida. They have two children, Tracey and Brian.

Jeremy Tennenbaum is a Senior Managing Director and Senior Advisor of Saber Partners, LLC.

Mr. Tennenbaum supports Saber Partners’ clients through a unique blend of corporate development, investment banking, and research experience. He has a successful track record of identifying, analyzing, and investing in public and private companies of all sizes and in all geographies (with a particular focus on Europe and North Asia).

He is a strong analyst with deep company knowledge, extending well beyond the numbers to their cultures, histories, management style, and core competencies. Mr. Tennenbaum also spends significant time thinking about long-term trends and the implications of changes in technology, regulation, competitive dynamics, and government policy.

In addition to his Saber duties, Jeremy is chief executive officer of Spouting Rock Consulting, a suburban Philadelphia firm that provides investment consulting services and performs manager due diligence and selection for wealthy individuals, family offices, and registered investment advisors. He spends much of his time investigating direct investments and alternatives for his clients as well as helping them assess their asset allocations, investment policies, and wealth managers.

Mr. Tennenbaum was also the former chief investment officer of Arlon Group, the investment arm of Continental Grain, and head of Arlon Asset Management.

His efforts focused on creating an asset allocation strategy, followed by the creation and deployment of the legal entities needed to support three investment “pools”:

–Monies placed with outside managers of marketable (stocks, bonds, futures, etc.) and non-marketable (buy-out and venture capital funds) assets.

–Shorter-term trading in equities, options, and futures (both long and short).

–Direct investments, both control and non-control stakes.

Mr. Tennenbaum is a former Executive Vice President of Seagate Technology, where he was responsible for a number of functions including: mergers and acquisitions, new business development, strategic planning, and running the firm’s venture capital portfolio. Mr. Tennenbaum achieved four key goals during his tenure at Seagate: sharpening the company’s focus on entering new markets, establishing a robust, cross-functional strategic planning process, identifying targets for corporate development initiatives, and rationalizing the company’s venture fund and new business initiatives.

Prior to Seagate, Mr. Tennenbaum worked in the asset management business as a senior research analyst at Wellington Management Company, LLC, where he pioneered global coverage of the automotive, capital goods, multi-industry, and imaging sectors, mastering a variety of accounting standards and traveling extensively around the world.

He advised portfolio managers on stock recommendations and managed an $850 million portion of the firm’s research portfolio. Mr. Tennenbaum was recognized for his achievements by being twice named to Institutional Investor magazine’s “Best of the Buy Side” list and by being recognized four years in a row by Reuters as one of the top analysts/portfolio managers in three of its surveys: large U.S., medium and small U.S., and large international companies.

Before coming to Wellington, he worked at Salomon Brothers Inc., first as a sell-side analyst covering the defense electronics and computer services sectors, and then as a new business specialist for the mergers and acquisitions department. He generated $15 million in fees from a dozen assignments secured through two master “pitch books” authored about the coming consolidation in the aerospace and auto parts industries.

Mr. Tennenbaum earned his SM in finance (the equivalent of an MBA) from M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management and has a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University.

Jeremy Tennenbaum profile in Institutional Investor magazine

Joseph S. Fichera is one of the founders and the current chief executive officer of Saber Partners, LLC.  Saber Partners is a New York financial advisory firm for corporations and government regulators. His areas of expertise include corporate governance, financial markets, capital markets finance and effective regulation. He provides independent expert advice to corporate finance issuers, investors, regulators and brokerage firms.

Mr. Fichera is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  In 2018, the National Regulatory Research Institute (NNRI) selected Mr. Fichera as a national Fellow. He also served as a Senior Advisor to The Williams Capital Group, L.P. an independent securities brokerage, investment management, and financial services firm.

Under Mr. Fichera’s leadership, Saber Partners is recognized for its strategic guidance and financial innovations.  These innovations have been unique, precedent-setting solutions to specific problems that have set new standards for accessing the U.S. and international capital markets for investment capital. Saber’s solutions have lowered financing costs for clients in the global capital markets. Under Mr. Fichera’s leadership, the Saber team analyzes, advises, creates and carries out strategic financing solutions. They work across financial products, whether equities, corporate debt or securitized debt (See Client Testimonials).

One of Fichera’s first innovations was a financial product called SABRES (“share-adjusted, broker-remarketed equity securities”). It was a preferred stock structure that challenged conventional wisdom and reduced capital-raising costs and risks in the preferred stock market then-dominated by auction rate preferred securities. Developed in the late 1980s, SABRES attracted sophisticated issuers, like Exxon Corporation, across America. While in corporate finance, another one of his innovations influenced and won recognition in the market for municipal and not-for-profit institutions as well known as “Adjustable Tender Securities.” Within 2 years of being hired as an entry-level Associate, The Bond Buyer described him as a “securities innovator” who created the first flexible debt security to manage risk and lower capital costs (‘Adjustable Tender Securities.)” Still in his early 30s, Fichera became a go-to resource for clients in search of strategic advice and creative solutions based on solid financial principles and his demonstrated personal integrity.

Throughout his more than thee decade Wall Street career, Fichera has taken on challenges to resolve opaque corporate problems involving finance, policy, and governance. His client list has grown to include Fortune 500 companies, such as ExxonMobil and GE Capital, state regulatory commissions, the governor of California, Hendrick Automotive, Luby’s Restaurants, Trans Tech Pharma, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, among others.

Fichera also has a record of balancing the interests of public sector clients and rate-paying consumers with the financing needs of corporate bond issuers. He has assembled and led top-notch Saber teams that have advised investor-owned utility regulators (public service commissions) in Florida, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. These assignments focused on the sale of billions of dollars of corporate bonds to finance vital electricity infrastructure and related projects. The projects included the costs of the transition to a competitive market for electricity in Texas, retirement of nuclear facilities and repair of critical public works after hurricanes in Florida, as well as clean air facilities in West Virginia and Wisconsin. Saber also created new and unique ways to guide intricate financings through global capital markets. With these innovative financings under Mr. Fichera’s leadership, Saber opened new investor markets and new investor bases, saving borrowers millions of dollars.

Fichera was an early, outspoken critic of the auction rate securities market long before its collapse. He has advised institutional investors, broker-dealers and regulators on possible solutions to the current crisis and helped resolve litigation.

As a public and private-sector financier, Fichera has consistently advocated greater transparency, stronger oversight and active participation to help make markets work effectively and efficiently. He plans to continue promoting these and other common goals with his characteristic passion and persistence.

Background:

Joseph Sebastian Fichera grew up in a working-class family of Italian descent in Rochester, New York. As a teenager in the late 1960s, he responded to efforts for school desegregation by voluntarily switching from his own largely white Catholic high school to a largely black inner-city school. His community efforts, through the Catholic church for justice and equal opportunity in education – including serving as an ex-officio member of the Rochester city school board – impressed Princeton University. After considering his SAT scores and strong academic performance, Princeton admitted him to the class of 1976 on a tuition scholarship. He was the only student from the city admitted.

After later earning his MBA from the Yale School of Management and many years on Wall Street, he returned to Princeton as an executive fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He then became one of Princeton’s visiting lecturers on world finance and politics in 2008. He also helped advise the university’s economics department, then chaired by Ben Bernanke, the current Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve. He currently serves on Princeton’s Center for Economic Policy Studies led by Alan Blinder, former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve and member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. Mr. Blinder is Chair of the Saber Partners Advisory Board since the company’s inception in 2000 and also was one of Mr. Fichera’s economics professors while he was a student at Princeton University.

In the Spring of 2008 and Fall of 2011, Fichera taught a graduate level course on public finance at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University as a visiting lecturer. The course examined how public and private sector organizations raise capital in the financial markets, with a strong focus on public policy.

Before forming Saber Partners in 2000, Fichera learned the complexities of investment banking from the bottom up. He started as an Associate and through promotions served variously as a vice president in corporate finance at Smith Barney, and a managing director originating and executing transactions, often through product development at both Prudential Securities and Bear Stearns. During the Carter presidency, he was a special assistant for policy in the Department of Housing and Urban Development working for the first African-American woman member of the US Cabinet, Patricia Roberts Harris.

Publications:

Fichera’s many articles on accountability, transparency, and financial management have appeared in The New York Times, Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, and other business periodicals. In 1990 and 1991, Institutional Investor presented him its “Deal of The Year” award for transactions first for corporate and then for municipal finance. He then was awarded a subsequent “Deal of the Year” award in asset backed securities from Asset Securitization Report. His innovations and insights have been profiled in detail in the print media, from The Wall Street Journal to Yale Management Review. He has been a frequent guest commentator on financial news media, including Bloomberg Television, National Public Radio, CNN Financial, and Fox Broadcasting.

• “Bio Film by National Italian American Foundation”
• “Profile of Joseph S. Fichera: Wall Street’s Customer’s Man Fichera Unmasked Auction-Rate Debt in 1980’s” Published in Bloomberg News
• “Profile of Joseph S. Fichera: Fichera’s long hot summer – Joseph Fichera headed to Sacramento to help keep the lights on” Published in Institutional Investor
• “Profile of Joseph S. Fichera: Fichera Winning Business Duels With His Sabres Issues, Including Exxon Corp” Published in The Wall Street Journal
• “Profile of Joseph S. Fichera” Published in Yale Management Review magazine.

Hyman Schoenblum is a Senior Advisor to Saber Partners, LLC. Previously, Mr. Schoenblum spent 35 years at Consolidated Edison Company, Inc. (Con Ed), where he served, at various times, as their Vice President and Treasurer; Vice President and Controller; and, Vice President of Strategic Planning. While in those positions, his responsibilities included serving as the company’s lead spokesperson in its investor relations effort. He was the Vice President of Internal Audit at Maimonides Medical Center.

At Saber Partners, Mr. Schoenblum has provided expert testimony on investor-owned utility securitization before the Florida Public Service Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission. He oversaw the implementation of nuclear asset recovery bonds ($1.294 billion for Duke Energy Florida Project Finance, LLC and $652 million of storm recovery bonds for Florida Power & Light Company (sometimes also called “rate reduction bonds” (RRB) on behalf of the Florida Public Service Commission.)

As Vice President of Strategic Planning at Con Ed, Mr. Schoenblum was a lead financial person in identifying and investigating the potential value to shareholders of merger and acquisition transactions for Con Ed and completing such transactions, where appropriate. He was instrumental in Con Ed’s merger with Orange and Rockland Utilities and the announced, but uncompleted, merger with Northeast Utilities, as well as other potential mergers which were identified and evaluated but not pursued. Furthermore, Mr. Schoenblum had the responsibility of identifying and evaluating other operational investment opportunities for Con Ed to expand into unregulated and competitive businesses, such as power generation and telecommunications. In this capacity, Mr. Schoenblum worked closely with a wide variety of the financial community including investment bankers and institutional investors and was highly regarded by these individuals and firms.

As Con Ed’s Corporate Treasurer, Mr. Schoenblum oversaw the firm’s capital financing and cash management needs and work closely with its selected bankers to structure and secure appropriate and cost efficient financings. He was also a named fiduciary of Con Ed’s Pension Plan, responsible for the administration of the plan and the hiring of fund managers. Moreover, he supervised the company’s vast real estate portfolio and began the process of divesting significant unneeded parcels of property in midtown Manhattan, which later resulted in very significant gains to Con Ed and its shareholders.

As Con Ed’s Corporate Controller, Mr. Schoenblum played a central role in the coordination of numerous customer rate cases; testifying before the Public Service Commission on a variety of financial and operating matters. He was responsible for the preparation of the financial results, filing of Securities & Exchange Commission annual and quarterly reports and reporting to the Board of Directors on a monthly basis. Further, he was in charge of the company’s operating and capital budgets.

While serving in these positions, Mr. Schoenblum, for many years, played a critical role in Con Ed’s relationship with the Wall Street financial community. He met with institutional investors, fund managers, stock and bond research analysts and the media to present Con Ed’s financial position to the investment community and public. Mr. Schoenblum was widely respected by members of this community for his knowledge, expertise and candor.

In addition, during his employment at Con Edison, Mr. Schoenblum served on many committees and task forces of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the electric industry’s primary trade organization, and served as chairman of EEI’s Accounting Principles Committee in the early 1980s.

From 2000 to 2006 he served his community as a member of the Board of Trustees of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and was on their Audit, Finance, Pensions, Investments and Medical Matters Committees.

In 2006, Mr. Schoenblum became the Vice President of Internal Audit at Maimonides Medical Center. In that role, he was responsible for financial and operating audits and for investigating fraud. He reported quarterly to the Audit Committee of the Board.

For the past 30 years, Mr. Schoenblum has also been a volunteer for the Guardians of the Sick; a local health related volunteer organization in Brooklyn. He currently serves on their Board of Directors and for 2009-2010 was the group’s President.

CEO, International AIDS Trust, and former Special Assistant to the President of the United States.

Dr. Andrew Kalotay is President of Andrew Kalotay Associates, Inc., and a pioneer on debt management and on municipal, corporate and agency bonds. He is also a founding member of the Saber Partners Advisory Board. He is widely published in leading academic and financial management journals, with more than 50 articles to his credit on topics such as bond refunding, interest rate derivatives, valuation of bonds with embedded options, and lately Build America Bonds. His innovations in fixed income include the concept of Refunding Efficiency (a tool widely used for managing callable debt), the Ratchet Bond (a surrogate for conventional callable bonds with automatic no cost refunding feature), the Volatility Reduction Measure (for hedge effectiveness testing under FAS 133), and the patented CLEAN™ approach to MBS valuation. He authored the recently published “A Financial Analysis of Consumer Mortgage Decisions” at the request of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Related mortgage calculators using his patent pending approach can be found at www.kalotay.com/calculators.

Before founding Andrew Kalotay Associates, Andy was Director in the Bond Portfolio Analysis Group at Salomon Brothers from 1981 till 1990. From 1979 until 1981 he was Senior Analyst at Dillon Read. Before coming to Wall Street, he supervised financial planning at AT&T and was involved with operations research and systems engineering at Bell Laboratories.

Andy has provided expert testimony in several well-publicized cases involving municipal issuers. In particular, he was retained by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in two separate yield burning cases.

On the academic side, Andy was the founder and first Director of the Center for Finance and Technology, a graduate program in financial engineering at Polytechnic University. Prior to that, he was a Professor of Finance at Fordham University. He has been an adjunct professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and at Columbia University. He also currently serves as an associate editor and referee for several academic journals. Andy received his BS and MS in Mathematics from Queen’s University and his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Toronto.

In 1997 Andy was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society’s Hall of Fame. This select group includes Fischer Black, Henry Kaufman, John Bogle, Martin Leibowitz, and William Gross. He is also a charter member of the Risk “Who’s Who.”

An avid chess enthusiast, Andy is an over-the-board master as well as an internationally known problemist.

Rebecca Klein is Principal of Klein Energy, LLC, an energy and water consulting company based in Austin, Texas and a member of the Saber Partners Advisory Board. Her clients include international and domestic companies focused on penetrating or expanding in North America and whose needs concern regulatory, commercial, financial, strategic, and/or government affairs expertise. Over the last twenty-five years she has worked in Washington, DC and in Texas in the energy, water and national security arenas.

At Saber Partners, Ms. Klein has provided expert testimony on investor-owned utility securitization before the Florida Public Service Commission.  She assisted the commission in the implementation of nuclear asset and storm recovery bonds ($1.294 billion nuclear asset recovery bonds for Duke Energy Florida Project Finance, LLC and $652 million of storm recovery bonds for Florida Power & Light Company (sometimes also called “rate reduction bonds” (RRB).)

Prior to starting her company in 2006, Ms. Klein was the Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) during which time she oversaw the restructuring of the State’s $36 billion electric power industry.  In particular, she also managed the PUCT’s first use of securitization by Reliant Energy (now CenterPoint Energy) and Oncor Electric Delivery that was an essential component of the electricity market deregulation.  More than $2 billion of “transition bonds” were sold through a process that included active commission oversight of the structuring, marketing and pricing of the bonds and additional customer protections.  Her leadership in this area fundamentally changed how such securitization bonds were issued around the country to protect customer interests.

Ms Klein also worked extensively with other state public utility commissioners and Federal regulators on issues related to power, telecommunications and critical infrastructure protection. From 2007 to 2013, Ms. Klein was Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Lower Colorado River Authority, the largest river authority in Texas. During her tenure she helped shepherd advances in the way LCRA implements water management, water permitting and water rate methods. While at the LCRA, she interacted extensively with Federal and State authorities to enhance funding levels and to seek regulatory efficiency. Following the World Trade Center bombings in 2001, Ms. Klein was appointed to the Texas Homeland Defense Task Force which was tasked to identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities for the State across power, water and telecommunications assets.

Ms. Klein worked in both government and the private sector in Washington, DC. She first arrived to the Nation’s Capital in 1988 as one of twelve people selected nationally to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Fellowship Program during which time she worked for the Secretary of the Air Force’s Legislative Affairs Office. From 1989-1992, she worked in the White House in the Office of Presidential Personnel where she assisted in recruiting and recommending sub-cabinet level presidential appointees in the national security arena of government. She served as Associate Director at the U.S. Trade Development Agency, from 1992-1993, overseeing the agency’s accounts in multi-national development banks. From 1996-1997, Ms. Klein worked at the American Enterprise Institute undertaking legal research in current telecommunications issues. She was then hired as a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Ms. Klein also worked for Bearing Point Consulting, spearheading the start-up of their Government Affairs & Industry Relations Office.

Presently, Ms. Klein sits on the Board of Directors of Avista Corporation, a publicly traded utility headquartered in Spokane, WA. Other Boards on which she currently sits include the for-profit company, National Institute for Renewable Energy, and the non-profit, Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute. She is also and Advisory Member of Aiqueous, a water technology company. She has previously served as a Diversity Advisory Committee Member for the Federal Communications Commission.

Ms. Klein retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve in January 2015. She is a veteran of Desert Storm where she served in Saudi Arabia. She received her academic training at Stanford University (B.A., Biology); Georgetown University (M.A., National Security Studies); and St. Mary’s Law School (J.D.). She is fluent in Spanish having grown up partly in Venezuela and Mexico. She is a native of San Antonio, TX.

Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat is Senior Counsel at the law firm of Covington and a member of Saber Partners’ Advisory Board.

Ambassador Eizenstat heads Covington’s international practice.  His work at Covington focuses on resolving international trade problems and business disputes with the US and foreign governments, and international business transactions and regulations on behalf of US companies and others around the world.

During a decade and a half of public service in three US administrations, Ambassador Eizenstat has held a number of key senior positions, including chief White House domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981); U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration (1993-2001).

Alan S. Blinder is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He is also Chairman of the Saber Partners Advisory Board, Vice Chairman of the Promontory Interfinancial Network, and a regular columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Dr. Blinder served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from June 1994 until January 1996. In this position, he represented the Fed at various international meetings, and was a member of the Board’s committees on Bank Supervision and Regulation, Consumer and Community Affairs, and Derivative Instruments. He also chaired the Board in the Chairman’s absence. He speaks frequently to financial and other audiences.

Before becoming a member of the Board, Dr. Blinder served as a Member of President Clinton’s original Council of Economic Advisers from January 1993 until June 1994. There he was in charge of the Administration’s macroeconomic forecasting and also worked intensively on budget, international trade, and health care issues. During the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, he was an economic adviser to Al Gore and John Kerry, and he continues to advise numerous members of Congress and officeholders. He also served briefly as Deputy Assistant Director of the Congressional Budget Office when that agency started in 1975, and testifies frequently before Congress on a wide variety of public policy issues.

Dr. Blinder was born on October 14, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his A.B. at Princeton University in 1967, M.Sc. at London School of Economics in 1968, and Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971–all in economics. Dr. Blinder has taught at Princeton since 1971, and chaired the Department of Economics from 1988 to 1990. He was the Founder and either the Director or Co-Director of Princeton’s Center for Economic Policy Studies from 1989 to 2011.

Dr. Blinder is the author or co-author of 17 books, including the textbook Economics: Principles and Policy (with William J. Baumol), now in its 12th edition, from which well over two and a half million college students have learned introductory economics. He has written scores of scholarly articles on such topics as fiscal policy, central banking, offshoring, and the distribution of income. He also appears frequently on PBS, CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg TV, and elsewhere.

Dr. Blinder was previously President of the Eastern Economic Association and Vice President of the American Economic Association. He is a member of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Economic Club of New York, the Bretton Woods Committee, and the Bellagio Group, and a former governor of the American Stock Exchange. Dr. Blinder also serves on academic advisory panels for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Hamilton Project.