Michael Graff

Structuring the Deal
Wednesday, August 26, 3:45 - 4:25 PM

Partner
McGuireWoods LLP

Mr. Graff has served as bond, underwriter's, bank, borrower's, issuer's or trustee's counsel on dozens of tax-exempt bond financings in Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, Wisconsin and Idaho. He has extensive experience in all aspects of tax-exempt financings for: small manufacturing companies; private, nonprofit elementary and secondary schools; nonprofit association headquarters; college and university student housing facilities; hospitals and health care facilities; multifamily affordable housing projects (including low-income housing tax credits); solid waste disposal facilities; port facilities; water and waste authorities; community development authorities and other land-based special taxing districts; road and rail transportation projects; and various other borrowers, governmental issuers and their projects. He is the co-author (with William J. Strickland) of "Financing Virginia's Local Governments" in the Virginia Local Government Attorneys' Handbook. A former trial lawyer, Mr. Graff has brought numerous judicial proceedings to establish the validity of municipal bonds. He was a Parkinson scholar at Duke University School of Law and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa at the College of William & Mary.

Charity Karanja

The Partners Involved
Wednesday, August 26, 12:10 - 1:25 PM

Attorney
Butler Snow LLP

Charity is a member of Butler Snow’s Public Finance, Tax Incentives and Credit Markets Group and is a Development Finance Certified Professional (DFCP) through the Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA). She also has the distinction of being one of six women in the nation named to the 2024 Class of the Caren S. Franzini Fellowship, a merit-based program by the CDFA Foundation, recognizing outstanding women in development finance for their leadership and dedication to the advancement of the industry.

In her law practice, Charity has served in multiple roles on public, private, and public-private finance transactions, including economic development matters, and has represented both governmental and private organizations in a variety of financing structures, including new market tax credit (NMTC) transactions.

Charity earned her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law and is a member of various civic and legal organizations, including the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL), Women in Public Finance (WPF), and the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). She is a member of the prestigious WPF Emerging Leaders Council (ELC) and the Mississippi Bar Leadership Program. She has also been featured in a Spotlight by NABL, and is listed by a variety of industry publications, including: The Bond Buyer: Rising Stars, Super Lawyers: Mid-South Rising Stars, Marquis Who’s Who in America and The National Black Lawyers: Top 40 Under 40.

As part of her continued dedication to the industry, Charity has presented at various conferences and seminars on matters relating to public finance, including the CDFA National Development Finance Summit, and has authored various articles, including a financing toolkit for medium-density housing developments titled: “Financing Tools and Incentives for Developers in Missing Middle Housing.”

Lauren Mack

Issuing Bonds - The Rules
Wednesday, August 26, 2:20 - 3:35 PM

Attorney
Law Office of Lauren Mack, P.C.

Lauren has over 30 years of experience in financing (tax-exempt, taxable and public-private partnerships), federal tax, non-profit organizations, health care, corporate, and governance matters. She works with clients to provide practical solutions to their real-world problems. Lauren has been involved in a wide range of public financing transactions, serving as bond counsel and issuer’s counsel, as well as advising borrowers (including health care organizations, cultural institutions, schools and universities, and Indian tribal governments), underwriters, and banks (as direct lenders, liquidity providers and letter of credit providers) on tax and other matters. She advises clients with respect to transaction structuring, as well as post-closing covenant and tax compliance. She also represents clients before the IRS in connection with audits, closing agreements under the IRS’ Voluntary Compliance Program, and private letter rulings. Lauren also advises clients on corporate transactional and financing matters, including issuance of public and privately placed debt, use of special purpose vehicles, public-private partnerships and other joint ventures, and corporate acquisitions and dispositions. Her representative clients include corporations, municipal entities, commercial lenders, and credit enhancers. She works with the client’s financial team on transaction structure, due diligence, documentation, continuing disclosure, and post-closing covenant compliance. Lauren received her J.D. from Duke University School of Law, graduating with distinction. She received her B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame.

Toby Rittner

Why Bond Financing?
Wednesday, August 26, 11:10 - 11:40 AM

President & CEO
Council of Development Finance Agencies

Toby Rittner is the President & CEO of Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA), a national association dedicated to the advancement of development finance concerns and interests. CDFA is comprised of the nation’s leading and most knowledgeable members of the development finance community representing hundreds of public, private and non-profit development finance agencies. Mr. Rittner runs the day-to-day operations of the Council including the organization’s various educational, advocacy, research, resources, and networking initiatives. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the CDFA Foundation.

Rittner is one of the most vocal and recognized leaders of the development finance industry nationwide and has advised local, state, and federal leaders, including Presidents Biden and Obama, on economic development finance policy. Through his leadership and guidance, CDFA was successful in preserving private activity bonds and other critical development finance tools during the 2017 tax reform deliberations and has had numerous pieces of legislation introduced in the United States Congress. In 2021, Rittner successfully led a national effort to reauthorize and fund the $10B State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) program as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. He has written and crafted dozens of strategic finance plans for development finance agencies and advised communities throughout the world on development finance approaches.

Rittner focuses on sustainable finance with an emphasis on infrastructure, clean energy, food systems, small business, and innovations in the development finance industry to drive sustainable outcomes. He has written extensively about impact ready initiatives that leverage and engage capital in ways that drive local sustainability in business and industry and the environment and economy.

Rittner is a frequent speaker at local, state, and national conferences and events focused on economic development finance. He has been featured in The Bond Buyer, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NPR and other national media publications concerning the advancement of development finance tools. He is the author of CDFA's highly acclaimed Practitioner's Guide to Economic Development Finance and co-author of CDFA's Unlocking Capital: A Handbook for Becoming a High Performing Development Finance Agency.

Rittner is an adjunct faculty member at The Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a Development Finance Certified Professional (DFCP) and has completed the prestigious Oxford University Sustainable Finance Foundation Course.

Mr. Rittner previously served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Financial Advisory Board and is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Community Fund I. Mr. Rittner holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master's of City and Regional Planning degree from The Ohio State University. Mr. Rittner was awarded the Ohio State University College of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2016.

David Safer

The Partners Involved
Wednesday, August 26, 12:10 - 1:25 PM

Managing Director
U.S. Bank

David Safer joined U.S. Bank National Association in 2016 and is responsible for business development activities in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Prior to that, David spent 10 years at The Bank of New York Mellon in a similar capacity. Mr. Safer joined Manufacturers Hanover Trust in 1989 and through acquisitions, spent time with Chemical Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank and JP Morgan Chase. Mr. Safer held various positions including Regional Manager for the West and Northeast Regions of the Relationship Management Team, Team Leader of JPMorgan Chase’s Institutional Trust, Deal Services Negotiation Team, and Team Leader on the International & Project Finance Team, responsible for sovereign, corporate and municipal clients primarily located in the Asian, African and North American regions with a concentration in Power and Mining Project Finance transactions. David received his B.S. degree in Business Economics and Finance from the State University of New York at Oneonta.

Lynda Templen

Types of Tax-Exempt Bonds
Wednesday, August 26, 1:35 - 2:20 PM

Senior Counsel
Husch Blackwell LLP

Lynda focuses her practice on public finance. She has extensive bond/tax experience with a variety of industrial revenue bond structures, including variable and fixed-rate taxexempt bonds, taxable convertible bonds ("Cinderella bonds") and taxable notes.

Lynda is skilled at finding ways to reduce costs for clients in bond financings. She has notable experience assisting growing companies in identifying and securing local and state incentives that can help bridge the "equity gap" that often proves a challenge for such clients.

She has significant experience with both tax-exempt and taxable lease revenue bond structures and TIF financings. She is the lead attorney for numerous general obligation bond issues, as well as municipal and school district bond counsel engagements. Her experience in this area includes Recovery Zone Facility Bonds (RZFBs), Midwestern Disaster Area Bonds (MDABs) and other long-term financings, Revenue Anticipation Notes, Bond Anticipation Notes and Tax & Revenue Anticipation Notes, refundings and lease financing.

Lynda worked extensively with the Wisconsin Department of Commerce (now Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation) to develop the regulations and procedures to implement RZFBs and MDABs in Wisconsin. She has been lead counsel on hundreds of bond transactions in several states totaling billions of dollars. She speaksfrequently at seminars on a variety of public finance issues and is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers.