Caitlyn Burchfield

The Basics of Bond Finance
Tuesday, February 24, 11:40 - 12:10 PM

Partner
Butler Snow LLP

Caitlyn Burchfield is a partner at Butler Snow LLP, where she has worked since September 2014. Caitlyn is a summa cum laude graduate of the Honors program at the University of Alabama, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, and is a 2014 graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law. Caitlyn works in the Public Finance Group of Butler Snow and is admitted to the State Bars of Alabama and Mississippi, the U.S. District Courts for all Districts of Alabama and Mississippi, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Caitlyn has experience with various types of tax-exempt and taxable debt, including direct bank placements, public market offerings, tax anticipation warrants, USDA financings, prepay energy deals, and refundings of prior issuances. Caitlyn’s representative projects span the U.S., with a particular focus on the Southeast. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Association of Bond Lawyers, and Women in Public Finance (Alabama chapter).

Caitlyn’s work has been recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US, and The Best Lawyers in America®. Last year, Caitlyn was named to Business Alabama’s “2025 Legal Elite” list.

Seth Crone

Closing the Deal
Tuesday, February 24, 4:25 - 4:55 PM

Vice President, Relationship Management
U.S. Bank

Seth Crone, CPA, CFA is a VP and Relationship Manager for municipal trust appointments in Texas and the south-central U.S. for U.S. Bank. He has long served as an advisor, public finance banker, and corporate trustee for municipal and not-for-profit issuers. He advocates for his clients and solves their problems. With a passion for economic development, he has spoken extensively on access to capital at a variety of national, regional and local industry groups.

Seth began his career at Peat Marwick in New York City under a special program for liberal arts majors. After passing the CPA examination on the first sitting, he moved through the audit, tax and management consulting departments, where he focused on feasibility studies for healthcare and project finance offerings. Recruited to Texas for real estate workouts, Seth left public accounting for healthcare public finance, first as a VP at Texas Commerce Bank/Chase Securities and later a Principal at Banc of America Securities. Seth earned his CFA charter in connection with his sell-side high yield work.

In 2003, Seth joined JP Morgan in municipal trust sales. He continued in corporate trust sales and relationship management when the group moved to BNY. Governor Rick Perry appointed him to the board of the Texas Teacher Retirement System.

Seth graduated from Amherst College with a BA in Religion and Economics and received his MBA in Accounting from New York University.

Charity Karanja

The Partners Involved
Tuesday, February 24, 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.”

Warren Ribley

Issuing Bonds - The Rules
Tuesday, February 24, 2:20 - 3:35 PM

Executive Director
Upper Illinois River Valley Development Authority

Mr. Ribley serves as Executive Director of eight Regional Development Authorities throughout Illinois. The Regional Development Authorities are Special District Units of Government created by Illinois law to offer state and federal tax-exempt bond financing for eligible projects as a conduit issuer. Examples of tax-exempt bond financing offered by the RDAs include, but not necessarily limited to, industrial revenue bonds, affordable housing bonds, not-for-profit bonds, special purpose bonds, and local government bonds. The eight RDAs supported by Mr. Ribley cover eighty-eight of Illinois’ one hundred two counties.
 
Mr. Ribley has over 40 years of professional experience in state government and the private sector, focusing on economic development, project management, public policy and financial services. 

Toby Rittner

Why Bond Financing?
Tuesday, February 24, 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
Tuesday, February 24, 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.

Anne Curtis Saunders

Structuring the Deal
Tuesday, February 24, 3:45 - 4:25 PM

Partner
McGuireWoods LLP

Anne Curtis focuses her practice on the areas of public finance, federal and state taxation, and municipal securities, serving as bond counsel, borrower’s counsel, underwriter’s counsel, or issuer’s counsel in tax-exempt and taxable bond financings. Her experience includes private activity bond financings for a variety of nonprofit organizations, including educational institutions, hospitals and healthcare facilities, and retirement living facilities, multifamily affordable housing projects, and solid waste disposal facilities, as well as governmental bond issues, including general obligation, revenue, and “subject to appropriation” financings for water and sewer projects, public schools and roads, commuter rail and other transportation facilities. As bond counsel and borrower’s counsel, Anne Curtis has counseled clients on various corporate and tax matters, real estate issues, and securities regulation, and as underwriter’s counsel, she has counseled clients on compliance with securities laws and regulations, including those related to disclosure. In all matters, Anne Curtis views her purpose as assisting in structuring transactions in an efficient and tax-advantaged way.

Lynda Templen

Types of Tax-Exempt Bonds
Tuesday, February 24, 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.

Glenn Weinstein

Issuing Bonds - The Rules
Tuesday, February 24, 2:20 - 3:35 PM

Principal
Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C.

Glenn Weinstein has extensive experience helping government and private clients with debt finance, secured lending, project finance and related areas of tax, governmental, real estate and securities law. Glenn's practice includes significant experience with sophisticated financing structures over a broad range of transactions.

Glenn has served as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriter's counsel and trustee's counsel on tax-exempt bond issues for numerous state agencies and local governments in Illinois and other states. Glenn also assists Illinois local governments with tax increment finance and other economic development matters.

Glenn has handled matters involving general obligation, limited tax, revenue and alternate revenue source bonds, and conduit issues for airports, solid waste disposal facilities, industrial development projects, multi-family housing, universities, hospitals and charter schools. He has worked extensively with multi-modal financings, current refundings, forward purchase offerings, tender offers, reissuances of tax-exempt bonds, interest mode conversions and substitutions of credit facilities, trustees and remarketing agents.

Glenn is the former chair of the National Association of Bond Lawyers' Securities Law and Disclosure Committee and is a frequent panelist at NABL conferences. Formerly, Glenn served as a law clerk for the Honorable John A. Nordberg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.