Mark T. Kim is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), the principal regulator of the $4 trillion municipal securities market. Before becoming CEO, Mark was the Chief Operating Officer from 2017-2020 and served on the MSRB Board of Directors from 2015-2017. Prior to the MSRB, Mark was Chief Financial Officer for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water). Under his direction, DC Water won multiple Deal of the Year awards for its creative and innovative bond financing program. Previously, Mark served as Assistant Comptroller for Public Finance and then Deputy Comptroller for Economic Development for the City of New York. Prior to his public service, Mark was an investment banker at several financial services firms including UBS and Goldman Sachs. Mark holds a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University, a law degree from Cornell Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University.

Nikolai J. Sklaroff joined the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) as its Capital Finance Director in May 2022. As Capital Finance Director, he is responsible for developing, implementing and administering the SFPUC Capital Financing activities across the agency. He leads a team of professionals supporting the agency’s capital project funding activities including financing transactions, banking agreements, commercial paper program activities, credit rating activities and debt administration, among others. The role serves in a key leadership function at the SFPUC. The Capital Finance Director manages the day-to-day operations of the SFPUC’s $6+ billion outstanding debt portfolio and the daily operations of the SFPUC’s $1.5 billion Commercial Paper Program across three enterprises, Water, Wastewater and Power.

Nikolai has spent more than three decades in the public finance industry and most recently served as the Deputy Director of Finance responsible for the Debt & Treasury Management division in the City of San José. In that role he oversaw teams managing the City’s $4.6 billion debt portfolio across all enterprises, managing the City’s $2.4 billion investment portfolio and managing the City’s banking operations. He also spent 22 years as a senior public finance investment banker in San Francisco with Citigroup Global Markets, J. P. Morgan – where he was national Head of Cultural Institutions investment banking – and Wells Fargo. Prior to becoming an investment banker in 1997, Nikolai was a senior Moody’s Investors Service rating agency analyst and member of Moody’s rating committee. Nikolai began his career as a financial advisor with Public Financial Management, Inc. in his hometown of Philadelphia, where he received his degrees from the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania, prior to moving to England to pursue his graduate degree. He pursued further graduate studies at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

A frequent speaker at industry conferences and author on public finance topics, Nikolai has also served on multiple boards of directors and advisory committees. Nikolai is currently serving on the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Debt Committee. As a former California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (CDIAC) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) member, Nikolai continues to enjoy assisting CDIAC with policy publications and seminars.

Gabriel Petek was appointed to the position of the Legislative Analyst in February 2019, as the sixth person to serve in that capacity since the office was founded in 1941. As the Legislative Analyst, Gabriel serves as the nonpartisan fiscal advisor to both houses of the California Legislature and oversees the preparation of fiscal and policy analyses of the state’s budget and programs. His office is also responsible for preparing impartial analyses of all initiatives and constitutional measures qualifying for the state’s ballot. Before joining the office, Gabriel worked for two decades at S&P Global Ratings. Gabriel held several positions at S&P before he was ultimately named the Managing Director and Sector Leader in the U.S. States Group of the U.S. Public Finance Division in San Francisco. Gabriel was S&P’s primary analyst for the states of California and Illinois. Gabriel graduated with a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, during which time he interned at the City of Boston’s Office of Management and Budget. In addition, he earned his B.A., magna cum laude, in political science from Loyola Marymount University, with a portion of his undergraduate coursework completed through his participation in the Hansard Scholars Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gabriel holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and has served as an advisor to the Government Finance Officer’s Association’s Committee on Governmental Budgeting and Fiscal Policy. He currently serves on the Statewide Leadership Council of the Public Policy Institute of California. Gabriel is married to Andrea de la Fuente and has two children, Eden and William.

In this session, experienced issuers and municipal advisors will discuss past refundings, their strategy, and how they measured the success of their refunding transactions. In light of the points made in prior sessions, panelists will explore the evaluation of refundings generally, the need to re-examine conventions, and the potential outcomes for altering strategy and practices in the future.