Ken leads Flagstar Bank’s national Education & Nonprofit Banking business line.  He has over 35 years of experience within both municipal and nonprofit tax-exempt finance – emphasizing California based coverage.  He has worked closely with public school districts, charter schools as well as colleges and universities.  His background includes credit, treasury management, and capital markets.

Lynne Funk is Senior Director, Strategy and Content, Live Media at The Bond Buyer. She leads and shapes The Bond Buyer’s six major events, serving as host, moderator, thought leader and brand ambassador. Lynne also is charged with creating innovative live media formats, including new conferences and virtual summits to help serve our municipal finance community. She also has been a moderator or speaker at various industry events, including the Bond Market Association, the NFMA, WPF and the CDFA.  Lynne has nearly two decades of markets and policy experience in the public finance industry. Prior to her current role, she was most recently Executive Editor of The Bond Buyer. Previously, she was a director at Municipal Market Analytics, Inc., and a Manager and Policy Analyst for the Municipal Securities Division at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Janie L. Mines is a member of Academy Securities’ Advisory Board and Academy’s Head of Inclusion and Innovation.

Ms. Mines is a former naval officer who was the first African-American woman to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, where she earned a Bachelor of Science. She graduated in 1980 after serving in several leadership positions in the Brigade of Midshipmen. She was later selected to participate in the prestigious Sloan Fellows Program, where she earned an MBA from the Alfred P. Sloan School of Business Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ms. Mines held positions of increasing responsibility, as a Navy Supply Corps officer and in several corporations including Procter & Gamble, Pepsi (Frito-Lay), Hershey Foods, and Bank of America. She was formerly an independent executive management consultant focusing on Strategic Planning, Change Management, Quality and Productivity, Integrated Business Transformation, and Program Management serving nonprofits, government and Fortune 500 corporations.

Ms. Mines served as the Sr. Advisor, Business Process, Senior Executive Service in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy. She formerly served on the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) for the Secretary of Defense.

Ms. Mines founded and managed a non-profit organization for over 10 years, Boyz to Men Club, Inc, after observing the needs of adolescent boys in the community. Her awards include National Women of Color in Business Award winner, Olympic Torchbearer, Civic Volunteer of the Year, 9 Who Care Award winner for the Charlotte Metropolitan Area, and a South Carolina Black History Honoree. She received a Congressional Record Proclamation for her service. Ms. Mines has served as a member of the Rotary Club International, the Board of Directors of the Founders Federal Credit Union, and the Board of the Springs Close Foundation. She is the author of No Coincidences – Reflections of the First Black Female Graduate of the United States Naval Academy.

Ms. Mines has maintained her relationship with the Naval Academy throughout the decades and was selected as a Distinguished Graduate for her outstanding service. She continues to positively impact the lives of midshipmen and naval officers through her mentorship and ongoing support.

Chris Mount-Benites serves as SFUSD’s Chief Business Official and Deputy Superintendent of Business and Operations.  Hailing from New York State, Chris has made California home for the past 28 years and has worked in public education throughout the state but has largely centered his life in San Francisco and the Bay Area.  Over the past 15 years, Chris served as CFO, CPO, and COO of Los Angeles Unified, the second largest district in the United States, Superintendent and CBO of Burlingame School District, Deputy Superintendent of Business and Finance in Washington Unified School District, Deputy Superintendent of West Contra Costa Unified School District, and CFO & COO of UC Berkeley’s Division of Equity and Inclusion.  In all of his positions, Chris has been brought in at times of fiscal and operational upheaval to create fiscal stability and create or improve systems.  Chris also brings an educational lens to his work; he taught high school English and Social Studies, served as both an Elementary and High School Principal and lead Curriculum and Instruction as well as being tapped as a public education policy expert for his first fifteen years in education in both CA and NY.  He brings a deep commitment to strengthening public schools which he believes are a cornerstone of modern democracy.

Chris joined Raymond James in March 2024 and Co-Heads the firm’s public finance practice in the Western U.S. Prior to joining Raymond James, Chris spent 23 years at Citigroup where he led the firm’s public finance practice in the Western U.S. from 2009 to 2024. Prior to joining Citi in 2001, Chris spent 10 years in public finance at Merrill Lynch before that firm’s merger with Bank of America. While at Merrill Lynch, Chris was responsible for supporting and eventually leading the firm’s coverage of Hawaii issuers, senior managing financings for the City and County of Honolulu, counties of Maui and Kauai, University of Hawaii, Dept of Hawaiian Homelands, Hawaii HFDC and the State of Hawaii. His collective Hawaii experience while at Merrill Lynch and Citi includes 76 financings with a total par value of over $14 billion. More broadly, throughout his 33-year career in public finance, Chris has helped U.S. state and local governments complete over 1,100 financings and raise over $485 billion for infrastructure and working capital needs. Five of Chris’ clients have earned national “Deal of the Year” awards for their financings: two from Governing and three from The Bond Buyer. A Honolulu native, Chris graduated with highest honors from UCLA with a degree in economics and business, and holds Series 7, 24, 53 and 63 licenses. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Asian Americans in Public Finance (AAPF).

Shannon Rinehart is a senior municipal portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. She manages high-yield municipal, long national and Minnesota municipal strategies, and the suite of national and state-specific strategic municipal income strategies. Prior to her current role, she was a portfolio manager for the Columbia Threadneedle US Investment Grade Credit team. Previously, she held industry positions in market risk, investment performance and corporate finance. Shannon joined Columbia Threadneedle Investments in 2009. She has been a member of the investment community since 2004. Shannon earned a B.S.B.A. in finance, accounting and international business from Drake University and an MBA in finance from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management. In addition, she holds the CFA® designation and is a member of the CFA Society of Minnesota.

Phil Moos is a member of BAM’s Capital Markets team, focused on working with institutional investors to support growth in BAM’s secondary market insurance activity. He joined BAM from Wells Fargo in 2026 and is a veteran of sales and trading roles in the municipal market at firms including E.A. Moos & Co. and Goldman Sachs. He is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University.