Donald Field is a partner in Orrick’s Public Finance Group and the co-chair of Orrick’s School and Community College Finance/General Obligation Bonds Practice Group.

He is also a member of Orrick’s Leasing Practice Group, Assessment/Mello-Roos Practice Group, and Revenue Practice Group. Don has extensive experience, as bond counsel, disclosure counsel and underwriter’s counsel, in the financing techniques used by school and community college districts, cities and counties in California. His practice focuses on local governmental infrastructure financing, including general obligation bond financing, municipal lease financing, and land-secured financing, as well as tax and revenue anticipation note (TRAN), pension obligation and other post-employment benefit (OPEB) obligation financings. Don serves as the lead lawyer for the California School Boards Association’s annual tax and revenue anticipation note pool.

Publications:

Speeches and Programs:

Frank Doyle is a Director within the Municipal Finance North American team at SMBC. Frank joined the firm in November 2019 to focus on credit analysis and brings deep experience in municipal finance to SMBC.

Prior to joining SMBC, Frank was at MUFG Bank as a credit analyst for eight years, where he helped to grow the bank’s public finance business. Before that, Frank was a marketing and credit officer at Bayerische Landesbank for 12 years, where, among other accomplishments, he oversaw the workout agreement on Jefferson County, Alabama.

Frank graduated from the U.S. Military Academy with a Bachelor of General Engineering and served as an officer in the U.S. Army. After serving in several leadership positions, including as a company commander, Frank left the Army to attend the University of Pennsylvania.

Helen Cregger is a Vice President/Senior Credit Officer in Moody’s San Francisco office. She covers local government credits primarily in California including enterprise systems, cities, counties, and school districts. In addition to her analytical work, Helen leads ESG scoring efforts for municipal utilities within the US and heads up Moody’s municipal utility task force, supporting research and internal training for these credits. Helen serves a a rating committee member on credits nationally for sectors including local government, charter schools, community college and healthcare districts.

Prior to rejoining Moody’s, Helen was an investment banker for Piper Sandler & Co. Among other issuers, Helen worked with a number of municipal utilities including those serving Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Pueblo, and the State of Colorado on its BEST K12 capital construction program. Prior to her initial tenure at Moody’s, Helen was an analyst for the US General Accountability Office in the International Trade, Finance, and Competitiveness Division.

Helen holds an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a BA in Latin American Studies from Northwestern University.

Ronda Chu is the Acting Assistant Chief Financial Officer at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), operated by the Airport Commission of the City and County of San Francisco. She oversees the airport’s financial operations, with a focus on long-term stability and growth. Her leadership spans strategic planning, budgeting, financial systems & reporting, financial planning & analysis, revenue management, capital financing, procurement and risk management. She manages a $1.7 billion operating budget, oversees the financing of a $12.5 billion capital improvement plan, and guides a $9.7 billion debt portfolio—key elements that ensure the airport’s financial strength and resilience.

She brings over 25 years of experience in municipal finance, with a background that spans both advisory and issuer roles. Before joining SFO in 2008, she worked as a management consultant, delivering financial and business planning services to airports and municipalities across the U.S and internationally.

Ms. Chu holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Science in Financial Economics from the University of London. Committed to professional and community service, Ms. Chu previously served as a Board Member for a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization from 2012 to 2021. She is currently a member of the Airport Council International-North America (ACI-NA) Finance Committee and serves as Chair of the Strategic Planning and Performance Management Working Group.

John Chino is a member of the Leadership Team of Gallagher’s Public Entity Division and oversees the development of public agency risk management programs. His expertise includes program design, marketing, consulting, implementation, and self-insurance administration and account oversight. Since 1986, he has been tasked with the placement of insurance and self-insurance for pools and is responsible for the formation of at least 16 self-insured pools in 10 states. In January of 2025, he commenced his 43rd year at Gallagher.

Mr. Chino is a member of the Faculty of the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance where he teaches the Certified School Risk Management Program (CSRM) and is a course instructor for The Institutes. Mr. Chino is currently the Vice President of the USC Marshall Peter Arkley Institute for Risk Management.

He also enjoys running marathons and has completed 60 including Boston, New York, Chicago, London and Berlin.

Treasurer Fiona Ma appointed Robert Berry to the position of Executive Director of the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (CDIAC) in January 2020. Prior to his appointment and since joining CDIAC in late 2010, he served as Deputy Executive Director. Before joining CDIAC, Robert was a manager in the Capital Markets Group of Panattoni Development Company, one of the largest private merchant development companies in the country at the time. As a registered representative and manager of the company’s private equity placement program, he was charged with placing investments of high net-worth individuals in the company’s development projects across 29 US, Canadian, and Eastern European markets. Preceding his years in real estate finance, Robert worked over fourteen years in economic development as a business attraction and retention specialist with the State of California.

Robert earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of California, Davis.

Marc has experience servicing clients as bond counsel, borrower’s counsel, disclosure counsel, bank counsel, and underwriter’s counsel in various finance transactions including private activity bonds for affordable housing projects, revenue bonds for power and water projects, and conduit 501(c)(3) financings for universities, museums, affordable housing projects, middle income housing projects, and charter schools.

Mr. Ben Barker is a registered municipal advisor with over 17 years of bond program administration experience serving conduit issuers to facilitate taxable and tax-exempt bond financings. He is a partner with Sierra Management Group and Granite Municipal Advisors advising the California Municipal Finance Authority and the National Finance Authority. Mr. Barker has participated in over $40 billion structured financings, with over 1,200 Private Activity and General Obligations bonds with half of the issuances being Affordable Housing related projects. Mr. Barker’s previous experience covers all aspects of Mortgage Backed Securitizations. He began his career as an analyst with UBS and continued on to become an AVP of Secondary Markets at a boutique investment banking firm. Mr. Barker is a Board Member for the California Affordable Housing Development Association (CAHDA), the California Council for Affordable Housing and the Oscar de la Hoya Foundation. He has earned a spot on the Top 50 list of Next Generation of Public Finance. Mr. Barker is a regular speaker in the public finance circuit. He has led the highly regarded “Everything You Wanted to Know About Bonds but Were Afraid to Ask” Panel for the past 10 years at Housing California, the nation’s largest affordable housing conference. Mr. Barker received a BS in Finance and Business Management from Brigham Young University and has been certified by the Investment Banking Institute.

Michael Ballinger is Publisher of The Bond Buyer and has been with the publication for over 15 years. He was instrumental in the launch of The Bond Buyer’s Trailblazing Women in Public Finance, Rising Stars and Hall of Fame programs and the National Outlook conference. Before joining The Bond Buyer, Michael was head of marketing and communications at bond insurers, MBIA and CIFG for over 20 years. Prior to that, he worked at United Brands Company in the public affairs department. Michael has a bachelor of arts degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a master’s degree in communications from New York University.

Jade Turner-Bond is a partner in the Los Angeles office dedicated to projects that provide a positive social impact (whether sponsored by public entities, nonprofits or for-profit enterprises). Her practice focuses on social and transportation infrastructure projects, and she serves as counsel to issuers, underwriters and sponsors on a broad spectrum of public finance transactions.

Jade is recognized nationally and globally by Chambers USA. Clients describe her as a “trusted advisor” and as being “smart, easy to work with and commercially – minded.”

She has worked on a broad range of financing structures, including fixed and variable rate, tax-exempt and taxable, letter of credit and liquidity supported bonds, tenders, exchanges, senior/subordinate, project finance, direct purchases, and 144A and Section 4(a)(2) offerings.

Some of Jade’s notable clients include the City of Los Angeles, the State of California, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Port of Los Angeles, and The Broad, as well as some of the most active underwriters in the market.

She has recently been recognized by Bloomberg Law’s They’ve Got Next: 40 Under 40, as well as a Rising Star by The Bond Buyer and as one of the Women of Influence by The Los Angeles Business Journal. She is also actively involved in community development, serving on the board of directors of GRID110, a nonprofit focused on supporting early-stage entrepreneurs in Los Angeles.

Previously, Jade served as legal counsel to the California State Treasurer’s office.