Robert P. Cochran
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Bob Cochran is chairman and chief executive officer of Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. and its monoline financial guaranty insurance subsidiary, Financial Security Assurance Inc. (FSA).
A founding principal of FSA, Mr. Cochran became chairman of FSA Holdings in November 1997, adding to his roles as holding company CEO and FSA chairman and CEO. He had been president and CEO of both companies since August 1990 and chairman of FSA since July 1994. He initially served FSA as managing director of the financial guaranty department, which originates and underwrites all of FSA's asset-backed and municipal financial guaranty business. He is a director of White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. and was formerly chairman of the Association of Financial Guaranty Insurors.
Prior to joining FSA, Mr. Cochran was the managing partner in the Washington D.C. office of Kutak Rock & Campbell, specializing in both corporate and municipal securities law. In the 1970s, he was part of the investment banking team that developed the first tax-exempt single family housing transactions and the first tax-exempt floating rate monthly demand bonds, both of which are standard market products today.
Before joining Kutak, Mr. Cochran served a clerkship with the Honorable Pierce Lively, US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He graduated from Centre College and the Duke University School of Law. He currently serves as a member of the law school's long range planning committee.
Séan W. McCarthy
President and Chief Operating Officer
As president and chief operating officer of FSA, Séan McCarthy has responsibility for the company's strategic direction and insurance originations across all municipal and asset-backed sectors worldwide and for bringing together all of the critical skills and technical resources needed to advance the development of FSA's businesses. He has been chief operating officer since 1997 and became president in 2000.
From 1993 to 1997, Mr. McCarthy was managing director of FSA's financial guaranty department, with responsibility for all transaction groups. In this capacity, he oversaw the marketing and underwriting of municipal transactions, asset-backed financings and residential mortgage securitizations in the United States and internationally. He also formulated new business development strategies and played a key role in expanding the company's influence throughout the asset-backed and municipal markets.
Earlier, as head of FSA's West Coast and Asia Pacific operations, he introduced the concept of asset-backed securities and monoline insurance to the Asia Pacific region and helped to open the market for residential mortgage securitization and insured infrastructure finance in Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to joining FSA in 1988, he was a vice president in the municipal securities group of PaineWebber Incorporated. Earlier, he worked at E.F. Hutton in the public finance group.
Joseph W. Simon
Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer
Joe Simon is FSA's chief financial officer. A member of the company's Management Committee, he has responsibility for all finance, treasury and accounting operations, as well as facilities management. Since joining FSA in 2002, he has coordinated major corporate financing initiatives, including holding company bond offerings and creation of a $200 million money market committed preferred trust vehicle to expand FSA's claims-paying resources.
Prior to joining FSA, Mr. Simon was CFO of Intralinks, a technology company serving the financial markets. From 1993 to 1999, he was CFO of Cantor Fitzgerald, one of the major broker-dealers in the fixed-income and equity markets, where he was responsible for a worldwide accounting staff performing financial, regulatory and management reporting. He also established the firm's treasury function.
Before that, he also served as principal and vice president of Fixed Income Controllers at Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for supervision of the investment bank's U.S. fixed income trading desks.
He is a certified public accountant and began his professional career at Price Waterhouse in 1983. He received an MBA from the University of Michigan and is a graduate of Cornell University.
Bruce E. Stern
Managing Director and General Counsel
Bruce Stern manages FSA's Legal Department, which is responsible for transaction execution, regulatory compliance, reinsurance and general corporate legal matters. He is general counsel, secretary and a managing director of both Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. and FSA, and is a member of the board of directors of FSA.
He has been instrumental in applying the requirements of securities, insurance, insolvency and tax laws and regulations to insured structured financings and obtaining clarifications or amendments of those laws and regulations where appropriate. He has helped develop many of the legal standards commonly used today in insured structured financings, and has also helped pioneer innovative financial guaranty reinsurance products. In 1989, he played an important role in negotiating the provisions of the insurance law enacted in the State of New York to regulate financial guarantors.
Before joining FSA in 1987, he was an attorney with the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he advised FSA's institutional investors in connection with the initial capitalization of FSA and represented these investors until he joined FSA. At Cravath, he had extensive experience in project and lease financings, securitized real estate financings, public offerings, private placements, M&A transactions and commercial banking transactions.
He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
Laura A. Bieling
Managing Director and Controller
Laura Bieling oversees FSA's accounting operations, develops accounting policy, supervises financial disclosures including Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and undertakes related special projects. Promoted to managing director and controller in 2004, she joined FSA as a vice president in the Finance Department in 2000. She has played an important role in analyzing the accounting and business impact of new accounting standards, such as those involving fair-value accounting for derivatives and consolidation of variable interest entities, and in harmonizing FSA's financial reporting under U.S. GAAP, U.S. statutory and international financial reporting standards.
A certified public accountant, she was previously senior manager for Assurance/Business Advisory Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where she held a series of progressively responsible positions from 1989 through 2000, specializing in insurance and reinsurance clients.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Connecticut and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Dennis H. Kim
Managing Director and Treasurer
As Treasurer, Dennis Kim has responsibility for capital planning and managing FSA's capital and liquidity facilities.
Prior to joining FSA, he was a Director in the Global Markets and Investment Banking Division at Merrill Lynch & Co. In addition to advising financial services clients on a variety of merger & acquisition and capital market transactions, he also served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Global Financial Institutions Group within Investment Banking.
He received an MBA in finance from The Wharton School and a BA in economics from the University of Chicago.
Russell B. Brewer II
Managing Director and Chief Risk Management Officer
In his role as Managing Director and Chief Risk Management Officer, Russ Brewer oversees the Corporate Research and Transaction Oversight departments, as well as the risk management and operations functions within FSA's Financial Products business. He is a member of the Executive Management Committee and a director of Financial Security Assurance Inc.
He was formerly FSA's Chief Underwriting Officer and, earlier, Managing Director of its Asset Finance Group, which underwrote guarantees for a broad range of asset-backed transactions. He joined FSA in 1986 and played a leading role in developing the use of financial guarantees for asset-backed securities.
Before joining FSA, he was an Associate Director in the Structured Transactions Group at Moody's Investors Service.
He holds a BA from Colby College and an MBA from New York University.
Richard G. Holzinger
Managing Director and Head of Corporate Finance
Rick Holzinger heads FSA's Corporate Finance Group, where he is responsible for all of the company's domestic consumer finance, structured finance and residential mortgage finance business, along with the development of new asset-backed products. He also serves on the Management Committee.
Previously, as Managing Director responsible for the Asia-Pacific region, Rick ran FSA's Singapore Branch and oversaw the activities of FSA's offices in Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney. Under his direction, FSA guaranteed a broad range of financings, including collateralized debt obligations, electricity distribution assets, and consumer receivables.
Before joining FSA, Rick was a managing director at Bankers Trust Company and was based in Hong Kong. At Bankers Trust, he led the Asset Finance Group, Asia/Pacific and was responsible for origination, structuring and execution of structured financings throughout Asia, including asset securitization, project finance, trade finance, cross-border leasing and tax arbitrage transactions. Earlier, he was based in New York, where his responsibilities included financings in both Asia and the Americas.
Before joining Bankers Trust, Rick was an investment banker at Shearson Lehman Hutton and, earlier, at Paine Webber Incorporated.
Mr. Holzinger began his career with the law firm of Dewey Ballantine in New York. He holds a BA from Harvard University and a Doctor of Jurisprudence, with honors, from the University of Texas.
Scott C. Richbourg
Managing Director, Municipal Finance
As head of FSA's Municipal Finance Department, Scott Richbourg directs and oversees FSA's public finance business in the U.S. This includes overall responsibility for the origination of FSA-guaranteed municipal bonds and insured secondary market trades as well as oversight of Municipal Dealer Relations. He also serves on FSA's Management Committee.
Before joining FSA in 2001, he was a vice president and co-head of the Infrastructure Finance Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. While at Goldman, he led the company's efforts in the surface transportation sector.
As an investment banker at PaineWebber Incorporated from 1990 to 1997, he focused on large capital projects involving the use of derivative products. He was a founding member of PaineWebber's municipal derivatives group.
Mr. Richbourg holds a BBA degree in economics from James Madison University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
Philippe Z. Tromp
Managing Director, Europe
As managing director for Europe, Philippe Tromp has overall responsibility for FSA's marketing and underwriting activities in the United Kingdom and Continental European asset-backed, municipal and project finance markets. Under his leadership, FSA has extended the use of financial guaranty insurance to new market sectors, including the U.K Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and synthetic collateralized debt obligations. He is a member of FSA's Management Committee.
Prior to joining FSA, Philippe spent three years at Bankers Trust Company in London, where he was managing director of the asset finance group. Before that he was a principal and founding member of The Transportation Group Ltd, a financial services firm affiliated with Paine Webber Incorporated. Earlier, he was a vice president of Paine Webber Incorporated and a financial attaché to the French Treasury in New York.
Philippe has an MS degree from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines and an MBA in finance and marketing from Columbia University.
Glenn Tso
Managing Director, Financial Products
Glenn Tso is in charge of FSA's Financial Products group, which creates and manages structured investment programs that take advantage of FSA's access to low-cost funds and credit expertise in the global ABS and collateralized debt obligation markets. He is also a member of FSA's Management Committee.
Under his leadership, the Financial Products group has developed an FSA-guaranteed investment contract program that enables municipalities and other issuers to optimize returns and draw- schedule characteristics. The group also manages a Triple-A rated European medium term note vehicle.
Mr. Tso was previously co-head of the Residential Mortgage Group at FSA. He managed the financial guaranty process for a variety of transactions secured by non-traditional mortgage assets, including issues backed by HELs, second liens, and distressed assets. He also focused on the resecuritization of mezzanine and subordinated securities.
Earlier in his career, he was a member of the Corporate Advisory group at Toronto Dominion Securities (USA), specializing in the telecommunications industry.
He holds a BS from the University of California, Los Angeles in electrical engineering (1983), did graduate work at the University of Southern California in Electrophysics, and received an MBA from Columbia Business School (1989).