Bond Buyer’s Yvette Shields remembered as ‘legendary muni reporter’ who enriched industry

Yvette Shields, a reporter originally trained to cover Chicago City Hall, turned her fearless pen to Midwest state and local finance when she joined the Bond Buyer nearly 26 years ago and launched a career that enriched the public finance industry with unrivaled coverage of the people, deals and events that matter to the bond world.

Along the way she earned a reputation as a consummate financial reporter who had great personal charm, intelligence, and humor. She built an extensive network of sources and friends, routinely scooped the competition, and acquired a deep understanding of the political and financial nuances that shape municipal finance.

Shields died suddenly on July 19 of what is believed to be sepsis. She was 57.

News of her death reverberated across the public finance community.

“She was an all-star journalist,” said Richard Ciccarone, president emeritus of Merritt Research Services and a longtime source who, like many, grew to know Shields personally over the years.

“She could get to the meat of the issue in no time and deliver the story out to her readers before the rest of the pack,” Ciccarone said. “Her effervescent personality helped the people she interviewed feel at ease and open to meaningful exchange.”

Shields brought transparency and accountability to the complex and opaque municipal finance industry with her relentless coverage and willingness to share her knowledge with other reporters and competitors.

“The muni industry will now know less about Chicago and Illinois finances with Yvette no longer reporting on them,” said Matt Fabian, partner at Municipal Market Analytics. “We were lucky to have had her helping us for so long.”

Shields began her journalism career at the storied Chicago News Bureau, where she was trained to cover City Hall and honed her political instincts and met many of her lifelong friends. She joined the Bond Buyer in 1997, covering the Midwest at a time when Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was at the height of his power.

 It was a job that suited her, marrying her natural writing skills and nose for news with her political savvy, ability to tackle complex subjects, and gift for connecting with people.

Shields dominated the beat. She became one of the best-known financial reporters in her beloved hometown of Chicago and in Illinois where she chronicled the financial tribulations, political corruption and risky deals that perpetually landed the city and state on a national stage.

“Getting the inside scoop is no small feat when you cover a conservative, risk-averse industry,” said Andrew Ward, a Fitch Ratings analyst who previously worked with Shields at the Bond Buyer.

“Yvette worked for all of us in the muni bond industry, but she didn’t advocate for us. She held a mirror up to us,” Ward said. “We all have an interest in creating a market with high integrity, and real journalism is essential to that. We’re quite lucky to have it, and Yvette was one of the best at giving it to us.”

Over the years, mainstream reporters relied on Shields to make sure they were getting the municipal finance story right.

“She was so smart and knowledgeable and always willing to help other folks like me understand the complexities of her beat,” said Rich Miller, publisher of popular political Illinois newsletter Capitol Fax. A few weeks before her death, Miller ran one of her stories on the Chicago Bears stadium, citing her as the “incomparable Yvette Shields.”

“Yvette was the best at what she did. Bar none,” Miller said. “It’s like there’s now a hole in The Force.”

Shields covered some of the biggest public finance stories in the Midwest and nationally. 

She chronicled the infamous Illinois budget impasse – which earned her a 2017 Peter Lisagor award nomination – Chicago’s descent into junk, Detroit’s recovery from bankruptcy, the United Airlines bankruptcy, the collapse of the auction-rate market and the Great Recession.

Former Bond Buyer reporter Mary Wisniewski recalled how Shields coordinated Chicago coverage the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the downtown Bond Buyer office closed for the day. Shields told Wisniewski to come over to her house, where they dug out their industry directories and worked the phones, calling every Cantor Fitzgerald office in the country to get information about how many people the firm lost in New York City.

Shields covered court cases big and small that impacted state and local finances, from the Illinois Supreme Court’s rulings on troubled pensions to the struggles of the Chicago suburb of Harvey, which marked one of her final stories. Harvey’s attorney and longtime source Bob Fioretti called her “one of the best” and “a true voice for transparency and truth.”

She reported on the rise and fall of dozens of political administrations across the Midwest. She broke stories on the hiring and firing of the bankers and investors that sell and buy municipal bonds. Along the way, she gained a steel-trap memory of the people and deals that make up the market.

Shields was looking forward to digging into newly elected Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration, and was building new sources in his administration when she died.

Nationally, market participants relied on Shields to provide accurate and straightforward information about the financial condition of her beat.

“She was my go-to source on Chicago and Illinois credit developments,” muni bond analyst Paul Mansour, vice chairman of the board of the New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank, wrote on LinkedIn. “I followed her reporting and valued her opinions. I was always honored when she sought out my opinion.”

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Vikram Rai, former head of municipal strategy at Citigroup, recalled her as always a pleasure to talk with. “She was very forthright in her conversations and coverage and she understood the muni market very well,” Rai said.

One of many who considered Shields a mentor, Melanie Shaker, senior vice president of public finance at FHN Financial, said she was “loyal, honest, and absolutely her own person.

“I will never forget her warmth and authenticity even in the face of criticism as she held out for what was right.  Yvette brought some humanity to our industry and her loss will be felt by many,” Shaker said.

Shields’ prolific output — fueled by late-night writing sessions — was enhanced by her thoughtful and fair treatment of the people she was covering, which she considered as important as getting the scoop.

“While Yvette always wanted to scoop on transactions and gossip in the municipal market, Yvette always was making sure that now was an okay time to talk, and asking how the family was doing,” said Dave Erdman, managing director at Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors LLC and former debt manager for the state of Wisconsin. As was typical, Shields got the scoop that Erdman would land at Baker Tilly after he had left the state.

“Yvette was the model reporter by asking all the right questions and being humble enough to say ‘stop and explain that to me,'” Erdman said.

After her passing, both Brandon Johnson and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot put out statements, with Johnson saying Shields had a “long and remarkable career bringing fair and responsible reporting to our city’s financial community” and Lightfoot noting that she “made the complex topic of municipal finance accessible to her readers.”

State Comptroller Susana Mendoza called Shields “the most knowledgeable reporter covering state finance in the Midwest” whose “mastery of financial issues was matched by her larger-than-life personality” and her love for her children.

“Coming on the heels of the loss of Civic Federation President Laurence Msall and Illinois Chamber of Commerce President Todd Maisch, Yvette’s death deprives us of yet another trusted voice on state finance,” Mendoza said.

Jennie Huang Bennett, Chicago CFO under Lightfoot, called Shields a “smart, hard-working, financially savvy, fair, and well-connected reporter.

“Her passing is an enormous loss to financial transparency and accountability in the Midwest and in Chicago,” Bennett said. “Above all, she was a good person and she was passionate about municipal finance.”

Shields’ humor came out in her bantering and droll social media presence, where her Twitter bio reads “The Bond Buyer signs the checks, snark is my own.”

Her influence in the local media landscape was reflected in the comments that came in on social media after she died.

Veteran Chicago Sun-Times City Hall reporter Fran Spielman, who wrote a July 21 obituary of Shields, called her death a “terrible loss – for the city and her family,” on Twitter. “Nobody knew city and state finances better than Yvette and Civic Federation President Laurence Msall,” who died in February.

“A real journalism pro – and a classy lady – gone far too soon,” tweeted Crain’s Chicago Business political reporter Greg Hinz.

“Wonderful person, friend, legendary muni reporter,” tweeted William Glasgall, senior director of public finance at the Volcker Alliance and former Bloomberg editor.

Outside of her work, Yvette loved her city of Chicago and swimming in Lake Michigan – she was the first among her friends to take a dip this summer – and in local pools, where she made friends with other regulars during her evening swims. She loved live music, day trips with her family, literature, fish and chips, Bells Amber beer, walking in the Cook County forest preserves, City News reunions, hanging out with friends and neighbors, and the north woods of Wisconsin.

Above all, she loved her children, Wesley Alwin, 16, and Nora Shields, 27.

She is also survived by her mother Inez Keller, brother Richard John Shields, stepsisters Kelly Fleming and Denise O’Connor, nieces Zash Fleming and Crystal O’Connor, nephew Walter O’Connor, cousin Richard Owens and aunt Christine Owens, and by Scott Alwin, her close friend and Wesley’s father.

A Go Fund Me account has been set up to pay for Wesley’s education.

Visitation was held Tuesday at Gibbons Funeral Home in Chicago.

An industry remembrance memorial will be held in September in Chicago.