MSRB elects five new board members

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has added five new members to its board, as well as elected officers for its 2024 fiscal year, bringing Meredith Hathorn on for another term as chair and electing Ernesto Lanza, of counsel for Ballard Spahr and formerly of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as chief regulatory and policy officer.

Those elected to serve on the MSRB board include Alexander Chilton, managing director and head of municipal securities at Morgan Stanley, Michael Craft, senior credit analyst at Genworth Financial, Pamela Frederick, chief financial officer and treasurer of the Battery Park City Authority, Wendell Gaertner, senior managing director of Public Resources Advisory Group and Christopher Kendall, managing director of fixed income trading at Charles Schwab & Company.

Gaertner will take over Jerry Ford’s position as a municipal advisor representative, after he rejoined the board in order to fill in for Jill Jaworski, who left shortly into her four year term to serve as chief financial officer for the City of Chicago. He’ll serve a three year term and the four others will serve four year terms beginning on Oct. 1.

“Thanks to the tremendous efforts of the Nominating Committee, we have the pleasure of welcoming five individuals who will refresh our board with new perspectives, relevant experience and shared commitment to serving our market,” Hathorn said.

Along with Meredith Hathorn’s reelection, Angelia Schmidt has been reelected as a bank dealer representative and Thalia Meehan, as a public member, has been chosen to serve one addition year.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to continue working alongside my fellow board members to advance long-term initiatives that will profoundly shape the future of our market,” said Hathorn. “As we approach the midpoint of the organization’s four-year strategic plan, we are making great strides toward modernizing our rule book, our technology systems and our data capabilities to better serve investors, issuers and the public interest.”

Lanza returns to the MSRB after joining Ballard Spahr last year, and before that, serving as acting director for the SEC’s Office of Municipal Securities. He previously worked for the MSRB for fifteen years, and was instrumental in creating the MSRB’s EMMA system.

“I am delighted to welcome Ernie back to the MSRB, and I am confident that he is the right person at the right time to advance our regulatory agenda,” MSRB chief executive Mark Kim said.

The MSRB has also added John Toye, a 13-year veteran of the MSRB in many IT leadership roles. Toye has been chosen to serve in the new role as chief information officer. Brian Anthony will transition to chief product officer after originating the chief data officer role.