‘He was someone you wanted on your team’: Hans Hanf has died at 78

Hans Hanf, former head of municipal markets at BAM, whose career in municipal finance spanned nearly half a century, died on Jan. 22.  He was 78.

Hanf’s friends and colleagues remembered him as someone who could effortlessly bring people together.

“Hans was BAM’s original head of municipal markets,” BAM Mutual CEO Seán McCarthy said. “When he joined the company in our first year, he immediately expanded our conversations with underwriters and traders and helped the market understand BAM could benefit municipal issuers and investors on new-issues and in the secondary market.”

Hanf graduated from Rutgers University. He joined Prudential Securities in 1977 and worked there for nearly 21 years, becoming the firm’s first vice president in high-yield municipal trading. 

Hanf spent some time as senior vice president of the GMS Group, working on tax-exempt and taxable trades, and served as vice president of the Bond Market Association, directing its regional dealer program. 

He joined Chapdelaine & Co. in 2003, serving as the firm’s senior vice president of business development and eventually its manager of municipal business development. 

Drew Kanyer met Hanf during this time. Hanf made a business visit to Baird, where Kanyer worked and they immediately became friends. 

“Hans knew everybody,” Kanyer said. “He helped me in my career, and when I was looking to hire salespeople, traders, underwriters, he was always a great contact, because he knew everybody.”

In 2013, Hanf joined BAM as its head of municipal markets, shortly after the firm’s creation. He managed BAM’s competitive bid and secondary market desk. 

“I am very excited about this opportunity,” Hanf said at the time. “I believe BAM’s mutual structure, which is based on shared purpose values with its municipal members, offers the market important advantages.”

John Raftery of Mountaintop Securities met Hanf around 25 years ago. Hanf became one of his best friends, Raftery said; the two called each other three times a week.

Hanf loved golf and was an excellent storyteller, Raftery said. 

“Hans can get up there and tell joke after joke after joke,” Raftery said.

Hanf’s interpersonal skills were his defining trait, in business and in friendship, Kanyer said. 

“He was a connector,” Kanyer said. Despite the rapid technological advances throughout Hanf’s career, he understood that “it was still a relational and a relationship business.”

“He was the most generous guy you’d ever want to meet,” Raftery said. “He would be able to bring together a lot of different generations of people — within the business, and friendships. And, when you’re with him, it’s like you’ve known him forever.”

“He was someone you wanted on your team,” McCarthy said. “He understood how to build long-term relationships … and turn them into friendships.”

A wake will be held on Monday, and Hanf’s funeral will be held on Tuesday at Saint Thomas the Apostle Church in Bloomfield, New Jersey.