Baird strengthens national footprint with banker hire

Employee-owned international broker-dealer Baird hired veteran public finance banker Tim Kelly to deepen its higher education and non-profit benches nationally.

Kelly brings more than 25 years of public finance banking experience working for both bulge bracket and regional investment banks on more than $13 billion in par amount, according to Baird.

“His deep expertise in higher education and not-for-profits will be a tremendous asset as we expand our capabilities and strengthen our public finance platform nationally,” said Brian Brewer, Baird’s director of public finance.

Kelly moves over after a year as a managing director at R. Seelaus & Co, a Summit, New Jersey-based woman-owned broker-dealer and asset management company. Prior to Seelaus, he was a managing director at HilltopSecurities and KeyBanc Capital Markets.

He also has held senior positions at Piper Jaffray & Co., Janney Montgomery Scott and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. Earlier in his career, he worked as an associate director at UBS Securities and First Albany Capital.

Kelly has worked on a wide range of financing structures including securities and credit profiles, as well as derivative products.

“I am pleased to join Baird, given its broad capabilities and the strong reputation of its sales force for effectively distributing well-structured credits in the low and below investment grade space,” Kelly said in a statement.

Baird

Brewer said he considers all hires opportunistic in the sense that Baird has ongoing efforts to deepen its bench in all sectors.

“We have a great team, but having Tim on the field will strengthen that team,” Brewer said.

The addition of Kelly, who is based in Florida, also helps Baird expand on the east coast — as the client base for the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based firm has been concentrated in the central part of the country north to Ohio and south to Texas.

“We hired John Baracy (in Los Angeles) last year, because we had not found the right person to help us expand on the west coast, until we hired him,” Brewer said. “Our strategy is to find the right people in the right sector to diversify and grow in sectors we are strong in.

As for the headwinds facing higher ed, which include federal grant cuts and shrinking enrollment, Brewer said, having a strong, capable team is the key no matter what challenges the market brings.

Likewise, Brewer said Kelly’s hire was more about having the right person in the right place than an effort to respond to current challenges in the higher ed sector.

“We are trying to grow every sector,” Brewer said. “But we want to grow strategically.”