One of Columbia Capital’s core strengths is our approach to staffing our advisory services

David A. Abel joined Columbia Capital in 2017 as Managing Director. He is also an LLC Member.

Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Mr. Abel worked as an investment banker at various Wall Street and regional investment banks for nearly 20 years. He also served for four years as the Director of Debt Management of the State of Illinois.

Mr. Abel’s public sector experience includes capital markets performance measures, swap and debt policy development, ratings management, and bond authority consolidation. He administered the State of Illinois’s two largest bond programs, including directing a $10 billion of taxable pension bonds offering in June 2003. In addition to the State’s internal debt practice, Mr. Abel served on committee positions with the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST).

During his tenure at municipal underwriting firms, Mr. Abel become known for his applied software engineering for custom debt management tools needed by large and frequent issuers. Including among his specialty assignments for custom work were a mortgage revenue bond program audit and reconstruction, as well as system-wide re-investment tax and regulatory compliance. Specialized assignments aside, Mr. Abel structured several hundred bond issues, many of which offered unusual tax exemption or security problem-solving opportunities.

Mr. Abel holds a B.A. in Economics with public finance emphasis from the University of Colorado at Boulder, in concert with extensive additional elective coursework in applied physics and mathematics of electrical engineering. He is registered with the SEC as a Series 50 municipal advisor representative and a Series 54 municipal advisor principal.

Sam Baker joined the firm in 2022 and works across Columbia Capital's business lines, providing analytical support to the team on municipal advisory, investment advisory and consulting work. She is an integral part of our MuniVault® services, as well.

Ms. Baker graduated with a B.A. in Communication Studies and Sociology from the University of Kansas. Recently, she completed her on-campus work toward a Master’s in Public Administration through the University of Kansas Stene Graduate Program in Public Administration. She expects to graduate in Spring 2023.

In tandem with her coursework, Ms. Baker gained local government experience in a city manager’s office and finance department of a diverse, mid-sized community. She provided analytical work on a variety of municipal functions including the annual budget, periodic financial reporting, and new program implementation.

Curt de Crinis joined Columbia Capital Management as Managing Director at the end of 2018. He is also an LLC Member.

Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Mr. de Crinis was founder and managing director of C.M. de Crinis & Co., Inc. (CMdC). Since 1984, Mr. de Crinis has been instrumental in structuring and completing underwritings for a wide range of projects. In addition to serving as a municipal advisor at CMdC, his experience over the past thirty-three years includes over seven years as a public finance investment banker with national and regional bond underwriting firms.

His clients have included cities, counties, state authorities, hospitals, housing authorities, park and recreation districts, joint powers authorities, and on rare occasion, major development companies. He has been associated with more $12 billion in municipal bonds offered. Mr. de Crinis also served in the public sector from 1982 through 1983 as Director of Finance and Administrative Services for a newly incorporated municipality. In 1981 he was employed by a consulting firm that specialized in municipal incorporations.

Mr. de Crinis has been a guest lecturer at the USC Graduate School of Public Administration, a speaker at the annual California Redevelopment Association Legal Symposium, a CRA trainer, and a lecturer on Public Private Partnerships. In October of 2017, Mr. de Crinis was appointed to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's (MSRB) Regulatory Compliance Advisory Task Force in Washington D.C.

Mr. de Crinis holds a B.A. degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in Political Science and Sociology, and a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management from Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. He is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative and a Series 54 municipal advisor principal.

Rhona DiCamillo joined Columbia Capital in January 2020 after serving as a Principal at D+G Consulting Group LLC.

Ms. DiCamillo has extensive experience in the financing of airport improvements, having participated in more than 20 airport bond financings totaling more than $10 billion. Ms. DiCamillo has been serving as a municipal advisor since 2002 representing clients including the City of Chicago, Wayne County Airport Authority, Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Ms. DiCamillo began her career in 1990 as a lawyer in the City of Chicago’s Law Department. In 1994 Ms. DiCamillo joined the City’s Department of Aviation and in 1997 was named Deputy Commissioner with responsibilities for bond financings, airline lease negotiations, airline and tenant relations, and business development. Ms. DiCamillo has participated in numerous airport bond financings, including general airport revenue bonds, passenger facility backed bonds, letter of intent supported bonds, customer facility charge bonds and TIFIA loans.

Ms. DiCamillo received her law degree from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law. She received her B.A. in Business Economics from Wheaton College. Ms. DiCamillo is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative and a Series 54 municipal advisor principal.

Khalen Dwyer is a Managing Director and LLC Member. He joined Columbia Capital Management in 2010.

Since joining Columbia Capital in 2010, Mr. Dwyer has provided financial advisory services to a wide range of clients in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and California. Mr. Dwyer’s experience includes serving bond issuers at the state and local levels for general governmental purposes, economic development projects, water and sewer utility systems, major transportation authorities, and a variety of public higher education institutions. His expertise includes advising clients through all facets of the financing process—from inception to settlement—and developing ad hoc analytical methods to assist clients with evaluating unusual or challenging problems.

His experience includes serving the State of Kansas (Kansas Development Finance Authority); State of Missouri; Missouri Housing Development Commission; Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority of the State of Missouri; Kansas Turnpike Authority; Illinois Tollway; City of Topeka, Kansas; City of Branson, Missouri; and a number of communities in California, including Santa Clarita, Carson, and Camarillo. As advisor to the Kansas Development Finance Authority, Mr. Dwyer has also worked closely with each of the State’s Board of Regents institutions, including the University of Kansas; Kansas State University; Wichita State University; Pittsburg State University; Fort Hays State University, and Emporia State University.

In 2021, Mr. Dwyer served as lead advisor on the Kansas Development Finance Authority’s $505 million pension obligation financing for the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. The pension bonds were issued to a fund a portion of the unfunded actuarial liability related to the retirement system’s school group. Mr. Dwyer simultaneously advised the Authority on a $39 million economic refunding of existing debt to achieve ten million dollars in budgetary savings for the State.

Mr. Dwyer spearheads much of Columbia Capital’s quantitative analytics and modeling work, including the development of numerous firmwide tools for analytical applications, such as capital budgeting analysis, economic refunding analysis, and debt structuring optimization. His experience includes the design and optimization of capital programs for a number of general government and special purpose clients. Examples include developing an operating and capital budgeting model for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority’s $12 billion capital program, “Move Illinois”; designing and maintaining a cash flow model for a public-private industrial development partnership between BNSF Railway, the City of Edgerton, Kansas, and a number of existing and planned warehouse and logistics park tenants; developing a Monte Carlo simulator to replicate the statistical characteristics of a pension fund investment strategy and evaluating the potential economic implications of pension obligation bonds.

Mr. Dwyer graduated Summa Cum Laude from Pittsburg State University, earning a B.B.A. in Finance. He is a CFA charterholder, and a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Kansas City. He is registered with the SEC as a Series 50 municipal advisor representative and a Series 54 municipal advisor principal.

Shannon Harris joined Columbia Capital in 2019 and serves as Vice President.

Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Ms. Harris worked for the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer in the department of portfolio risk analytics where she was responsible for risk management of the State’s $20 billion fixed income portfolio.

Ms. Harris’ background also includes extensive experience in international finance and investment where she worked in Asia and South America for more than ten years. Ms. Harris worked for a consulting firm based in Rio de Janeiro where she structured international trade financing agreements and performed due diligence and market analysis for clients entering the South American market.

She also worked for a major Chinese real estate development firm based in Beijing in its international mergers and acquisitions department, which oversaw the firm’s expansion into Africa and South America. She is fluent in Mandarin and Portuguese.

Shannon holds a Bachelor's of Arts from the University of San Diego and a Master's of Arts from the University of Toronto. She is registered with the SEC as a Series 50 municipal advisor representative and a Series 65 investment adviser representative.

Dennis Lloyd is a founder of Columbia Capital Management and currently serves as Senior Consultant.

He began his career in the municipal finance industry in 1981. Since then he has executed a large variety of transactions, including single and multi-family housing bonds, refundings, restructurings, temporary notes, asset sales, variable rate demand bonds, grantor trusts, swaps and other derivative products.

His accomplishments include serving as financial advisor on the highest rated unemployment bond issue nationwide, establishing the financing structure and bond covenants for the City of Topeka, Kansas, Water and Wastewater Utility System, implementing an updated indenture for the Kansas Turnpike Authority, restructuring the Parking Revenue Bond system for the City of St. Louis, Missouri, developing several novel revenue bond structures for Kansas Development Finance Authority transactions, educating issuers regarding the disadvantages of various "cutting edge" financing alternatives (including swaps and premium callable bonds), and working with the Missouri Housing Development Commission to implement the first tax credit advance loan program in the country.

Mr. Lloyd's experience is unusual for the breadth and variety of the transactions he has executed. His background includes the development of innovative financing concepts, as well as the origination and execution of transactions. Mr. Lloyd has provided advice on complex transactions for a number of large issuers, including: the Birmingham Water Works Board; City of Chicago; Illinois Department of Employment Security; the Kansas Development Finance Authority; the Kansas Turnpike Authority; the Missouri Housing Development Commission; the State of Missouri; Kansas City, Missouri; Topeka, Kansas; and St. Louis, Missouri.

Mr. Lloyd is also an attorney and applies that background in providing financial advisory services to clients. Mr. Lloyd holds a B.S. in Economics and J.D. from the University of Kansas. He is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative and a Series 54 municipal advisor principal.

Deric Marr joined the firm in 2019 and works across Columbia Capital's business lines, providing analytical support to the team on municipal advisory, investment advisory and consulting work.

Mr. Marr graduated with his Bachelor's of Economics from the University of Kansas where he has also worked on his Master's in Economics. During his time at the University of Kansas, Mr. Marr worked as a research assistant focused on a joint collaboration with a professor from Washington University (St. Louis) to study the mobility of wealth across the civil war era. Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Mr. Marr worked at a Kansas City-based consulting firm providing forensic economics in court cases and as a contracted researcher for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service in Washington D.C.

He is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative and a Series 65 investment adviser representative.

Kevin O’Kelly joined Columbia Capital in 2021 after serving in investment banking for eight years at William Blair and Raymond James.

His experience includes more than 200 public and private initial offerings totaling more than $2.5 billion dollars, covering state and local governments, school districts, park districts, utilities, and conduit issuers in New England and the Midwest.

Prior to his time in investment banking, Mr. O’Kelly acted as a bond trustee, paying agent, and dissemination agent for five years at Wells Fargo Bank, working on General Obligation municipal bonds and Indenture-based revenue debt for corporations, non-profit healthcare and higher education institutions, and government agencies of all types.

Mr. O’Kelly’s public sector experience includes three years in the Illinois Governor’s Office of Management and Budget including selection and placement into the office through the James H. Dunn Jr. Memorial Fellowship Program. His revenue and expenditure models forecasted more than $2 billion in special state funds, while contributing agency management resources for state boards and commissions.

Mr. O'Kelly has a Bachelor's of Science in Economics from Northern Illinois University and is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative.

Chuck Pacunski has served as the firm's geek-in-chief for 20 years.

Mr. Pacunski's expertise spans system management, network design and analysis, database design and management, information systems management, telecommunications and systems integration in UNIX, Linux, MPE, OS-400 and VAX/VMS environments.

Adam Pope is Managing Director and LLC Member. He joined Columbia Capital in 2013.

Mr. Pope previously worked at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank as an assistant economist in the Regional Affairs group for six years.

During his time at the Kansas City Fed, Mr. Pope managed a database of regional economic data that was used for monetary policy briefings, public outreach and regional research. He was the lead author of a quarterly publication called The Midwest Economist, which provided an update on current economic conditions in Kansas and western Missouri. He has been published in the Kansas City Fed's Economic Review and Public Choice. Mr. Pope has spoken to numerous business, education and community groups about the Kansas, Missouri and national economies.

Mr. Pope graduated from Clemson University with a BS and MA in Economics. He is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative, a Series 54 municipal advisor principal and a Series 65 investment adviser representative.

James Prichard joined Columbia Capital in 2012 and serves as Managing Director and LLC Member.

Mr. Prichard previously worked in the State of Illinois' Office of Management and Budget's Capital Markets Group for five years, most recently as Manager of Capital Markets. During his tenure, Mr. Prichard was extensively involved in the issuance of nearly $27 billion of State debt offerings. His work with the State included the issuance of general obligation bonds, short term certificates, revenue bonds, tobacco securitization bonds, Build America Bonds, and unemployment insurance bonds.

He used his quantitative skills to build various financial models used by the State including debt affordability models, a swap mark-to-market model, a GASB No. 53 derivative effectiveness model, and various other debt issuance and management models. In addition to his financial modeling, Mr. Prichard was extensively involved in investor outreach, including national road show presentations and bond rating agency meetings.

He was also responsible for analyzing and drafting legislation and was involved in the State’s budget preparation. Prior to his work for the State of Illinois, Mr. Prichard served as a Graduate Assistant for the Economics program at the University of Illinois.

Mr. Prichard graduated Summa Cum Laude from Lee University with a BS of Business Administration. He holds an MBA from the University of Illinois. He is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative and a Series 54 municipal advisor principal.

Jim Stricklin joined Columbia Capital in 2022 and serves as Managing Director of the firm's Phoenix office.

Prior to joining Columbia, he served as an investment banker and financial advisor with Wedbush Securities. Mr. Stricklin joined Wedbush in October 2008 through the acquisition of Peacock, Hislop, Staley & Given, Inc., a full-service investment banking firm he co-founded in 1989. He has more than 35 years of investment banking and financial advisory experience and has been responsible for public finance innovations, program development and implementation in areas including current and advance refunding, general obligation and unique revenue bond work.

Mr. Stricklin has developed and implemented financings programs for numerous municipal issuers with an emphasis on utility project financing and water asset acquisition. Among his accomplishments, he assisted the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (“PSPRS”) with the adoption of Senate Bill 1354, enacted in 2020, which established the Arizona Employers Pension Prefunding Program (“AEPPP”). AEPPP is a Section 115 Trust program available to PSPRS employers to prefund their defined benefit pension costs.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Stricklin worked for Ernst & Whiney (now EY) for three years, where his responsibilities included advance refunding verifications, bond issue design and municipal budget formation. He passed the CPA exam and completed the certification requirements in 1984. Mr. Stricklin is a supporter, or member of various professional organizations including the Arizona League of Cities and Towns, the Arizona City Managers Association, and the GFOAz. Mr. Stricklin has a bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting and Real Estate from the University of Arizona. He is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative and previously held Series 7, 53, 54 and 63 registrations.

Stacey Walter joined Columbia Capital in 2014 and serves as Compliance Officer and Controller. She is also an LLC Member.

Ms. Walter’s background prior to joining Columbia Capital included serving for more than thirteen years in an audit capacity. She worked at Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG) as a Senior Auditor in the Internal Audit Department for five years. During her time at AWG, Ms. Walter developed, implemented, and managed an internal accounts payable audit program, growing the company's annual recoveries from $150,000 to over $2 million. Ms. Walter was also responsible for validating data integrity during new system implementations and upgrades. Performing monthly account reconciliations and audits to ensure adherence to AWG corporate policies and procedures were also part of her responsibilities.

Following her time at AWG, Ms. Walter served as Senior Utility Auditor for Payless ShoeSource. She was responsible for all aspects of trash, telecom and water services for more than 4,000 retail stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. This included contract negotiations, as well as audits to optimize utilization of services, improve efficiencies and identify and recover overpayments. During her two year tenure, her audit findings included annualized savings of: $60,000 as a result of terminating service for locations closed more than a year prior; $50,000 by identifying duplicate billings by multiple service providers for the same service; $100,000 for terminating services no longer needed; and, $45,000 by identifying and eliminating unapproved third party telecom billings.

At Columbia Capital, Ms. Walter is actively involved in all facets of the business. Upon joining the firm, she coordinated the day-to-day office management and became active in the firm’s compliance program. She also began coordinating the firm's MuniVault® service. In January 2019, Ms. Walter was appointed to the position of Compliance Officer and Controller. She currently manages the firm’s extensive compliance program, serves as an investment adviser to our investment advisory clients, and continues to be involved in all facets of the business, including leading the firm’s MuniVault® service.

Ms. Walter holds a BS from the University of Central Missouri and an MBA from Park University. She is registered with the SEC as a Series 50 municipal advisor representative, a Series 54 municipal advisor principal and a Series 65 investment adviser representative.

Jeff White is Managing Member of Columbia Capital Management. Prior to joining Columbia Capital in 2001, Mr. White spent more than a decade as a local government management practitioner.

As a city manager, assistant city manager, department head, and budget director in cities from 14,000 to 124,000 in population, Mr. White became very familiar with the financial needs of local governments as debt issuers and investors. As public works director responsible for transportation, building inspection, engineering, parking and water utilities (water, wastewater, and storm water), he managed annual operating budgets of nearly $55 million and capital programs exceeding $150 million. He enjoys bringing his passion for public service and an understanding of the business of local government to Columbia's clients.

Mr. White has experience serving a wide variety of issuers. His clients include the Chicago Public Schools; St. Louis County, Missouri; the Metro Bi-State Development Agency (St. Louis); Roosevelt University (Chicago); the YMCA of Greater Kansas City; the Denver Urban Renewal Authority; and numerous regional, local and non-profit issuers and borrowers.

Over the last decade, Mr. White has advised the City of Edgerton, Kansas, on the financing of significant public infrastructure supporting BNSF railroad's newest intermodal transportation facility, the only one of its kind west of the Mississippi, and the development of a related logistics park that will eventually contain more than 30 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space across 3,000 acres. The underpinning of this financing is a three-party agreement between the City, BNSF and a master developer of the surrounding logistics park. Because of the City's small size and limited borrowing capacity, Mr. White helped the City design and implement a public/private partnership model to finance infrastructure costs that would be beyond the City's ability to support on its own.

As Managing Member, Mr. White serves as chief executive of the firm and is active in all areas of service delivery. Mr. White leads Columbia Capital's New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) advisory practice.

Mr. White holds an A.B. in Political Science from the University of Michigan and a Master of Public Administration in Local Government Management from the University of Kansas Stene Graduate Program in Public Administration. He is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative, a Series 54 municipal advisor principal and a Series 65 investment adviser representative.

Michael Williams joined Columbia Capital Management at the end of 2018 as Managing Director.

Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Mr. Williams served as managing director of C.M. de Crinis & Co., Inc. (CMdC) after joining the firm in 1991. Mr. Williams has served as financial advisor on more than $1.6 billion in bond financings including electric revenue, water and wastewater revenue, special tax, tax increment, general obligation, and lease purchase financings. His clients include cities, counties, utility authorities, and a number of school districts.

In addition to bond financings, Mr. Williams has worked as an advisor to a number of public agencies on workouts of troubled land secured financings. Mr. Williams is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the State of California. His prior work experience as a CPA includes consulting on accounting related matters to public, private, and non-profit institutions including a number of law enforcement agencies. In addition, Mr. Williams has prior experience in municipal government in cash and investment management and debt administration, which brings a unique perspective to municipal finance to his clients.

He has been a guest lecturer for the Master's in Public Administration program at California State University-San Bernardino in the areas of investments and municipal finance and is a member of the Masters in Public Administration advisory board.

Mr. Williams holds a B.S. degree from California State University, San Bernardino, held a California Community College teaching credential and was an adjunct accounting professor at San Bernardino Community College District. He is a Series 50 municipal advisor representative.