XX Executive Leader Award

Adela Cepeda Managing Director PFM Financial Advisors LLC 190 S. LaSalle Street, Suite 2000 Chicago, IL 60603 Phone: 312-523-2425 Fax: 312-977-1575 Email: cepedaa@pfm.com

Adela Cepeda

A finance specialist since 1980, Adela Cepeda, managing director of Public Financial Management, Inc. (“PFM”), advises municipalities on the structuring and execution of capital markets transactions. In 2016, she sold A.C. Advisory, Inc. to PFM, the top ranked municipal advisor in the United States. As a corporate finance executive at Smith Barney, Harris Upham for over 10 years, Ms. Cepeda developed a strong expertise in handling public and private debt and equity transactions. She then left Wall Street to build her own firm, A.C. Advisory, which she led to a national leadership position in municipal financial advisory services with over $150 billion in completed transactions.

Ms. Cepeda serves on the boards of the UBS Funds, the Pathway Mutual Funds and chairs the Mercer Mutual Funds. She is also a director of BMO Financial Corp., the U.S. holding company for BMO Harris Bank, with over 15,000 employees and 550 branches located principally in the Midwest. She serves as chair of BMO’s Capital Committee, charged with overseeing the successful execution of Dodd-Frank Stress Testing and the linkages between the Bank’s capital management and business strategy. Ms. Cepeda previously chaired the audit committee of the board of Wyndham International, Inc., a 20,000 employee, publicly traded company that owned and operated hotels and resorts in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. The Board at Wyndham tapped Ms. Cepeda to chair the committee of independent directors designated to evaluate strategic alternatives leading to the sale of Wyndham to Blackstone Group for $3.2 billion. In addition to years of experience as a mutual fund and corporate audit committee member or chair, Ms. Cepeda has served as an “audit financial expert.”

Ms. Cepeda has extensive community involvement and serves on the Cook County Council of Economic Advisors and the City of Chicago Community Development Commission. She also serves on the boards of the Chicago Foundation for Women and Arrupe College. Until 2011, she served as an appointed executive committee member of The Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation’s leading community foundations. From 2011 to 2013 she served on the board of the Chicago Housing Authority, chairing its audit, finance and pension committees. Ms. Cepeda was recently invited to join the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Ms. Cepeda is an honors graduate of Harvard College with a major in Economics and has an MBA from the University of Chicago School of Business.

Adela Cepeda

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EXPERIENCE

2016 to present PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, INC. Chicago, IL Managing Director. The top ranked municipal financial advisor in the United States, purchased A.C. Advisory in September, 2016.

1995 to 9/2016 A.C. ADVISORY, INC. Chicago, IL Founder and President of financial advisory firm. Dedicated to developing and marketing financing and investment strategies for municipalities and corporations. Has led firm to top rankings in the U.S. municipal market. Clients include City of New York, the City of Chicago, and the states of Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey.

1991 - 1995 ABACUS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. Chicago, IL Co-founder and Managing Director of fixed income asset management firm. Developed and successfully led marketing strategy that resulted in the gain of $250 million in assets from 18 public and corporate retirement plans and foundations.

1980 - 1991 SMITH BARNEY, HARRIS UPHAM & CO. INC Chicago, IL Vice President, Corporate Finance Department. Substantial involvement in structuring and executing debt and equity financings, acquisitions, and other financing alternatives related to specific corporate needs.

EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Chicago, IL MBA Degree - August 1984. Concentration in Finance. Degree completed in two years while working full-time.

HARVARD COLLEGE Cambridge, MA Graduated 1980 Cum Laude with an A.B. Degree in Economics. Elected member of Harvard Student Agencies Board of Directors and of the Student Advisory Committee at the Institute of Politics in the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Secretary, Harvard Committee on Race Relations. Invited to U.S. State Department briefing for national Hispanic leadership.

METROPOLITAN COLLEGE OF NEW YORK New York, NY Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters - June 2014

BOARD AFFILIATIONS Corporate Board Directorships BMO Financial Corp., 2012 to present Amalgamated Bank of Chicago and AmalgaTrust Co., Inc.. 2003 - 2012 Wyndham International, Inc., Chair-Audit Committee, 2004 – 2005

Company sold in 2005

Mutual Fund Directorships Consulting Group Capital Markets “CGCM” Funds, 2008 to present Mercer Funds, Chairman, 2005 to present UBS Funds, 2004 to present Lincoln National Income and Convertible Securities Funds, Inc., 1992 – 2006

Other Paid Directorships Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), 2010 - 2012 Northwestern Mutual Policyowners Examining Committee, 2005

Adela Cepeda

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NOT-FOR-PROFIT BOARD AFFILIATIONS

Current

Former

Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago, 2015 to present Cook County Council of Economic Advisors, 2015 to present Chicago Foundation for Women, 2014 to present City of Chicago Community Development Commission, 2013 to present

Anti-Defamation League of Greater Chicago/Upper Midwest Region, Executive Committee Chicago Community Trust, Executive Committee, 2001 - 2011 Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, 2011 - 2013 Harvard Club of Chicago, Vice President Harvard University Task Force on Women and Leadership, Co-founding member Howard University Institute for Entrepreneurship, National Advisory Board Member Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Director and Treasurer Kohl Children’s Museum, Trustee Latino Institute, Treasurer, Board of Trustees LULAC, Council 313, Board of Directors Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Trustee Museum of Science and Industry, Latino Horizons Advisory Council, Co-chair, 2000-2001 National Society of Hispanic MBAs, Chicago Chapter, Board member National Women’s Political Caucus of Greater Chicago Navy Pier Development Authority, Director Personal PAC Ravinia Festival Association, Board of Trustees, 1998 - 2012 St. Catherine College, Distinguished Women’s Advisory Council The Chicago Housing Authority, 2011 - 2013 The Chicago Network The Public Building Commission of Chicago, Commissioner, Mayoral appointee, 1992 – 2011 United States Senate Judicial Nominations Commission Window to the World Communications, Inc. (PBS Channel 11 – WTTW), 1993-2015

HONORS and AWARDS Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA), “Top 50 Most Powerful Latinas”, 2019 Casa Central, “Pastora San Juan Cafferty Award, 2018 Negocios Now, “50 Most Influential Latinos in Chicago”, 2017, 2018 The Bond Buyer, “Trailblazing Women in Public Finance Award”, 2016 National Medical Fellowships, Inaugural (NMF) Corporate Citizen Award, Champions of Health, 2016 “Latina in Business Award”, Negocios Now, 2016 Hispanics in Philanthropy Givers Gala, Honoring HIPGivers, 2016 Chicago Business Journal Women of Influence Award, 2015 Latino Leaders, Chicago Maestro Awards, 2012 County of Cook, Office of the State’s Attorney, Humanitario Award, 2010 Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, Smart Cookies Award, 2010 Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County “Outstanding Women in Finance and Philanthropy Award”, 2010 “Latina Entrepreneur Award”, Latina Style Magazine, 2007 Athena International, Chicago Athena Leadership Award, 2007 Illinois Secretary of State, Hispanic Women in the Corporate World Award, 2007 Premio Empresarial LaRaza Award, LaRaza Newspaper, 2006 Chicago United Business Leaders of Color Award, 2005

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HONORS AND AWARDS (Continued) Member of the Year, Mexican American Chamber of Commerce, 2002 “20th

Anniversary Hall of Fame”, Today’s Chicago Woman, 2002 “100 Successful Hispanic Women”, Hispanic Magazine, 2002 “Chicago’s Top 25 Women in Finance”, Today’s Chicago Woman, 1999 Don Quixote Award, City Colleges of Chicago, 1999 Outstanding Achievement Award/Entrepreneurship, YWCA of Chicago, 1995 “100 Women Making a Difference”, Today’s Chicago Woman, 1994 “100 Influentials”, Hispanic Magazine, 1994 Women of Achievement Award, Anti-Defamation League, 1994 “40 Under 40”, Crain’s Chicago Business, 1993 Awardee, “Tribute to Chicago Women”, Midwest Women’s Center, 1993

FUNDRAISING LEADERSHIP

Chicago Foundation for Women Annual Luncheon & Symposium—Co-chair, 2014, 2013 and 1999 Chicago Community Trust, Co-chair, Nuestro Futuro, 2005 to date YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago 125th Gala Celebration—Co-chair, 2001 Anti-Defamation League Distinguished Public Service Award Dinner honoring John H. Stroger, Jr.—Co-chair, 2000 Anti-Defamation League Women of Achievement Awards Dinner—Co-chair, 1999 and 2000 Anti-Defamation League Americanism Award Dinner honoring Walter K. Knorr— Co-chair, 1998

9/23/2019 Adela Cepeda carved her own path to success - Chicago Tribune

Adela Cepeda carved her own path to success By Erin Chan Ding, Special to the Tribune

JANUARY 28, 2013

dela Cepeda stepped adroitly along her path to become one of the city's most prominent Latina businesswomen. But she walked it on her own, rather

than as part of the power couple she and her husband were once well on their way to becoming.

Cepeda, an immigrant from Colombia who was raised in New York, moved to Chicago in 1981 to be with her husband, Albert Maule. She met him at Harvard

University, and though he grew up in Connecticut, his family's Windy City ties ran deep. His grandfather, Corneal Davis, served as a state legislator from the

South Side for 36 years.

In Chicago, Maule became an attorney who once recruited a summer associate named Barack Obama. Cepeda worked as a corporate finance analyst but had

an entrepreneurial spirit and burgeoning civic interests. In 1988, she was appointed by Mayor Eugene Sawyer to the Navy Pier Development Corp. Maule

often spoke about running for political office and was named head of the Police Board under Mayor Richard M. Daley. The couple had three daughters.

Then Maule became ill. He fought multiple myeloma, a plasma cell cancer, for four years.

Five months before Maule died in 1995, at age 40, he helped his wife draw up papers for A.C. Advisory Inc., a firm focusing on municipal finance.

Leaning on the financial acumen that led her to become a vice president of Smith Barney, supported by civic and political connections, and driven by the need

to support her children, Cepeda delved into dealmaking.

She launched the company in a borrowed office, alone except for a phone. That winter, she made her first deal, with the city of Chicago's Department of

Water Management.

"When I was concentrating on a deal, that was the one time that I didn't feel like crying," Cepeda said. "And then … it would hit me — 'Oh, my God. Albert

died.' But I could at least make it through the calls, the negotiations. And that became so comforting. I latched onto it."

Seventeen years later, A.C. Advisory has a suite of offices in a high-rise on Wacker Drive and a presence in midtown Manhattan in New York. Its clients

include the Chicago Board of Education, the Chicago Transit Authority, Cook County, the city of New York and the state of Connecticut. Last summer,

thecompany, still relatively small with eight employees, reached a landmark $100 billion in deals.

As its core business, A.C. Advisory works for government entities seeking to refinance or to raise capital through a bond issue. The firm negotiates for the

government with the investment community, or, in a competitive bid, shepherds the process on an electronic site, aiming to secure the best rate for the

government entity and, thus, taxpayers.

Cepeda's firm collects fees from the government agencies that hire her, and she said her company brings in $1.5 million to $2 million in annual revenue. In

2010, she said, the Build America Bonds effort, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, increased revenue to $2 million to $3 million. The

privately held company has about 15 clients.

Cepeda, appointed in August to the board of directors of BMO Financial Corp., also serves on numerous civic and nonprofit boards. In 2011, Mayor Rahm

Emanuel appointed her to the board of the Chicago Housing Authority, for which she chairs the pension board and audit and finance committees. (Her firm

forgoes CHA business, she said, because of her position.)

Going solo From a soaring corner office at 150 N. Wacker Drive, Cepeda looks out onto the behemoth limestone of the Merchandise Mart, with three ample branches of

the Chicago River merging below.

"I'm into views," she said, standing behind her desk.

After leaving Smith Barney, Cepeda began a money management firm, Abacus Financial Group, in 1991 with two partners. Daley's finance office hired the

firm to negotiate bond transactions for the city, and Cepeda found she had an affinity for advisory work. She left Abacus and six months later launched her

woman- and minority-owned firm, A.C. Advisory.

"I thought that this had the potential to be a business on its own," she said, "and sure enough, it was a very successful business."

The most gratifying part of her job, Cepeda said, is when she sees results in tangible projects. Bond issues by Chicago Public Schools, for example, bring the

transformation of buildings, and in turn, the revival of surrounding blocks.

Working in the realm of public money brings scrutiny at times. A deal in 2009 for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago drew

A

9/23/2019 Adela Cepeda carved her own path to success - Chicago Tribune criticism that perhaps the city could have fared better. Cepeda says the use of Build America Bonds meant a completely different structure and contends that

the rate was the best that could be had while maintaining investor interest.

"I always feel like I have to work extra, extra hard to make sure there's never an issue," she said. "I work extra hard to justify my firm's participation going

into a transaction. We want to be value-added. We don't just want to be in a deal. We want to prove that by having us in a deal, you've done better."

David Vitale, president of the Chicago Board of Education, has known Cepeda for more than two decades in capacities professional (CPS has been a longtime

client of hers) and personal (they're South Side neighbors and share an alma mater in Harvard).

"You can be pretty sure that Adela and her firm are working for you, the client, and that's just her approach to business," Vitale said, calling her analytic and

knowledgeable. "That sales side of her, that engagement side of her, is a very strong part of her success. And that has to be coupled with providing a real

service."

It wasn't until she was in business for herself, Cepeda said, that she had the sophistication to use the connections she and her husband had formed. She

expanded to the East Coast in 2002, for instance, when her long-standing relationship with Connecticut Treasurer Denise Nappier helped prompt a pitch for

the state's business. "It's the comfort level of, 'Well, she knows me already,'" Cepeda said. But she still she sees her network as providing no more than an

opening.

"You don't stay in business with just political connections," she said. "The advantage was to open the door. But once the door is open, and I can show the

skills that we bring and the ability to analyze financial problems and situations, that's something I earn as a firm."

The solicitation of new business remains constant, one Cepeda prefers to do face to face with potential clients, often with a pitch book or presentation. At

times, she said, her perseverance can cause "a misperception that I'm not so nice because I keep asking, because this (client) would be really important. And I

really don't let go."

Robert Rodriguez, a New York State Assembly member and a vice president at A.C. Advisory (he says he abstains from the firm's state-related business), calls

Cepeda's approach to clients "very upfront and direct about what we can do."

"To get to $100 billion, if you're a smaller firm, is quite an accomplishment," Rodriguez said. "… You've got to have some great clients who are a decent size

and who issue (bonds) regularly. To keep them over a decade and a half, it's not so easy."

Not everything Cepeda has tried has translated into financial success.

In 2005, she started Alta Capital Group, a broker dealer that sold bonds to retail or institutional investors for specific debt issues in which Cepeda was not

acting as the financial adviser. (An individual working as an adviser and a broker is legal with some restrictions, though rules have tightened since 2011.) As

the majority partner in Alta, Cepeda opened offices in New York, Boston and California and hired as many as 20 employees.

Despite about $2 million in annual revenue at its height, Alta was not breaking even. Two years after she started it, Cepeda closed the group.

"It wasn't a lesson I had had before, but I'm very reverential about the market, and I was just headed into a bad market," Cepeda said. "When the market is

against you, there's just no point."

Chicago outreach In the Kenwood neighborhood, Cepeda's home is close enough to President Barack Obama's that she needs to drive past concrete barricades to get to her

front door. She recalls being introduced to Obama when Maule, who did the firm's outreach at Harvard, recruited him as a summer associate at Hopkins &

Sutter.

"My husband was a big fan of his," Cepeda said, "and I remember him telling me, 'You really ought to get to know him. He's so smart.'"

Later, Cepeda and Michelle Obama participated in the same Fellows Program at Leadership Greater Chicago. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Cepeda

served on Obama's Illinois finance committee and donated almost $15,000 to Obama and the Democratic National Committee; her middle daughter, Alicia

Maule, also worked on the campaign.

Last week, Cepeda sat in front of the Capitol for the inauguration and hopped from one exclusive Washington party to another.

Cepeda dedicates as much as 20 percent of her time each week to nonprofit causes. She has sat on boards for the Ravinia Festival Association and the Girl

Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana.

On the Chicago Housing Authority board, said Chairwoman Zaldwaynaka "Z" Scott, Cepeda manages with "confidence, competence and she's incredibly

smart," adding that "she always has an appreciation for the full range of outcomes, including the impact on people."

Recognizing that she wields influence as one of the city's few Latina finance heads, Cepeda co-founded Nuestro Futuro, or Our Future, an affiliate of The

Chicago Community Trust, with longtime friend Maria Bechily.

9/23/2019 Adela Cepeda carved her own path to success - Chicago Tribune

Their goal is to raise $5 million for a donor-advised endowment fund to benefit Latino community programs throughout the Chicago area. They have about

$3 million to go.

Terry Mazany, president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, where Cepeda served for 10 years on the executive committee, called Cepeda "an

exemplar for what great civic leadership means. She represents that transition of leadership from a predominantly white male corporate leadership to a very

diverse — in terms of gender and race and ethnicity — business leadership, which is all to the good to Chicago's prospects as a global city."

Coming to America In 1964, when Cepeda was 6, she moved with her parents from her birth city of Barranquilla, Colombia, to New York. The oldest of five, Cepeda spoke hardly

any English — "just a song about how pollo is chicken and cielo is sky."

She adapted quickly. She remembers vaulting from the slowest-learning group to the most advanced. In high school, she joined the school paper and student

government. Though athletics were "a real hardship for me," she tagged along with the high school football and lacrosse teams, becoming the teams'

statistician.

In 1980, Cepeda graduated from Harvard University with a degree in economics. She had been accepted by Harvard Business School, with the expectation

that she would matriculate after two years of work experience.

She recalled a meeting with school staff during which she was told that "women had trouble with quantitative aspects of the program," and to prepare, she

should take the most quantitative job opportunity available.

"I wasn't like, 'This is sexist,'" she said. "I just figured that those were the facts. I thought that women had a hard time with the math over there. I wanted to

get in."

Upon graduating, Cepeda started as a corporate finance analyst for Smith Barney's New York office, dating Albert Maule all the while.

Cepeda had first run into Maule in Harvard Yard, deciding on first sight she didn't like him. "His Afro was too big," she remembered. His

clothes looked messy. "I said, 'Oh, no.' I remember thinking that I cannot bring him to my parents." Months later, they attended an event for

Harvard's Institute of Politics, and Maule offered Cepeda his seat next to the keynote speaker. "I thought that was so generous," she said, her

brown eyes beaming, "and it kind of disarmed me." They dated for two years before marrying in 1981.

By then, Maule had begun as a Chicago-based lawyer with Hopkins & Sutter (it merged with Foley & Lardner in 2001) and wanted to stay in the city to be

with his maternal grandparents. So Cepeda started at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, rather than Harvard, while continuing with

Smith Barney.

She remembers standing out as a Latina, and as a result, works to diversify her firm and her philanthropic boards.

"One time, a client told me that he collected 'colored art' — all the signs that were common in the South that said 'Coloreds only'. And he said, 'You would

have been considered colored,' and I said, 'OK.'"

Of the startling reactions to her heritage, she said: "I think they didn't know what to do with it."

After finishing a flurry of cross-country business teleconferences and philanthropic duties on a recent evening, Cepeda strolled through the three-story home

where she and Maule anchored their family and where she later raised their girls alone. She hopes that, as adults, they appreciate "the power and privilege of

giving."

Adela Cepeda (54) - Owner and president of A.C. Advisory Inc.

Lives in: The Kenwood neighborhood, midtown Manhattan, N.Y., and Lakeside, Mich.

Education: Bachelor's in economics from Harvard University; master's of business administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of

Business

Family: Daughters Alexis, 26, Alicia, 24, and Laura, 21. Husband Albert Maule died in 1995.

Favorite music: Cumbia. "It's Colombian. When I hear it, I want to dance."

Management style: "Very hands-off so that my employees can be creative and advance their ideas and methods. However, I'm fairly strict about deadlines

and become quite antsy when things fall behind or I'm not sensing momentum. In those instances, I dive in and try to micromanage."

Admires: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. "And not because of her glamour, but because she was a widow at a young age, like I was, unfortunately, and was

devoted to her children. She also sought to have a successful career despite the family and social obligations. I think there was a lot of substance to her that

most people do not give her credit for."