Jessica Andujar-Redman is Executive Vice President of Business Development at World Business Chicago, where she leads corporate attraction, retention and expansion efforts across Chicago and the broader region. Her work sits at the intersection of business, public policy and capital formation, with a focus on how public and private investment can support economic growth, infrastructure and stronger communities.

Before joining World Business Chicago, Jessica spent 17 years in commercial banking, most recently at Fifth Third Bank, where she led teams serving nonprofit, government and for-profit commercial clients. Her experience includes structuring financing for complex economic development projects and working across public, private and nonprofit stakeholders to advance investment.
 
Jessica serves on the boards of the Metropolitan Planning Council and Casa Central and is a 2023 Leadership Greater Chicago Signature Fellow. She holds an MBA from DePaul University, a BBA in Finance and Economics from Loyola University Chicago, and an associate degree from College of DuPage. 

Michael Babcock is the Assistant Director of Capital Markets for the Illinois Housing Development Authority where he oversees all debt financing for the Authority. In his role, he has overseen more than $6 billion in bond issuances over the last five years for both multifamily and single-family programs. During his tenure, Illinois has implemented a volume cap recycling program, as well as dynamically structured best execution for leveraging MBS through taxable and tax-exempt bond issuances. Michael has worked in a variety of roles at the Authority over the last eight years, with five years in Capital Markets. Michael has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin Madison and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Ashlee B. Gabrysch is the Chief Financial Officer of the City of Chicago. She brings over nineteen years of professional experience and twelve years of public finance expertise spanning credit analysis, fiscal management, and organizational leadership across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.

Prior to joining the City, Gabrysch served as Senior Director and Mid-Central Region Manager at Fitch Ratings, where she led a regional analytical team covering local and state government credits across a $50 billion portfolio. She previously served as Deputy Director of Secure Choice at the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office, as a Financial Research Analyst at the Cook County Office of the Chief Financial Officer, and as a Senior Research Associate at The Civic Federation.

Gabrysch held a Master of Public Policy with Distinction from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, where she was a full tuition Dean’s Scholar, and a Bachelor of Arts with honors from the University of Chicago.

She was recognized with the C.C. DuBois Alumni Service Award from the University of Chicago Harris School in 2025, the Bond Buyer Rising Star Award in 2023, and the Global Fitch ACE Award in 2023. She served as Global Chair of the Fitch Women’s Network, leading a 1,400 member organization across 18 cities and 6 continents.

Gabrysch serves on the boards of the Chicago Summer Business Institute and the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, and teaches at the Municipal Bond Club of Chicago’s Bond School.

Samadhi Asnes is a Vice President in RBC’s Energy & Infrastructure Solutions Group, a component of the firm’s municipal finance investment banking division. Samadhi and her team are responsible for the execution of advisory and financing mandates for RBC’s not-for-profit and governmental clients across (1) DBFOM energy-as-a-service partnerships for combined heat and power facilities, distributed energy infrastructure, and other on-site generation technologies, and (2) real estate portfolio optimization strategies, including sale-leaseback transactions, capital-to-lease structures, and other balance sheet management solutions. Samadhi is based in New York City.

Jacob (Jake) Bissell is the Sr. Director of the Integrated System Planning at CPS Energy, the  nation’s largest municipally owned gas and electric utility. 

Jake is a registered Professional Engineer in Texas and joined CPS Energy in 2007. He spent the  first 10 years of his career at CPS Energy in the Power Generation business unit, supporting new construction, operations, and major maintenance across the generation fleet. Since then, he has led teams in customer-facing and strategic development roles, including electrical distribution design & project management, Key Account Management, business development, and research & innovation. Now, Jake leads the Integrated System Planning team, which includes the Energy  Portfolio Analytics team and Large Load team. 

Jake is a native Texan and lives in San Antonio with his wife and two daughters. He holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin and in  Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Jeff has been a municipal securities credit analyst and market strategist for over 25 years, with expertise extending to all sectors of the public finance ecosystem. During this time, Jeff has held leadership positions across sell-side and buy-side organizations. In his current role at The Bond Buyer, Jeff developed and launched the firm’s municipal market intelligence platform. 
 
Jeff provides thought leadership and subject matter expertise, offering actionable guidance to The Bond Buyer’s stakeholder communities, including legal counsel, municipal advisors, issuers, underwriters and institutional investors. In this position, Jeff often moderates topical panels and presents to various industry organizations.
 
Prior to joining The Bond Buyer, Jeff was a Managing Director and head of Oppenheimer & Co.’s municipal research and strategy effort. Before Oppenheimer, Jeff worked as a Senior Municipal Analyst in a major insurance company’s investment division and served as the Director of Municipal Research at two buy-side investment management firms. At these firms, Jeff provided in-depth municipal credit analysis and strategic guidance for managing capital and risk exposure. 
 
Jeff holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Delaware. He is a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. Jeff maintains FINRA Series 7, 63, 50, 52, and 53 licenses and has received industry awards.

Alex Zaman is an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley and serves as Head of Surface Transportation Banking and Urban Development at the firm. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Alex spent nearly 13 years at Citigroup in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, serving as Co-Head of Transportation and helping lead various real estate-related initiatives at the firm. Alex has 15 years of experience in infrastructure finance working on projects that cover a broad range of asset classes, including highways, toll roads, managed lanes, mass transit, transit-oriented development, airports, middle income/workforce housing, affordable housing, permanent supportive housing, commercial real estate, tax increment financing, higher education and general government operations. Alex has worked on over $40 billion of financings as book-running or co-senior manager to execute a variety of financing structures and credit types, including tax-exempt and taxable bonds, fixed and variable rate bonds, private placements, limited offerings, general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, lease obligations, tax allocation bonds, essential housing bonds, pension obligation bonds, public-private partnerships, project financings, and various federal transportation loan programs including TIFIA and RRIF.

Taylor Klavan focuses her practice on tax issues relating to public finance. She provides guidance as tax counsel on virtually all types of tax-advantaged state and local debt, including governmental financings, financings for 501(c)(3) organizations, financings in the airport and transportation sector, affordable housing facilities financings, and financings for solid waste disposal facilities and sewage facilities for large utilities and industrial operations. She collaborates with investment banker clients to develop innovative, tax-compliant strategies for structuring and marketing tax-exempt transactions, seeking to ensure that deals comply with the federal tax requirements while also helping stakeholders pursue their end-goals. 

Taylor also has considerable experience with post-issuance compliance for tax-advantaged bonds, including private business use and private payment analyses, arbitrage issues in new money issuances, refunding and multipurpose bond issues, multipurpose issue allocations, and compliance with remedial action regulations. She frequently interacts with the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of clients in voluntary closing agreement program requests, audits of tax-exempt finance transactions, and private letter ruling requests.

Alex Wallace is a 33-year veteran of the Municipal Securities industry with broad experience across many aspects of municipal finance. Alex is currently the Head of the Municipal Products Group at Flagstar Bank, where he serves as Managing Director and President of Flagstar Public Funding Corp.

Prior to coming to Flagstar Bank, Alex was Head of Higher Education and Strategic Bank Relationships at Loop Capital Markets, a prominent minority-owned Municipal Broker-Dealer from 2020-25. From August 2009-2020, Alex helped start the U.S. Bancorp Municipal Products Group and served as Head of Public Finance. At Wachovia Securities (1996 – 2008), Alex was Co-Head of the Municipal Securities Group and was responsible for the Public Finance Group. Alex also led several other businesses including Municipal Credit Origination, Syndications, and Municipal Leasing. Prior to joining Wachovia Securities, Alex worked for the State Treasurer’s Office of the State of North Carolina (Local Government Commission).

Alex currently serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee at North Carolina State University. He is also on the Board of Advisors for the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Center for Municipal Finance and the Board of Advisors for the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs’ Center of Municipal Capital Markets. He is also a Board Member the Bond Market Association (BMA). He is also a member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts and a current Board Member of the Southern Municipal Finance Society. Alex also serves as Chairman of the Board for Path to Permanency.

Alex has BA degrees in Economics and Business Management from North Carolina State University and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) with a concentration in Public Finance from North Carolina State University.

Jessica Eckerle Lynch is a director with Baker Tilly’s public sector practice. Jessica has been involved with numerous professional engagements including financial studies for municipally owned utilities, not-for-profit corporations, regional water and sewer districts and conservancy districts. These studies quite often have involved the determination of utility revenue requirements, cost-of-service studies and the financial planning associated with the issuance of tax-exempt bonds. She also assists clients with budget preparation and capital planning. Jessica is also MSRB Municipal Advisor Series 50 and Series 54 Qualified.