Joseph Sebastian Fichera is an American business executive known primarily for his work in the fields of investment banking and financial services. He is the CEO of Saber Partners, LLC, a public advisory firm that he co-founded in 2000.[1] Prior to Saber, he worked for various Wall Street firms including Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company, Prudential Securities and Bear Stearns & Co., as a managing director, principal.[2]
Joseph Fichera | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Joseph Sebastian Fichera |
| Education | B.A. M.B.A. |
| Alma mater | Princeton University Yale School of Management |
| Known for | Founder, Saber Partners, LLC |
| Website | Joseph Fichera bio |
Fichera is the creator of share-adjusted broker-remarketed equity securities, also known as SABRES, as an alternative to auction rate securities.[3] He is also considered an expert at auction rate securities, serving as an expert advisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[4] Fichera was also one of California Governor Gray Davis' advisors, assisting with the California electricity crisis that took place in 2000 and 2001.[5]
Early life and education edit
Fichera was born in Rochester, New York in 1954, his father a bookkeeper and his mother a hairdresser.[6] His grandfather was a barber who emigrated from Sicily in 1910.[7] Fichera grew up in Rochester and as a teenager was outspoken about racial desegregation of Rochester schools in the 1960s, becoming a student representative on the Board of Education for Rochester New York.[6] Fichera earned a full tuition scholarship to Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1976 after completing a senior thesis titled "Politics, Personality and Budgeting in the States: The Case of New Jersey."[8][6]
Upon graduation, Fichera worked as a political appointee for the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the administration of Jimmy Carter.[6] He left HUD three years later to attend the Yale School of Management, obtaining an M.B.A. from the school in 1982.[6]
Career edit
Fichera began his financial career with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, then known as Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company.[6] It was during his time with Smith Barney that he gained experience in the auction-rate market and challenges to it, landing ExxonMobil as a client in 1987.[3] He advised Exxon on how to reduce interest costs by adjusting rates and repricing periods on its tax-exempt debt and selling them when conditions were more favorable.[6] Fichera also advised them not to sell auction rate securities, instead leading them to share-adjusted broker-remarketed equity securities (known as SABRES), an alternative to auction rate securities created by Fichera in 1988.[9] Exxon made a $750 million deal with Smith Barney, the largest single program of variable preferred stock up until that time.[3] He held the position of Vice President of Corporate Finance before moving on to Bear Stearns & Co in 1989[10] as one of that company's directors of corporate finance and also spent time with Prudential Securities.[11]
Fichera left Prudential in 2000 to form Saber Partners, a public advisory firm based in New York. He founded the firm along with William B. Moore, the CEO of Westar Energy from 2007 to 2011.[6] Some of the firm's first clients included Exxon Corporation and the Governor of the State of California. The firm became notable for its work in the $40 billion securitization bond market for ratepayer bonds that are used to fund power utilities.[6] Fichera pushed for the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority to recognize ratepayer bonds as a form of government guaranteed debt, allowing the bonds to be sold to investors in the United Kingdom and other European countries at a lower rate than investors in the United States.[6] The new marketplace reduced the interest cost that utilities paid on interest for the bonds.[6] Fichera worked with government regulators in Wisconsin, Texas, Vermont, New Jersey, Florida and West Virginia with ratepayer bonds.[6]
Fichera's Saber Partners partnered with The Blackstone Group to advise then Governor Gray Davis during the California electricity crisis of 2000 and 2001, on the state's potential acquisition of the investor-owned utilities electric transmission lines.[12] The results included potentially selling of up to $33 billion of bonds to save utility companies from going bankrupt and stabilize the electricity market.[12] Fichera has been a consistent critic of auction rate securities. In 2006, he was hired by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an expert advisor into its probe of security bidding practices.[6] Its investigation led to a cease and desist order being issued to 15 banks, all of whom settled with the SEC for $13 million without having to admit any violations.[6]
He has advocated greater transparency in securities markets, especially for corporate securitized and asset-backed debt. In November 2014, in a New York Times op-ed, Fichera also proposed that the S.E.C. adopt a points system in addition to fines similar to a D.M.V. in order to change the behavior of repeat offenders through a more effective deterrent.[13]
As an expert on auction rate securities, Fichera is often quoted on the subject by major news publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg Businessweek.[14][15][16] He also has served as an adjunct visiting lecturer in public and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.[17] In April 2018, Fichera received The National Italian American Foundation Special Achievement Award in Finance for his "considerable accomplishments in the world of corporate finance."[18]
References edit
- ^ "Joseph Fichera commentary on CNN". CNN. YouTube. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ Rabin, Jeffrey L. (4 August 2001). "Advisors Own No Electricity Stocks". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ a b c Winkler, Matthew (13 December 1988). "Smith Barney's Fichera Winning Business Duels With His Sabres Issues, Including Exxon Corp". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Gillers, Heather; Grotto, Jason (10 November 2014). "Banks kept CPS in shaky bond market". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ Benson, Mitchel; Zuckerman, Gregory (31 July 2001). "California's Next Test in Its Power Crisis: Selling $12.5 Billion of Electricity Bonds". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Quint, Michael (30 May 2008). "Wall Street's Customer's Man Unmasked Auction-Rate". Bloomberg. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- ^ Fichera, Joseph S. "In Memoriam: Sebastian Joseph Fichera, 1920 - 2013". Saber Partners official website. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
- ^ Fichera, Joseph Sebastian (1976). "Politics, Personality and Budgeting in the States: The Case of New Jersey".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Kuhn, Robert Lawrence (1990). Capital Raising and Financial Structure, Volume 2. Dow Jones-Irwin. ISBN 9781556232497.
- ^ "Power to Fichera". Institutional Investor. 1 June 2001. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ a b Brull, Steven (July 2001). "Joseph Fichera headed to Sacramento to help keep the lights on". Institutional Investor. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ Fichera, Joseph (11 November 2014). "The S.E.C. Should Copy the D.M.V." The New York Times. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
- ^ Morgenson, Gretchen (13 April 2008). "It's a Long, Cold, Cashless Siege". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ Smith, Randall; Rapparport, Liz (9 August 2008). "UBS to Pay $19 Billion As Auction Mess Hits Wall Street". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ Preston, Darrell (25 July 2014). "Window Closing to Challenge Wall Street Over Swaps: Muni Credit". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ "Looming Threats in the Public Finance". Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. YouTube. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- ^ "NIAF New York Gala 2018 Review | The National Italian American Foundation". www.niaf.org. Retrieved 2018-05-31.