Sara Oberlies Brown

Sara Brown has worked in municipal finance since 1996, beginning her career as a policy analyst and lobbyist in Washington DC first for Public Securities Association (PSA, the predecessor to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) and then for the National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies (NALHFA). She moved into investment banking in 1997, focusing mainly on cities, counties and special districts in California. Ms. Brown joined Stone & Youngberg (which was later acquired by Stifel) in 2000, serving as investment banker to agencies throughout the State of California and other western U.S. states. Her assignments while at Stone & Youngberg/Stifel have covered a range of financing structures available to municipalities, however she has particular expertise in tax increment, land-secured (community facilities district, assessment district and public improvement district), water and wastewater enterprise and general fund financings. Since joining the firm, she has been actively involved in bringing to market more than 240 successful California financings totaling nearly $5 billion. Included in this total are development/redevelopment financings for the California Cities of Santa Monica, Irvine, Tustin, Malibu, Camarillo, Burbank, Fontana and Riverside, as well as the Counties of Santa Cruz, San Bernardino and Riverside (among others). She was the lead banker on the first (and, to date, only) land-secured community facilities district financing within the State of Hawaii. Ms. Brown graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Applied Statistics. She received a master’s degree in Public Sector Financial Management from the University of Maryland.