Illinois housing head to take banking job with CS First Boston.

Peter Dwars, the longtime head of the Illinois Housing Development Authority, said yesterday that he Will be joining CS First Boston as an infrastructure investment banker in Chicago.

Dwars, who has been director of the state agency since 1988, said he decided to go into public finance because it was the part of his job at the authority that he knew and liked best.

He said he will join First Boston on June 1 as a vice president. Dwars will work on infrastructure and housing deals in the Midwest, particularly in Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County, Ill.

Carl M. Eifler, managing director at CS First Boston, said that Dwars will bring "an issuer's perspective" to the firm's business.

"We are in an era that increasingly requires creative and complex financial solutions," Eifler said. Dwars will help us create and implement these needed solutions."

Dwars will join three investment bankers in the Chicago office who concentrate on health care issues.

CS First Boston was one of three firms chosen by the authority in October to serve on a rotating basis as senior manager on bond issues in 1994 and 1995. The other two firms were Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Bear, Steams & Co.

Dwars said the selection of CS First Boston occurred long before he interviewed with the firm for the public finance position. He said that once he began interviewing this year, he stopped being involved with decisions regarding bankers

First Boston was also chosen in November 1991 as a rotating senior manager along with Lehman Brothers and Paine Webber Inc. for housing agency bond deals in 1992 and 1993.

Dwars has been with the housing authority for 22 years. During his tenure as director, the agency was involved in $1.22 billion of financings to develop 39,815 housing units for first-time home buyers and low- and moderate-income residents, according to a press release.

Dwars joins a growing list of former state government officials who have become investment bankers. They include Gayle Franzen, a senior vice president and manager of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp.'s Chicago office, who had been executive director of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority; Peter Fox, senior managing director at Bear Stearns' Chicago office, who had been chairman of the Illinois lottery and head of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs; and John Glennon, a managing director in Lehman Brothers' Chicago office, who had served in the administration of former Gov. Jim Thompson and was general counsel at the state housing authority.

Dwars said that Pamela Lenane, the authority's deputy director, will become acting director after he leaves. Lenane, a former lawyer in Chicago, joined the authority last September as an assistant director. This month, she was promoted to deputy director. Lenane is also a member of the Chicago Board of Education.

In another development, CS First Boston said Philip Korot, former executive vice president and managing director of Dean Witter Reynold Inc.'s municipal finance department, will join the firm's public finance housing group in New York City on Monday as a director.

"We are pleased have someone of Phil's caliber join us," JoAnne Kennedy, a CS First Boston managing director who heads the firm's public finance housing group, said Tuesday. "He has always thought creatively about housing finance and we know this ability will enhance our already significant presence in the application of derivatives to the housing needs of today."

Korot's primary focus will be working with housing issuers using derivatives and other financial products, said a CS First Boston municipal finance official who asked not to be identified.

Before joining Dean Witter in 1985, Korot was counsel and secretary to the boards of the New York State Housing Finance Agency and the New York State Medical Care Facilities Finance Agency. He is a member of the derivative products committee of the Pubic Securities Association.

"Our firm's commitment to derivatives and Korot's background fit real well with housing issuers today," the official said.

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