Contact: Leah Szarek, Interim Chief External Relations Officer
202-838-1500
lszarek@msrb.org
MARK KIM NAMED MSRB CEO
Washington, DC – The Board of Directors of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today announced that it has concluded its nationwide search for a new Chief Executive Officer to lead the organization responsible for safeguarding the integrity of the $4 trillion municipal securities market. The Board has appointed Mark Kim to serve as CEO effective October 1, 2020.
“At a volatile time for our market and our country as a whole, Mark has consistently impressed the Board with his creative and compassionate leadership and his understanding of the evolving needs of our internal and external stakeholders,” said Bill Fitzgerald, chair of the Board’s CEO Search Special Committee and an investor representative on the Board. “We thank Mark, as well as Interim CEO Nanette Lawson and the staff of the MSRB, for tirelessly working to protect investors, state and local governments, and the public interest amid the uncertainty and upheaval of this uniquely challenging year.”
Kim first joined the MSRB as a Board member in 2015 and then became Chief Operating Officer in 2017, and he has since managed the day-to-day operations of the organization. Kim is responsible for leading key strategic initiatives to advance market transparency. His leadership on major enterprise-wide initiatives – such as the migration of the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA®) website and related systems to the cloud and the creation of a new data strategy and management function – have already begun to improve the accessibility and utility of market data and disclosures for industry stakeholders.
“The Board, with assistance from a global executive search firm, conducted a broad, national search to identify the right leader to shepherd the MSRB through a transformative period,” Fitzgerald said. “Mark’s deep industry experience as a former issuer and banker, proven leadership skills, and his record as an innovator in the municipal market earned the full confidence of the Board.”
Prior to joining the MSRB, Kim served as chief financial officer for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water). Previously, Kim served as the Deputy Comptroller for the City of New York and worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, UBS and Fidelity Capital Markets.
Fitzgerald noted: “Mark’s experiences and background uniquely qualify him to be the next leader of the MSRB. He has assisted local governments in raising capital and borrowed money from the market for two significant issuers. He understands first-hand how the regulatory process affects regulated entities and how critical it is to ensure that the process contributes to the fair and efficient operation of our important market. We are pleased to introduce him as the MSRB’s next CEO.”
"It is a privilege and honor for me to serve as CEO and to lead a team of talented professionals who are dedicated to advancing the critical mission of the MSRB,” Kim said. “Our market is constantly evolving, and we must evolve with it by modernizing our rulebook and our technology systems to better serve our stakeholders and the industry we regulate. I am excited about the opportunity ahead, which will require the MSRB to reimagine what we have done in the past and to do new things in the future such as leveraging the power of cloud computing to deliver greater market transparency.”
Kim received a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University, a J.D. from Cornell Law School and a B.A. from Northwestern University. Kim is a member of the bars of New York and Washington, D.C.
