Investment Bank George K. Baum & Company Opens Dallas Office

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Investment bank George K. Baum & Company (GKB) announced today that it has expanded its nationwide presence by opening a public finance office in Dallas. GKB’s Dallas public finance team is led by Gary Machak and Barton Withrow, who have worked together in Texas for the past 10 years and have more than 50 years of collective experience in public finance banking and municipal advisory services. The new Dallas location places GKB in close proximity to many important customers in Texas.

GKB is one of the largest privately owned investment banks in the country and serves as underwriter and financial advisor to some of the largest and most frequent issuers in the state of Texas. GKB served as financial advisor for the state’s 2012 $9.8 billion Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes. The short-term notes have a net interest cost of .225 percent, the lowest in Texas’s 25-year history of selling these bonds.

GKB’s current customers in Texas include the office of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, the Texas Veterans’ Land Board, Harris County Housing Finance Corporation, the Southeast Texas Housing Finance Corporation, the City of Mesquite and the recent addition of El Paso County. The company’s full array of services, including underwriting and advisory services, will be available from the Dallas office. Customers who will benefit from GKB’s presence in Texas include state agencies, counties, cities, colleges and universities, K-12 school districts, independent schools, hospitals and housing finance agencies. 

Dallas Leadership Team

Located at Preston Center, GKB’s Dallas office is led by Executive Vice President Gary Machak and Senior Vice President Barton Withrow. Additional members of the senior leadership team in Dallas include First Vice President Jeanie Yarbrough and Assistant Vice President Bradley Angst.

CEO Perspective

“We are thrilled to announce the opening of a new GKB office in this highly strategic region. Texas is the third largest public finance market in the country, and we’ve had a presence there for some time. As we saw increased demand for our services we started looking for the best possible talent,” said GKB Chairman and CEO Jonathan E. Baum. “Gary and Barton are exceptionally talented bankers and a dynamic team. The depth of their combined industry experience, together with the expertise of the team they have assembled, brings superior knowledge and counsel to our customers in Texas. The strength of our public finance team is unparalleled in the market and gives GKB the capacity to take on even more of the region’s large financing projects.”

Gary Machak, Executive Vice President

Mr. Machak has 33 years of public finance and municipal advisory experience, during which he has served as a financial advisor to some of the largest financings in the state of Texas. He has been responsible for more than $120 billion in short-term and long-term financings publicly sold or privately placed for the full spectrum of public finance issuers including state agencies, counties, cities, special districts, hospitals, school districts and housing finance corporations. Prior to joining GKB, Mr. Machak was a managing director at RBC Capital Markets for 26 years. He has served as a board member and chairman of the Municipal Advisory Council of Texas and has given numerous presentations to rating agencies, legislative committees and industry groups.

Barton Withrow, Senior Vice President

Mr. Withrow has 27 years of public finance and municipal advisory experience, during which he has structured or reviewed more than 700 transactions totaling more than $47 billion. His expertise includes the design and execution of complex financial structures. He has developed multiple strategies that have saved or generated millions of dollars for his clients. Prior to joining GKB, he was a senior banker at Raymond James and RBC. Prior to this, Mr. Withrow served as a managing director at Banc of America Securities, and led the verification practices at two “Big Six” accounting firms. Mr. Withrow holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas and a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University.

Jeanie Yarbrough, First Vice President

Ms. Yarbrough began her public finance career working with Mr. Machak in Dallas in 1993 when she joined Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, Inc. While at Rauscher she took on roles as both financial advisor and underwriter for general obligation and housing issuers. She was responsible for establishing the firm’s mortgage revenue bond cash flow capabilities. In 1997, Jeanie moved to Standard & Poor’s, where she was ultimately promoted to director. She was a rating analyst for both general obligation and housing credits and had senior responsibility in the housing group. She also rated municipal issues structured with letters of credit and liquidity facilities and established and maintained rating criteria for housing. In 2006, Ms. Yarbrough joined CSG Advisors Incorporated, where she focused on providing financial advisory services to state and local housing finance agencies. She earned both a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science degree in finance at the University of Texas at Dallas, graduating summa cum laude.

Bradley Angst, Assistant Vice President

Mr. Angst has been working with GKB since 2008. He has provided transaction execution and quantitative structuring of debt financings for more than 165 issuances totaling more than $12 billion in par value. He has assisted with both tax-exempt and taxable debt financings for municipalities, special districts, municipal utilities, school districts, colleges and universities, independent schools and other nonprofit entities. His expertise includes performing in-depth credit analyses and building financial pro formas and debt summaries for rating agencies, credit enhancers, financial advisors and credit committees. He is a graduate of Colorado State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration and finance.

About George K. Baum & Company

Founded more than 80 years ago in Kansas City, Missouri, George K. Baum & Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of George K. Baum Holdings, Inc., is one of the nation’s oldest privately held investment banks. Since 2000, George K. Baum & Company has been involved with more than 5,258 municipal bond issues, totaling more than $176.3 billion. Staffed with more than 200 professionals, the company has 14 offices nationwide, including public finance offices in 12 cities, trading desks in Denver and Kansas City and institutional sales operations in Kansas City, Boston, Denver and Philadelphia. All of the firm’s sales professionals focus exclusively on the distribution of municipal securities to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals.