Acacia Financial Group, Inc. continually strives to provide thoughtful advice and analysis to the complex task of designing and implementing public finance strategies. It is important to note that the quality of work and level of service provided to an account is a direct function of the individuals assigned to work on that account. AFG’s professionals work together as a cohesive unit in order to provide each client with the services required for its specific needs. The resumes of AFG’s professionals are included below.
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Kim M. Whelan, Co-President
Kim M. Whelan founded Acacia Financial Group, Inc. in 2006 as Co-President and is a member of the firm’s management committee bringing over sixteen years of experience as a financial advisor. Prior to founding AFG, Ms. Whelan was respectively, a partner with Public Financial Management, Inc. and the president and sole owner of a New Jersey based regional financial advisory firm. Ms. Whelan brings to the firm her experience as an investment banker in municipal finance on Wall Street. Ms. Whelan has extensive experience in the municipal financial advisory field. She has overseen many tax-exempt issues including those in the area of wastewater, solid waste, municipal and school district, lease/purchase, general obligations, and derivative products.
Ms. Whelan has developed a particular expertise in design and implementation of alternative financing techniques. She has utilized this expertise in serving the State of New Jersey, State Authorities and many of the improvement authorities and solid waste authorities throughout the State. Ms. Whelan's authority experience has ranged from pooled financings with local municipalities and school districts to more sophisticated revenue-backed projects and derivative transactions for State level clients. Several of these projects included complex and innovative financial structures that have resulted in significant savings to our clients.
Ms. Whelan has served on the Board for the New Jersey Building Authority and is a member of the Government Finance Officers Association (“GFOA”) and the Association of Environmental Authorities (“AEA”). Ms. Whelan earned a Bachelor's degree from the Philadelphia University, with a concentration in finance.
Noreen P. White, Co-President
Noreen P. White founded Acacia Financial Group, Inc. in 2006 as Co-President and is a member of the firm’s management committee. Prior to forming AFG, Ms. White was a partner (and founder) of Municipal Advisory Partners, Inc. She has been involved in technical analysis and bond documentation for a wide variety of municipal issuers during the course of her career and has extensive experience with New Jersey issuers.
Ms. White is a Certified Municipal Finance Officer and a Certified County Finance Officer in New Jersey. Ms. White served as the Vice Chairman for the New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority and is on the NJIT School of Industrial Management Advisory Committee Board of Trustees. She was a member of Leadership New Jersey Program Class of 1998. Ms. White was honored by Bergen County Executive Pat Schubert in recognition of her achievements and success in the municipal industry and was similarly honored in Essex County by the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
Prior to establishing Municipal Advisory Partners, Inc., Ms. White directed the infrastructure group at a major Wall Street firm. Prior to entering the field of investment banking, Ms. White was a protein chemist at the Rockefeller University, in the laboratory of the late Dr. Stanford Moore, Nobel Laureate. She published a scientific paper based upon her research. Ms. White is a graduate of Smith College and has completed graduate work in Information Processing and in Systems Analysis at the New School for Social Research. She received her M.B.A. in finance from New York University. While at New York University, Ms. White completed a study titled "The Municipalization of an Investor-Owned Utility" regarding the City of New Orleans for her MBA special project.
Peter D. Nissen, Managing Director
Peter D. Nissen founded Acacia Financial Group, Inc. in 2006 with twelve years of experience at Public Financial Management and at a New Jersey based financial advisory firm. Prior to this experience, Mr. Nissen gained four years of engineering experience with an internationally renowned engineering corporation. Mr. Nissen has developed the plans of finance for, and executed, many different types of transactions including: water, wastewater, solid waste, transportation, project finance, pooled participant financing, economic development, 501(c)(3) non-for-profit, multifamily housing, general obligation issues, and numerous refundings.
Mr. Nissen has developed innovative computer analyses for the investment of new bond proceeds for construction funds and reserve funds, the restructuring and optimization of existing escrows, and the utilization of various derivative instruments, forward purchase and repurchase agreements, swaption and warrant products, and synthetic rate and forward rate products. Mr. Nissen has generated comprehensive life-cycle analyses and rate setting models for major solid waste, wastewater and transportation projects. Mr. Nissen has extensive experience in the preparation and review of financing documentation and in the marketing and pricing negotiation of both taxable and tax-exempt debt. His experience and expertise also include an extensive background in the representation of clients to the major credit rating agencies and credit enhancement institutions, and in the preparation of rating presentations. Mr. Nissen earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Drexel University.
Joshua C. Nyikita, Managing Director
Joshua C. Nyikita founded Acacia Financial Group, Inc. in 2006 as a Managing Director. Prior to founding AFG, Mr. Nyikita served as a Senior Managing Consultant with Public Financial Management, Inc. for five years and as an Assistant Vice President at regional financial advisory firm for four years. Mr. Nyikita's clients are located in the New Jersey and include municipalities, school districts, counties, regional improvement authorities, local and regional water and sewer authorities as well as state-level entities.
Mr. Nyikita has broad experience in each of AFG’s service areas, particularly in debt and transaction management. While his expertise is broad-based, he has specific knowledge and expertise with complex finance modeling, credit analysis, rate setting, swaption and warrant products and synthetic rate and forward rate products. Mr. Nyikita has advised on the use of fixed and variable rate debt, lease structures, and swaps as well as the development of long-term capital planning models for a wide range of clients.
Mr. Nyikita currently serves on the Board of Trustees and as a member of the Finance Committee for St. Mary’s Hall-Doane Academy, a private pre-K through 12 college preparatory school in Burlington County, New Jersey. Mr. Nyikita earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Delaware.
Courtney C. Shea, Senior Vice President
Ms Shea joined Acacia Financial Group in November of 2009 and established the firm’s first regional office. As an Illinois native, Courtney has spent over thirty years working with Illinois governmental issuers to foster creative financing solutions. Prior to joining Acacia, Ms. Shea was an investment banker with several Wall Street firms including running the national public finance department of an international major money center bank for five years.
Her work in Illinois includes work with the State of Illinois, Illinois Finance Authority and its predecessor agencies, Illinois Toll Highway Authority, Illinois Sports Authority, and the Illinois Housing Development Authority. Additionally she has worked with the City of Chicago and its sister agencies, Cook County, DuPage County and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority. Ms. Shea served as the senior banker on the following significant Illinois transactions:
$10 billion State of Illinois Pension bonds-2003
$800 million State of Illinois General Obligation Bonds and Swap- first swap by the State
$6 billion Illinois First General Obligation Bonds- 1999-2005
Illinois Rural Bond Bank- passage of enacting legislation to inception of first bond issue 1989-1992
Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority New Money and Refunding- 1999, 2001, 2004
Ms. Shea has been appointed by the Governor to serve on the boards of Illinois Executive Mansion Association and the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Additionally she serves on the boards of the Chicago Summer Business Institute and is a founding board member of Woman in Public Finance.
Ms. Shea holds a BA with High Honors from the University of Notre Dame in Economics, a JD from Loyola University and an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago.
Jennifer G. Edwards, Vice President
Jennifer G. Edwards joined Acacia Financial Group, Inc. upon its formation in 2006 as a Vice President. Ms. Edwards has eight years experience providing financial advisory services to numerous school districts, municipalities and authorities in the State of New Jersey. Ms. Edwards has experience structuring general obligation bond issues, revenue bond issues, pooled bond issues and has provided analytical and technical support for infrastructure and solid waste financing projects.
Ms. Edwards serves as project manager on New Jersey school district financings and is responsible for quantitative analyses performed for New Jersey school district clients, including the incorporation of investments of new bond proceeds and comprehensive tax impact analyses. Ms. Edwards is a member of county school business official associations and state level school associations.
Additionally, Ms. Edwards also provides services to county, authority and local government issuers including the structuring of pooled bond financings and water/sewer revenue bond issues for such clients. Ms. Edwards is also responsible for the preparation of preliminary official statements and official statements as well as other documents pertaining to a bond issue. On behalf of our clients, Ms. Edwards is responsible for compiling economic and demographic information required in the offering statements and furnishing such information to the rating agencies and municipal bond insurers as required. Ms. Edwards earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
Siamac Y. Afshar, Assistant Vice President
Siamac Y. Afshar joined Acacia Financial Group, Inc. in 2006 after four years at Public Financial management, Inc. Mr. Afshar has expertise developing innovative financing solutions for a variety of public and governmental entities including, solid waste, public power, transportation, state, county and municipal level clients with particular focus on New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania governments.
Mr. Afshar’s primary responsibilities and expertise include providing primary, high-level, analytical support to large, sophisticated State and Municipal issuers. Mr. Afshar also has extensive experience developing innovative cash flow modeling techniques, sizing and structuring new money and refunding transactions, and the structuring of derivative transactions. Mr. Afshar holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Richard B. Lopatin, Assistant Vice President
Richard B. Lopatin joined Acacia Financial Group, Inc. in 2006 as a Analyst. Prior to this, Mr. Lopatin interned in
Public Financial Management’s Philadelphia office in 2002 and their Atlanta office in 2003.
He completed PFM’s summer training class and subsequently worked as a consultant in Moorestown, New Jersey.
Presently Mr. Lopatin provides marketing, analytical and technical support for AFG’s New Jersey clients.
His primary responsibilities include quantitative analyses of local government debt burdens, building cash flow models,
structuring new money and refunding issues and performing debt restructuring analyses.
Mr. Lopatin received a B.B.A. in finance from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in May of 2004.
Dara I. Melchionni, Assistant Vice President
Dara J. Melchionni joined Acacia Financial Group, Inc. in 2006. Prior to joining AFG, Ms. Melchionni worked for PFM Asset Management’s New Jersey Asset & Rebate Management Program. Her role within PFM was to support and market New Jersey funds and their services, such as NJ/ARM, by supplying technical analysis to all clients. Specifically, she was responsible for cash flow forecasting, fixed income portfolio structuring and management, and banking analyses.
At AFG, she specializes in providing high level technical and analytical support to all of AFG’s clients. Her primary responsibilities include asset and liability analyses, identifying refunding opportunities, banking analyses and cash flow management. Ms. Melchionni received a B.B.A. in finance from the University of Delaware in May of 2003 and she holds NASD Series 6 and 63 licenses.
Scott R. Beall, Analyst
Scott R. Beall joined Acacia Financial Group, Inc. in 2009. Mr. Beall is responsible for providing technical and analytical support to all of Acacia's clients.
Mr. Beall holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Economics from the Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics at the University of Delaware and graduated cum laude.
