Joseph Fichera

Fichera was born in Rochester, New York in 1954, his father a bookkeeper and his mother a hairdresser.[6] His grandfather was a barber who emigrated from Sicily in 1910.[7] Fichera grew up in Rochester and as a teenager was outspoken about racial desegregation of Rochester schools in the 1960s, becoming a student representative on the Board of Education for Rochester New York.[6] Fichera earned a full tuition scholarship to Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1976 after completing a senior thesis titled "Politics, Personality and Budgeting in the States: The Case of New Jersey."[8][6]

Upon graduation, Fichera worked as a political appointee for the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the administration of Jimmy Carter.[6] He left HUD three years later to attend the Yale School of Management, obtaining an M.B.A. from the school in 1982.[6]

Fichera began his financial career with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, then known as Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company.[6] It was during his time with Smith Barney that he gained experience in the auction-rate market and challenges to it, landing ExxonMobil as a client in 1987.[3] He advised Exxon on how to reduce interest costs by adjusting rates and repricing periods on its tax-exempt debt and selling them when conditions were more favorable.[6] Fichera also advised them not to sell auction rate securities, instead leading them to share-adjusted broker-remarketed equity securities (known as SABRES), an alternative to auction rate securities created by Fichera in 1988.[9] Exxon made a $750 million deal with Smith Barney, the largest single program of variable preferred stock up until that time.[3] He held the position of Vice President of Corporate Finance before moving on to Bear Stearns & Co in 1989[10] as one of that company's directors of corporate finance and also spent time with Prudential Securities.[11]

Fichera left Prudential in 2000 to form Saber Partners, a public advisory firm based in New York. He founded the firm along with William B. Moore, the CEO of Westar Energy from 2007 to 2011.[6] Some of the firm's first clients included Exxon Corporation and the Governor of the State of California. The firm became notable for its work in the $40 billion securitization bond market for ratepayer bonds that are used to fund power utilities.[6] Fichera pushed for the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority to recognize ratepayer bonds as a form of government guaranteed debt, allowing the bonds to be sold to investors in the United Kingdom and other European countries at a lower rate than investors in the United States.[6] The new marketplace reduced the interest cost that utilities paid on interest for the bonds.[6] Fichera worked with government regulators in Wisconsin, Texas, Vermont, New Jersey, Florida and West Virginia with ratepayer bonds.[6]

Fichera's Saber Partners partnered with The Blackstone Group to advise then Governor Gray Davis during the California electricity crisis of 2000 and 2001, on the state's potential acquisition of the investor-owned utilities electric transmission lines.[12] The results included potentially selling of up to $33 billion of bonds to save utility companies from going bankrupt and stabilize the electricity market.[12] Fichera has been a consistent critic of auction rate securities. In 2006, he was hired by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an expert advisor into its probe of security bidding practices.[6] Its investigation led to a cease and desist order being issued to 15 banks, all of whom settled with the SEC for $13 million without having to admit any violations.[6]

He has advocated greater transparency in securities markets, especially for corporate securitized and asset-backed debt. In November 2014, in a New York Times op-ed, Fichera also proposed that the S.E.C. adopt a points system in addition to fines similar to a D.M.V. in order to change the behavior of repeat offenders through a more effective deterrent.[13]

As an expert on auction rate securities, Fichera is often quoted on the subject by major news publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg Businessweek.[14][15][16] He also has served as an adjunct visiting lecturer in public and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.[17] In April 2018, Fichera received The National Italian American Foundation Special Achievement Award in Finance for his "considerable accomplishments in the world of corporate finance."[18]

• Saber Partners LLC official website