Wisconsin Public Finance Team

Managing Director
Director of Public Finance

Keith Kolb oversees Baird’s Public Finance Department and has been involved in the structuring and restructuring of virtually all types of tax-exempt and taxable financings. He has extensive experience working with cities, counties, school districts, villages, special taxing districts and economic development issues, and is a frequent lecturer on public finance issues. Keith also is a member of Baird’s Fixed Income Capital Commitments committee. Prior to joining Baird in 1985, he practiced municipal bond law, specializing in federal taxation and general finance areas. Keith earned a BBA from Marquette University and a JD from the Marquette Law School. He is a member of the Wisconsin Bar Association.
 

Managing Director

John Mehan has worked on a wide variety of taxable and tax-exempt municipal financings. He served as the lead investment banker on the Lambeau Field, Brown County Arena and Green Bay Convention Center financings, as well as the financings for Milwaukee Public Schools – Neighborhood Schools Initiative. John has been involved with economic development matters for many municipal issuers, including the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee, the Community Development Authority of the City of Madison and the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Green Bay. He also has extensive experience in financings for private colleges, technical colleges and universities, including financing the Al McGuire Center for Marquette University. Prior to joining Baird in 1987, John served as Assistant City Manager/Director of Finance for the City of Webster Groves, Mo. He earned a BA and MA in Urban Affairs from St. Louis University.
 

Managing Director

David Noack joined Baird in 2007 and has worked for more than 20 years in Wisconsin public finance, where he has been involved in structuring and restructuring virtually all types of tax-exempt and taxable financings. A leader in investment banking, he serves a variety of issuers such as school districts, municipalities and counties. In addition, by catering to his clients, Dave has experience with innovative and creative financial structures. These issues included OPEB financing, Native American Gaming financial structures and private placements. 
 

Director

Brian Brewer joined Baird in 2007 with an expertise in Wisconsin school districts and technical colleges. During his 10-year career, Brian has used his quantitative background to develop financial solutions and strategies for more than half the school districts in the state. He has implemented strategies in debt management, refinancing and structuring; referendum financial planning and implementation; and cost minimization ideas related to pension and post-retirement benefit costs. Brian graduated cum laude from Marquette University, earning a BS in Business Administration with specializations in Finance and Marketing.
 

Director

Michel Clark joined Baird in June of 2000. Since joining Baird, Mike has assisted many school districts with successful debt referendums totaling over $250,000,000. Mike's extensive experience working for public schools brings a unique perspective to the financial advisory role. With his experience as an assistant superintendent, Mike is uniquely qualified to support the financial service functions related to the business services office. He served as a commissioner of the Wisconsin School District Liquid Asset Fund, was an active member of the American Association of School Business Officials, chaired the Nominating Committee of the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials and was a member of the School Administrators Alliance's School Finance Project Team. Mike earned both BBA and MSE degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and a MBA degree from Keller Graduate School of Management.
 

Director

Mike Scalise has worked in various capacities in the securities industry for the past 20 years. In 2000, he joined Baird and has expanded the firm’s structured finance group to focus on providing creative financing for developers and owners of commercial, retail and residential real estate; manufacturing companies; private organizations; tax increment districts; secondary schools; universities; religious institutions; and nonprofit organizations. He was responsible for managing municipal bond funds totaling $2 billion and for developing structured financial products. Mike earned a BS in Business Administration from Marquette University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
 

Director

Brad Viegut provides investment banking services to municipalities and counties throughout Wisconsin. His expertise includes the analysis and creation of tax increment districts, negotiation of development agreements, long-term capital planning, refunding analysis and construction fund optimization. He also teaches the fundamentals of municipal finance to municipal clerks and treasurers through the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Brad graduated cum laude with a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance, and an MBA, both from Marquette University.
 

Director

Lisa Voisin is an investment banker for Wisconsin School Districts and Technical Colleges. She joined Baird in 1988 and has been involved in the preparation and implementation of more than 3,000 school district, college and municipal financings. In addition to creating customized programs designed to fit clients’ financing needs, Lisa developed and supports an extensive budget forecasting model currently used by more than half the school district clients in Wisconsin. More recently she developed a school consolidation model. She is skilled in various advanced refunding techniques, including crossover refundings, synthetic refundings, open market escrow portfolios and forward purchase contracts.

Lisa earned a BS and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is a past member of the Muskego-Norway School District Board of Education.