Jonathan L. Golin
Mr. Golin is the managing director of Independent Company Research, a London-based financial research consultancy he founded to provide independent bank credit research, as well as related consulting and training services. Clients of the firm have included European and US banks.

Formerly, Mr. Golin was Vice President at Thomson BankWatch in Hong Kong responsible for several Asian markets and for managing a local rating agency, Thomson Rating Philippines, a joint venture between BankWatch and the IFC. His financial and research roles included affiliations with the Economist Intelligence Unit and a Hong Kong-based proprietary trading subsidiary of a major Japanese bank.

Trained as an attorney, Mr. Golin was associated with law firms in the United States and in Japan before entering the financial industry. He has authored three books, contributed to several others as a general editor, and has published articles in a number of professional journals. His most recent publication is The Bank Credit Analysis Handbook: A Guide for Analysts, Bankers and Investors.  Mr. Golin is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and of the Harvard Law School.

Thomas B. Harker
Mr. Harker is a career financial professional with expertise in corporate finance.  He managed the Industrial Group at Fitch for fifteen years with responsibility for all U.S. and international industrial ratings.  During that period he also launched a new credit rating agency in London. Mr. Harker developed rating criteria for private placement and bank syndicated loan ratings.  He has spoken at numerous financial seminars and conferences. After leaving Fitch, Mr. Harker founded an investment banking firm in the U.S. and has worked in Korea and Poland on capital markets related activities.

Mr. Harker has an MBA in Finance from Indiana University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Steven H. Hochman
Mr. Hochman is a credit markets professional with broad knowledge of public sector credit analysis, debt issuance and local government finance in the US and internationally.  He now serves as a Government Debt Advisor with the US Treasury Department’s Office of Technical Assistance, providing assistance to ministries of finance, central banks and financial institutions in Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia on public finance and debt management matters.

Previously, he was Chief Sub-Sovereign Credit Officer at Moody’s Investors Service, where he was responsible for ensuring global ratings consistency in the International Sub-Sovereign Group.  Earlier, Mr. Hochman worked with Moody’s U.S. Public Finance Group, having served as Assistant Director of State Ratings.

Mr. Hochman worked at Moody’s from 1980 until January 2008.  He conducted credit research on state and local governments in the US, Mexico, Argentina, Canada and Japan, developed rating methodologies for local/regional governments, chaired rating committees, conducted analyst training, and spoke on public finance topics at conferences around the world.

Before joining Moody’s, Mr. Hochman was an analyst and team leader with New York City’s Legislative Office of Budget Review.  Steve received his M.A. in Economics from Brown University and holds a B.A. in Politics from Brandeis University.  He is fluent in Spanish.

Mahesh K. Kotecha
Mr. Kotecha is President and founder of Structured Credit International Corp., which provides financial advisory services on credit ratings and securitization for clients in Asia.  Prior to that, he was Managing Director of MBIA Insurance Corporation.   He came to CapMAC in 1989 from Kidder, Peabody, where he led the firm into the UK mortgage backed securities markets, structured the first public collateralized bond obligation and advised the International Finance Corporation and Turkey on capital markets issues.

While working at Standard & Poor's Corporation, Mahesh founded and headed the department responsible for international public sector ratings.  Prior to 1979, Mr. Kotecha worked at the New York Fed and at the United Nations Development Program.

Mahesh holds a Master's degree in management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a Bachelor's degree in physics and engineering from Harvey Mudd College. He completed all requirements for a PHD at the N.Y.U. Stern School of Business in international finance and economics, except the dissertation.  Mr. Kotecha is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the International Advisory Panel of the East African Development Bank.

J. Michael McMullen
Mr. McMullen is the founder and President of Enterprise Capital, Inc., a merchant banking and financial consulting firm. He spent twenty-four years at Moody's Investors Service, retiring in 1992 as Vice President, Financial Institutions.

While at Moody’s, Mr. McMullen developed the analytical methodology that Moody’s employs in rating banks and other financial institutions, and headed rating committees that decided on bank ratings in Europe and Scandinavia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. He oversaw the development of Moody’s bank rating statistical data base and also developed the analytical methodology for the mortgage banking industry.

Mr. McMullen has worked overseas for fourteen years:
(a) In Japan where he was Executive Vice President and resident executive of Moody’s in Tokyo;
(b) In Poland where he helped establish and manage Poland’s first domestic credit rating agency, Central European Rating Agency;
(c) In Korea where he served as president of Thomson BankWatch Daeil Ratings;
(d) In Bangladesh where he served as CEO of the Credit Bridge and Standby Facility, helped reform the mutual fund industry, and organized securitization training;
(e) In Bahrain where he is currently training new analysts at the Islamic International Rating Agency.

Mr. McMullen is a highly experienced executive specializing in capital market fundamentals and credit rating agency development.  He established three bond market rating agencies, designed and taught seminars on structured finance, rating agency analysis, the formation of insurance companies, and the characteristics of sound capital markets.

Mr. McMullen graduated cum laude from Pace University in New York and completed his Master of Science degree at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

S. Melvin Rines
Mr. Rines, a former Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Kidder, Peabody, has broad investment banking experience in public, corporate and international finance. He is a specialist in the financing of sovereign and supranational credits. He has served as a financial advisor to sovereigns and international financial institutions and was active in privatizations and restructurings.

Mr. Rines is an expert on international credit analysis and rating agency relations. He worked extensively with the African Development Bank to develop an innovative capital structure that made triple A ratings possible. Mr. Rines also assisted the International Finance Corporation in its initial credit rating request and achieved AAA/Aaa ratings.

Mr. Rines has testified before the House Banking Committee of the U.S. Congress on numerous occasions with respect to U.S. support of the IMF, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the IFC. He has also testified before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on economic and legal issues related to China's reform process, published articles on China's debt management, and addressed the Asia Society on China's external financing strategy.

As an adjunct professor at American University in Washington D.C., Mr. Rines taught a graduate level course on international capital markets and lectured at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China. He was co-editor and contributing author of the book The Supranationals (Euromoney, 1986). Mr. Rines remains actively involved in international finance as an adjunct professor of International Business and Finance at the University of New Hampshire. His educational background includes a B.A. at the University of New Hampshire.