MSRB NOTICE 2006-24 (AUGUST 9, 2006)

MSRB To Seek Next Generation Leadership

After almost thirty years of leadership by a single executive director, and having achieved a number of long term goals including the implementation of real time transaction reporting, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today announced it would begin a search for a new executive director to help guide the organization into the future.  

The MSRB’s current executive director, Christopher A. (“Kit”) Taylor, who has lead the organization since 1978, will remain until the completion of his contract on September 30, 2007.

“The Board appreciates Kit’s 28 years of service and his leadership of this organization,” said Amelia A.J. Bond, MSRB Chairman of the Board for FY 2006.  “He has distinguished himself by not only leading the MSRB through a number of challenging periods, but he has also attracted and retained a high quality professional staff who contribute daily to our industry by monitoring developments and making recommendations to the MSRB Board.” 

During Taylor’s tenure as executive director, the MSRB worked to protect municipal bond investors and raise the standards of professionalism in the industry through comprehensive rulemaking and by steadily increasing the amount of trading information available to market participants, culminating in the implementation of a real time transaction reporting system (RTRS) in 2004.

“Kit’s work has been exemplary, as he helped this Board instill high standards of professionalism and an unprecedented level of transparency into trading.  With a significant body of rules in place and real time trading data available to investors, the Board believes that now is a good time to prepare for new challenges in the future,” said incoming Chairman John Lawlor. “During 2007, the Board and I will work closely with Kit and the MSRB’s employees to assure a seamless transition as we look to the future of the MSRB and the municipal bond industry.”

“This is a time for change,” said Taylor.  “I have enjoyed more than 28 years as executive director of the MSRB and the opportunity to work with the municipal securities industry. I am grateful to have played a role in bringing the MSRB to its current status as a premier self regulatory organization.  My focus has always been to fulfill the MSRB mission to make a better marketplace for investors, and our successes through the years have helped grow the market by many-fold.  I look forward to working with the Board and staff during the next year to make a smooth transition to a new era for the MSRB.”

Taylor, who holds a PhD in Economics from the Princeton University and is a CFA, said he is looking forward to new challenges and opportunities as he transitions from the MSRB. 

 The Board will begin the search to replace Taylor. 

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) is a self-regulatory organization created by Congress in 1975, to write rules regulating the behavior of bank and securities firm dealers in the municipal securities market.  The Board is subject to oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and its rules, once approved by the SEC, have the force and effect of Federal law.

August 9, 2006