Cabrera Capital Markets is welcoming three new public finance hires who are joining the firm from UBS.
Shawn Dralle, Shawnell Holman and Chris Bergstrom together bring more than 75 collective years of investment banking experience to Cabrera Capital.
The hires are part of Cabrera Capital’s nationwide growth, with Dralle working out of Los Angeles as managing director and head of West Coast public finance, Holman based in Houston as executive director and Bergstrom taking the new head of public transportation finance position in New York, the firm said.
Dralle most recently was an executive director in public finance at UBS,
Cabrera Capital is the latest stop in a 30-year public finance career that also included stints at RBC Capital Markets and J.P. Morgan. Her specialty is capital infrastructure financing, having worked with local governments in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico.
Holman brings a dual perspective to Cabrera Capital, having previously worked as both a banker and an issuer. Before spending six years at UBS, she was a director at Siebert Williams Shank, and before that, she was deputy City of Houston controller. She worked for the City of Houston for 16 years in various roles.
And Bergstrom offers Cabrera Capital 20 years of experience in the public transportation municipal sector, having gained expertise at both UBS and J.P. Morgan. In particular, his knowledge of airports, surface transportation and transit will add breadth to his new employer’s team.
“With the addition of three new senior level positions nationwide, the ability to serve our Public Finance clients will assuredly continue to expand,” Mario Carrasco, Cabrera Capital’s managing director and head of public finance, said in a statement.
He added: “Cabrera Capital’s recent expansion nationwide is a testament to our firm’s commitment to Public Finance and we could not be happier to continue the firm’s growth with proven Municipal Finance professionals such as Shawn, Shawnell and Chris.”
Also joining the firm as licensed consultants are former Citi bankers Steve Dworkin and George Leung, both seasoned municipal finance pros who each have over 40 years’ experience. Dworkin and Leung will help to deepen the public finance offerings at Cabrera Capital, Carrasco said.
These hires come on the heels of other strategic additions. In 2022, Cabrera Capital hired Carrasco himself away from Citi, where he was head of southwest public finance. It then hired the Dallas ISD Treasury’s Ricardo Salazar, municipal bond trader Alberto Puentes and Raquel Tello, who signed on as public finance coordinator.
“This is going to be an expansive year for our Public Finance Team,” Cabrera Capital Founder and CEO Martin Cabrera said in a statement. “Bringing Chris, Shawnell, Shawn and all the Municipal Finance hires since 2022 onto Cabrera’s Public Finance platform creates more opportunities to better serve our clients and forge new relationships to continue the upward trajectory of Cabrera’s future.”