About Us
Prior to establishing MBS in 2011, the partners and key professionals of MBS managed the special tax district finance group of Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC for more than fifteen years. Their history in this highly specialized area dates back to the early 1970’s when Doug Sealy guided Westinghouse Communities, Inc. in establishing three separate special districts to finance infrastructure development for the new city of Coral Springs, Florida. These early efforts established their reputation for innovation and leadership.
MBS was established for the purpose of transitioning the special tax district finance group into a separate and distinct entity thereby carrying on the special tax district finance efforts previously undertaken by the partners and key professionals of MBS while at Prager. MBS has six senior level bankers dedicated solely to Florida special tax district finance.
Over the span of their careers, the professionals of MBS have served as lead bankers on the issuance of more than $15 billion of tax-exempt bonds for approximately 500 issuers in 1,100 separate transactions. While these transactions have primarily been undertaken by Florida issuers, the professionals of MBS have also served as lead bankers on land-secured financings in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio and Utah.
Given their early involvement in land-secured financings, the professionals of MBS are credited with developing the market for non-rated special assessment, tax-increment and utility bonds in Florida as well as several other states. Their knowledge and experience in these areas, coupled with the continued surveillance of each and every credit, has assisted in providing liquidity to the marketplace and refunding opportunities to issuers.
As these credits began to mature, the professionals of MBS recognized an opportunity to educate both the municipal bond insurers and nationally recognized rating agencies. Such effort resulted in the professionals of MBS obtaining the first municipal bond insurance policy for special assessment bonds issued by a Florida community development district back in the mid-1990s. Since then, the professionals of MBS have obtained insurance and/or ratings in both the primary and secondary market for more than $2 billion of Florida special assessment, recreational revenue and utility bonds.
The Professionals
Edwin M. Bulleit
MANAGING PARTNER, TAMPA, FL
Mr. Bulleit is a Managing Partner of MBS Capital Markets, LLC. Prior to co-founding MBS Capital Markets, LLC, Mr. Bulleit was a Managing Director and Partner with Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC for twelve years. Previous to Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC, Mr. Bulleit was a Managing Director and Partner for thirteen years in the public finance department of William R Hough acting as lead banker on water and sewer, stormwater, solid waste, reclaimed water, electric, transportation and health care and land-secured transactions. For the past 20 years, Mr. Bulleit has specialized in land-secured transaction acting as lead underwriter in over $7 billion in transactions. He also acts as the CFO, Compliance Officer and Operations Manager for MBS Capital Markets, LLC.
Prior to his career as an Investment Banker, Mr. Bulleit was an accountant with the international public accounting firm of Ernst & Whinney. Mr. Bulleit holds a B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A with a concentration in finance from the University of Tampa. In addition, Mr. Bulleit is a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative (Series 7), FINRA Registered General Securities Principal (Series 24), FINRA Registered Municipal Securities Principal (Series 52) and FINRA Registered Financial and Operations Principal (Series 27).
Brett A. Sealy
MANAGING PARTNER, WINTER PARK, FL
Mr. Sealy is a Managing Partner of MBS Capital Markets, LLC. Prior to co-founding MBS Capital Markets, LLC, Mr. Sealy was a Managing Director and Partner with Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC for fifteen years. Previous to Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC, Mr. Sealy was an account executive with Dean Witter in New York in their retail brokerage department. While at Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC, Mr. Sealy concentrated his efforts on infrastructure financings for Florida special districts, specifically assessment financings in the tax-exempt market. Since 1998, Mr. Sealy has served as senior banker for more than 220 Florida special districts and has structured in excess of $6 billion of tax-exempt financings in 475 separate transactions.
Mr. Sealy earned a B.S. degree in Economics from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. In addition, Mr. Sealy is also a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative and a FINRA Registered Municipal Securities Principal.
Rhonda K. Mossing
MANAGING PARTNER, KINGSTON, TN
Prior to joining MBS Capital Markets, LLC as Senior Vice President and subsequently a Partner, Ms. Mossing was a Vice President with Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC since 2005. During her employment with Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC, Ms. Mossing focused her efforts on special district financings and specifically on refunding bond issues.
Prior to joining Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC, Ms. Mossing accumulated twenty-seven years of experience as Chief Financial Officer and Manager of community development districts in the state of Florida. Ms. Mossing served as Finance Director for the Coral Springs Improvement District from September 1978 to February 2005 and was responsible for all of the accounting and financing activities of that district during that period. Ms. Mossing was also responsible for representing the financial interests of approximately 100 community development districts including but not limited to their day-to-day accounting requirements, tax exempt bond financings and the annual levy and collection of special assessments. In addition, Ms. Mossing acted in the capacity of assessment consultant for many of her clients. Ms. Mossing is a former member of the Florida Government Finance Officers Association, the Broward County Clean-Water Advisory Board and the Florida Association of Special Districts. Ms. Mossing is currently a member of Florida Women in Public Finance.
Douglas J. Sealy
MANAGING DIRECTOR, WINTER PARK, FL
Mr. Sealy is a Managing Director of MBS Capital Markets, LLC. Prior to MBS Capital Markets, LLC, Mr. Sealy was a Managing Director and Principal with Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC since 1991, heading-up the real estate investment banking operations for Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC. Mr. Sealy has specialized in all facets of corporate-related and real estate transactions during the course of his thirty-five year career in municipal finance. Prior to joining Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC, Mr. Sealy was a Senior Vice President and Principal of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, specializing in special district infrastructure finance and economic development. Prior to his six years at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Mr. Sealy was with Goldman, Sachs and Company for sixteen years where he headed the firm’s corporate-related business. Mr. Sealy’s special district experience spans over thirty years and includes special district financing in Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Ohio, Georgia, Virginia, and South Carolina.
Mr. Sealy is a 1970 graduate of Washington University (St. Louis) with a B.A. degree in Political Science. In addition, Mr. Sealy is a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative and FINRA Registered General Securities Principal.
Scott G. Johnston
MANAGING DIRECTOR, TAMPA, FL
Mr. Johnston is a Managing Director of MBS Capital Markets, LLC. Prior to MBS Capital Markets, LLC, Mr. Johnston specialized in sales, trading and underwriting during the course of his thirty year career in municipal finance. Mr. Johnston’s career began in 1979 with William R. Hough & Co. serving as a Tax-Exempt Yield Trader and handling institutional sales through 1983. From 1983 to 1998, Mr. Johnston was a Senior Vice President serving as Senior Municipal Underwriter of both competitive and negotiated bid deals as well as a Large Block Municipal Trader. Following that fifteen year period, Mr. Johnston assumed management of the trading floor supervising municipal trading, underwriting, sales and the variable rate desk. Mr. Johnston’s duties included hedging and risk analysis for all the aforementioned departments. During the six years Mr. Johnston managed the trading floor, positions varied from $125 – $400 million.
Upon RBC Dain Rauscher’s acquisition of William R. Hough & Co. in 2004, Mr. Johnston became a Managing Director, Senior Underwriter and Head of National Competitive Underwriting for RBC Dain Rauscher. In 2006, Mr. Johnston joined Stephens Inc. as a Senior Vice President, Municipal Public Finance.
Mr. Johnston is a 1978 graduate of Tulane University with a B.A. degree in Economics. In addition, Mr. Johnston is a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative, FINRA Registered General Securities Principal and FINRA Registered Municipal Securities Principal.
Sete Zare
DIRECTOR, WINTER PARK, FL
Sete Zare is a Director of MBS Capital Markets, LLC. Prior to joining MBS Capital, LCC, Ms. Zare was a Senior Financial Analyst at a publicly traded healthcare company in Nashville, TN. In that capacity, Ms. Zare actively identified and lead the development of high impact analysis on business drivers, trends, and risk/opportunities facing the company. Previous to this, Ms. Zare was an associate with Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC, where her efforts were concentrated on day-to-day client coverage, assessing debt capacity and financial performance and structuring cash flows.
Ms. Zare is a 2003 graduate of Vanderbilt University with a B.A. degree in Economics. She also holds an M.B.A. with honors from Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College.
Ms. Zare is a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative.
Sara Zare
DIRECTOR, WINTER PARK, FL
Ms. Zare is a Director of MBS Capital Markets, LLC. Prior to joining MBS Capital Markets, LLC., Ms. Zare was with Citigroup Global Markets Inc. for fourteen years. In addition to covering general municipal clients at her previous firm, Ms. Zare was a member of their Real Estate Group and focused her efforts on special tax district finance, including land-secured and tax increment bonds. Over the past fourteen years, Ms. Zare has had extensive experience with client development, marketing, document review, technical analysis, investor outreach, pricing and underwriting coordination for over 100 lead managed municipal bond transactions.
Ms. Zare is a 2003 graduate of Vanderbilt University with a B.A. degree in Economics. She also holds a M.B.A. with honors from Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College. Ms. Zare is a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative and a FINRA Registered Municipal Securities Principal.
Ruth Baime
MANAGING DIRECTOR, TAMPA, FL
Ms. Baime began her career in municipal bond trading in 1981 specializing in high yield and special situations in the secondary market. Prior to joining MBS Capital Markets, LLC as a Managing Director, Ms. Baime was a Managing Director with Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC since 1995. During her employment with Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC, Ms. Baime focused her efforts on marketing, pricing and secondary market trading of Florida assessment and utility bonds, supporting the Florida banking group on their underwriting of more than $10 billion of special district tax-exempt financings.
Ms. Baime is a 1979 graduate of New York University with a B.S. in Biology. Ms. Baime is a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative.
Cathryn A. Connell
MANAGING DIRECTOR, TAMPA, FL
Ms. Connell joined MBS Capital Markets, LLC in June of 2022 and brings 30+ years of experience in Institutional Sales. Most recently Ms. Connell worked for Ziegler Capital Markets for the past 15 years as an Institutional Sales and Trading Specialist and covered Institutional Bond Funds and Money Managers.
Prior to Ziegler Capital Markets, Ms. Connell began her career with William R. Hough and Company until RBC Dain Rauscher’s acquisition of William R. Hough and Company in 2004. Ms. Connell has carefully cultivated meaningful relationships with all the top high yield institutional accounts. Her extensive experience has concentrated on land-based deals, senior living, charter schools and structured finance projects.
Ms. Connell is a native of Minnesota and has resided in Sarasota, Florida for the past 30 years. She is a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative.
Denise Rivera-Sanchez
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, TAMPA, FL
Ms. Denise Rivera-Sanchez is a Senior Vice President of MBS Capital Markets, LLC and joined the firm in October 2014 as Compliance Advisor. Ms. Rivera-Sanchez has over 20 years in municipal securities experience. Prior to joining MBS Capital Markets, LLC, Ms. Rivera-Sanchez served as underwriter’s assistant at Citigroup in competitive and negotiated municipal underwritings. In addition to underwritings, Ms. Rivera-Sanchez’s duties consisted of inventory control, operations, compliance and secondary trading.
Ms. Rivera-Sanchez attended Brooklyn College majoring in Child Education. Ms. Rivera-Sanchez is a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative and a FINRA Registered Municipal Securities Principal.
Kendall Bulleit
VICE PRESIDENT, TAMPA, FL
Ms. Bulleit is a Vice President of MBS Capital Markets, LLC. Prior to joining MBS Capital Markets, LLC., Ms. Bulleit was with BMO Capital Markets in their Mergers & Acquisitions Investment Banking division. During her time at BMO, Ms. Bulleit helped to advise on both sell-side and buy-side transactions of over $4 billion in the healthcare, tech, industrial, consumer, and real estate industries.
Ms. Bulleit graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 2021 with a B.A. degree in Finance. Ms. Bulleit is a FINRA Registered General Securities Representative and a FINRA Registered Municipal Securities Representative.