Professional Staff

As one of the preeminent boutique investment banking firms in California, Westhoff, Cone & Holmstedt has a long standing reputation for providing its clients with sound advice and solid results, and we maintain that reputation through attention to detail and outstanding service. Our principals have been "trailblazers" in California public finance having been involved in the creation of several firsts in California public finance including; the State's first investment grade rated BBB solid waste disposal revenue bond, the State's first variable rate Mello Roos financing, the first bond issue done through the California Joint Powers Authority and the first Charter School in the state of Arizona.

R. Thomas Westhoff - Founder and President

Mr. Westhoff is President and co-founder of Westhoff, Cone & Holmstedt. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of the firm and oversees all of the firm's investment banking activities. He has 44 years of experience in the municipal bond business. Mr. Westhoff is the most senior public finance investment banker active in the State of California who has significant day-to-day management responsibility. He has completed numerous debt financings for the cities of West Sacramento, Stockton, Angels, Bakersfield, Capitola, Ceres, Cypress, Davis, Gilroy, Lathrop, Lincoln, Modesto, Tracy, and Vacaville, as well as the County of El Dorado, the Western Hills Water District, and the Milpitas Redevelopment Agency.

Mr. Westhoff has served as senior banker for over 500 municipal bond financings totaling in excess of $11 billion for a wide variety of issuers throughout the country. He was the Managing Director of Dean Witter's Western Region Public Finance Department for 14 years until 1987. While at Dean Witter, Mr. Westhoff was involved in a number of firsts for California Public Finance including: the first private-public airport transfer in the state for the City of Burbank and the creation of the first issues for the state California Joint Powers Authority and the California Public Housing Finance Agency.

Mr. Westhoff received his bachelor's degree from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. He also completed two years of graduate study with an assistantship at the University's Public Affairs Research Bureau. Mr. Westhoff began his career in the field of municipal finance as an Assistant to the City Manager of a Florida municipality. He has worked for several major Wall Street firms in the country's principal financial centers of New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

Anthony E. Cone - Principal

Westhoff, Cone & Holmstedt’s lead banker in the environmental financing sector, Mr. Cone has 34 years of experience structuring bond financings in California and in 32 additional states. Mr. Cone held similar positions with Bank of America, PaineWebber, Dean Witter and Bear Stearns before becoming a principal at Westhoff, Cone & Holmstedt. In addition to his solid waste and environmental expertise, he is experienced with a diverse range of credits and bond structures for infrastructure, housing, industrial development and assessment bonds.

Since the beginning of his career in 1975, he has worked closely with the California Pollution Control Financing Authority, and together with Mr. Holmstedt, has completed more than 130 solid waste disposal financings totaling in excess of $1.3 billion with the CPCFA and other issuers throughout the country. In 1979, Mr. Cone structured the State of California’s first investment grade rated solid waste disposal issue for a solid waste transfer station.

Mr. Cone is a graduate of San Francisco State University (B.A. Urban Studies) where he specialized in urban planning and finance and is currently a member of the board of the California Public Securities Association.

Mark Holmstedt - Principal

Mark Holmstedt has 30 years of public finance investment banking experience. Mr. Holmstedt began his investment banking career with Blyth, Eastman, Dillon and Co. (now UBS) and was the Managing Director in charge of Bear Stearns Public Finance Department in Los Angeles prior to becoming a principal of Westhoff, Cone & Holmstedt. Although based in California, Mr. Holmstedt has financed projects in twelve different states during his investment banking career. He has particular expertise in project financings and land secured transactions which involve the sale of securities through the use of assessment districts, redevelopment agencies, and community facilities districts. Additionally, Mr. Holmstedt has extensive experience in solid waste disposal, health care and Indian related tax exempt financings.

Over the course of his career Mr. Holmstedt has been involved in a number of firsts in public finance; he designed the first pooled master lease program for the State of New York which resulted in approximately $75M in savings annually, created a $29M issue to finance the first charter school in the state of Arizona, created Bear Stearns' first variable rate tax exempt bond program, and through the California State Public Works Board was responsible for the first energy efficiency revenue bonds issued in the state. Early in his career, Mr. Holmstedt served as financial advisor to the California Department of Transportation for the new Dunbarton Bridge in Northern California and as financial advisor for the first major expansion of the Los Angeles International Airport.

Mr. Holmstedt serves on the California Debt and Investment Advisory Board.

Robert Martz - Vice President

Robert Martz provides analytic and technical support for Westhoff, Cone & Holmstedt. His experience includes Mello-Roos special tax bonds and notes, assessment district bonds, certificates of participation, lease revenue bonds, tax allocation bonds, education revenue bonds, general obligation bonds and pollution control revenue bonds. He has developed complex analytical models pertaining to the rate and method of special tax apportionment, variable rate transactions and refunding bond issues.

Mr. Martz began his municipal finance career at Dean Witter Reynolds in San Francisco in 1988. Prior to his current position he was a Vice President in the Public Finance Department at Bear Stearns, also in San Francisco. He holds a Masters degree in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Dayton. Mr. Martz is active in the Walnut Creek-Sunrise Rotary Club and is Vice President of the club's Foundation Board.

| HOME | CONTACT US |

© 2003, Westhoff, Cone & Holmstedt. All rights reserved.