Experts
Kim Leslie Shafer
Senior Fellow / Legal Studies
kshafer@the-cfs.org
Kim Leslie Shafer is an expert on various securitized products and their relationship to certain fixed income markets as well as a scholar on the recent financial crisis. Her career spans both the private sector, as a senior investment banker in fixed income markets, and several years of public service.
Most recently, Ms. Shafer served as a senior consultant to the bipartisan, independent Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), whose report on the causes of the financial crisis was issued in January 2011. There she contributed to numerous hearings, investigations, interviews, preliminary reports and the final report. Ms. Shafer serves as a subject matter expert on fixed income products and markets and in 2009 was a Senior Advisor to Duff & Phelps for their securitized products valuation business.
As a banker, Ms. Shafer was a Senior Managing Director in Strategic Finance at Bear Stearns until June 2008. For 11 years there she originated, structured and marketed structured finance funds of various fixed income assets, particularly leveraged loans. Ms. Shafer worked on many “first of type” transactions, designed innovative financial technologies and assisted asset managers in expanding their businesses. Her tenure coincided with the development and transformation of the collateralized debt obligation market into various asset classes, including various types of credit default swaps. She spoke regularly at industry conferences on these topics. Additionally, Ms. Shafer was involved with securitizations of various esoteric assets.
Previously, as a public finance banker at two major firms, Ms. Shafer executed bond financings for major cities and states and various housing finance authorities, as well as transportation and other issuers.
During the thrift crisis, Ms. Shafer served as senior staff of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee working on the savings and loan bailout, establishment and oversight of the Resolution Trust Corporation, Glass Steagall reform and other legislative initiatives. In that position, as Chief Counsel & Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Consumer & Regulatory Affairs, she also worked on the initial legislation to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Ms. Shafer started her career as a corporate attorney with White & Case negotiating and crafting documentation for a diverse array of transactions, including structured financings, project financings, leveraged buyouts, workouts, auction-rate capital markets products and other securities offerings. While there she published two law journal articles on the developing country debt crises.
Ms. Shafer received her J.D. from Columbia Law School. Her B.A. in Political Science is from Vanderbilt University, where she was a Harold S. Vanderbilt Honors Scholar. Post-graduate she was awarded a Corning World Travel Fellowship to explore foreign private investment and economic development issues.
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