A personal approach to healthcare finance.

When you work with the Raymond James Healthcare Finance group, you can expect results-focused advice and market-driven execution, but more than that, you can expect us to take your project personally. Our team provides the full spectrum of services you expect from a leading ... Read More

Team

Joseph G. Beck

Joseph G. Beck

Managing Director, Co-Head of Healthcare Finance
New York

212.314.0323 + Expand Bio


Joseph has more than 25 years of experience in investment banking in the healthcare services sector. He has held leadership roles in many of the industry’s most innovative and influential transactions over the past decade, with broad experience in debt underwriting, private placements, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic advisory assignments for healthcare service companies and specialty not-for-profit corporations. His clients have included prominent hospitals and other healthcare and nonprofit companies, including Lehigh Valley Health Network, Georgetown University, Visiting Nurse Service of New York, West Virginia United Health System, University of Miami, Association of American Medical Colleges, Rand Corporation and World Wildlife Fund.

 

Joseph joined Raymond James in April 2012, following the firm’s acquisition of Morgan Keegan. He had joined Morgan Keegan in 2007, with the acquisition of Shattuck Hammond Partners. He was one of the founding members of Shattuck Hammond Partners LLC in 1998 and was also a principal at Cain Brothers, Shattuck & Company. From 1985 to 1987, Joseph served as vice president at Chemical Bank, where he directed investment banking services for hospitals and other healthcare companies. Previously he was a senior credit analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, where he was responsible for hospital, letter of credit and other structured finance ratings. He began his career working in New York State Government and the New York State Senate, holding senior staff positions in healthcare regulation and policy analysis. Joseph graduated with a Master of Science in health policy and management from the School of Public Health at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from LeMoyne College.

James E. Birdwell III

James E. Birdwell III

Managing Director
Memphis

901.579.4231 + Expand Bio


Jim joined Morgan Keegan in 1987 from a major bank in Nashville, where he had served as manager of the municipal trading, underwriting and public finance departments. He has more than 36 years of experience in the securities industry, including 24 years as a senior investment banker.

 

Jim has served as senior investment banker for municipal issues totaling more than $15 billion in par value. He has also served as investment banker for 71 healthcare issues totaling over $6 billion in par value, including issues for health systems, stand-alone hospitals, CCRCs and nursing homes. He was formerly the manager of Morgan Keegan’s municipal trading and underwriting department, where he was responsible for the underwriting, syndication and pricing of both competitive and negotiated bond issues.

 

Jim’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in finance from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Jan Blazewski

Jan Blazewski

Managing Director
Philadelphia

215.972.6153 + Expand Bio


Jan joined Raymond James in 2010. He has originated more than $12.5 billion in healthcare financings and has over 25 years of experience. Jan has worked on variable and fixed-rate bond issues, credit analysis, debt capacity, mergers and acquisitions, asset sales, balance sheet management, and derivatives applications for all types of healthcare institutions. He has served as senior banker on transactions in New Jersey, New York, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

 

Prior to joining Raymond James, Jan worked at Cain Brothers for 10 years. He was with A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. from 1996 to 2000 and worked at Chemical Securities Incorporated from 1992 to 1996. In addition, Jan worked at the New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority from 1984 to 1992 as a senior project manager. While at the authority, he was responsible for the development, design and implementation of public and private healthcare financings.

 

Jan’s other employment experience includes the New Jersey Bankers Association, where he managed investing and accounting activities for insurance and pension funds; and IBM Corporation. Jan has a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from Glassboro State College. He is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and is a registered Series 7, Series 53 and Series 63 representative.

Jack Dudick

Jack A. Dudick

Managing Director
Chicago

312.612.7683 + Expand Bio


Jack joined Raymond James in 2015 as head of Healthcare Real Estate where he oversees a service line that focuses on healthcare monetizations and recapitalizations, debt and JV equity placement. He has more than 15 years of broad industry experience including healthcare real estate acquisition, development, joint venture, and M&A transactions.

 

Prior to joining Raymond James, Jack established and co-led the national healthcare practice at HFF, Inc., where he focused on healthcare capital markets and investment sale transactions throughout the United States. Prior to HFF, Jack served as senior vice president of investments and capital markets at Lillibridge Healthcare Services, Inc. Throughout his tenure with Lillibridge from 1999 through 2012, he facilitated over $1 billion of healthcare real estate transactions, negotiated and executed numerous transaction documents and loan agreements, including purchase and sale agreements, development agreements, private placement memorandums, easement agreements, and ground leases.

 

Prior to his tenure at Lillibridge, Jack was a senior consultant in the real estate services group at Arthur Anderson. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame and is a member of the Urban Land Institute.

Michael S. Guernier

Michael S. Guernier

Managing Director
New York

212.314.0317 + Expand Bio


Michael has more than 20 years of investment banking experience, specializing in the healthcare, education and nontraditional not-for-profit sectors. He has completed more than $9 billion in tax-exempt and taxable financings for hospitals and healthcare systems, long-term care providers, private colleges and universities, secondary schools, privatized student housing, specialty schools, research organizations, membership organizations, cultural institutions and endowed foundations. He has particular expertise in the development of institutional debt policies; strategic capital planning; development and execution of credit strategies; the structuring, negotiation and execution of fixed or variable rate financing plans and interest rate swaps; and other derivatives products.

 

Michael joined Raymond James in April 2012 following the firm’s acquisition of Morgan Keegan and joined Morgan Keegan in 2007 with the acquisition of Shattuck Hammond Partners, of which he was a partner and board member. Prior to joining Shattuck Hammond Partners in 1993, he was a director with PricewaterhouseCoopers Securities and a vice president with Cain Brothers, Shattuck & Company. Michael also spent several years in public accounting, where he gained broad corporate experience from audit and tax engagements in the real estate and not-for-profit sectors. He earned his Master of Business Administration in finance from Syracuse University and his Bachelor of Business Administration from Siena College. He is also a certified public accountant and a member of the AICPA.

Richard J. Lorenti

Richard J. Lorenti

Managing Director
New York

212.314.0318 + Expand Bio


Richard has spent more than 25 years as an investment banker to a broad range of healthcare companies. His experience includes developing and implementing strategic and financial transactions primarily for privately held and not-for-profit healthcare companies. The types of transactions and services include mergers and acquisitions, capital raises (both publicly offered and privately placed), and strategic planning and options assessments.

 

Richard joined Raymond James in April 2012, following the firm’s acquisition of Morgan Keegan. He had joined Morgan Keegan in 2007 with the acquisition of Shattuck Hammond Partners, of which he was a co-founder. Prior to 1993, he was a vice president at Cain Brothers, Shattuck & Company and at Dean Witter Reynolds. Richard was an analyst in the healthcare group at Standard & Poor’s from 1979 to 1984. He earned his master’s degree in city and regional planning from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from The Catholic University of America.

Vinton L. Rollins

Vinton L. Rollins

Managing Director
New York

212.314.0326 + Expand Bio


Vinton has more than 35 years of experience in healthcare and corporate finance investment banking, including a broad range of taxable and tax-exempt debt capital financings, public and private equity capital transactions, buy-side and sell-side mergers and acquisitions transactions, valuations and fairness opinions, and strategic capital plan and strategic options assessment advisory engagements for clients, principally including academic medical centers, nonprofit hospitals and health systems, and for-profit animal health companies.

 

Vinton joined Raymond James in April 2012, following the firm’s acquisition of Morgan Keegan. He joined Morgan Keegan in 2007 with the acquisition of Shattuck Hammond Partners, of which he was a co-founder. Previously he served as principal of Cain Brothers, Shattuck & Company and as vice president in the corporate finance investment banking division of Merrill Lynch. Vinton also served in the Military Intelligence Division of the U.S. Army. He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and an Artium Baccalaureus from Duke University.

Matthew M. Crosby

Matthew M. Crosby

Senior Vice President
Memphis

901.531.3251 + Expand Bio


Matthew has been in investment banking for more than 13 years, advising clients in a broad range of industries, including financial institutions, technology, security and defense companies, and most recently, healthcare organizations. He has advised senior management and boards of directors on mergers and acquisitions, public and private debt and equity capital raises, and strategic options assessments. His primary focus is advising not-for-profit hospitals and healthcare systems on merger and acquisition, joint venture and affiliation transactions.

 

Matthew joined Raymond James in April 2012, following its acquisition of Morgan Keegan. Prior to Raymond James, he served for nine years helping build Morgan Keegan’s security and defense investment banking practice. Before joining Morgan Keegan’s investment banking group, Matthew launched the total returns research group within Morgan Keegan’s fixed income research practice. He began his career at First Tennessee Bank in its commercial real estate lending group before joining Stephens Inc.’s investment banking practice. He received his Master of Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Millsaps College.

Peter H. Delaney

Peter H. Delaney

Senior Vice President
Dallas

214.365.5572 + Expand Bio


Peter has extensive healthcare investment banking experience, having advised clients on a variety of engagements including mergers and acquisitions, strategic advisory, financings and real estate services. His clients include physician practice management companies, post-acute care operators, senior living companies, multihospital health systems and single community hospitals. Within the physician sector, Peter has experience covering a wide range of physician service organizations, including multispecialty practices, clinical outsourcing companies and niche single specialty practices.

 

Peter joined Raymond James in April 2012 following the firm’s acquisition of Morgan Keegan. He had previously been with Shattuck Hammond Partners, a division of Morgan Keegan, which he joined in 2007. He received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Vanderbilt University, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Vasanta B. Pundarika

Vasanta B. Pundarika

Senior Vice President
New York

212.314.0347 + Expand Bio


Vasanta has extensive investment banking experience, having advised clients on a variety of engagements, including mergers and acquisitions and financings in addition to providing strategic advisory services. Her clients include multihospital systems, single-site hospitals, long-term care facilities, laboratories, higher education and specialty not-for-profit companies.

 

Vasanta joined Raymond James in April 2012 following the firm’s acquisition of Morgan Keegan and joined Morgan Keegan in 2007 with the acquisition of Shattuck Hammond Partners. Prior to joining Shattuck Hammond Partners in 2006, she was a summer legal analyst at Shearman & Sterling, LLP. She earned an Artium Baccalaureus in anthropology from Princeton University.

Dean A. Scarano

Dean A. Scarano

Senior Vice President
New York

212.314.0367 + Expand Bio


Dean has more than 20 years of experience specializing in the healthcare sector as both an investment banker and municipal bond insurance analyst. He has assisted stand-alone hospitals, multihospital systems and academic medical centers in the development of capital strategies and has served as advisor in connection with merger and acquisition, healthcare privatization and bankruptcy/workout engagements. Dean maintains a particular expertise in the development of restructuring plans for borrowers with complex credit situations and in devising innovative credit strategies. During his career, he has completed more than $6 billion in tax-exempt and taxable financings for hospitals and healthcare systems nationally.

 

Dean joined Raymond James in May of 2014. Prior to joining Raymond James, he spent three years as a managing director at Cain Brothers and five years as a senior bond insurance underwriter at Ambac, focusing on academic medical centers, children’s hospitals and major acute care tertiary centers. He also served as a member of Ambac’s senior credit committee. Prior to his tenure at Ambac, Dean spent 14 years in healthcare investment banking as a senior vice president and co-manager of the healthcare group at First Albany, a vice president in the healthcare group at Alex. Brown and a vice president in the healthcare and higher education group at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. He was also co-manager of that firm’s quantitative analysis group. He earned his Master of Business Administration in finance from the University at Albany and his Bachelor of Arts in economics from Binghamton University.

Amanda K.V. Thompson

Amanda Verner Thompson

Senior Vice President
New York

212.314.0311 + Expand Bio


Amanda has extensive healthcare investment banking experience, having guided clients on a variety of engagements, including mergers and acquisitions and financings in addition to providing real estate advisory and strategic advisory services. Her clients include multihospital systems, single-site hospitals, long-term care facilities, managed care companies and specialty not-for-profit companies.

 

Amanda joined Raymond James in April 2012 following the firm’s acquisition of Morgan Keegan and joined Morgan Keegan in 2007 with the acquisition of Shattuck Hammond Partners. Prior to joining Shattuck Hammond Partners full time in 2006, she was a summer analyst in the firm’s New York office. Amanda received an Artium Baccalaureus in biology from Duke University.

Natalie Wabich

Natalie Wabich

Senior Vice President
Chicago

312.612.7710 + Expand Bio


Natalie joined Raymond James in 2004 and is currently a vice president. She is primarily responsible for facilitating senior managed transactions in the Healthcare Finance group. She has served as the primary support person for a number of transactions including Union Hospital in Indiana, Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Mount Sinai Medical Center in Florida and St. Alexius Medical Center in North Dakota. She also has extensive experience with developing appropriate financing solutions, completing debt overview profiles, and performing credit and restructuring analyses. She is on the board of Women in Public Finance and recently served as the co-chair of the organization’s associate board.

 

Natalie graduated with honors from Washington University in St. Louis in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science and Business Administration in finance and international business and minors in French and legal studies. Prior to joining Raymond James, she interned for three summers in Sara Lee Corporation’s tax department as well as with Ermenegildo Zegna in Paris. She is a registered Series 7, Series 53 and Series 63 representative.

Locations

  • Chicago
    550 West Washington Boulevard
    Suite 1650
    Chicago, IL 60661
    P: 866.221.2075

  • Dallas
    5956 Sherry Lane
    Suite 1900
    Dallas, TX 75225
    P: 800.653.3426

  • Memphis
    50 North Front Street
    16th Floor
    Memphis, TN 38103
    P: 800.366.7426

  • New York
    630 Fifth Avenue
    29th Floor
    New York, NY 10111
    P: 212.314.0400

  • Philadelphia
    1735 Market Street
    Suite 3920
    Philadelphia, PA 19103
    P: 215.972.5150

SPECIALIZED AREAS OF EXPERTISE