OUR TEAM

Scott Rolfs joined Ziegler in 1992. As a Managing Director, he is responsible for the management of the K-12 & Charter School facilities finance team. Scott works directly with educational organizations nationwide in addition to responsibilities managing the overall group. He is involved in day to day operations as it relates to Ziegler’s underwriting capabilities for private K-12, charter schools and faith-based organizations. During Scott’s tenure as manager, his practice lines at Ziegler have financed in excess of $4.0 billion for non-profit organizations nationwide.

This broad experience allows him to be well versed in many different modes of financing solutions for borrowers, including tax-exempt bonds, taxable bonds, bank structures and early stage seed capital finance. He can also provide advice and guidance on interest rate hedging strategies, debt capacity and derivative instruments.

Scott has a strong background in project finance, assisting borrowers with project planning including site selection, construction, zoning and land entitlement issues. His focus is to help borrowers achieve a successful outcome to their facilities project.

Scott is a well-known author on topics related to 501(c)(3), educational and faith based organizations. He has been frequently quoted on finance topics in many national media organizations including the Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Bond Buyer, The Los Angeles Times and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, among others.

Scott received his B.S. in business and economics from Ripon College and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin.

Brian Riordan joined the higher education team at Ziegler in 2013. As a managing director, he is responsible for the management of the higher education practice.

Brian has an extensive finance and development background in higher education and in advising higher education borrowers on the implementation of complex financing structures. He brings a wealth of knowledge specifically from the higher education sector, as well as public finance and commercial banking experience spanning more than 18 years. He has managed a wide variety of bond structures and security pledges, ranging from fixed-rate revenue bond issues, private placements and advisory work, to more complicated engagements such as variable rate obligations, interest rate swap and other derivative products, synthetic advance refundings, and off-balance sheet student housing and development projects.

Throughout his career, Brian has worked with institutions such as Anderson University, Averett University, Wright State University, West Virginia University, Saint Vincent College, Point Park University, Asbury University, Quincy University, Tusculum College, Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, Bryan College, and Dominican University.

Brian earned an M.B.A. from John Carroll University and a B.B.A. in Finance from Ohio University. Prior to joining Ziegler, Brian worked for Huntington Investment Company, GE Capital Public Finance, and JP Morgan Chase.

Wesley (Wes) Bradish joined the charter school finance team at Ziegler in 2017, bringing over 14 years of experience as a public finance banker. Prior to Ziegler, Wes served as senior banker on over $12 billion of financings at RBC Capital Markets based in Denver, Colorado. As a “generalist” investment banker originally, he has served school districts, cities, counties, utilities, higher education institutions and special taxing districts in Colorado, Florida, Wyoming and Nebraska. These include notable large issuers such as Aurora Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in the Denver Metro area, and Roaring Fork School District, one of the largest rocky mountain districts located in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. In addition, Wes has served many middle market cities and counties in Colorado and Florida including Adams County, the City of Arvada, the City of Miami, Martin County, Florida and the City of Port St Lucie, Florida. Notable Nebraska clients include Westside School District, one of the largest school districts in Omaha, Hastings Schools, Scottsbluff County, and the Omaha Public Power District, and the Nebraska Public Power District.

More recently, Wes has devoted a large percentage of his practice to charter schools and special taxing districts in Colorado and Florida. As a member of RBC’s charter school finance group, he expanded the firm’s practice into Florida and Colorado where the firm hadn’t previously done a charter school transaction. Recent notable charter school transactions include South Florida Autism Charter School, Odyssey Charter School, Patriot Palm Bay Academy (restructuring) and Els for Autism Foundation and Renaissance Charter Schools. Wes has worked with the major conduit issuers for charter schools in Colorado and Florida including CECFA, the Capital Trust Agency, and the Miami Dade County Industrial Development Authority to name a few.

Wes also has extensive experience in serving as sole managing underwriter or placement agent for special taxing districts in Florida and Colorado. These include community development districts (CDD’s), limited tax GO districts, special assessment districts and tax increment districts. Notable special district clients include Tradition Community Development District #1, Southwest Annexation Special Assessment District, Northern Palm Beach Gardens Improvement District, Harbourside Place at Jupiter and Sand Creek Metropolitan District.

In addition to Wes’s underwriting, private placement and advisory work, he has helped deploy over $4 billion of balance sheet and hedging products including interest rate derivatives, letters of credit and direct purchase solutions.

Wes has a Bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He currently maintains the Series 7, 52, 63 and 79 securities licenses.

John Balzano joined Ziegler in 2021 with 10 years of prior experience. His primary responsibilities include providing investment banking and placement agent services, performing and overseeing the financial analysis of actual and prospective transactions, researching and analyzing the needs of current and potential clients, and performing detailed credit analysis.

John joined Ziegler from Piper Sandler & Co. where he focused on public finance and executed a variety of transactions for municipal issuers within the Midwest. Prior to Piper, John focused on local government financings in Illinois at Bernardi Securities, Inc., a municipal bond specialty firm. He has broad and diverse expertise related to debt structuring and project finance with revenue bonds, general obligation bonds, alternate revenue source bonds, debt certificates, tax increment financing and special district financing.

John earned his B.S. in public financial management from Indiana University Bloomington. He maintains his SIE, Series 79, 52, 50 and 63 securities licenses.

William (Will) Fossel joined the religion and education team at Ziegler in 2006.

He currently focuses on structuring financings for charter schools, and has worked closely with clients across the country. His experience ranges from single site charter schools to multi-school and multi-state CMOs and EMOs.  

In addition to charter schools, Will’s background includes structuring financings and providing credit analysis for faith-based and private K-12 schools and universities. His prior experience includes analytical support on a variety of financing structures, ranging from private placements to variable and fixed-rate bond financings.

Will received his B.A. in economics with honors from Denison University in 2002.

David Shin joined the education and public finance team at Ziegler in 2013 to finance projects for charter schools and governmental entities. Focusing on the high yield space, he understands the wide range of tools that are available to clients who are unable to secure favorable financing rates and terms.

David graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2012 with a degree in mathematics and economics and earned his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2021.

Erin Wait joined Ziegler in 2001. Her primary responsibilities include performing financial analysis and credit evaluation for prospective transactions, researching and analyzing the needs of current and potential clients, and providing analytical support to various investment bankers. In addition, she coordinates marketing communications and material for the team.

Since joining Ziegler, Erin has participated in underwriting transactions with an aggregate par amount of more than $1 billion. She has strong experience with K12 and faith based schools along with other nonprofit borrowers.

Erin earned a B.B.A. with an emphasis in finance and marketing from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

John Evans joined Ziegler in 2019. John’s primary responsibilities include providing support to the investment banking team and performing high-level financial analysis of current and prospective clientele. He is also responsible for performing detailed credit analysis, and providing industry research and analysis to address clientele needs.

John previously held a position as a summer intern at Ziegler. He earned his B.S. in finance from the Fisher School of Business at The Ohio State University.

Michael Knab joined Ziegler in 2012. He is responsible for overseeing the outbound communication center for Ziegler’s K12 educational research efforts. This front-line team begins the relationship development process with school leadership to learn about an organization’s size, market position, growth plans and facility needs.

Mike works with organizations throughout the United States obtaining demographic information and providing timely follow-up in the relationship process. He has a strong background and understanding of the education sector and need that faith based K-12 and charter schools fill in communities nationwide.

Nicole Ostanski joined the Charter School finance team at Ziegler in 2021. Her primary responsibilities include performing valuation analysis and financial modeling for prospective and live transactions, and assisting in the development and production of proposals and presentations to clients and prospects.

Nicole comes to Ziegler from Chicago Public Schools, where she was a high school mathematics teacher for eleven years. Nicole graduated cum laude with High Distinction from the University of Rochester in 2010 with a degree in mathematics and economics and earned her Masters of Science in Education from Northwestern University in 2013.