Chicago's Financial Storm

Jennifer Boyd is a Director in the Government Group at S&P Global Ratings. Based in the Chicago office, she leads a team of analysts that focuses on the analytical coverage of local governments in Illinois, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Boyd also chairs rating committees for local government credits across the country. As a primary analyst, she analyzes and evaluates municipal credits across the Midwest, including cities, counties, school districts, and other special districts.

Notable credits she has worked on as a primary analyst include the Chicago Board of Education, the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in Illinois; Minneapolis, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Council, Hennepin County, and the Minneapolis Special School District No. 1 in Minnesota; and Cleveland, Columbus, and the Cincinnati City School District in Ohio. She has extensive experience with municipal issuers in Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, and Michigan. Boyd's responsibilities also have included various special projects such as criteria testing, coordination of surveillance efforts, investor outreach, management tasks, and promoting employee engagement.

Prior to her career in public finance, Boyd was a sports journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.

Boyd she earned her Master of Public Policy degree from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. She earned a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University.

Fran Spielman has been covering and analyzing Chicago mayors and city government since Richard J. Daley. Her City Hall beats have included Mayors Michael Bilandic, Jane Byrne, Harold Washington, Eugene Sawyer, Richard M. Daley, and Rahm Emanuel.

Spielman joined the Sun-Times in 1985 after ten years at Chicago radio station WIND. When owner Westinghouse Broadcasting sold the station, she saw the opportunity to pursue her primary journalistic goal to work for a major newspaper. She had started at WIND right out of Northwestern University—as a sports reporter, morning news producer, then full-time reporter—after covering football, basketball, and tennis for the Daily Northwestern. During her decade in radio, Spielman freelanced for the Chicago Daily News, at Crain's Chicago Business, for “The Chicago Bear Report”, and as a principal anchor and reporter of Channel 11's Emmy Award winning sports show, “Time Out”. Spielman is a member of the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, and in 2009, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Headline Club. A decade earlier, Spielman received the Dante Award from the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans.

David Snyder is the Publisher of Crain's Chicago Business, the nation's leading local business newspaper and website with a weekly print readership of more than 200,000 and online readership of over 1 million unique monthly visitors. He was named Publisher in October 2010, having previously served as Associate Publisher. In June 2011 he was named a Vice-President of Crain's parent company, Crain Communications Inc.

Prior to his role as Associate Publisher, Snyder had been Crain's General Manager/Interactive where he launched and then managed the paper's daily online publishing operation under the brand ChicagoBusiness.com. A 33-year Crain's veteran, Snyder started his career as a researcher in the publication's Washington, D.C. bureau before moving to Chicago in 1984 (when Crain's was in only its 6th year of business) to become a reporter. He served in various newsroom management positions, including more than six years as the Editor (1993-2000).

Snyder is on the Board of Directors of the Harris Theater—where he serves as Chairman of the Finance Committee and as a Member of the Executive Committee—and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. He is also a Member of the CEO Council of Chicago United, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Economic Club of Chicago, the City Club of Chicago, The Chicago Club, and the Executives' Club of Chicago. A native of Easton, Pennsylvania, Snyder is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., where he received his degree in business administration.