Sam Katz is a lifelong Philadelphian who has experienced a diverse and unique career in public and project finance, venture capital, civic activism, development, politics and documentary filmmaking.

Sam was the second employee at Public Financial Management (now The PFM Group) which he joined in 1976.  For 25 years, he advised city and state governments and their agencies and authorities on budgetary and fiscal policy and in executing public securities transactions.  Sam served as President and Co-CEO of PFM and helped it grow from two to two hundred employees with offices in sixteen cities. It is a dramatically larger organization today. His domain expertise included general municipal finance serving as the long-time financial advisor to the cities of Pittsburgh, Yonkers, and Orlando; public transit financing for major urban systems in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Los Angeles; and municipal power and waters utility systems.  Sam advised multiple agencies of the Commonwealths of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Sam was a national innovator in designing and executing financings for numerous major league sports facilities including for the Philadelphia Flyers, the Portland Trailblazers, the Baltimore Orioles, the Miami Dolphins, the St. Louis Blues, the Florida Panthers, the San Antonio Spurs and others. 

In 2000, Sam established and managed a venture capital fund, Wynnefield Private Equity Partners L.P. which invested in early-stage technology businesses in the Greater Philadelphia area. (Sam continues to be an active private equity investor.) From 2000-2003, he served as the CEO of Greater Philadelphia First, a business led civic organization. In 2011 he was appointed chair of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the fiscal oversight agency established by the Commonwealth to monitor the finances of the City of Philadelphia.  He served for four years.  Sam also was a longtime member of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Biotechnology Greenhouse (BioAdvance) and served as Board Chair from 2010-2014.

Sam has been a three-time candidate for Mayor of Philadelphia (1991, 1999 and 2003) and for Governor of Pennsylvania (1994). He did win his race for Class President in high school in 1966.

In 2007, Sam formed History Making Productions to produce historical documentaries about his hometown, Philadelphia. Among the films completed are the 13-part series, Philadelphia: The Great Experiment; Urban Trinity: The Story of Catholic Philadelphia; Before Hollywood: Philadelphia and the Birth of the Movies; Cecil’s People: The Freedom Fighters; and Sisters in Freedom; among numerous other titles.  This portfolio of films has been recognized with 18 Emmys from the regional NATAS chapter. Sam also produced Beethoven in Beijing, a documentary about the rise of western classical music in China and the cultural bridges built there by the Philadelphia Orchestra when diplomatic relations between China and the U.S. were re-opened in 1972.  The film was a finalist for the 2020 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film and was broadcast nationally on PBS’ Great Performances. His latest documentary, Gradually, Then Suddenly: The Bankruptcy of Detroit, was the winner of 2021 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film and is scheduled for release in 2023. His current projects include a podcast on the history of urban finance, a documentary film on Philadelphia’s extraordinary 20th century musical history

Over the past five years, Sam helped organize a coalition of 45 history institutions, sites, collections and societies into the Histories Collaborative of Philadelphia.  The Collaborative will promote and advocate for the city’s history and for a reinvestment in sustaining and preserving that history.

Sam received his B.A. in urban studies from Johns Hopkins University (1971) and his M.A. in urban policy from the Department of Urban Affairs and Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research (1974). He graduated from Central High School in 1967.

Sam and Connie Katz have lived in northwest Philadelphia for nearly 50 years. They have four grown children, three of whom also live in Philadelphia. Sam and Connie are also adoring grandparents of James, Asa, Zadie, Annie, Amelia, Oliver and Margaret. 

A nationally recognized expert on fiscally troubled states and localities, Carol O'Cleireacain has her own consulting practice in New York City. Most recently, she served as Deputy Mayor for Economic Policy, Planning & Strategy of the City of Detroit from October 2014 through 2016. She has served as Deputy Treasurer of the State of New Jersey under Governor Jon Corzine. She was Finance Commissioner and Budget Director of New York City under Mayor David Dinkins, responsible for America's 4th largest taxing jurisdiction and government budget, becoming the first woman to hold both positions. She chaired the trustee boards of NYC's employees' and teachers' retirement systems, was a trustee on the police and fire systems, and twice was elected national chair of the Council of Institutional Investors.

She also served as a senior consultant to the Task Force on the State Budget Crisis, chaired by Paul A. Volcker and Richard Ravitch, which in 2012 produced detailed studies of the fiscal crisis of the American States. Prior to service in Detroit, she was a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her book, "The Orphaned Capital," on the troubled finances of the District of Columbia, received popular acclaim in 1997 and led to her serving as a consultant to the federally-imposed control board restoring structural budget balance and solvency to the District.

Dr. O'Cleireacain came to New York City from London in 1976, beginning thirteen years as chief economist of District Council 37 AFSCME (AFL-CIO), the City's largest municipal union, which played a critical role in the financial rescue of the City during its fiscal crisis in the mid-1970s.

She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, M.A., and B.A. (with distinction) in economics from the University of Michigan, where she spent two summers in the UAW's Education Department. She was Chief Economic Advisor to the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson in his 1988 campaign for President. She has taught Public Finance and Public Policy at numerous universities in the US and the UK; researched in Tokyo as a Japan Society Fellow; been a senior fellow of SUNY's Rockefeller Institute. In addition to public service, she has served on three corporate boards, chairing one audit committee for ten years. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.