About Us: Principals
The principals at Environmental Capital have over $10 billion in public finance experience for a wide variety of municipal issuers. Our initial focus and experience in the environmental area, has expanded to include the structuring and placement of all types of environmental assets. We now advise clients in almost every aspect of public financing from relatively uncomplicated general obligation bonds through complex revenue supported debt.
Environmental Capital advised clients on developing environmental attributes from a variety of activities pertaining to green house gas emission reduction, carbon sequestration and renewable energy projects.
Richard N. McCarthy
President
Mr. McCarthy is the founder and President of Environmental Capital. Since its establishment, Environmental Capital has advised municipal issuers on financings of over $2,000,000,000. Environmental Capital has performed a wide variety of other financial advisory assignments for county, city and town clients, such as water, sewer and solid waste system consolidations, mergers and sales; the development of regional authorities; financial feasibility studies; utility rate studies; etc. While Environmental Capital was founded to focus on the field of environmental finance, the firm’s practice has expanded to encompass many other areas of public finance, including general municipal and not-for-profit finance.
Mr. McCarthy has worked in the area of public finance for the last twenty-three years. Prior to establishing Environmental Capital in 1990, he was a Vice President at Bear Stearns in charge of solid waste financings (1987-1990) and the manager of the Resource Recovery and General Obligation Bond Group in the Public Finance Department at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company (1982-87). Before entering the field of public finance, he was a Vice President at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in corporate finance.
Mr. McCarthy specializes in start up financings and financings with new or unusual structures. He has advised seven New York State authorities on their development and initial financings. He serves as the financial advisor to ten New York State authorities, to which he provides a variety of financial and strategic advice. He has pioneered the use of subsidized loans offered by the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation for solid waste projects and for advance refundings. Over the past several years, Mr. McCarthy has been responsible for developing advance refundings that have saved his clients over $29 million.
Mr. McCarthy serves as the President of the Columbia-Greene Hospital Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, N.Y. He is also on the board of the Olana Partnership, a not-for-profit organization that seeks to preserve and use as a base for art education. Olana, the home of Frederic Church, one of the most renowned landscape painters of the 19th Century.
Mr. McCarthy received his Bachelors degree from Cornell University and his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago. He is a Certified Public Accountant.
Denise Farrell
Managing Director
Ms. Farrell has extensive experience in public finance. Ms. Farrell leads Environmental Capital’s team in the emerging market for all types of greenhouse gas emission reduction projects as well as renewable energy project financings. She is responsible for the structuring and placement of carbon credit assets for municipal and corporate clients as well as advising carbon credit purchasers on portfolio acquisitions. Ms. Farrell has placed over 1,000,000 VERs to date including one of the largest placements generated by a New York State project.Currently Ms. Farrell is developing carbon credit projects for waste waster and avoided deforestation projects. Ms. Farrell has experience in all types of municipal bond financings including Environmental Facilities Corporation State Revolving Fund borrowings, solid waste authority projects and water and wastewater projects.
Prior to working for Environmental Capital she worked for over 12 years in the Municipal Underwriting and Acquisition Finance areas specializing in structured finance. Ms. Farrell also taught credit analysis in domestic and international training programs. Ms. Farrell serves on the Board of Advisors for the New York Community Trust’s Westchester Division as well as the Georgetown University’s Alumni Admissions Program.
She holds a BS from Georgetown University and an MBA from Fordham University’s School of Business and attended the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.
Evelyn Lu
Associate
Ms. Lu will be responsible for much of the modeling required for this engagement. Before joining Environmental Capital, Ms. Lu worked as an analyst at Banc of America Securities in the Financial Institutions Group. Prior to that she held various internship positions at other financial firms including with UBS in the Debt Capital Markets Group and CreditSights in the Macroeconomic Research Group. Ms. Lu has substantial experience in financial modeling for complex transactions.
Ms. Lu received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from Columbia University in 2008.