Team

Vi is a respected finance professional with nearly twenty years of experience in public financial management and analysis, including a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Strategic Management.  She has significant experience in the public transit arena and is well prepared to provide immediate and long-standing results for the Utah Transit Authority as our CFO.  She comes to UTA from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in Washington, DC where she served for seven years and was most recently the Senior Director, Operating Budget. WMATA has over 11,000 employees and over 100 million riders a year.

During her time with WMATA, Vi helped guide the agency through organizational change, capital project financing, and debt management by working effectively with elected officials and senior leadership.  She believes in the importance of public transit and its impact on lives – her view is, “behind every number is a person.” Vi has been a public servant throughout her career and has benefitted personally from transit during her life.

Mr. Baker has been the lead municipal advisor to the Utah Transit Authority for the past decade, and has over fifteen years of advisory experience.  In addition to UTA, he serves as advisor to a broad range of Utah clients including Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, Utah State University, Provo and Park Cities, Summit County, and the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District.  Since joining Zions, Mr. Baker has been involved in over 330 transactions totaling approximately $10 billion in par amount.

Mr. Baker is a registered municipal securities representative in the investment banking industry and holds a Series 52 securities license and a Series 50 Municipal Advisory license.  Mr. Baker is a 2004 graduate of the Brigham Young University MBA Program with an emphasis in finance, where he was the top student in his class and a recipient of the Hawes Scholarship.  He taught a class called “Finance for Administrators” as an adjunct professor in the BYU MPA program.

Previously, Mr. Baker earned his BA in English from BYU and spent three years in San Francisco working as a financial analyst in Institutional Equities for Goldman, Sachs & Co. In 2006 Mr. Baker wrote an article for the BYU Marriott School Alumni Magazine titled, “Principles of Investing,” that emphasized asset allocation and the importance of diversification in individual retirement portfolios.