Doug Houston is an executive vice president with George K. Baum & Company with more than 30 years of municipal and governmental finance experience gained both as an investment banker and municipal official. He is the manager of the firm's Colorado Public Finance practice. Mr. Houston's specific areas of expertise include financial advisory services, certificates of participation/lease revenue financings, municipal utilities, airports, redevelopment, mass transit projects, credit evaluations, swap & other derivative products, escrow restructurings and refundings. His clients have included the cities of Fort Collins and Colorado Springs; the Colorado Springs Utilities; El Paso County, Thompson and Estes Park school districts; the cities of Billings and Great Falls, Montana; the City of Bakersfield, California; the City of Las Vegas, Nevada; and the Regional Transportation District (Denver). Mr. Houston previously held a variety of positions in local government, including serving on the Regional Planning Commission of Champaign County, Illinois; director of community development for the City of Rock Island, Illinois, and executive director of the City of Boulder's Urban Renewal Authority. Mr. Houston is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Department of Urban and Regional Planning).