Charles (Chuck) Stafford joined Ponder in 2017. With over 27 years of investment banking experience in the healthcare, higher education, and housing sectors, Chuck brings a wide range of market experience and industry expertise to Ponder.
Before joining Ponder, Chuck was a Director at Ziegler where he assisted not-for-profit hospital clients with publicly offered tax-exempt bond financings, private placements with bank and non-bank lenders, debt structuring, capital planning, and creditor relations. Prior to Ziegler, Chuck was a Vice President of business development at Quorum Health Resources (QHR), a hospital management, consulting, and turnaround company. In this capacity, Chuck worked with not-for-profit hospitals across the country in providing services to improve their operational/financial performance. Prior to QHR, Chuck was an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Securities in New York, where he was a capital markets specialist and subsequently led the firm’s higher education investment banking efforts in the Southeast. He also previously held executive level capital markets/investment banking positions at General Re Financial Products and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
Chuck received a B.A. in economics with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a registered Municipal Advisor (Series 50).
