Michael DiPerna
President
mdiperna@dipernafinancial.com | (614) 581 3092
In June of 2011, Michael DiPerna founded DiPerna Advisors (DiPerna), focusing on community and economic development, in order to provide creative advice and project finance opportunities to political subdivisions, corporations, and real estate developers. To date, DiPerna Advisors has closed and funded hundreds of bond and loan transactions. Mr. DiPerna began his investment banking career in 1986 when he opened the Ohio office of a boutique investment banking firm headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. He was a Managing Director with McDonald & Co. and Robert W. Baird & Co. from 1997 until June of 2011 where he was responsible for developing the structured and project finance practice in the Great Lakes region. DiPerna currently serves as financial advisor to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority; the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority; the Dayton-Montgomery County Port Authority; the Western Reserve Port Authority; the Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority; the Development Finance Authority of Summit County; the Columbus-Franklin County Finance Authority; the Ohio Treasurer; and the Ohio Department of Transportation with the primary focus on economic development.
Mr. DiPerna is responsible for creating and implementing the Ohio Enterprise Bond Fund (OEBF) sponsored by the Ohio Department of Development since 1988, which has a stand-alone, AA+ rating from S&P Global. This program has funded more than 140 bond transactions for over $800,000,000 in economic development bonds; has created and implemented investment grade bond funds for Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority's, Northwest Ohio Bond Fund since 1988; the Dayton-Montgomery/Cincinnati Regional Bond Fund since 2007; the Development Finance Authority of Summit County since 2004; the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Bond Fund since 1997 and the Columbus-Franklin County Regional Bond Fund since 2007, which are all rated A- by S&P Global completing over 200 economic development transactions for over $900 million in bond financings. DiPerna also developed, implemented and serves as Financial Advisor to the Ohio Department of Transportation's, State Infrastructure Bank Direct Loan program since 1996, and its Bond Fund program rated AA+ by S&P Global.
Mr. DiPerna was the first to complete governmental off-balance sheet, synthetic lease and capital lease transactions for publicly traded companies including headquarters for Owens Corning, HCR Manor Care, Scott's, Omnova, O-I and Eaton corporations; production facilities for White Castle, Brush Wellman, Avery Denison, EXAL Corp; US sort facilities for BAX Global and AMES; and research and development facilities for Dana Corp. and First Solar, among many others. He also served as financial advisor to the Ohio Office of Energy which was responsible for implementing a $60,000,000 energy efficiency loan program; creating and implementing the Franklin County, Ohio Infrastructure Bank, and the Lucas County Ohio Builds Investment fund.
Mr. DiPerna obtained an undergraduate degree from Ohio University and a Master's degree from Florida State University. He maintains a Series 50 and 52 SEC securities licenses. DiPerna served as President of the Ohio Statewide Development Corporation from 1995 to 2018 which is a Small Business Administration, certified development corporation.