Joseph Fichera

Joseph Sebastian Fichera is an American business executive known primarily for his work in the fields of investment banking and financial services. He is the CEO of Saber Partners, LLC, a public advisory firm that he co-founded in 2000. Prior to Saber, he worked for various Wall Street firms including Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company, Prudential Securities and Bear Stearns & Co., as a managing director, principal.

Fichera is the creator of share-adjusted broker-remarketed equity securities, also known as SABRES, as an alternative to auction rate securities. He is also considered an expert at auction rate securities, serving as an expert advisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Fichera was also one of California Governor Gray Davis' advisors, assisting with the California electricity crisis that took place in 2000 and 2001.

Early life and education

Fichera was born in Rochester, New York in 1954, his father a bookkeeper and his mother a hairdresser. His grandfather was a barber who emigrated from Sicily in 1910. Fichera grew up in Rochester and as a teenager was outspoken about racial desegregation of Rochester schools in the 1960s, becoming a student representative on the Board of Education for Rochester New York. Exxon made a $750 million deal with Smith Barney, the largest single program of variable preferred stock up until that time. as one of that company's directors of corporate finance and also spent time with Prudential Securities.

Fichera left Prudential in 2000 to form Saber Partners, a public advisory firm based in New York. He founded the firm along with William B. Moore, the CEO of Westar Energy from 2007 to 2011. The results included potentially selling of up to $33 billion of bonds to save utility companies from going bankrupt and stabilize the electricity market.

As an expert on auction rate securities, Fichera is often quoted on the subject by major news publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg Businessweek. He also has served as an adjunct visiting lecturer in public and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. In April 2018, Fichera received The National Italian American Foundation Special Achievement Award in Finance for his "considerable accomplishments in the world of corporate finance."