OUR TEAM

Don Rice
Chief Executive Officer
Rice Financial Products Company

Don Rice founded Rice Financial Products Company in 1993. As the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Rice takes an active, hands‐on role in all areas of the firm’s businesses. Under his stewardship, Rice Financial has provided underwriting services on municipal bond transactions totaling more than $660 billion and, through the firm’s subsidiary, Rice Capital Access Program, has developed into the nation’s leading HBCU lender in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education. In earlier years, Rice Financial executed derivative transactions with an aggregate notional amount of more than $30 billion. Notably, none of these transactions had an adverse client outcome.

Mr. Rice’s career in investment banking began at Merrill Lynch, where he focused on applying taxable fixed income interest rate swap concepts to the municipal markets. His many accomplishments while at Merrill Lynch include a large, complex swap‐based refunding of 200 separate municipal loans for the District of Columbia, which was an Institutional Investor Deal of the Year.

After forming Rice Financial as a municipal derivatives boutique, Mr. Rice transitioned the firm’s focus to municipal bond underwriting in the wake of the financial crisis, then successfully launched several new businesses, each one narrowly focused around the core principle of achieving a comparative advantage based on analytical talent rather than simply firm scale. Mr. Rice has built an equity trade execution business, a short duration secondary fixed income business, an educational lending practice providing direct loans to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and a private equity asset management business focused on investment in U.S. infrastructure projects.

Mr. Rice received an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in engineering with honors from Kettering University. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from both the University of Arkansas and Arkansas Baptist University. In recent years, Mr. Rice served on the Board of Directors for the New York State Thruway Authority, Kettering University, New York City’s Head Start Program and New York City’s United Neighborhood Houses. His FINRA licenses include Series 7, 24, 50, 52, 53 and 63.

Mr. Rice has been featured in numerous business publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Bond Buyer, and Fortune Magazine, and has received several notable awards, including Entrepreneur of the Year by the National Association of Securities Professionals (NASP).  In 2022, he was named one of New York’s Notable Black Leaders by Crain’s.

William Fisher
Chief Executive Officer
Email Mr. Fisher

Mr. Fisher was named CEO of Rice Capital Access Program, LLC, in 2009. In this role, he serves as the Designated Bonding Authority for the U. S. Department of Education’s HBCU Capital Financing Program.

Mr. Fisher is a graduate of Howard University and provides investment banking services to higher education clients nationwide. He served as the original Designated Bonding Authority for the HBCU Capital Financing Program from 1996–1998 during his tenure with Pryor, McClendon, Counts, processing several of the first HBCU loans under the program. During his career Mr. Fisher has participated in transactions for more than 50 different HBCU issuers. The numerous HBCU institutions he has served as senior managing underwriter include Morehouse College, Tuskegee University, and Howard University. Mr. Fisher also oversaw a $66 million swap transaction for Jackson State University and has provided financial advisory services to Jackson State and Grambling State University. He has also served Clark Atlanta University and Tuskegee University as structuring agent and financial advisor in connection with HBCU loan programs.

In earlier positions, Mr. Fisher was an advisor with Public Financial Management (PFM) and a manager for M. R. Beal & Company. He holds a JD from Emory University School of Law and a BBA from Howard University.

Andy Moleon
Lead Credit Officer

Andy Moleon is Lead Credit Officer at Rice Capital Access and a Senior Vice President with Rice Financial. Mr. Moleon has more than 20 years of experience in the banking and capital markets. Before joining Rice, his roles included market risk management at Goldman Sachs, research at Moody’s Investors Service, credit risk management at Morgan Stanley and energy service/government equipment underwriting at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Mr. Moleon holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a specialization in Public Policy and Finance from New York University as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Investments from Baruch College-CUNY. The son of immigrant parents from Haiti, Mr. Moleon speaks both French and Haitian Creole.  FINRA registration:  Series 7

Vikas Dayal joined Rice Financial in October 2009. Mr. Dayal was formerly employed with JPMorgan as an analyst where he provided analytical support and transactional execution for over $1 billion of senior managed municipal bond and swap transactions for higher education and non-profit clients. Before joining Rice Financial, Mr. Dayal worked at a financial advisory/project development firm as an Associate responsible for working with businesses and governments in emerging markets seeking funding for potential projects and expansion.

Mr. Dayal received a BA degree in economics from the University of Michigan and an executive MBA from Columbia University.

Keisha McLaughlin-Eleazar joined Rice Financial’s Higher Education Finance Group in 2020 from HSBC Bank USA. Ms. McLaughlin-Eleazar has more than 20 years of experience in financial services, including positions with Mackay Shields, UBS, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase Bank. Her specific areas of expertise include compliance and operational risk assessment, document management and review, client service and remediation, borrower screening, and booking and settlement of domestic and international bank debt trades. Ms. McLaughlin-Eleazar received a BA in Criminal Justice from John Jay College in New York.

Murielle Foyou joined Rice Financial in 2016.  She currently assists Vikas Dayal and Will Fisher in the firm’s role as Designated Bonding Authority (DBA) for the U.S. Department of Education HBCU Capital Financing Program.  Ms. Foyou is actively involved in the day-to-day responsibilities of the firm’s role as DBA, regularly interacting with HBCU clients, the Department of Education and related banking institutions to ensure loan applications and related projects and tasks remain on track. Ms. Foyou received her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Communications from the University of Vermont.