Title: Director, U.S. Public Finance
Firm: Fitch Ratings
Age: 28
The need for capital in the municipal market first resonated for Patrick Goggins during a summer internship at Fitch Ratings in 2017.
“I had that internship and felt strongly I wanted to pursue that career path,” said Goggins, who majored in economics and minored in philosophy at Fordham University. He joined Fitch as an associate analyst in 2018 and has been promoted four times since, most recently to director in April, after only five and a half years with the firm.
Goggins served as a key member of a small analytical working group that developed a new Local Government Rating model for Fitch. “As one of two model officers, Pat was instrumental in authoring the new criteria and presenting it for approval,” said Arlene Bohner, head of U.S. Public Finance at Fitch.
Now he is focused on implementing the rating model, which takes a more quantitative approach to analyzing local government. At the same time, he is pursuing a master’s degree in public administration at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. He said he’s benefited from the wide range of students he encounters in the program, including people who work at not-for-profits and others from outside the rating space. The graduate program is something he had planned to do, he said, and Fitch is supporting him in the effort.
Goggins attributes his fast rise to the mentorship he received from more experienced Fitch employees, who were always willing to answer his questions and let him pick their brains. “They provided opportunities for growth,” he said, including assigning him to roles that “normally would go to senior people.”