Investment banking trailblazer Rita Kahn dies at 76

Rita Corinne Kahn, an investment banking trailblazer, died Sept. 5 at age 76 in Denver following a short illness.

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Her decades-long career began in 1983 at Anderson, DeMonbrun Inc. and ended with her March 2022 retirement after running UBS Financial Services’ Denver office when she rejoined the firm in 2018. 

In between, Kahn worked for Neidiger, Tucker, Bruner Inc.; Kessler & Company Investments Inc.; George K. Baum; Merrill Lynch; UBS Securities; and Loop Capital Markets. She joined Loop in 2008 in a newly created position of chief communications officer based in Washington, D.C., reporting to CEO Jim Reynolds and overseeing the development of government and corporate relationships.

“No one was better at reading the room than Rita,” said Michael Lexton, who hired her at Merrill Lynch in 2000 and advocated for her return to UBS in 2018.  “She combined a deep knowledge of finance — developed over a pioneering career as a successful woman in the financial services industry beginning in the 1980s — with an extraordinary ability to understand the priorities of government officials and find solutions that worked for all stakeholders.” 

While at Merrill Lynch, Kahn was the banker for an April 2001 $506 million Colorado Department of Transportation revenue anticipation note issue, which Lexton said was one of the earliest grant anticipation revenue vehicle (GARVEE) bond programs in the country and a groundbreaking program for the state. 

The same week the deal priced, Kahn was laid off as part of a massive downsizing. 

“The CDOT executive director initially refused to sign the bond purchase agreement when he heard that Rita was let go,” Lexton recalled. “He ultimately relented due to the magnitude of the financing.”

Kahn was also a founder of Dominion Capital Group, an all-woman investment banking firm in Denver that specialized in the investment of bond proceeds, according to Terry Kraser who worked there. The firm became the city and county’s first investment advisor, she added.

“She was very quick on her feet, and she just exuded confidence,” Kraser said. “I’ve never seen anything like her before or since.”

Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb called Kahn “a financial expert for the city in the area of municipal bond finance,” according to an obituary provided by her former colleagues.

Kahn was honored by the American Israel Friendship League for outstanding achievement, according to the obituary. In the aftermath of the April 20, 1999, mass shooting at Columbine High School, she served as a co-chair of Healing of People Everywhere, which raised money to replace the school’s library where much of the tragedy took place.