Johan Grahs is an investment banker with extensive experience in structuring and analyzing debt and derivatives transactions for tax-exempt issuers as well as corporate clients. He joined Porter, White & Company in 2004 focusing on investment portfolio analysis, financial modeling, and derivative analysis and is an expert on derivatives in tax-exempt markets. Johan is a native of Sweden and held a number of sales management positions prior to pursuing his bachelor and masters degrees in finance in the United States.

Professional Interests. At Porter,White & Company, Johan’s focus is on debt and derivatives advisory and investment management. Johan leads the company’s efforts in advising both corporate and public clients regarding interest rate swaps and other derivative transactions. Work includes assisting issuers in developing a derivative policy, structuring, analysis and evaluation of transactions or proposals, selection of appropriate counterparties, negotiation of documentation and pricing, and bidding and/or execution of derivative transactions.

Johan has bid and negotiated derivative transactions on behalf of tax-exempt issuers and has extensive knowledge and experience in evaluating and analyzing proposals received by local governments and other tax-exempt issuers. He has experience in evaluating and transacting most types of interest rate derivatives used in both taxable as well as tax-exempt markets, such as interest rate swaps, swaptions, and caps. While most of Johan’s derivatives work covers interest rate derivatives, he also provides analysis and consulting services for other types of derivatives, such as commodities derivatives.

Johan also supports the firm’s investment management practice by managing client investment portfolios. Work includes implementing and maintaining asset allocation policies, performance evaluation and quarterly reporting on accounts. In addition, he develops and researches trading strategies utilizing financial derivatives.

Johan's academic background is in finance. He concentrated in investment management for his Bachelor's degree and in financial engineering and risk management for his Master's degree. Johan received a BSC, summa cum laude, in 2003 and an MA in Finance in 2004, both from the University of Alabama. He is a registered Series 7 and Series 63 representative and a candidate in the Chartered Financial Analyst program.