Yava Scott is a proven board member and credentialed executive with a record of increasing stakeholder value. She brings extensive governance experience having served on multiple fiduciary, advisory, and non-profit boards, including as Audit Committee Chair and Finance Committee Chair. As a CPA and attorney with experience at large accounting and law firms, she brings a broad cross-disciplined view to strategic problem solving by developing ingenious and competitive financing solutions. She can advise management on strategic public and private partnerships opportunities. She asks insightful questions that uncover opportunities and risk factors. She has a reputation for building trusted, collaborative relationships with others across financial markets, governmental entities, and regulatory agencies.
Yava is currently Chair of the Board of Managers of The Tagos Group, LLC. Tagos started as a consulting firm focused on supply chain management and energy efficiencies and it evolved, after a restructuring and recapitalization, into today’s holding company where through Corrosion Prevention Technologies, it holds an investment in a company selling proprietary steel surface cleaning technology to O&G customers.
She is a Trustee of St. Mary’s University, where she is chair of the Finance Committee and is a member of the Investment Committee. As Finance Chair, she guides the committee in overseeing matters relating to the University’s financial stability and long-term economic health and keeps the Board fully informed. Yava also serves on the board of the Astrodome Conservancy, and on the advisory board of the University of Houston Friends of Women Studies.
During her 30+ years as a public finance professional, Scott was a Managing Director of HilltopSecurities, a subsidiary of NYSE-traded Hilltop Holdings, Inc.; a co-founder of YaCari Consultants, LLC, a wholly woman-owned registered advisory firm; and an SVP at investment banking firm Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co., LLC. In these leadership roles, she delivered traditional short- and long-term financing programs for state and local governments, contributed to credit strategies, assisted with capital plans, and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data on feasibility studies for alternative delivery methods.
Also earlier, Scott practiced as a public finance attorney, representing the largest debt issuer for the State of Texas, two of the three largest cities in Texas, JP Morgan (formerly Texas Commerce Bank), and many other state and local issuers. In this capacity, she reviewed and executed negotiated and competitive financing transactions. Significantly, she issued the State of Texas’ initial general obligation commercial paper program, established the state’s first revenue lease obligation program, issued Houston’s general obligation commercial paper program, and partnered with the Texas Treasurer and another law firm to establish its liquidity programs. She began her career at Arthur Andersen where she became a tax manager.
Yava has long been an active member of civic advisory boards. She was appointed by former Governor Ann Richards to the Texas Department of Human Services, where she helped establish the Community Waiver Program, a maverick idea at the time; she chaired the Audit Committee. Houston’s Mayor Bill White nominated Yava to a board that centralized all support for the Hurricane Katrina-Rita rebuild. Earlier, Houston’s Mayor Lee Brown appointed her to the Houston Area Water Corporation Board where they over saw the structure for the design build, and financing of Houston’s northeast water plant. As Audit Chair, she reviewed and analyzed the bids including the financials of all bidders and selected the most financially sound company.
Yava has been honored with the Lynda Ellis Woman in Business Excellence Award from the Greehey School of Business at St. Mary’s University, and as a Community Honoree from the I Have a Dream Foundation. Ms. Scott is a member of The Links Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce. Scott earned both her JD and Bachelor of Business Administration, cum laude, in Financial Managementfrom St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.