Bios

John Sonsalla joined Washington Analysis in 2022 as Head of Strategy and Senior Financial Services and Housing Analyst. Immediately prior to joining Washington Analysis, he worked in the Investment Banking and Capital Markets Division of Credit Suisse, where he covered financial sponsors and executed a range of leveraged finance transactions. Before working in finance, he spent a decade in policy and political arena with experience both on and off Capitol Hill.

John held numerous roles at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, one of the nation’s leading multi-client government relations firms, where he worked with an array of Fortune 500 corporations, private equity firms, national trade associations, and nonprofit institutions, offering expertise on legislative, regulatory, and political matters across financial services and other issue areas. He also spent time in the office of Congressman Joe Sestak, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and a national trade association. John has worked on and managed campaigns and party conventions at the federal, state, and local level.

John received his Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with honors and majoring in Finance and Business Economics and Public Policy. He graduated cum laude from the School of Public Affairs at American University with a double major in Political Science and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Saad Kamal covers Special Situations across sectors often covering binary events relating to deals, tax, legal, trade or other regulatory catalysts.

Saad started his career at Lehman Brothers, working in their Global Mergers and Acquisitions group. Saad also worked at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the largest healthcare union in the United States, in the Capital Development Group focusing on healthcare investments. Prior to that, Saad worked at Knob Hill Partners, a Boston-based investment firm. Saad attended Middlebury College and Harvard Business School.

John Leppard joined Washington Analysis in 2011 as a Healthcare Analyst, bringing  with him experience from the highest levels of government. After completing his M.S. at George Mason University, focusing on healthcare business practices and policy, he moved to DC to work on those issues with the White House’s National Economic Council (NEC). Upon completion of his term at the NEC, he next moved to the Cato Institute, a prominent DC think tank, followed by Steptoe & Johnson’s healthcare lobbying team.  John is also the co-author of several peer reviewed papers, ranging in topics from pharmacogenomic medicine to reimbursement reform, and has worked with congressional thought leaders as well.

Joe Lieber is Director of Research and Senior Political Analyst at Washington Analysis, LLC.  In this capacity, Joe analyzes political and legislative issues that have the potential to impact overall sentiment in the financial markets.  Joe also handicaps national elections, and has direct policy analyst responsibility for matters involving budget, taxes, transportation, gaming, and other one-off issues.  Joe joined Washington Analysis as a Political Analyst in 1995. From 1991-1995 he served as Policy Analyst for Senator Don Nickles at the Republican Policy Committee.  He received his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Oklahoma and his M.A in International Transactions from George Mason University.

Ira Loss, Senior Health Care Analyst, was one of the original founders of Washington Analysis in 1973. For the past 45 years, Ira has been responsible for covering health care issues affecting the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices industries.

Prior to 1973, Ira served as a senior policy analyst for the Government Research Corporation, as assistant counsel to the American Insurance Association and as a legislative assistant to Congressman Emilio Q. Daddario of Connecticut.

Ira is a graduate of the University of Connecticut with a B.A. in history. He received a law degree, with honors, from the National Law Center of George Washington University and is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association.

Beth Mantz Steindecker is a Senior Vice President and Health Care Analyst where she primarily researches the legislative, regulatory and legal issues facing health care service providers and health insurers. Her key areas of focus include Medicare reimbursement and coverage, and the Affordable Care Act’s implementation/dismantling and related regulatory and legislative issues, federal Medicaid policy, and reforming federal healthcare entitlements. As a senior member of the Health Care team, Beth is also responsible for researching the issues facing the entire healthcare arena including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, healthcare services and health insurers.  She joined the firm in May 2002.

Prior to joining Washington Analysis, Beth was the pharmaceutical and biotechnology reporter for the Dow Jones Newswires from 1998-2002. During this time many of her articles were published in national newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Kansas City Star, and Orange County Register. Beth’s career as a journalist culminated with her being awarded by NewsBios/TJFR Group, a business and financial press organization, the honor of being named in 2002 one of the “Top 30 journalists under 30.”

Beth is also an attorney, retired from practice in New York State. She earned her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, and graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Art History and American History from the University of Pennsylvania.

Frank Oliveri was an award-winning journalist for more than 25 years, the majority of which covering defense.

For 10 years he worked as a defense and foreign policy editor and reporter for Congressional Quarterly, one of the top congressional policy publications in Washington. He also has written for Defense News, Air Force Magazine, and Defense Daily, among others. He has covered the Pentagon, weapons acquisition, technology and development, military strategy and doctrine. He is expert in the congressional process, specializing in the defense authorizing committees and appropriations writ large.

He holds a B.S. from Southern Connecticut State University and a master’s from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Rob Rains joined Washington Analysis in April 2013 and covers energy, with an emphasis on gas and electric utilities, renewable energy and energy infrastructure including pipelines, liquefied natural gas, and electric transmission. He also covers utility deals. Prior to joining Washington Analysis, Rob worked for Capstone, another policy analysis firm. Before Capstone, Rob spent five years as a Sr. Government Relations Representative for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), a trade association and global technical standards developer, focusing on energy and environmental issues. Rob began his career on Capitol Hill where he worked for former-Reps. Brian Baird (WA) and Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH). Rob earned his JD from The Catholic University of America and holds a B.A. in Political Science and English-Journalism from Miami University (Ohio).

Thomas (Tom) Seitz joined Washington Analysis in June 2014.  He has been a sell side analyst covering the Telecom space for over 10 years at both Lehman Brothers and Jefferies & Co.  Most recently he worked for Jefferies & Co. from August 2011 to November 2013 as a Managing Director in equity research. His focus included telcos, wireless service providers, cable and data center/cloud companies.  His research was noted for its insights into the impact of Washington, D.C. on this highly regulated market.

Before joining Jefferies & Co, he spent two years covering Washington issues, and was the Director of Research at a policy firm.  In addition to his duties as DoR, he was a managing director and senior research analyst following the telecom, cable, media and tech sectors.  Prior to that role, Tom was a senior vice-president at Lehman Brothers, and subsequently Barclays Capital, covering the telecom services sector in the equity research department for over eight years.

Numerous media and industry publications have cited Tom’s work.  The Wall Street Journal, ranked Tom the #4 analyst for Telecom – Fixed Line, in its “Best on the Street” survey. The Lehman telecom services team was consistently ranked in Institutional Investor’s “All-America Research Team” for both wireline and wireless during Tom’s tenure.

Whitney Stanco covers legislative, regulatory, foreign policy, tax and legal issues affecting the energy sector. Her key areas of focus are oil & gas upstream, midstream and downstream as well as transportation, clean energy tax and markets.

Prior to joining the firm, Whitney was a Senior Advisor at The Rapidan Group, where she covered U.S. policy in the context of energy markets.  In addition, she advised institutional investor clients on clean tech, electricity and oil & gas policy issues for nine years at the Washington Research Group.

Whitney previously worked as a consultant for BP in Houston, and for Accenture in Germany. A native of West Texas, she received her B.B.A in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin and her M.A. in International Relations with concentrations in energy economics and finance at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Christina joined Washington Analysis in 2014 as research associate and editor after earning her bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University. Previously, she interned at Soluciones Comunitarias in Guatemala, focusing on sustainable product sales and small business practices for indigenous populations, and ECONorthwest, an economic and financial consulting firm in Portland, Oregon.

Heather joined Washington Analysis in 2000 and is responsible for introducing the firm into international markets. She is a Liason to some of the largest mutual funds, hedge funds and PE firms in the world and is on the road often. Heather graduated with a degree in finance from the George Washington University

Philip joined Washington Analysis in February, 2020. He supports the sales team by coordinating with Analysts from the firm and external Speakers to create a program called Days in Washington.

Philip is from Chevy Chase Maryland, received his Bachelor of Arts in History from American University and is fluent in Swedish.

Tom Hewitt joined Washington Analysis in 2004 as a senior salesperson.  Prior to joining WA Tom was an institutional salesman at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown.  Earlier, Tom worked in real estate investment banking with Merrill Lynch, and in commercial/buyout/media banking and real estate workouts at Manufacturers Hanover/Chemical Bank.

Tom has an MBA from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and both a BS (Accounting) and a BA (Economics) from the University of Maryland.

Kaitlin joined Washington Analysis in 2011 as a Sales Assistant. She graduated with a BA in International Affairs from The George Washington University in 2010.