Omar Daghestani

Omar Daghestani serves on the Stifel Public Finance Executive Committee and oversees the firm’s Chicago, New York, and Boston offices. He also heads the #1 ranked national pension practice within Stifel’s Public Finance Department. Omar has senior managed $31.1 billion of issues across every credit type over the course of his career, including three which were awarded Deal of the Year by The Bond Buyer and one by Smith's Research & Gradings.  

Omar has worked with public pension systems nationally for the past two decades to help affect positive programmatic, legislative, efficiency and governance changes.  He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has lectured at the Harvard Kennedy School for 16 years on the topic of pension liability management. Most recently, he was invited to speak on pension liability management at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

Omar drives positive public policy outcomes through his service including Board Chair & Governor; City Club of Chicago; Governing Board Director & Fundraising Co-Chair, Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center; Director, University of Chicago, Harris School Center for Municipal Finance Board; Past-President, Glenview Park Foundation; Class Reunion Co-Chair (5, 10, 15 and 20 year), Harvard University, Kennedy School

Omar received a B.A. with Honors in Economics (Phi Beta Kappa) from Northwestern University where his thesis, “Redlining in Chicago: A Predictive Model of Home Mortgage Origination” was recognized with the William Henry Exum Paper Award by the Department of African American Studies. Omar earned an M.P.P. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was twice elected Student Body President. Most recently, Omar was recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business with the 2023 Crain’s Notable Leaders in Finance award. He is married to his wife Cathleen, and they have a 13-year-old son.