Ambac Names R. Sharon Smith Senior Managing Director, Chief of Staff

NEW YORK, May 17, 2017 -- Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMBC) ("Ambac"), a holding company whose subsidiaries, including Ambac Assurance Corporation, provide financial guarantees and other financial services, today announced that R. Sharon Smith has joined Ambac as Senior Managing Director, Chief of Staff and a member of the Executive Management team.  Ms. Smith will report directly to Claude LeBlanc, Ambac's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Mr. LeBlanc said, "We are pleased to welcome Sharon to the Ambac team and look forward to leveraging her extensive experience in leading strategic initiatives and transactions to advance the goals and objectives of the Company.”

Ms. Smith joins Ambac from Syncora Guarantee Inc., (“Syncora”), where she served in numerous capacities during her tenure, including as Associate General Counsel and Head of Investor Relations. Her responsibilities included being the lead in-house attorney on Syncora’s $1.2 billion restructuring and securities exchange offer transaction. Ms. Smith was also General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Camberlink LLC (a wholly owned subsidiary of Syncora).  Earlier in her career,  Ms. Smith was Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of the Corporate Securities Department of New York Life Investment Management LLC, and an attorney for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Weill, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Ms. Smith has a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University - Barnard College.

About Ambac

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. ("Ambac"), headquartered in New York City, is a holding company whose subsidiaries, including its principal operating subsidiaries, Ambac Assurance Corporation ("AAC"), Everspan Financial Guarantee Corp. and Ambac Assurance UK Limited ("Ambac UK"), provide financial guarantees and other financial services to clients in both the public and private sectors globally.  AAC, including the Segregated Account of AAC (in rehabilitation), is a guarantor of public finance and structured finance obligations.  Ambac’s primary goal is to maximize stockholder value by executing the following key strategies: active runoff of AAC and its subsidiaries through transaction terminations, policy commutations, settlements and restructurings that we believe will improve our risk profile, and maximizing the risk-adjusted return on invested assets; loss recovery through litigation and exercise of contractual and legal rights; improved cost effectiveness and efficiency of the operating platform; rationalization of AAC's capital and liability structures, enabling simplification of corporate governance and facilitating the successful rehabilitation of the Segregated Account; and selective business transactions offering attractive risk adjusted returns that, among other things, may permit utilization of Ambac’s tax net operating loss carry-forwards.  Ambac‘s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “AMBC”.  The Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Ambac contains substantial restrictions on the ability to transfer Ambac’s common stock. Subject to limited exceptions, any attempted transfer of common stock shall be prohibited and void to the extent that, as a result of such transfer (or any series of transfers of which such transfer is a part), any person or group of persons shall become a holder of 5% or more of Ambac’s common stock or a holder of 5% or more of Ambac's common stock increases its ownership interest.  Ambac is committed to providing timely and accurate information to the investing public, consistent with our legal and regulatory obligations.  To that end, we use our website to convey information about our businesses, including the anticipated release of quarterly financial results, quarterly financial, statistical and business-related information, and the posting of updates to the status of certain primary residential mortgage backed securities litigations. For more information, please go to www.ambac.com.

CONTACTS:

Lisa A. Kampf
Managing Director, Investor Relations
(212) 208-3177
[email protected]