Hill Feinberg

For Hill Feinberg, chairman emeritus of HilltopSecurities, there is satisfaction in seeing the airport, the school, the toll road, and other infrastructure his firm played a role in financing.

“It’s very rewarding to look back and say I helped that educational process get done, or I helped this hospital get financed,” he said.

The real key is to learn about clients’ wishes and help execute what they dream about doing, according to Feinberg.  

“It’s very important to thank and respect people in municipal government; you need to listen to them” as you guide them through the intricacies of public finance, he said.

Feinberg was Dallas-based Hilltop’s chairman and CEO from January 2016, when the firm was formed through the merger of First Southwest Company and Southwest Securities, until February 2019. 

“Over the course of his 52-year career, Hill Feinberg has earned a reputation as a proven leader in municipal finance and one of the industry’s most respected representatives,” said David Medanich, public finance co-head at Hilltop, in nominating Feinberg for The Bond Buyer’s Muni Hall of Fame. 

After graduating with a degree in finance from the University of Georgia and serving in the Army Corps of Engineers in Vietnam in the early 1970s, Feinberg joined Salomon Brothers in sales, which included municipal bonds, and became manager of its Dallas office.

In 1978, he moved to Bear Stearns, where he was put in charge of the firm’s Southwest regional office, running what he called a mini firm engaged in municipal and corporate finance, wealth management, and institutional fixed-income and equity sales and trading. 

But then Bear Stearns wanted him to move to New York.

“I very much enjoyed settling in Dallas, the economy out here was booming and furthermore the people are very embracing out here,” he recalled.

He retired from Bear Stearns in 1991 and along with a small group of investors purchased First Southwest, a broker-dealer founded in 1946 and known for its municipal advisory practice. With Feinberg as its chairman and CEO, the company expanded its services to include arbitrage rebate, asset management, and continuing disclosure.

“I had a great time because I could see municipalities needed us and we needed them,” Feinberg said.

He oversaw First Southwest’s 2008 acquisition by PlainsCapital Corp., which in 2012 was acquired by Hilltop Holdings. 

Throughout the changes that eventually led to HilltopSecurities, many clients and workers stayed with the firm, according to Feinberg.

“Our people have been our asset,” he said, noting some have remained for decades. 

He served a one-year term starting in October 2002 as chairman of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, where he pushed for greater understanding of the pros and cons of derivatives, like interest rate swaps.

“It was not not to do it, but it was more to get people educated to make sure they were authorized to be doing these types of things,” he said. 

Feinberg, who has a long list of civic and charitable pursuits, including chairman of the Phoenix Houses of Texas board of directors, has high hopes for the new generation of municipal bond professionals.

“I think a lot of them really embrace what we try to accomplish when it comes to helping society,” he said.