DALLAS, January 3, 2023 – Hilltop Securities Inc. (HilltopSecurities) today announced the addition of 12 investment bankers to its Public Finance division in New York City, San Francisco, and Sherman Oaks, California. The team includes Fred Prager, David Hetz, Rochelle Powell, Ian Prager, Colin O’Neill, A.J. Prager, T.J. Sheehy, Colin Walsh, Bjorn Foster, Augie Harrigan, Michael Dymond, and Sam Sheppard.

Led by Fred Prager, the team is one of the nation’s top providers of public finance services to higher education institutions, with a broad range of expertise across multiple other sectors including healthcare, public power, and non-profit institutions.

“We are excited to welcome such an accomplished team of municipal finance professionals whose deep experience serving higher education institutions and other public entities is expected to enhance our public finance efforts across the country,” said HilltopSecurities President and CEO Brad Winges.

In addition to municipal advisory and underwriting, HilltopSecurities provides clients with a full scope of related services, such as asset management and reinvestment, hedging and structuring strategies, arbitrage rebate, continuing disclosure, and other specialized forms of advisory work. These complementary businesses allow the firm to serve public entities with comprehensive solutions designed to meet all of their financing needs.

“We are excited to join such a respected firm with its proven leadership and long record of success in the industry,” Prager said.

HilltopSecurities serves public finance clients across all sectors in markets from coast to coast.

About Fred Prager

Fred Prager joins HilltopSecurities as Senior Managing Director in New York City and brings more than 40 years of experience to his new role. Prior to founding Prager & Co. in 1987, he managed L.F. Rothschild & Co.’s West Coast public finance business.

About David Hetz

Hetz joins HilltopSecurities as Senior Managing Director in New York City and brings more than 40 years of experience to his new role. Prior to joining HilltopSecurities, he served as managing director and CEO of Prager & Co. He also has served as vice chair of Cain Brothers & Co., a leading healthcare investment banking firm, and as co-founder and managing partner of Cutlass Capital.

About Rochelle Powell

Powell joins HilltopSecurities as Managing Director in New York City and brings more than 25 years of experience to her new role. Prior to joining Prager & Co., she served as senior vice president in the public finance department of Greenwich Partners, a regional investment banking firm in the northeast.

About Ian Prager

Ian Prager joins HilltopSecurities as Managing Director in San Francisco. He joined Prager & Co. in 2005 where he provided quantitative, analytic, and strategic support for many of the firms public and private higher education clients. Prior to his time there, he spent seven years with Lockheed Martin in numerous roles.

About Colin O’Neill

O’Neill joins HilltopSecurities as Senior Vice President in New York City and brings more than 25 years of experience to his new role. He began his career with Morgan Stanley’s institutional group and also served four years with his own registered investment advisor firm based in Connecticut.

About AJ Prager

AJ Prager joins HilltopSecurities as Senior Vice President in Sherman Oaks, California and brings more than 15 years of experience to his new role. He began his career at Bear Stearns and also has held positions in the corporate development and strategy group at Warner Bros. Entertainment.

About TJ Sheehy

Sheehy joins HilltopSecurities as Senior Vice President in New York City and brings more than 15 years of not-for-profit and municipal finance experience to his new role. He also has held positions with the Yuba Group, Loop Capital Markets, and Morgan Stanley.

About Colin Walsh

Walsh joins HilltopSecurities as Senior Vice President in New York City and brings more than 20 years of experience to his new role. Prior to joining Prager & Co., he was senior vice president in the education and nonprofit group of Wells Fargo’s government and institutional banking unit. He also has held positions with Fitch Ratings’ public finance group and Allied Irish Bank.

About Bjorn Foster

Foster joins HilltopSecurities as Vice President in San Francisco and brings more than 25 years of experience to his new role. Prior to joining Prager & Co. in 2004, he co-owned a web develop company and worked in a variety of roles with digital media companies.

About Augie Harrigan

Harrigan joins HilltopSecurities as Assistant Vice President in New York City. Prior to joining Prager & Co. in 2005, he served as director of business information technology for the Universal Music Group in Los Angeles.

About Michael Dymond

Dymond joins HilltopSecurities as Assistant Vice President in New York City. Prior to joining Prager & Co., he served as an economic consultant with Analysis Group.

About Sam Sheppard

Sheppard joins HilltopSecurities as Assistant Vice President in New York City and brings more than five years of experience to his new role. Prior to joining Prager & Co., he was an associate at S&P Global Ratings.

About Hilltop Securities Inc.

Hilltop Securities Inc. delivers forthright advice and tailored solutions to municipal issuers, institutions, broker-dealers, and individuals. The full-service investment bank and registered investment adviser is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with offices across the United States. Areas of focus include public finance; municipal and taxable fixed income underwriting, sales, and trading; retail brokerage services; securities clearing; structured finance; and securities lending. A wholly owned subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTH), HilltopSecurities’ affiliates include Momentum Independent Network Inc., PlainsCapital Bank, and PrimeLending. Learn more at www.HilltopSecurities.com. Member: NYSE/FINRA/SIPC.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS DISCLAIMER

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and, except as required by law, we do not assume any duty to update forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning such things as our plans, objectives, strategies, expectations, intentions and other statements that are not statements of historical fact, and may be identified by words such as ““expects,” “may,” “outlook,” “plan,” “seeks,” “will” or “would” or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases. See the risk factors described in Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.