Business Expands Commodities Trading, Risk Management and Hedging Services

DALLAS, August 2, 2021 – Hilltop Securities Inc. (HilltopSecurities) today announced the expansion of its commodities brokerage and trading business with the launch of a new division, HTS Commodities. The division consists of 19 experienced commodities professionals in Texas and Tennessee, including nine in Amarillo, and three in Memphis who joined the firm on July 30. The team will provide a full suite of commodities trading, risk management, and wealth management services to farmers and ranchers across the United States.

The new additions include managing directors Brock Thompson and Will Snead in Amarillo, who serve as co-heads of HTS Commodities’ central plains region and managing directors Lewis Williamson and Marvin Coleman in Memphis, who serve as co-heads of the mid-south region. They join HilltopSecurities’ legacy team of seven commodities professionals in Plano, Texas. The newly expanded group is co-headed by Richard Konkel and Jerome Gaudry, with each bringing over two decades of banking, commodities, and financial engineering experience.

“The launch of HTS Commodities with the addition of 12 highly experienced and accomplished commodities and futures professionals is another important step in HilltopSecurities’ growth plan,” said Brad Winges, President and CEO of Hilltop Securities. “We are proud to welcome these talented individuals to our team and look forward to their contributions as we continue to seek opportunities to build this business and expand our product offerings to farmers and ranchers in the United States.”

HTS Commodities will focus on a broad range of commodities and futures trading including livestock, grains, cotton, energy, metals, U.S. market indices, and U.S. and foreign currencies, among other wealth advisory services. In addition, the division will provide commodities consulting services and customized hedging strategies for producers, consumers, and investors. HTS Commodities’ recent hires more than double the size of the firm’s existing commodities desk with plans to continue its growth throughout other geographic regions.

“As a full-service investment bank, HilltopSecurities is focused on expanding across our business lines and the markets we serve to deliver a comprehensive suite of financial services for our clients,” said Konkel.

“The launch of HTS Commodities marks a significant milestone as we increase the scope of our trading and hedging solutions for individual and institutional clients. We’re excited to begin this next chapter and look forward to continued growth for HTS Commodities,” added Gaudry.

More information about HTS Commodities can be found at HTSCommodities.com.

About Brock Thompson
Thompson co-founded TRU Trading, LLC in Amarillo in 2012 before announcing last month that the firm’s nine employees were joining HilltopSecurities. He has spent 19 years working with clients in the agriculture and energy industries, providing marketing recommendations and commodity risk management. He has been a Commodity Trading Advisor and has advised clients on managed futures programs. Thompson remains active in the cattle feeding industry as a cattle feeder and is a member of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association. He is also a member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Tax and Finance Committee, as well as the College of Agricultural Developmental Council for Texas A&M University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science.

About Will Snead Jr.
Snead is a co-founder of TRU Trading, LLC and has 15 years of experience in the commodities industry focusing on risk management strategies in the agriculture and energy sectors. He has previously served as a wealth manager for Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. In addition to his experience as a futures broker and systems trader, Snead is a licensed real estate agent with TRU Land Realty Group/Keller Williams, servicing the farm and ranch industry, and also co-founded crop marketing management firm, TRU Vision Ag. He is a graduate of Texas A&M where he earned a degree in Finance and Accounting.

About Lewis Williamson Jr.
Williamson brings 37 years of experience to his role at HTS Commodities, most recently as senior vice president with Morgan Stanley where he served as a commodity specialist focusing on risk management. He has deep experience in the soy crushing industry, ethanol sector, grain elevators, broiler industry, and exporters of U.S. agricultural products. He also has focused on balance sheet analysis for the row crop sector throughout his career. Williamson began his career with Merrill Lynch. 

About Marvin Coleman
Coleman joins HTS Commodities from Morgan Stanley in Memphis, Tennessee, where he served as senior vice president, commodity futures specialist. He has more than two decades of experience advising agricultural entities and select individuals on their commodity hedging and speculative programs, with a special focus on rough rice futures.

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

This press 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 “building,” “focus,” “grow,” “look,” “plan,” “seek,” “view,” “will” or “would” or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases. For further discussion of such factors, see the risk factors described in Hilltop’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.

Contact:
Hilltop Holdings Inc.
Ben Brooks
214.252.4047
ben.brooks@hilltop-holdings.com