Title: Senior Vice President
Firm: HilltopSecurities Inc.
Age: 32
Connor Benoit serves as a municipal investment banker and is focused on growing Hilltop's underwriting business, covering transportation and infrastructure issuers nationally.
Benoit has worked on more than 100 municipal transactions for toll road issuers, transit agencies, state departments of transportation, Garvee issuers, airports and seaports, amounting to more than $33 billion.
Benoit has also actively engaged with the U.S. Department of Transportation throughout his career and has worked on six transportation projects receiving federal loans from the Build America Bureau.
Prior to joining Hilltop in 2024, Benoit was a senior member of Citi's transportation group. He started his career there as an analyst in 2015.
While Benoit initially expected to be responsible for menial tasks, he had the opportunity to work directly with the head of Citi's transportation group, Ron Marino.
"That was a pivotal point in my career because even though my title was analyst, I was given the opportunity to take on a lot of responsibility, which led to traveling, meeting with clients and being deeply involved with transactions from beginning to end," Benoit said. "Ron was an incredible mentor and an industry icon, known as the Godfather of Transportation, and I learned everything I could from him. I learned you always do what's best for the client and treat them like people — get a sense for who they are, what they are interested in and what they care about."
Benoit grew up in Plattsburgh, New York, and graduated from the University at Albany.
"I love the tangibility of the projects I get to work on," says Benoit. "The intersection between the public impact and the financial markets is unique and it brings a lot of good people to the same place. I really enjoy being a part of this community."
