Public Finance Vet to Lead Huntington's Midwest Push

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DALLAS – Columbus, Ohio-headquartered Huntington Capital Markets has hired public finance veteran Richard Hatton to head its public finance operation in Cincinnati.

Hatton will lead the organization's expansion of its Midwest operations with a focus on southwest Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Huntington is increasing its footprint in those markets with a focus on growing healthcare and education finance. Hatton joined the firm at the beginning of March.

Hatton reports to Ryan Kozak, the firm's head of public finance. Kozak joined the Ohio-headquartered firm last April to help build out the growth of its Midwest operations.

Hatton, a 16-year veteran in the public finance space, joins Huntington from Hilltop Securities where he was most recently a managing director. Prior to his four years at Hilltop, Hatton was at RBC Capital markets.

"Richard is an outstanding addition to our growing team," said Kozak. "He is a well-respected and sought-after for structuring solutions in development finance as well as for state and local governments."

In his previous roles, Hatton focused on development transactions such as port authority lease financing and tax increment financing. He has worked on financings for state revolving funds, bond banks, healthcare, housing, general infrastructure and public power issuers.

With Hatton on board, Huntington now has 16 sales and trading professionals in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo that work with Huntington's Government Banking, Higher Education and Non-profit teams to deliver commercial banking and capital markets to public sector customers. The public Finance team has one other member in addition to Hatton in Cincinnati, with plans to hire two more bankers in the coming year.

In August, the firm acquired First Merit Bank to further grow its presence in Ohio and to establish an entrance into new markets in Chicago and Wisconsin.

The firm has since hired associate director Phil Angelo from Ohio's Cuyahoga County, where he served as a special assistant. In September, senior managing director Nick Muzychak joined the firm from Piper Jaffray. Mazychak has since started Huntington's private placement desk for public finance and corporate clients.

The team also includes associate director John Bensted, who has been with the bank for five years.

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