Richard W. Rodriguez
Surely, James Hill could go on one of those who’s-got-talent TV shows and demonstrate his aptitude for juggling, say, bowling balls.
He’s got a lot of 16-pounders in the air.
“We always thought the worst job in the world would be to do the same, you know, putting rivets into the side of a machine” hour after hour, day after day,” Hill says. “I like the idea of being dynamic and being able to handle lots of different things, I enjoy that. I like variety in my day.”
He has assuredly pulled that off. He’s as busy as a hamster on a wheel.
Consider, in no particular order, what he has going on:
For starters, Hill is the director of the Center for Real Estate at TCU’s Neeley School of Business. In the role, he cultivates partnerships between the university and the real estate industry. He has taught off and on in the Neeley School since 2008. This semester the course is real estate finance and investments.
“I love teaching,” he says.
Another hat is that of principal of James Hill Consulting. In this role, Hill, a licensed real estate broker in Texas and CCIM designee, offers real estate and corporate finance advice, along with strategic planning for businesses, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals.
Next up: James Hill, elected official.
Hill is a member of the Tarrant Regional Water District Board, one of Texas’ largest water suppliers and a critical flood control partner for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It’s a pivotal juncture for the policymakers of the TRWD. The water district currently provides water to more than 2 million people across its 11-county jurisdiction, a number projected to grow to nearly 6 million by 2050, according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Delivering water to meet this growing demand requires extensive infrastructure, strategic planning, and innovative solutions. The wet stuff doesn’t simply appear and flow effortlessly through pipes.
Betsy Price, then mayor of Fort Worth, encouraged him to run. He was finishing up a long stint on the city’s Zone Board of Adjustment.
“It was important that we had somebody that had financial acumen on a board that handles almost a billion dollars’ worth of bonds,” Hill says.
And, lastly, Hill is a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, elected by member banks to offer insight into regional and national economic conditions.
“I like what I'm doing now because it's, I go from water district to personal business to private investments to family office to TCU,” Hill says. “I kind of get to do a lot of different things a day. It's harder to manage my calendar, but I enjoy it.”
Hill is in the midst of his second term on the Fed board. Each of the 12 Fed districts are made up of nine-member boards. Three are appointed by the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. Three are elected by the banks to serve the banks, and Hill is among the three elected by the banks to serve the public.
The districts are named for the city in which they’re headquartered. The Dallas district is made up of eastern New Mexico and northern Louisiana, in addition to Texas.
His responsibilities there include contributing to the monetary policy discussions of the Federal Open Market Committee, while also playing an oversight role in the Reserve Bank’s operations, including corporate governance and internal auditing. He also reports on the temperature of economic conditions in the region and nationally.
Eight times a year each district produces a “Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District,” known informally as the “Beige Book” — the cover is beige colored. Each report is an anecdotal summary of economic conditions across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts, offering insights into factors like employment, inflation, consumer spending, and manufacturing, based on reports from business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources.
They are important because what's happening in the Dallas district is not necessarily what's happening in Cincinnati or San Francisco.
“Different parts of the economy in different parts of the country are always ebbing and flowing at different times,” Hill says. “We provide our input that gets assimilated into the ‘Beige Book.’ One of my jobs as a board member is to talk to businesses out in the community and say, ‘Hey, what are you seeing? Are you hiring?’ The Fed does a lot of this work on its own, but a lot of it's me being out as a representative of the Reserve Bank.”
His most recent report, he said, would be heavy on the film industry, which now includes 16 production houses in North Texas, and the impact, if any or if known, of the devastating fires in California might have on the industry.
“Does that translate to more of those folks moving to Austin or Dallas or Fort Worth,” he wonders. “I don't know the answer to that, but I thought it would be a fun report for me to do to kind of talk about something that's directly affecting Tarrant County.”
Hill, a Fort Worth native who was schooled at Country Day, graduated with a BBA in finance from University of Texas right after Sept. 11 before coming home to earn an MBA from TCU. His wife, Macy, is a Fort Worth City Councilmember. They met on a blind date at Margie’s, the acclaimed Fort Worth Italian hole-in-the-wall. They have two sons.
His first job after graduate school was with a debt fund in Dallas, which bought debt with the intent of owning the underlying asset. It had an initial $100 million capital raise that “we levered up to $350 million-ish.”
At Texas Capital, where he worked for 10 years, he ran, at intervals, the real estate group, the private bank, and then government affairs for the holding company.
All told, his experience in banking spans close to 20 years, ending with a board position for a small bank, a position he had to relinquish in order to serve on the board of the Federal Reserve Dallas.
What’s next — a public or private venture — he says he doesn’t know, but there will be something.
That’s just the way he rolls.
“I like being involved,” he says. “Part of it is I like to meet people. That's just my personality.”
