Title: Executive Vice President
Firm: Estrada Hinojosa & Co.
Age: 34
Mary Hinojosa Kelly was raised around the municipal bond business, but she took a slightly indirect route to joining it directly.
Upon her graduation from Pepperdine, she spent more than two and a half years in Washington, D.C., in the office of long-time Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar.
After returning to Texas, she settled in Houston and worked in lobbying for a trade association.
Then and only then did she decide the time was right to join the municipal bond industry, and the firm with her father's name on the door.
"If and when I made the decision to work with Estrada Hinojosa, I wanted it to be my decision," said Mary, whose father, Noé Hinojosa, Jr., is co-founder and chief executive officer of the 30-year-old Dallas-based firm.
She is now an executive vice president in the Houston office.
"Our Houston team was a little bit smaller and we've been trying to grow that," she said.
The Houston team's accomplishments include the senior underwriter role on a $424 million Harris County deal this summer, the largest senior underwriting transaction in history of the firm.
In addition to serving underwriting clients, Mary has a municipal advisor practice specializing in independent school districts. Though she's willing to help in any way.
She said she tries to model the advice she gives newer members of the team.
"Be ready to do anything that is asked of you," she said. "You need to have all of those skill sets in your toolbox to add value."
