PERSON: French Hill

Congressman

French Hill, 60, is the 22nd Member of Congress to represent central Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. A ninth generation Arkansan, he was elected on November 4, 2014, began his first congressional term on January 3, 2015, and was officially sworn in on January 6, 2015. He serves on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional service, Mr. Hill was actively engaged in the Arkansas business community for two decades as a commercial banker and investment manager. He was founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Banking Corp., which was headquartered in Little Rock and recently merged with Arkansas-based Simmons First National Corp.

Prior to his community banking work in Arkansas, Mr. Hill served as a senior official in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. From 1989 until 1991, Mr. Hill served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Corporate Finance, where one of his key assignments was representing the United States as a negotiator in the historic bilateral talks with Japan known as the Structural Impediments Initiative (SII). After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mr. Hill led the design of U.S. technical assistance to the emerging economies of eastern and central Europe in the areas of banking and securities. In 1991, at the age of 34, President Bush appointed Mr. Hill to be Executive Secretary to the President’s Economic Policy Council (EPC), where he coordinated all White House economic policy. For his leadership and service at the Treasury and the White House, Mr. Hill was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady in January 1993. Prior to his Executive Branch Service, from 1982 until 1984, Mr. Hill served on the staff of then-U.S. Senator John Tower (R-TX) as well as on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs.

Throughout his career, Mr. Hill has been active in civic affairs. He is a past president of the Rotary Club of Little Rock and served as the 2013 chairman of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. In 1998, he was awarded the Silver Beaver Award by the Boy Scouts of America for his commitment to youth, and in 1999 for his work in historic preservation, he was named Museum Trustee of the Year by Arkansas Museums Association. Additionally, he received the Hanlon Award by the City of Little Rock for Outstanding Business Leader for the arts and humanities in 2002, and the Arkansas Heritage Award from Governor Mike Beebe at the Annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism in 2007.

In 2013, he was named the Top Manager of the Year by the Sales and Marketing Executive International, and in 2010, he was selected by AY Magazine as its “Most Powerful Man” in business in Arkansas. He has been a contributor to CNBC, CNN, FOX, and NPR on political and economic policy matters.

Mr. Hill is a magna cum laude graduate in Economics from Vanderbilt University. He is married to the former Martha McKenzie of Dallas, Texas, and they have a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth McKenzie Hill, and a son, William Payne Hill. The Hill family resides in Little Rock.

— hill.house.gov