Founder: Blair Hull

Blair Hull is Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Matlock Capital, a private financial investment firm based in Chicago that works in the areas of financial engineering, systems, and investments.

Starting with the goal of establishing one of the world’s premier market-making firms, Blair Hull founded Hull Trading Company in Chicago in 1985; an organization built of outstanding thinkers in the fields of investing, science, and mathematics.  By embracing both efficiency and innovation, Mr. Hull’s firm grew to be one of the country's largest and most profitable independent trading firms.  His multi-disciplinary approach was responsible for the design and implementation of a steady stream of systematic innovations that combined trading expertise with state-of-the-art technology and quantitative modeling.  Hull’s process used computerized trading to capture thousands of short-term stock and options mispricings, each day, while continually calculating portfolio-wide risk on a real-time basis. The success of Hull Trading Company’s strategy led to its acquisition in 1999 by Goldman, Sachs & Company.

Throughout his career, Blair Hull has also been deeply active in progressive Democratic politics.  His leadership in the political arena has been marked by successful efforts to improve gender equity, his support of the pro-choice movement, his advocacy on behalf of accessible healthcare, efficiency in government, and his commitment to social justice -- passions which led Mr. Hull to seek the Democratic nomination as candidate for the United States Senate in 2004. 

In addition to his public activities, Blair Hull joined with his children in 1999 to establish the Hull Family Foundation; a grant-making institution that supports educational, environmental, cultural, and social justice causes throughout the country.

Mr. Hull has served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Board Options Exchange from 1988 to 1990 and on the Board of the Options Clearing Corporation from 1992 to 1998.  He served on the National Board of Directors for NARAL, is a Partner in the Democracy Alliance, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.  Mr. Hull is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of California Santa Barbara Foundation and in 1998 endowed the first chair in Women's Studies at UCSB.

Blair Hull holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara; Master of Business Administration degree from Santa Clara University; and graduated from the Harvard OPM Program.