Hilton Howell Multitasks TV And Insurance

Growing up in Waco, Texas, Hilton Hatchett Howell Jr. spent a lot of time working on his grandfather’s ranch.

Turns out being a cowboy was good training for business.

“My grandfather ran cattle and I grew up on horseback, having to rope and corral cattle when they broke loose,” Howell recalls.

He also built fences, paved roads, did carpentry work — including building a boat — and worked in the mailroom at his father’s law practice.

His grandfather, Hilton Emory Howell, also introduced him to the world of business, including broadcasting.  The elder Howell got in on the early days of broadcasting, partnering with other entrepreneurs to start several TV stations in Texas, including KWTX Waco.

“One of the things about my family is that we talked about business all the time — at the dinner table, at lunch with my grandparents, after church on Sundays,” Howell recalls.

Today, Howell takes business multitasking to a different level: In addition to being president-CEO and vice chairman of Gray Television, he’s chairman, president and CEO of Atlantic American Corp., an insurance holding company; chairman of Bankers Fidelity Life; director, EVP and general counsel of Delta Life Insurance Co. and Delta Fire & Casualty Insurance Co.

Howell’s entry into the broadcasting and insurance businesses was not calculated. He practiced law for a couple years after earning a law degree at Baylor and an MBA at the University of Texas-Austin.

It was about that time he became engaged to Robin Robinson, the daughter of J. Mack Robinson, a prolific entrepreneur who had downsized his business portfolio to a few struggling insurance companies.

Howell was in Atlanta celebrating the holidays with his soon to be in-laws when Robinson asked him if he was up for a challenge.

“Mack asked if I would consider coming in and turning [the insurance companies] around,” Howell recalls. “I was young and dumb, rolled my sleeves up and went to work.”

Howell might have been inexperienced, but he and Robinson turned out to be a formidable team as they successfully rebooted the companies.

About the same time, Robinson started what turned into year-long negotiations to buy Gray. One other bidder was in the running as talks came down to the wire.  “We went and sat in the hotel lobby until 1 or 2 a.m. when we learned the board had voted to take our offer,” Howell remembers.

Today, the Robinson and Howell families collectively own or control about 10% of the company’s equity and about 43% of the votes. 

Little surprise that Howell ranks Robinson as his most influential mentor.

“I’ve been truly blessed by having a lot of great role models,” he says. “My father-in-law was an entrepreneur in a lot of different areas, so I was blessed — or cursed — with being in lots of different businesses. The one common denominator I’ve found is that it all comes down to the people in your company.”

Howell purposely tries to stay out of the limelight at Gray, saying he’s simply a steward of the business. He credits Kevin Latek, SVP of business affairs, and Jim Ryan, SVP of finance, and other members of the management team for keeping things running smoothly.

“We are an ensemble cast,” Howell says. “It’s about all of us working together as a team. There are no politics in our organization, which I’m awfully proud of.”

That said, over the last couple years Howell occasionally moves to center stage during the quarterly earnings calls.

“I actually love them,” he says. “They complement how transparent our financial disclosures are. I find the question-and-answer session my most interesting time. I can tell what the world is thinking about broadcasting from the questions.”

This story originally appeared in TVNewsCheck’s Executive Outlook, a print publication devoted to the future of broadcasting. Subscribe here. Read the other stories in the Winter 2016 issue here.