00:00Brian, thanks so much for being with us. I appreciate it.
00:02You bet. Good morning, Julie.
00:04Good to see you.
00:05Good to see you.
00:05You launched an ETF on the Texas Stock Exchange last week. It is the first launch of a new ETF.
00:12What made the decision for you?
00:14Well, for us, it was really quite easy. The ETF itself is all about power generation,
00:20and it just simply aligns with everything that we are doing here in Texas.
00:25You know, you moved the ETF there. Westwood still trades on the New York Stock Exchange.
00:30Are you considering moving as well?
00:32Well, you know, that's a board decision, and it's something that we talk about.
00:36One of the things that you'd need to do in order to do that would be to reincorporate in Texas.
00:41So that's a possibility anyway, but that's just a board discussion that we'll have periodically.
00:48You know, Westwood was one of the founding investors in the Texas Stock Exchange.
00:51So I'm curious, what do you think looks like success for them in a year or so?
00:57Well, they're continuing to attract new listings.
01:00You know, Dillard's had been on the New York Stock Exchange for 40 years, and they moved last week.
01:04There have been several ETFs that have already begun trading on the Texas Stock Exchange.
01:09But it's really about getting the listings of both exchange-traded products and companies.
01:17Let's get a little bit into the investment climate currently.
01:21You manage almost $18 billion in assets.
01:24But where are you seeing the most growth right now?
01:27Well, we started three new businesses in the last couple of years, and one of those is ETFs.
01:32And ETFs is a, you know, it is a unique and interesting product.
01:38And it is sold so differently than anything we've ever done.
01:42I mean, we've been in business for 43 years, and this is a completely new way to reach investors.
01:48We're doing podcasts.
01:49We're doing a lot of social.
01:52It is a, it's different than anything we've ever done, but it's a lot of fun.
01:55We're seeing Governor Abbott putting more regulations on data centers.
01:58Congress now discussing regulating AI.
02:01How does that affect tech stocks?
02:03Well, the tech stocks, the hyperscalers, are the ones that you see in the news all the time.
02:08This is your AWS, your Microsoft.
02:10Microsoft, you know, these guys are going to continue building, and they have the capital to do it.
02:16I think where you're going to see some real change is in the mindset that the data centers have when
02:24they go to a new community.
02:26They're going to have to do a better job of educating the community on what it is that they will
02:32benefit from,
02:33and how do we better partner with that community in order to just be good neighbors.
02:40With the upcoming election, what does all of this mean for the markets?
02:44Well, we have a lot of positives here in Texas, specifically the migration of both people and businesses.
02:52It just continues at a pace that I don't think any of us could have ever imagined.
02:57We now have more Fortune 500 companies than any other state.
03:01We have no taxes.
03:03We have just an incredible amount of economic activity.
03:09If you just took that Texas triangle of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin,
03:13it would be the 15th largest economy in the world.
03:16Yeah, overall, Texas continues to grow as that financial market.
03:19Your company has been here long before the actual beginning of what we're seeing now for decades.
03:25What do you see as the biggest change in finance?
03:28Well, we like to say we were committed to Texas before it was fashionable,
03:31and today that is really what everybody is trying to latch on to this positivity that's going on around here.
03:40Appreciate your time.
03:41Thanks.
03:42Thanks so much for being with us.
03:43You bet.
03:44It's great to be here, Julie.
03:45It's good to see you.
03:46Good to see you, too.
