SunTrust Robinson Humphrey (STRH) hired Welles Fitzpatrick as a managing director responsible for coverage of the energy exploration & production sector. Fitzpatrick has covered the sector for more than 11 years and will help broaden the firm’s current coverage of the energy sector.

“Welles’ extensive experience provides a nice fit with our other tenured and talented senior energy analysts at STRH. His hiring provides an opportunity for collaborative and differentiated fundamental research, and will bolster our overall Energy research expertise, capability and reputation,” said Scott McLaughlin, head of Equity Sales, Trading and Research at STRH.

Fitzpatrick will be based in Houston and will work with the firm’s senior equity research analyst for Energy, Neal Dingmann to broaden STRH’s current Exploration & Production coverage. He was most recently with Johnson and Rice where he was responsible for small and mid-cap coverage as well as macro analysis on gas.