Warakirri hires private wealth head from UBS

Warakirri Asset Management has hired Ben Williams from UBS for the newly created role of head of private wealth.

At UBS, Williams was head of wholesale client coverage for more than four years.

Before that, he was national manager of retail at Lazard Asset Management, a director at BlackRock for 10 years, and a consultant for Bridgeport for four years.

Reporting to Warakirri's head of distribution, Stuart Devlin, Williams will focus on broadening the firm's footprint across New South Wales and Queensland.

"We're delighted to have someone of Ben's calibre and seniority join our team as we continue to build Warakirri's relationships with family offices, financial advice practices, and high-net-worth clients," said Warakirri's managing director Jim McKay.

"Ben's strong network, coupled with his significant experience across key facets of the advice market, the platform space, and product solutions, will help build on our relationships with our key client groups and for our funds management and agriculture capabilities."

William's hire follows the recent appointment of Tim Lang to the newly created position of research relationships manager.

The multi-asset boutique is also currently recruiting for a further distribution specialist in Melbourne.

"Ben joins at an exciting time for Warakirri," said Devlin.

"Our new global emerging markets strategy managed by our investment partner Northcape Capital has already received a recommended rating from two of the major Australian research houses and secured several key platform and managed account positions," he added.

The distribution head said Warakirri's Australian small caps fund managed by Flinders Investment Partners is also going from strength to strength, more than tripling in size since Warakirri acquired its equity stake in the firm in the middle of last year.

The new recruit said Warakirri's "ethical intent" stood out to him which is something the asset manager also looks for in its investment partners.

"You can't build a multi-boutique investment business like this, with multi-generational clients, without a meaningful core purpose," Williams argued.

"Everything we are doing, from our pioneering stewardship of Australia's most important agricultural assets to the way we screen emerging market equities, is to create more sustainable investment outcomes."

In fact, he noted that Warakirri's first investment fund (launched in 1993) was an ethical Australian equities fund.

Williams went on to say that his new role recognises the growing influence of asset allocators in the private wealth market who already have a defensible portfolio construction philosophy and are looking for ways to better express their insights.

"Our aim is to help differentiate client portfolios by focusing on ethical and sustainability factors, inefficient markets, and hard-to-access assets that play well-defined roles in their overall portfolio mix.  I'm looking forward to the evolution of these partnerships."