Christopher J Williams Shareholders vote
Christopher J. Williams is Chairman, CEO and founder of The Williams Capital Group, L.P. and Williams Capital Management, LLC. Mr. Williams began his career with Lehman Brothers in New York, where he was most recently a Senior Vice President with responsibilities in debt capital markets, derivatives and fixed income securities trading.
- Austin-San Marcos, TX (1888PressRelease) August 31, 2012 - Mr. Christopher J. Williams is a Founding Partner at Cordova, Smart & Williams, LLC. Mr. Williams serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at The Williams Capital Management, LLC since 2002. He serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of The Williams Capital Group, LP. Mr. Williams served as the Chief Operating Officer at Telespectrum Worldwide Inc. since January 2001. Prior to joined TeleSpectrum, he served as an Executive Vice President at Central Area of Iron Mountain from February 2000 to August 2000 and the Senior Vice President of Operations at West of Pierce Leahy Corp. from 1995 to February 2000, when Pierce Leahy merged with Iron Mountain. He serves as a Director of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
He has been a Director of Caesars Entertainment Operating Company, Inc., since April 2008. He serves as a Director of Horseshoe Casino Hotel. He has been a Director of Cox Enterprises, Inc., since April 2012. Mr. Williams has been a Director of Caesars Entertainment Corporation (formerly Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.) since November 2003 and Wal-mart Stores, Inc. since 2004. He also serves as a Director of The Partnership for New York City Inc., and the National Association of Securities Professionals. Mr. Williams served as a Director at TeleSpectrum Worldwide Inc. since February 2001. He served as a Director of Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
He serves as a Member of The Economic Club of New York. Mr. Williams is a Member of the Gotham Chapter of the Young President's Organization and The Century Association. He also serves on the Boards of several Non-Profit Organizations, including the National Dance Institute, WNYC Radio, and the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. Mr. Williams has also been published in two academic textbooks that outline the uses of financial derivatives in the capital markets. In 2002, he was selected by Fortune magazine as one of the 50 most powerful African-American in corporate America. In 2003, Mr. Williams was listed in Crains New York Business as one of the top 100 minority business leaders. He holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Howard University.
Board Members Memberships
Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
The Williams Capital Group, L.P.
Director
Horseshoe Casino Hotel
Director
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
Director
The Partnership for New York City, Inc.
2001-N/A
Former Chief Operating Officer and Director
Telespectrum Worldwide, Inc.
2003-Present
Director, Chairman of Audit Committee and Member of 162(m) Plan Committee
Caesars Entertainment Corporation
2004-Present
Independent Director, Chairman of Audit Committee and Member of Executive Committee
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
2008-Present
Director
Caesars Entertainment Operating Company, Inc.
2012-Present
Director
Cox Enterprises, Inc.
Education
Bachelor's Degree
Howard University
MBA
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
Board Members Memberships
Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
The Williams Capital Group, L.P.
Director
Horseshoe Casino Hotel
Director
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
Director
The Partnership for New York City, Inc.
2001-N/A
Former Chief Operating Officer and Director
Telespectrum Worldwide, Inc.
2003-Present
Director, Chairman of Audit Committee and Member of 162(m) Plan Committee
Caesars Entertainment Corporation
2004-Present
Independent Director, Chairman of Audit Committee and Member of Executive Committee
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
2008-Present
Director
Caesars Entertainment Operating Company, Inc.
2012-Present
Director
Cox Enterprises, Inc.
Education
Bachelor's Degree
Howard University
MBA
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
Both Fortune magazine and Crain's New York Business selected Chris Williams as one of the most powerful minority business leaders in America.
Mr. Williams serves on the board of directors of Caesar's Entertainment, Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, and British American Business. He is also an active board member for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Partnership for New York City, Teachers College at Columbia University, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Mr. Williams is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and the Economic Club of New York and remains a longstanding supporter of the Fresh Air Fund and Partnership with Children.
Chris Williams holds a Master of Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a Bachelor of Architecture from Howard University.
I WAS artistic as a kid. When I was 8 or 10, I would exchange letters with a great-aunt in Tennessee who was also talented in drawing. Each letter I sent included my rendition of a picture or photo from a book or magazine. In her next letter, she'd include a dime for my previous picture, tell me what a great job I had done and include another, more complicated picture for me to draw.
School was out for the summer, so he and I drove around and bid on jobs. We won a few bids and learned how to sand and refinish hardwood floors as we went along. It felt good to look at the results of our work and to know the customer was happy.
The experience taught me that if you're in a difficult situation, you have to make something happen rather than sit back and feel sorry for yourself. When I looked at career opportunities, I decided I wasn't talented enough to pursue art. I knew I could use my artistic skills in the architecture field. I got a B.A. in architecture from Howard University and worked for a small firm for two years.
In the early 1980s, interest rates rose and construction declined in the Northeast. I decided to return to school for an M.B.A at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. I thought I'd focus on real estate finance and development when I graduated. Instead, I went straight to Wall Street. In 1984, I received an offer from what was then Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb, and by the time I started, American Express had bought the company.
At Lehman, I had responsibility for one of the derivatives areas. In 1992, I left the company with two other colleagues to start a division of Jefferies & Company that packaged complex derivative instruments.
My colleagues and I left to start Williams Capital Group in 1994. Then interest rates started to rise and several of these types of vehicles started losing money. I was perilously close to losing the business and told my wife I needed to withdraw money from our personal account for the company. We had two young children, and she gave me a look that said, "I hope you know what you're doing." That October was our first profitable month after the downturn.
At the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis, we had been offering clients a prime money market fund. Customers expect to be able to withdraw their money from this type of fund with a day's notice and receive 100 cents on the dollar. But liquidity was declining at an alarming rate, and we were afraid it would be difficult to sell our investments to satisfy shareholder redemptions if we needed to.
We asked our mutual fund board to let us convert to a government fund that would invest in lower-yielding but safer, more liquid instruments, and it agreed. It was an aggressive step that wasn't popular at the time, but had we not done what we did, our fund may have ceased operations like several others.
Several years ago, my wife and I decided to turn an old farmhouse into our weekend country retreat. With me as the architect, we expected to finish under budget. But a client married to the architect doesn't hesitate to request expensive design changes, even in the middle of construction.
As told to Patricia R. Olsen.
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