Congratulations Tina Byles Williams, CEO, CIO & Founder of Xponance
Inclusive Leader Award Winner for Banking & Finance
Tina Byles Williams is Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Founder of Xponance, a $15 billion multi-strategy investment company and one of the largest diverse and woman-owned investment firms in the United States. She founded FIS Group, the predecessor firm to Xponance, 25 years ago and has over 36 years of investment experience. Tina is the firm’s Chief Investment Officer and Lead Portfolio Manager for the firm’s active global equity strategies. As Chief Investment Officer, she chairs the firm’s Investment Committee and oversees all firm investment platforms. As lead portfolio manager for the firm’s active global equity multi-manager strategies, she oversees all investment strategy, manager search and disposition decisions. Tina completed her undergraduate work at New York University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and earned her Master’s degree in Public Policy with an emphasis in Finance from Harvard University.
Tina founded Xponance 25 years ago at a time when the asset management industry was unlikely to take a chance on an emerging, diverse female manager. She remembers early in her career as a plan sponsor Chief Investment Officer, she was often one of just a few women in the room, and almost certainly the only Black person in the room. However, she made the investment in herself and funded the launch of Xponance through an SBIC loan secured by the equity in her house. Failure truly wasn’t an option because it would’ve meant both unemployment and the loss of her home. Consistent from inception has been the firm’s operating mission: “Serve clients as a trusted solutions partner by sourcing investment excellence from diverse, entrepreneurial professionals and firms.”
Over the past 25 years, Tina has grown Xponance into an over $15 billion multi-strategy traditional and alternative manager, counting some of the largest US public & corporate pension funds as clients.
Almost 70% of Xponance’s employees are women and/or diverse. Furthermore, since its inception, Xponance’s multi-manager platform has funded almost 200 investment strategies; 60% of which were offered by women or diverse entrepreneurs. As part of its strategy to provide strategic engagement for investment management entrepreneurs, Xponance launched the Xponance® Ecosystem in 2012, which connects emerging managers with sources of working capital via its angel investor network. The Ecosystem also provides managers with discounted access to critical products and services including OMS software, outsourced compliance providers and legal firms.
In addition to supporting diverse professionals from an investment perspective, Tina has made her mark on the industry through regular commentary on DEI issues. As one of the largest and longest-lived Black woman-owned and led firms, she believes that one of the responsibilities of this great privilege is to use her voice to encourage greater inclusiveness in the investment industry.
In a year challenged by pandemic limitations and safety protocols, Tina and her leadership team seamlessly prioritized more frequent client & staff virtual check-ins, always putting the well-being of clients and employees first. One notable example of Tina’s forward-thinking is the implementation of a childcare assistance program early in the pandemic for employees of Xponance with young children to provide resources for them to cope with their new reality of working from home whilst schooling or babysitting their children. Tina has mentored countless investment professionals and is considered a go to source for advice for diverse and women investment management entrepreneurs.
In an article shared on the Xponance website, Tina said the following regarding her own experiences and learning that hopefully others might benefit from:
"My parents, and my father in particular, really drilled into me that the best investment you can make is in yourself. That’s something I’ve carried with me through my entire life. Confidence is important but I will also say that confidence without determination and purpose can quickly traverse into fantasy. Pairing these qualities together is therefore critically important.
Build and nurture relationships in addition to honing your investment skills. Asset management, like so many industries, is a relationship business. People have to recommend you to clients and in order to do that they need to know who you are, so building and maintaining your network is key.
The social nature of the hiring process was a hard lesson to learn for me as a natural introvert and something I wish I’d figured out sooner. I assumed that if I worked hard and kept my head down, the world would see me. And that’s not necessarily how it always works. Working hard AND actively growing your network and connecting with experienced professionals is a better combination. That will allow you to be seen.
Related to that, as you build your network, build it in every direction possible. This way you can maximize your impact, as well as your social capital, because opportunities can come from all and unforeseen directions."
Meet Tina at the Inclusive Leader Award dinner June 22nd.
