William S. Best

Over four decades in senior operating and board roles across banking and financial services, wealth and investment management, real estate, professional services, consulting, fintech, retail and mining — in organisations ranging from small family offices to large listed corporations. The common thread is hands-on accountability: M&A, debt and equity financings, operations, finance and accounting, cash and asset management, technology and systems integration, human resources, and strategy that had to be executed rather than presented.

The fascination with business started at Coopers & Lybrand, auditing banking and retail clients and seeing how differently well-run and badly-run companies behave from the inside. A qualified chartered accountant by training, the career since has been operational: chief executive of one of Canada's premier wealth management firms; chief operating officer and board member of one of Canada's largest independent financial advisory firms through its consolidation of the independent channel; chief operating officer of one of Canada's largest international business law firms; and partner, chief operating and chief financial officer of a US wealth and investment management business taken from $675M to $4.25B in assets.

Advisory work grew out of the board seats. Directors kept asking the same questions in the room and different ones in the corridor, and chief executives kept needing somewhere to think out loud that was not their board, their investors or their team. Garrett Lane Advisors exists to be that place — with the bias toward problems identified plainly, strategies built around people and process, and quality systems put in place so the fix outlasts the engagement.

Outside the work: family, travel, and endurance sport. Seven full Ironman races, eleven half Ironmans, six marathons, a finish at the 2013 Ironman World Championship, and an Ironman coaching certification — which turns out to be reasonable preparation for advising people on things that take years and hurt in the middle.