Matt Williamson
Board Member, CEO
Mr. Williamson is a Board Member and CEO. He is part of a team whose senior members have co-led over $4.0 Billion in acquisitions, have a combined 80 years of CEO, Chairman, and C-level experience, are recognized and respected leaders in their fields, and are industry veterans and executives across a variety of relevant sectors.
Founders Trust’s purpose is to provide owners with a successful exit for their company, an exit with a buyer whose goal maintain the culture and stability of the organization in the long term, without a focus on layoffs or short term gains. Founders Trust works both with owners who want to continue working in their company, and owners who want to retire.
This is a significant solution and paradigm change, in a broken industry where 95% of companies listed for sale with intermediaries, never sell. The solution to the current broken model is the Founders Trust model.
In life, founders are part of the less than 1% of entrepreneurs who succeed and build a company with over $5 million in revenue. Usually they build companies from nothing, bootstrap the company, are highly focused and successful, and achieve success through tremendous sacrifice and focus. These extraordinary individuals then meet with the terrible final bottleneck, where most fail, at the end of their career. Or when they are ready to exit, but want to stay on leading the Company. We believe that they should also be succeeding in their transition and their exit.
With Founders Trust and its very different paradigm, founders are able to succeed in their succession.
Mr. Williamson is an experienced veteran investment banker, private equity, and capital markets expert, and was an integral member of teams in charge of hundreds of millions in investments for insurance companies, institutional investors, and private family offices. He also led his banking team in the sourcing and completion of IPOs on major international markets.
Mr. Williamson holds a Masters Degree in Mathematics of Finance from Columbia University, New York, where he was awarded two scholarships, and a B.A. in Urban & Regional Development.
Mr. Williamson is a frequent speaker and moderator at private equity and family office conferences.
He is married to the love of his life and together they have three children.
Their home has no televisions whatsoever. A hearth and conversations have replaced the screen. You will not see them at restaurants, bars, parties or events. Their hobbies include thinking and working, teaching their children critical thinking and business, or archery, shooting practice, and evenings together, reading classics, discussing work and involving their children in discussions about family, work, and purpose.
Mr. Williamson is the author of a forthcoming book on successful exits, and the important transition from family business to Family Office.