Karyn Williams launches investment consultancy Hightree Advisors

01 October 2019 Consulting.us

Investment industry veteran Karyn Williams has launched an institutional investment consultancy – Hightree Advisors – in Los Angeles. Mike Dudkowsi, formerly a senior advisor at Towers Watson Investment services, has also joined the firm as a managing principal and head of the East Coast office.

The institutional consulting business will focus on helping endowments, foundations, pension funds, hospital systems, insurance companies, and family offices maximize the value of their investment dollars. Hightree aims to deliver investment programs with improved risk allocation, governance, and cost management, which are also transparent and easy to implement.

The consultancy does not, however, offer or manage investment products, and is not conflicted by other business services.

Founder Karyn Williams brings 20 years of institutional investment experience to the boutique firm. Williams previously served as head of client solutions at technology-powered hedge fund Two Sigma. Prior to that, she was chief investment officer at Farmers Insurance Group and a managing director at investment management company Wilshire Associates. Williams currently serves as an independent director at TCP Capital, a BlackRock company. She holds a PhD in finance from Arizona State University.

Karyn Williams launches investment consultancy Hightree Advisors

“Given the difficult and rapidly changing environment for investment management today, I believe the time is right to launch a consultancy with an independent view, no conflicts of interest, and a fresh approach using novel measures of value creation,” Williams said. “At Hightree Advisors, we are empowered to share – directly, unfiltered, and unconflicted – how the investment industry actually works and to demonstrate how the investment process can be more efficient and ultimately more effective.”

Based out of Pittsburgh, Mike Dudkowski will head the firm’s East Coast office. Dudkowski previously spent over four years at Towers Watson Investment Services, and before that was Williams’ colleague at Wilshire Associates, where he was also a managing director. Dudkowski also previously held senior roles at Federated Investors and First Union National Bank. He has an MBA in finance from the University of Notre Dame and a BS in finance from Carnegie Mellon University.

“I am extremely excited to join Hightree Advisors to leverage my twenty-five years of experience helping institutional clients create and implement effective investment programs,” Dudkowski said. “As an independent organization, Hightree’s singular focus is on the investment success of our clients. When our clients succeed, we succeed.”