Bill Woodson

William I. Woodson (Bill) has spent his career advising wealthy families, closely-held business owners, and family offices across a wide range of wealth management disciplines, including investment management, taxation, estate planning, philanthropy, wealth education, and family office best practices. Bill is a frequent author on wealthy families' issues and is quoted extensively in financial publications. Bill is the Chair of the Advisory Board for the Stanford University Global Family Office Initiative and a co-founder of the UHNW Institute, an independent non-profit that provides thought leadership and content helpful to families, family offices, and professionals. He is also the co-author of The Family Office: A Comprehensive Guide for Advisers, Practitioners, and Students, published by Columbia University Press.

Bill is currently the Managing Director and Co-Head at Cynosure Wealth Advisors. He was previously Head of Strategic Wealth Advisory and Family Enterprise Services for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Bill joined SVB from Citigroup, where he was a Managing Director and Head of the Family Office Group for Citi Private Bank. Before joining Citi, Bill was a Managing Director and Head of the UHNW and Family Office business for Credit Suisse.

Bill began his career in Big Four public accounting, where he spent a decade providing tax and related planning advice to wealthy executives, families, and closely-held business owners. He left public accounting to run the family office for one of his larger clients, a Hong Kong-based family with 40 employees and operations in Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Vancouver. Bill was a founding member of myCFO, an integrated wealth management, and technology firm started by several well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Shortly before the sale of myCFO to Harris Bank, Bill joined Merrill Lynch's Private Banking and Investment Group and oversaw an integrated investment advisory practice for UHNW families and family offices ranging in net worth from $25 million to $2 billion.

Bill has a master's degree in accounting from New York University's Stern Graduate School of Business and a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Irvine. He previously held designations as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Investment Management Analysts (CIMA). Bill was also a founding member and past President of First Graduate, a non-profit that helps students become the first in their families to graduate from college.