Investment Banking Director - Fund Placement

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Job Description

The William Blair Fund Placement team advises private market managers throughout the capital raising process. The Fund Placement team is looking for a Director to help lead transaction execution and the delivery of fundraising services to clients. The individual will perform fundraising advisory services and complete due diligence work for active mandates. As part of the role, the candidate will work closely with the project management and distribution teams to complete projects, gather necessary information, convey relevant investor updates and present findings to clients. Providing training and mentorship to less experienced staff will also be important.

Responsibilities may include but are not limited to:

• Build and maintain relationships with client senior executives. Consistently exceed client expectations. Assume role of day‑to‑day client contact for questions, comments, and deal‑related matters.
• Provide advice to clients on fundraising strategy, structuring, timing, investors and legal terms. Utilize creative approaches to analyses that illustrate key fundraising concepts/messages.
• Lead fundraising processes from start to finish with limited guidance from senior leadership.
• Demonstrate thorough knowledge of the various private market strategies. Assimilate information to perform insightful analyses.
• Anticipate potential deal issues and pass concerns through to team members in real time.
• Actively participate in development of all materials related to the fundraising process. Respond to prospective investor due diligence questions.
• Demonstrate an understanding of broader fundraising markets and potential implications to each client process.
• Lead the development of marketing materials that highlight the competitive advantages of William Blair Private Capital Advisory.
• Actively participate in client meetings and internal discussions as well as recruiting and training activities.
• Identify improvements to processes and propose solutions to help the team complete tasks more efficiently.
• Take ownership of client relationships. Anticipate needs and challenges and provide seamless solutions.
• Act as “on the job” trainer for other team members, providing constructive feedback. Focus on improving the quality of vice president, associate, analyst and summer intern work product. Ensure senior team knows the valuable contributions of all team members.
• Ensure all activities are in compliance with applicable rules, regulations, policies and procedures.
• Additional responsibilities as requested.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree required
• Prior fundraising, investor relations or private placement experience required; 7+ years strongly preferred
• Prior investment banking experience preferred
• SIE Exam, Series 63, and Series 7 must be acquired within 150 days of employment
• Excellent mathematical, writing, verbal and computer skills
• Detail oriented with deep analytical abilities
• Critical thinking with problem‑solving skills
• Ability to adapt to new tasks with little notice
• Ability to manage expectations of senior bankers while working on multiple projects simultaneously
• Effective leadership and coaching skills
• Strong desire to win
• Sound judgement
• Deep, sophisticated understanding of private markets and the fundraising process preferred
• Commitment to satisfying internal and external customers
• Travel required: approximately 20%

Salary Range

$300,000 — $300,000 USD

William Blair is an equal opportunity employer. It complies with all laws and regulations that prohibit discrimination in employment practice because of race, color, religion, creed, ancestry, marital status, gender, age, national origin, sexual orientation, unfavorable discharge from the military service or on the basis of a physical or mental disability that is unrelated to the employee's ability to perform the duties of the job applied for. EOE m/f/d/v

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