Christopher Brathwaite
Partner, Director of Pre-Liquidity Planning
About Chris
Chris Brathwaite has over 25 years of experience advising families with significant wealth. As the Director of the Pre-Liquidity Planning team at William Blair, he leads the effort to provide planning expertise to founders and business owners who are approaching a liquidity event. The team focuses on providing guidance in the areas of wealth transfer planning, philanthropic techniques, and overall tax efficiency.
Previously, Mr. Brathwaite worked at UBS as the director of consulting for high-net-worth clients in the Midwest. Earlier in his career, he was a vice president in the Wealth Advisory Services group of Piper Jaffray where he provided financial planning and portfolio construction guidance to individual clients and investment consulting services to foundations and endowments. He joined William Blair in 2010.
Mr. Brathwaite is a member of the Chicago Estate Planning Council and holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designation. He is on the Advisory board of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and also serves on the Planned Giving Advisory Council of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
About William Blair
William Blair is a premier global partnership with expertise in investment banking, investment management, and private wealth management. We provide advisory services, strategies, and solutions to meet our clients’ evolving needs. As an independent and employee-owned firm, together with our strategic partners, we operate in more than 20 offices worldwide.*
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1935Year William Blair was founded
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1,900+Employees worldwide
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139 billion+Client assets
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90 YearsIndependent and employee-owned
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20+Offices worldwide
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~650Companies under coverage
As of March 31, 2025
*Includes strategic partnerships with Allier Capital, BDA Partners, and Poalim Capital Markets.