Wally Fikri

About Wally

Wally Fikri, CFA, CPA, is a partner at William Blair Investment Management. He works with plan sponsors and investment consultants in the United States and brings asset allocation and risk expertise to bear in understanding their needs and structure. He has served on William Blair’s benefits committee and chaired the investment committee overseeing the defined-contribution and defined-benefit plans.

Before joining William Blair in 2004, Wally was a partner with Brinson Partners (now UBS Global Asset Management) for nearly 12 years. He managed asset-allocation portfolios, which included actively managed bottom-up strategies across global equities, bonds, and alternative investments. He also worked closely with plan sponsors and consultants and served on the firm’s charitable giving committee. Wally began his career in the financial services practice at KPMG Peat Marwick in 1991.

Wally is a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society Chicago, where he was past board member and is currently serving on the board nominating committee. He is a member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), a nonprofit association dedicated to enhancing the retirement security of America’s workers. He is a past member of the advisory group for Institutional Investor’s public funds roundtable as well as a regular volunteer and participant of the National Council of Teacher Retirement Systems (NCTR). He is a past officer and current member of the affiliate committee of the State Association of Country Retirement Systems (SACRS), a nonprofit organization serving the twenty 1937 Act counties in California and their retirees. He is also a member of the governing board of the Civic Leadership Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable organization working with middle-school children across a number of Chicago Public Schools.

Wally earned the right to use the CFA charterholder designation in 1995 and successfully completed all levels of the CPA in 1991 (CPA is inactive). He currently holds his FINRA series 24, 7, and 63 securities licenses. Wally received a B.S. in accountancy from Northern Illinois University and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.