Williams Running FL Investments – Again

January 5, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Florida State Board of Administration (SBA), which oversees the Sunshine State's investments for its pension programs and other purposes, has a new boss with a familiar face.

That’s because Ash Williams is back for his second stint running the Florida investment program, albeit at a time of significant market and general economic turmoil, according to a Tallahassee Democrat news report.

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“2008 is unprecedented in modern financial history,” Williams told the newspaper. “You would have to go back to the window of the late 1920s and early ’30s to see anything like this in the United States.”

Williams’ previous stint at the SBA was from 1991 to 1996. Afterward, he was a managing director at the New York investment firm Fir Tree Partners, responsible for business development and investor relations.

The news account said Williams expects to continue exchanging ideas with his old investment firm colleagues and to benefit from their viewpoints.

“That is a set of opinions that I did not have access to when I was here before,” Williams told the newspaper.”I think, basically, I’m a whole lot more qualified for this job today than I was the first time I had it”

“I have the utmost confidence in Ash Williams’ experienced financial leadership as the new executive director of the SBA. He brings a wealth of financial knowledge and sound business principles,” said Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who, with Governor Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum, serves as trustee of the SBA. “I am confident he will help the state of Florida weather the current global financial storm.”

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