Citywealth Leaders List, 60 seconds interview – William Marshall, HRIS – Hymans Robertson Investment Services

Date: 24 Jun 2025

Karen Jones

This week’s 60-second Citywealth Leaders List interview is dedicated to William Marshall, Chief Investment Officer, HRIS – Hymans Robertson Investment Services.

Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.

As Chief Investment Officer, I head up HRIS’s investment team, so there are lots of different moving parts to my role. That said, I would highlight three areas where I spend most of my time.

There’s the main job of building and managing the model portfolios that we run for our Adviser clients. This requires a fair bit of research – understanding what’s going on in economies, the markets and also with funds.

Secondly, I also work closely with my colleagues in Sales, where we talk through investment communications and deal with queries. Basically we need to ensure advisers have what they need to help their clients with market and performance related conversations.

Finally, I work hand in hand with Operations, to ensure everything’s been implemented on the platforms correctly and is running smoothly.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I do the school drop off then log on to work. I am lucky in that my firm has a great flexible working policy, that makes balancing personal life and work life easier.

Once I’m fully online, I catch up on what’s happening in the world, the financial markets and of course, our portfolios. Although we take long term view with our investment approach, it’s really important to understand any building head or tailwinds, and make sure we can fully support clients in the moment.

I also always check in with my team to see what they’re plans are for the day to understand the progress being made on strategic pieces of work e.g. asset class/ or fund research. 

Tell us about some recent interest or interesting client instructions or requests you’ve received.

We’ve seen a significant increase in market related queries post President Trump’s election – I guess, partly due to the intense press coverage on topics that have a very clear link to the global economy and markets.

For those of us immersed in the world of Investments; there’s always a temptation to get too much into the detail, design some new chart or make comments that we find technically interesting or “clever”.  However, Advisor feedback acts as a useful reminder that a key value “add” is keeping our messaging simple; as retail investors really value timely, well written content that focuses on a small number of key points. 

What is your proudest professional achievement?

Taking my institutional investment background and skills and applying them successfully in my current role within HRIS has been my proudest achievement. 

I started my career working with Hymans Robertson’s institutional clients, spending almost 20 years on that side of the business, working with some of the largest investors in the country.   Now with HRIS – Hymans Robertson Investment Services, I (and my team) have had the opportunity to bring our considerable learnings to the retail adviser market as we provide portfolios built with institutional rigour to the retail market. 

What do you consider to be the most important attributes for a leader?

I think listening is a really important thing for leaders to d, as is accepting the fact that other people in your team may be able to do certain things better than you can, which is what probably made you hire them!

Having a clear vision, and being able to articulate  this vision, is also key as it helps bring people along with you on your journey and gives a sense of unity – this is important because that will filter through to strong investment outcomes.

Who do you most admire and why?

There are a few. A person I worked with early on in my career, called Linda Selman: she was super. Not only was she a good boss for me developmentally in my career, but she was great for my personal development as well.  I’ve been lucky, working in a firm where we bring each other along. I also really admire lots of my colleagues from my current team who are great at supporting and challenging each other to achieve success for our clients and HRIS.

Where was the last place you travelled to?

Netherlands. With my family.  My partner is Dutch, so we spend a lot of time over there with her family, which is great fun.

If you weren’t in this industry, what else might you be doing?

I enjoy food. I like going to the supermarket, exploring ingredients, that kind of thing. So I think I’d be a cook if I weren’t doing what I do now. Or, a farmer; my dad was a farmer, so I may well have picked up the mantle from him.

How do you relax after a long day?

I mostly spend time with family. I have a 7 year old, who’s into to sport and cooking, so that’s a lot of fun doing this with him;  I do also enjoy indulging in tv series – the likes of the US Office and Fraser are good ones for me.

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