Adams Street Appoints Jim Walker Global Head of Wealth 

Adams Street Partners, a private markets investment firm, has named COO and partner Jim Walker as global head of wealth, as it expands its distribution to advisors and wealth managers. 

Walker, who has been with the firm for about seven years, will now concentrate on building and scaling products and services specifically for financial advisors and their clients. Prior to joining Adams Street, Walker held senior leadership positions at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch. His former COO responsibilities will be divided between his new position and Michael Kurlander. 

“There is significant demand from advisors and their clients for quality private markets investments. Adams Street can provide access, institutional quality origination, and portfolio construction in ways that are accessible to private wealth clients,” Walker said. 

The alternative asset manager also launched a new website, pws.adamsstreetpartners.com, to provide insights, news, and tools to the private wealth industry. 

This year’s acquisitions, collaborations, and platform launches have been driven mostly by high-net-worth individuals’ increased appetite for alternative investments. Bain Capital recently announced the acquisition of Envestnet, a wealth management technology and services provider, for around $4.5 billion.  

In addition, BlackRock established a strategic partnership with GeoWealth, while Advent International and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) paid around $3 billion for a minority investment in Ken Fisher’s wealth management firm, Fisher Investments. 

Adams Street Partners now manages $59 billion in assets across private equity, venture capital, secondary markets, private credit, buyouts, and venture co-investment.