Spencer Stuart CEO and leadership

Ben Williams is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of Spencer Stuart. Previously, Ben led the firm’s North American business, and prior to that served as the leader of Spencer Stuart's North American Financial Services Practice. In addition to his leadership responsibilities, Ben regularly advises clients on a variety of board and executive leadership recruiting, succession and culture related matters.

Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Ben spent 25 years in the financial services industry, most recently serving as President of the Investment Banking and Capital Markets Broker-Dealer of Wachovia, the nation’s 4th largest banking institution at the time.

As Head of Wachovia’s Global Markets and Investment Banking division, Ben led the company's fixed income and equity sales, trading, and research activities, as well as investment banking, capital markets, corporate banking and commercial real estate.

Ben was responsible for a $200 billion balance sheet, more than 5,000 employees worldwide, and was directly involved in the recruiting, hiring and on-boarding of many of the company's senior leaders. Ben also served as a member of Wachovia's corporate operating committee, asset liability committee, corporate diversity committee, and as a management representative to the risk committee of Wachovia's Board of Directors.

David Baruch is the chief information officer for Spencer Stuart and a member of the management team. He is responsible for developing and leading the firm’s overall technology vision and roadmap, including setting IT strategy as well as the design, development and maintenance of all business technology systems and market-facing tools and services.

Dave Rasmussen has been the general counsel and global tax director at Spencer Stuart for 19 years. He has built a commercially relevant team with strong connections to the Spencer Stuart business, providing not only legal advice but also assistance in negotiation and development in a client-facing context. Dave advises and provides risk assessment on all tax and legal matters that arise in the global marketplace, including corporate governance, employment, client agreements, data privacy, litigation, securities law, mergers and acquisitions, and local and international compliance.