In a new episode of Head to Head, Ken Crowley (Private Advisor at Rockefeller Global Family Office) joins Co-Heads of Distribution Kirsten Pickens and Ryan Robertson to discuss what surfing taught him about the importance of preparation, how growing up in Central America shaped his perspective and the value that creating a diverse, multi-generational team brings to his clients.
“ I like to describe our team as really a true representation of America. You’ve got diversity at different levels, not just generationally, but culturally. And these experiences and perspectives really give us a deep understanding of our clients and their needs.” –Ken Crowley
Transcript excerpt:
Kirsten Pickens: Welcome to Head to Head, a podcast by FS Investments, where we get personal with the people of financial services. I’m Kirsten Pickens.
Ryan Robertson: And I’m Ryan Robertson. We are the Co-Heads of Distribution at FS Investments. Today we’re excited to welcome Ken Crowley, Private Wealth Advisor and Managing Director at Rockefeller Capital Management. Ken is a Certified Financial Planner with a focus on customized retirement planning and estate planning strategies.
Kirsten Pickens: In this episode, Ken discusses how growing up in Central America shaped him, what drew him to Rockefeller Capital and the value that creating a diverse multigenerational team brings to his clients. So let’s get started.
Ryan Robertson: All right, Ken, welcome to Head to Head. And thank you so much for taking the time. One of the things that Kirsten and I like to kind of start off all these conversations with is, and we assume that lots of financial advisors and other folks from the industry are listening to this. How did you ultimately get into the business because you have an interesting sort of startup in all of your work? You’ve been 25 years of leading a high performing financial services group, but before that you were the President of a technology company. So how did you go from being in the tech space to becoming a financial advisor?
Ken Crowley: Well, first of all, Ryan, Kirsten, thank you both so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here today. So, my background in technology really started as a technical services company, where I was the President of this international subsidiary. I was responsible for the profit and loss. For me, more so than focusing on technology, the influences were really based on driving new business, taking ownership of these specific businesses from concept to completion, and managing a team. So more so than technology, my experience that really transitioned me into financial services was the ownership and managing this business. So, transferring into financial services, there’s always been these pivotal moments in my career. And I knew that there was something that I was supposed to do, so I took a minute to examine my life and I just reinvented myself and I walked away from career in international business and started at ground zero with Merrill Lynch, and that was in 1999, a very difficult time in the markets.
Thinking back on it, the holistic approach to running this international subsidiary has affected and helped me a great deal. It’s allowed me to look at the business in a wider context, helped with holistic and comprehensive planning, development, service, quality control and really maintaining relationships.
I’ve really tried to drive that into my team here. And we’ve got a dynamic team that really does that. We help with every stage of people’s financial lives.
Kirsten Pickens: So, what was that one thing…here you are running an international technology company, did somebody approach you about Merrill Lynch? How did you get there?
Ken Crowley: It’s tough. I’m kind of a spiritual person and I had this moment and I knew I was supposed to do something else. So I did it and it was a big chance. It was a risk, but I believed in myself and my family certainly believed in me. And then I never looked back.
