Inside a Modern Multi-Family Office: A Conversation with William Davies of Ptarmigan Capital
Episode 1: William Davies, Founder & CEO, Ptarmigan Capital
Episode 1 of the AYU Family Office Podcast
For the inaugural episode of the AYU Family Office Podcast, Gus Morison sat down with William Davies, Founder and CEO of Ptarmigan Capital an owner-managed multi-family office based in the West End of London. William's career path from the British Army to JPMorgan, Credit Suisse and beyond gives him a distinctive perspective on private wealth management, client relationships, and what it really takes to build a firm that puts clients first.
What Is Ptarmigan Capital?
Founded in 2023, Ptarmigan Capital is an FCA-regulated, owner-managed multi-family office providing bespoke discretionary investment management and family office services. The firm deliberately limits each portfolio manager to a maximum of 20 clients a structural decision that prioritises depth of relationship over scale.
The firm manages the Ptarmigan Global Equity Fund, a concentrated portfolio of 25 to 30 highest-conviction global equity investments, and offers the ancillary services more typically associated with a single family office: tailored reporting, trustee coordination, and strategic advice across a client's entire financial life.
From the Army to Asset Management
William's route into finance is far from conventional. Before entering financial services, he served as an officer in the Light Dragoons, completing two operational tours of Afghanistan. That experience commanding teams under pressure, making high stakes decisions with limited information, and leading through uncertainty shaped the way he approaches client relationships and long term thinking.
After leaving the Army, William joined JPMorgan, then moved through Credit Suisse and HBS London before co-founding Ptarmigan Capital in 2023 alongside Douglas Barnett and Charles Jones, who both came from Waverton Investment Management.
Why Owner-Managed Matter
One of the most distinctive aspects of Ptarmigan Capital is that clients can build an economic stake in the business itself an alignment of interests that is rare in the wealth management industry. William explains that this structure exists because the founding team wanted to create a firm they would want to be clients of: one where the people managing your money have real skin in the game, not just professional incentives tied to assets under management.
For family offices and high-net-worth individuals who have seen the conflicts embedded in larger institutional models, this structure is directly relevant.
What Clients of a Multi-Family Office Are Actually Looking For
William's experience across JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, and Ptarmigan gives him a clear view of what drives wealthy individuals and families to seek out a multi-family office rather than staying with a private bank or building their own single family office.
The threshold is nuanced. A multi-family office makes sense for families with significant complexity multiple asset classes, trust structures, cross-border considerations who want institutional grade capability without the overhead of a fully staffed in-house operation. The quality of the relationship, the breadth of support, and the independence of the advice are consistently what clients value most.
Building a New Firm in a Crowded Market
Launching a new multi-family office into the London market in 2023 was a deliberate act. William and his co-founders saw a gap between the large private banks where client service is industrialised and the truly bespoke single family office model, which most families cannot justify economically. Ptarmigan is positioned in that space: owner-managed, genuinely relationship-driven, and built around a service model that doesn't require massive scale to be economically viable.
Listen to the Full Episode
Episode 1 of the AYU Family Office Podcast is available now on Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
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