Ford von Weise joins White Bridge Capital
A month into his new role and it is safe to say Ford von Weise has enjoyed settling in at White Bridge Capital.
Joining the private investment and advisory firm as its first head of Aircraft Advisory & Finance, von Weise brings with him over three decades of business aviation finance experience, including just shy of 20 years at Citi Private Bank.
“After 19 years at a big bank you begin to become immune to the big bank craziness and the frustrating inability to do a lot of the stuff you want to do because of regulatory issues or internal issues,” von Weise tells CJI. “You begin to think that’s normal.”
His new role is “completely different”, greater flexibility means a better standard of service can be offered to clients, he says. Adding that this is why the industry is experiencing a wider growth trend towards clients using single and multi-family offices, as opposed to private banks.
“They’re exploding in popularity because the private banks simply cannot serve their client base that well. So, as a result we’ve seen the increase in multi-family offices. We can much better suit the needs of the family offices and the registered investment advisers, but more importantly, more completely than we could when we were working within a big bank.”
After four weeks in the new role von Weise says the highlight has been the reaction from clients to White Bridge’s concept of operations. “The one comment we kept hearing was: ‘What you guys are offering is truly an added value to our clients. You’re not trying to sell us what everybody else is trying to sell us.’”
So what is the difference? White Bridge Capital is focused on liability management. This may sound like loans, but von Weise says it is much more “holistic” and “comprehensive”.
Typically, when an investment adviser or family office is working with the client, they’re primarily focused on investment performance — the asset side. The liability side — loans and other attendant issues — tend to get overlooked.
“Most importantly these liabilities are not being looked at holistically. What kind of loans, make most sense to the client? Also, after the loan is booked, who is going to manage that loan? Who’s going to make sure the covenants are in compliance and look after reporting of those covenants? Who is going to keep an eye out for refinancing opportunities?
“That is where we see the greatest appreciation from the family offices. They can push all of the liability side of the client’s balance sheet onto us,” says von Weise.
The other piece of great feedback from clients centres around compensation. Usually somebody in White Bridge’s shoes would take a fee for closing the loan and then move on to the next deal. Instead, the company also takes a liabilities under management fee, like an assets under management fee, of a few basis points per month of the loan outstanding.
“That’s our main area of compensation. We’re not looking to get a big fat fee, close the door and run out. What we’re looking for is to put as many loans under management and have a staff that looks after them. That’s how we’re going to make our money, by actually managing the loans, in addition to closing them,” he says.
This is just the beginning of the road, according to von Weise, but his gut instinct is that the concept will be successful. White Bridge has plans to expand beyond finding and managing debt to begin advising in other asset classes, such as art and private equity.
In a statement on social media, Tommy Campbell, co-founder and managing partner at White Bridge, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Ford von Weise as the new head of Aircraft Advisory & Finance at White Bridge Capital! A 2,500-hour pilot and aviation expert, Ford has a proven track record of delivering tailored aviation solutions to ultra-high-net-worth clients worldwide.
“Whether it’s advising on aircraft acquisition, conducting market analyses or optimising financing strategies, Ford is here to elevate our services to new heights.”
