Keith Williams graduated from Middlebury College cum laude in 2007 with a B.A. in Economics and Computer Science.
Keith worked at Goldman Sachs until 2012, helping the firm navigate the turmoil in the structured credit derivatives market, and managing projects that significantly improved operational efficiency and increased transparency in the wake of the Dodd-Frank reforms.
It was during his time in finance that Keith realized he had a talent for explaining complicated concepts in simple terms. He gave presentations and wrote white papers that helped his colleagues and clients understand the byzantine processes surrounding certain industry events, and even traveled to London for several weeks to manage a particularly confusing case.
Feeling unsatisfied with a career in finance, Keith decided to explore his diverse interests, including as a research assistant at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where he helped run studies on mood disorders and autism, and as the U.S. Program Director for The Global Family Initiative’s Betasab project, a nonprofit forming families from neglected women and children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Alongside these challenging roles, he tried his hand at journalism, soon securing a weekly column in The New York Times.
Across those disparate fields, a unifying theme emerged: Keith’s ability to take complex topics and distill them into something that anyone can understand. It was in that vein that he launched Petrichor Strategies in 2019.
Keith has always loved game shows. He has been on two so far: he won the Jeopardy! College Championship in 2003, and he nearly reached the pinnacle of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2018, missing the $250,000 question. (He still left with $50,000, so it wasn’t all bad!)
Keith lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. When he’s not helping his clients reach their potential, you might find him running in Prospect Park or at a pinball machine.