William J. Ferguson

William J. Ferguson serves as Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ferguson Partners. Mr. Ferguson conducts leadership mandates, with a specialization in Chief Executive Officer searches and Board recruitment. He also facilitates CEO succession planning assignments and public company Board assessments.

Before founding Ferguson Partners, Mr. Ferguson was a Managing Director with one of the leading international executive recruiting consultants. There, he co-managed the firm’s national real estate practice. Prior to focusing on real estate, Mr. Ferguson worked for General Mills, Inc. in Minneapolis in strategic marketing. Mr. Ferguson holds a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA in marketing from the Wharton Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Ferguson also serves as Executive-in-Residence for New York University’s C. H. Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance and as fellow for The University of Virginia’s Center Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, specializing in governance and leadership research. Recently, Mr. Ferguson was named to the PERE 100 Most Influential Leaders list and received NAREIT’S Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his longstanding contributions to the REIT industry. In 2022, Mr. Ferguson launched the Ferguson Centers for Leadership Excellence (CLE) Foundation.