ABOUT
WHO IS PETER?
Peter Williamson founded Sierra Succession Advisors because he’s passionate about helping business owners win the endgame of business.
For the past 15 years, Peter has coached business owners, recruited business coaches and sold franchises. During this time, he discovered that many (most?) business owners really don’t have a plan for what they were going to do with their business much beyond “Oh, I’ll probably sell it someday”, or “I’m going to give it to my kids”. It was understandable – running a business was demanding, the transition always seemed a long way off and most owners had no experience with exiting a business.
On top of that, Peter found that often the business and/or the kids weren’t ready. And in many cases the owner isn’t ready either, because they needed estate plans, tax strategies, insurance policies and retirement planning too.
So, the business owner was faced with multiple issues: Inexperience, an incomplete team, no plan and no time to pull all of these things together. As the saying goes “Without a framework, it’s hard work”. So in 2017, Peter decided to help these owners by putting together a business that focuses solely on exit planning.
Peter happens to enjoy sorting out complex problems like this, and is uniquely suited to do so. In addition to more than 15 years of experience coaching business owners, Peter holds a Certified Exit Planner (CExP™) certification from the Business Enterprise Institute, Inc (BEI) in Denver Colorado. This certification covers all aspects of assembling the appropriate team of advisors (estate planning, tax, financial and more), as well as creating an integrated plan for the business owner and helping them prepare their business for succession. Peter is also a registered ExitMap® advisor and holds a CBVA (Certified Business Valuation Analyst) credential from Business Valuation Institute.
In addition to these qualifications, Peter draws on a background that includes experience at large companies ($4bn), startups and medium sized businesses, with executive roles that included Marketing, Corporate Strategy, Acquisitions and running Operations for a $25m manufacturing company.
Peter holds a BSE in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, and an Masters in Business Administration from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.