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Our Staff
Prior to founding the firm, the partners of Heffernan Financial Services gained their industry experience at some of the largest and most respected financial institutions in the country. As a group, we bring a combined level of experience and expertise matched by few.
Steve Williams
President / Financial Services
Phone: 415-808-1300
Steve Williams is President of Heffernan Financial Services, is a member of the Firm’s Investment Policy Committee, the Corporate Retirement Plan committee and the Estate & Financial Planning committee.
For four generations, Mr. Williams’s family has been in the insurance business. Founded in 1886 by Mr. Williams’s great grandfather, the Peter E. Williams Insurance Agency has been located in San Francisco, California. In 1997, Mr. Williams merged his family’s insurance agency with the Heffernan Group. Mr. Williams’s current responsibilities include President of Heffernan Financial Services (HFS), Heffernan Investment Advisors (HIA), and Heffernan Employee Benefits (HEB). Mr. Williams is a Senior Vice President at Heffernan Insurance Brokers (HIB) and is the branch manager of our San Francisco office. With both a Property & Casualty background and a Financial Services/Employee Benefits consultative approach, Mr. Williams helps to build one of the country’s largest privately owned brokerage firms. He is also actively leading the Hospitality Choice Practice, the Four Star Culinary Safety Program, the Construction Risk Management Group, and several agency owned rent-a-captives. Mr. Williams serves on the Heffernan Group’s Finance and Operating Committees as well as the Council of Employee Benefits Executives (CEBE) and several insurance companies’ advisory boards.
Prior to joining the family business, Mr. Williams worked for one of the country’s largest brokerage firms located in San Diego. Mr. Williams graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and a minor in Finance.
John R. Prichard, Sr.
Sr. Vice President / Retirement Plan Solutions
Phone: 415-808-1317
John Prichard, Sr. is a member of the Firm's Corporate Retirement Plan Committee and the Investment Policy Committee and has direct relationship responsibility for a number of the Firm's clients.
Prior to Heffernan, Mr. Prichard was the founder and owner of his own practice which he merged with Heffernan Financial Services. In his practice, Mr. Prichard advised individual and corporate clients on investment and insurance planning strategies. At Heffernan, Mr. Prichard holds responsibility for corporate retirement plan review and design and development of investment policy statements and 404(c) documentation. Mr. Prichard also provides plan reviews and education initiatives for the Firm's corporate plan sponsors and participants.
Mr. Prichard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of the Pacific.
Blake A. Thibault
Vice President
Phone: 415-808-1359
Blake Thibault serves as a member of the Firm’s Investment Policy Committee, the Corporate Retirement Review Committee and has direct relationship responsibility for a number of the Firm’s clients.
Previous to Heffernan, Mr. Thibault was associated with Morgan Stanley as a Wealth Advisor and Retirement Planning Specialist. At Morgan Stanley, Mr. Thibault advised individuals, corporations and nonprofit organizations. At Heffernan, Mr. Thibault holds responsibility for assisting our corporate clients with plan and vendor evaluations, contract negotiations, implementation initiatives, investment selection and monitoring, comprehensive plan reviews and education strategies for plan sponsor and participants.
In 2007, Mr. Thibault was recognized by Institutional Investor Magazine as one of the top twenty Retirement Plan Advisors Rising Stars. In January of 2008, along with John Prichard, Sr., Mr. Thibault was recognized as one of the top five retirement plan advisor teams of the year nationally by PlanSponsor magazine.
Mr. Thibault holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Administration from San Diego State University and holds a Series 7, Series 66 and Series 31 licenses and is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary.
Andy Ryan
Chief Investment Officer
Phone: 415-808-1365
Andy Ryan serves as the Firm's Chief Investment Officer and is a member of the Investment Policy Committee and the Research Group. He also has direct relationship responsibility for a number of the Firm's clients.
Previous to Heffernan Investment Advisors, Mr. Ryan served as the Chief Financial Officer for Wells Fargo's institutional mutual fund group. At Wells Fargo, Mr. Ryan was involved in developing the firm's proprietary family of mutual funds and other investment strategies. Prior to Wells Fargo, Mr. Ryan was associated with Charles Schwab Investment Management, helping to pioneer the firm's first mutual fund investments. At Heffernan, Mr. Ryan holds lead responsibility for portfolio construction, investment management selection, manager analysis and portfolio monitoring.
Mr. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and an M.B.A. from the Jesuit University of San Francisco. He also is a member of the Investment Committee for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and lives with his wife and four children in Marin County.
Paul Hitchcock
Vice President
Phone: 415-808-1362
Paul Hitchcock is a Vice President at Heffernan Investment Advisors. He serves as a member of the Firm's Investment Policy Committee, the Estate & Financial Planning Committee, and has direct relationship responsibility for a number of the Firm's clients.
Previous to Heffernan Investment Advisors, Mr. Hitchcock was a Founding Partner and First Vice President of The Hitchcock Investment Group at Wachovia Securities. At The Hitchcock Investment Group, Mr. Hitchcock advised individuals, families and nonprofit organizations on investment strategy, portfolio structuring and wealth transfer strategies. From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Hitchcock was associated with Franklin/Templeton Funds in San Mateo, where he worked with his father who served as the Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Franklin/Templeton Trust Company. At Franklin/Templeton, Mr. Hitchcock concentrated on investment management & research, primarily for institutions and non-profit organizations.
Mr. Hitchcock is a member of the Heffernan Group Advisory Board and advises the Heffernan Foundation. He previously served as a member of various non-profit organizations, including the University of San Francisco Board of Governors, St. Patrick's School Finance Committee (Larkspur), the San Francisco Symphony, the Masterworks Chorale, and was President of the University of San Francisco Young Alumni Society.
Mr. Hitchcock graduated from the Jesuit University of San Francisco in 1989 and lives with his wife and four children in Marin County.
Sandy Lowengart
Vice President, Portfolio Manager
Phone: 415-808-1352
Sandy Lowengart is a Vice President, Portfolio Manager at Heffernan Investment Advisors. He serves as a member of the Firm's Investment Policy Committee.
Mr. Lowengart is responsible for comprehensive investment planning and portfolio management for Heffernan clients. Mr. Lowengart has over 18 years of experience in the Investment Management industry including equity and fixed income portfolio management, manager search and selection and financial planning for high net worth individuals and institutions. Prior to Heffernan, he was Founder and Chief Investment Officer of an SEC registered investment advisor which was merged into Heffernan. Mr. Lowengart was a Senior Portfolio Manager at SDR Capital Management in San Francisco where he maintained research coverage of the industrials, conglomerates and energy/services sectors for the firm and was responsible for new idea generation and ongoing fundamental research of the approved buy list. Before joining SDR, Sandy was a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager with Optimum Investment Advisors, a Chicago based money management firm with $2 billion in assets. He covered technology, energy/services, materials and other growth sectors for firm’s Investment Policy Committee and was responsible for analysis of the firm’s multi factor screening model and technical analysis.
Mr. Lowengart received his B.A in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and lives with his wife and two children in Marin County.
John Clark
Retirement Plan Analyst
Phone: 415-808-1370
John Clark serves as a member of the Corporate Retirement Plan Committee, and has direct relationship responsibility for a number of the Firm’s clients.
Mr. Clark has been working in the corporate and non-profit retirement industry since his graduation from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor or Arts in Economics in 2004. He holds responsibility for benchmarking the retirement plans of our corporate clients in the areas of vendor evaluation, investment selection and monitoring, and plan design. He also conducts annual fiduciary reviews and creating educational campaigns for our corporate clients. Prior to Heffernan, Mr. Clark with ING Financial Advisors as a Corporate Retirement Specialist working on the provider side with corporations to design and implement retirement plans. He also hold Series 6 and Series 63 licenses and is pursuing his Series 66.
Nicolle Willson, J.D.
Financial & Estate Planner
Phone: 415-808-1377
Ms. Willson is our in-house Financial & Estate Planner and leads the Firm's Estate & Financial Planning Committee.
Ms. Willson specializes in individual financial & estate planning for individual investors & their families and business owners. Her areas of concentration include estate planning, retirement planning, business succession planning and wealth management. Ms. Willson previously worked at New York Life Insurance Company in the Private Client Group, where she gained significant experience in the aforementioned areas. Prior to this, she also practiced as an attorney, specializing in civil litigation and estate planning matters.
Ms. Willson holds a Juris Doctorate from the UCLA School of Law. She also graduated cum laude from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies.
Marcella Saliba
Assistant Vice President / Financial Services
Phone: 415-808-1301
Ms. Saliba is a member of the Investment Policy Committee and the Operations Team.
Ms. Saliba joined Heffernan Financial Services in 2001. She oversees the daily management of the financial services and administration staff, as well as the operations and marketing initiatives. Mrs. Saliba is a member of Heffernan's Green Team which was created to develop a sustainability plan at the corporate level. The Green Team is focused on measuring, managing, and reducing Heffernan's environmental footprint and educating our partners, vendors and clients on how to reduce green house gases.
Ms. Saliba holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from San Francisco State University.
Lisa Ergut
Senior Account Executive / Retirement Plan Solutions
Phone: 415-808-1316
Lisa oversees all areas of service and management in the Life and Retirement Division for Heffernan Financial Services. She has been instrumental in instituting the internal processes for retirement plan management. Having worked in the industry since 1988, Lisa has developed an overall brokerage firm experience. She joined Heffernan Group in 1991.
Rebecca Tapia
Research Analyst
Phone: 415-808-1369
Rebecca Tapia is a member of the Research Group and also serves on the Operations Team. She is a member of the Firm's Investment Policy Committee.
Ms. Tapia joined the Firm in 2003 as an Operations Assistant and was most recently promoted to an analyst position in the Research Group. She works closely with our Chief Investment Officer, assisting primarily in the due diligence on third-party money managers.
Ms. Tapia received her Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Cal State Hayward and is currently pursuing her Certified Financial Planning credential from the University of California at Berkeley.
Darya Oborina
Research Assistant
Phone: 415-808-1366
Ms. Oborina is a member of the Research Group and also serves on the Estate & Financial Planning Committee.
Ms. Oborina works with the Firm to assist in the research and implementation of our Life, Disability and Long Term Care planning. She also plays a key role in assisting our Investment Advisory Team.
Ms. Oborina holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration with a minor in Finance from the Jesuit University of San Francisco.