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Investment Banker·Smart Water

William (Bill) Watkins

Group Head; Managing Director at Harris Williams

Richmond, VA

W(
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Why they matter

Leading middle-market M&A banker at the firm most active in water/wastewater services sector — essential coverage for any Smart Water investment thesis at mid-market scale.

Background

Group Head and Managing Director at Harris Williams, a leading middle-market M&A advisory firm. Active in the firm's Water & Wastewater coverage, which Harris Williams publishes a recurring sector report on. Prior to Harris Williams, Managing Director at National City Capital Markets Investment Banking; earlier M&A advisory at Piper Jaffray; leveraged finance and capital raising at Heller Financial and Bank of America. MBA from University of Chicago Booth (concentrations in Finance and Operations Management); BS in Business from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Notable deals

  • 2025
    Harris Williams maintains active Water & Wastewater coverage, including quarterly sector outlook reports.
  • 2024
    Continues to lead Harris Williams' middle-market M&A coverage including water/wastewater services transactions.

Call-prep brief

Background

Bill is a long-tenured Harris Williams MD with the firm's family-and-founder-owned business coverage as his primary lane. Harris Williams' Water & Wastewater Quarterly is the most-read mid-market sector report in the space, and Bill is the senior banker most associated with that coverage.

What he cares about

  • Family/founder-owned water and infrastructure services businesses entering processes.
  • Middle-market valuations (sub-$500M EV) in water services.
  • PE roll-up theses in fragmented water / wastewater / industrial services markets.

Sensitivities

  • Middle-market banker; expect the conversation to focus on processes with EV under $500M.
  • Won't share confidential mandate details.

Questions to ask

  1. Which water-services sub-segments (treatment, distribution services, leak-detection) are seeing the most active deal flow at middle-market scale?
  2. How are valuations holding up in water/wastewater vs. broader industrial services?
  3. Which financial sponsors are most consistently in final rounds for water-services platforms?

Outreach draft

Subject
Mid-market water-services coverage - [Firm] intro
Mr. Watkins, I lead infrastructure investing at [Firm]. Harris Williams' middle-market water/wastewater coverage is the most informed sector read at our deal-size range, and we'd like to introduce [Firm] as an active buy-side relationship. Would you have 20 minutes for an intro conversation in the next month? Best regards, [Your name] [Your firm]

Linked companies

Sources