Ruediger "Rudy" Adolf is an Austrian-born American business executive. He is the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of

Focus Financial Partners Focus Financial Partners Inc. is an American company that invests in independent, fiduciary wealth management firms, being listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FOCS. Headquartered in New York City, it was incorporated in 2004 by Ruediger ...

. In July 2018, Adolf took Focus Financial public, offering over 16 million shares of the firm's Class A common stock. The IPO gathered a total of $615.4 million in gross proceeds. The stock increased 14% on its first day of trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market.

Early life

Adolf was born in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

, Austria. Adolf's interest in financial services began at an early age, thanks to exposure to his father's work as the owner of a local accounting firm. Adolf graduated from the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

, Austria with a Doctor and Magister of Jurisprudence degree.

Business background

Adolf began his career at his family's CPA firm. In 1987, he relocated to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany to work for the global consulting firm

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...

. In 1990, he moved to the United States, where he was named partner at McKinsey. In 1998, Adolf joined

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

as the SVP Strategy and Business Development, reporting to CEO

Harvey Golub Harvey Golub (born April 16, 1939) is an American businessman. Biography Born to a Jewish family, Golub attended Cornell University and received a Bachelor of Science from the New York University. He worked as a senior partner with McKinsey & C ...

. Adolf was then appointed SVP and general manager of the American Express Global Brokerage and Banking division.

Focus Financial Partners

In 2004, Adolf incorporated

with his former colleagues from American Express, Rajini Kodialam and Lenny Chang. Focus Financial's stated goal was to support independent RIA firms. Following an investment in July 2017 by private equity firms Stone Point Capital and KKR, Focus was valued at over $2 billion. Focus’ IPO in July 2018 valued the firm at an enterprise value of $3.5 billion. As of August 2018, Focus has partnered with approximately 60 wealth management firms in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the U.K. Adolf has been featured on several lists of influential people in the industry. In 2017, Adolf was named to the list of Icons & Innovators by InvestmentNews, honoring visionaries who have shaped and transformed the financial advice profession. In 2006 during Focus’ inception, ''Wealth Management'' magazine named him one of its annual "Ten to Watch." He was also named to ''Investment Advisor'' magazine's fifth annual IA 25 in 2007 He has been featured in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'',

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

, ''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'', and a 2014

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

Case Study.

Fintech Investment

Under Adolf's guidance, in June 2018, Focus invested in New York-based FinTech company SmartAsset's series C funding totaling $28 million, along with Javelin Venture Partners, TTV Capital, IA Capital and Citi Ventures among others. Adolf stated that he sees “a scalable approach to digital client acquisition” as “an important lever for the wealth management industry.”

Personal life

Adolf resides in

West Palm Beach West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

with his wife and their three children, Isabel, Marcus, and Conrad.

References

External links

Focus Financial Partners
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adolf, Rudy Living people Austrian emigrants to the United States American financial company founders University of Innsbruck alumni Businesspeople from Innsbruck Year of birth missing (living people)