The Ramp Up: Credit, Protocol, and the Macro View: Chris Williams on Building Through Market Cycles

On this episode of The Ramp Up, Brian Bejile sits down with Chris Williams, Head of Leveraged Finance Trading at Nuveen, to discuss the career lessons, market cycles, and structural changes that have shaped his perspective on credit.

Chris shares how early roles in structured finance operations helped him understand the mechanics behind CLOs, ABS, trustee reporting, cash reconciliation, and credit documentation. The conversation follows his move to the buy side, the lessons he learned trading through the financial crisis, the role of protocol in over-the-counter markets, and the work involved in helping launch and grow CLO capabilities at TIAA and Nuveen.

Listen to the full episode to hear Chris’s perspective on resilience, mentorship, building businesses inside larger platforms, and how liquidity, electronic trading, cross-asset relative value, and AI are shaping the future of fixed income markets.

About Chris

Chris Williams is Head of Leveraged Finance Trading at Nuveen. Over his career, he has worked across structured finance, leveraged loans, high yield, CLOs, and macro credit trading, with experience spanning Wachovia, Gulfstream Asset Management, TIAA, and Nuveen. Chris has helped build CLO capabilities, manage through market cycles, and connect relative value opportunities across fixed income markets, bringing a focus on credit, protocol, partnership, and innovation to his work