Profile

Dave Wride began his career at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in 2004. Returning to Merrill in 2020, Dave brings over 20 years financial services experience working with America’s most successful attorneys, business owners, corporate executives, management consultants, PEVC investors, oil & gas executives, medical professionals, educators, community leaders, nonprofits and foundations.

Dave works closely with individuals and families who have attained extraordinary career and financial success, helping them grow, preserve, steward and transfer their wealth effectively. With each client, Dave looks to build a lasting relationship that is squarely focused on achieving outcomes that are personally meaningful to them.

Diligent, strategic and results-oriented, Dave enjoys the individual process of uncovering client needs and priorities, defining financial goals and building customized financial strategies to help achieve them, while harnessing the capabilities of his team and the firm's platform to help execute and deliver results.

DILIGENCE

“Where are you trying to go? Where are you now?”

Dave listens to his clients with the trust, credibility, due diligence and professionalism of a former venture capital attorney. In 1999, Dave was 1 of only 15 law students hired nationwide to join the Silicon Valley office of America's premier boutique venture capital law firm. During the peak of the Internet Boom, Dave structured IPOs, M&A, venture financings and executive compensation for over 40 of the top PEVC firms in the world. As the associate attorney on deals ranging in size between $10-25 million to over $1 billion, Dave was entrusted with completing all due diligence tasks, including quantitative forensic analysis of financials, qualitative risk assessments and issue identification, conducting 1:1 interviews with key stakeholders and sourcing specialists as needed.

At Merrill, Dave feels his acumen for due diligence is a key differentiator that comes into play during the Discovery phase of the wealth management process. Building trust and rapport, asking the right questions, listening, investigating and following up with diligence and professionalism, Dave helps clients articulate where they are trying to go with their financial lives, and in relationship to their goals, where they are now with their current financial situation. 
 
 STRATEGY

“How do you get there?”

Dave helps solve for client goals and builds customized financial strategies with the strategic planning acumen of a former boardroom executive. Over the past 20 years, Dave has built hundreds of business plans, financial models and strategy decks for presentation to management teams, corporate boards, investment committees, advisory boards and individual investors. In the venture context, in 2006, Dave wrote a business plan that produced a multi-million dollar capital commitment from Goldman Sachs Special Situations Group to fund his seed stage specialty finance company. In the corporate context, in 2009, after a presentation to a boardroom of executives, Dave was selected to lead a Top 5 growth initiative for a Fortune 500 company.

At Merrill, Dave feels his acumen for strategic planning is a key differentiator that comes into play during the Recommendations phase of the wealth management process.

RESULTS-ORIENTED

"Plan the work. Work the plan."

Dave harnesses the capabilities of the Merrill enterprise with the resourcefulness and execution of a former start-up entrepreneur. In 1999, Dave co-founded his first company, a b2b internet company, partnering with classmates from law school, the largest law firm in Chicago and a world renown PEVC professional recognized by many as "The Father of Private Equity." In 2000, Dave co-founded his second company, an internet access provider featured on the cover and in the table of contents of The Red Herring Magazine, one of the leading technology publications of the Dotcom era. Over the past 20 years, Dave has co-founded numerous other start-ups raising large amounts of capital from PEVC investors. In most of these ventures, there was no business when Dave got involved, but rather, just an inventor or a technologist with an idea shared in conversation over coffee. With each of these companies, Dave rolled up his sleeves to pull together resources and deliver results for his business partners.

At Merrill, Dave feels that his entrepreneurial passion for delivering results is a key differentiator that comes into play during the Execution phase of the wealth management process.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND

Dave is also a former sports agent, practice team punter for Notre Dame and team organist for televised hockey and baseball games. He wrote his law school thesis under the weekly supervision and tutelage of a professor who later became President of the United States.

Dave is a Chicago native and currently lives in Houston with his 7-year-old son (David Jr.) and 5-year-old daughter (Ellie). A super-active Dad and community volunteer, Dave has served scores of families in the Houston area as the Head Coach of baseball teams and soccer teams for leagues based in West University, Bellaire and Sugar Land. In his free time, Dave enjoys playing music on the piano, board games with his children, televised sports and a range of outdoor activities, including cycling, swimming, endurance fitness events, hiking and tennis.

*David does not provide tax or legal advice in his current role with Merrill.