Wil Priester

Wil Priester joined Arabella in August 2013 as chief financial officer. Wil is a certified public accountant (CPA) and has more than 25 years of dynamic financial management experience at both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Wil leads Arabella’s finance, accounting, and human resources teams and helps guide the firm’s strategy. He focuses on aligning our financial systems and operational policies to more effectively and efficiently serve our clients.

Prior to joining Arabella, Wil spent five years as the senior vice president and chief financial officer of the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a $90 million nonprofit biological resource center and research organization. At ATCC, Wil led and oversaw a number of critical advances, including implementing a new reporting structure, increasing the company’s commercial capabilities through key hires, and driving operational efficiency via automation and process refinement. Wil also restructured the finance and accounting team and helped to launch an entity focused on new product development.

Wil has honed his finance expertise during his more than two decades in the financial industry. He served as the chief financial officer and managing director of Blue Water Capital, LLC, a venture capital firm whose investments targeted the information technology sector. While at Blue Water Capital, Wil advised and worked with growth-stage enterprises on business strategy and operational matters. He has also held management positions at MedImmune and Coopers & Lybrand.

Wil has served on the board of directors for several private companies and is a co-founder and former board member of Lorien Wood, a K-8 school. Wil has a BS in commerce with distinction from the University of Virginia and an MBA with a concentration in finance from Georgetown University