John Abusaid

John C. Abusaid — known as "JC" — is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors, an independent fiduciary investment-management and wealth-advisory firm headquartered in Long Beach, California. He joined the firm in 1996 as Operations Manager, was named President and Chief Operating Officer in 2010, and formally assumed the CEO role in December 2021, working alongside Chairman and Founder Russ Hill. Over his tenure the firm grew substantially — from roughly seven employees and about $250 million in assets to a multi-billion-dollar AUM operation with dozens of employees across multiple offices.

Abusaid earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a finance emphasis from the Colegio de Estudios Superiores de Administración (CESA) in Bogotá, Colombia, and an MBA from the University of Redlands School of Business. In 2016 he was part of Stanford Graduate School of Business's pioneer cohort earning a LEAD Certificate in Corporate Innovation, and in 2021 he participated in BlackRock's first Emerging Leader Lab. He holds the Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®) designation from the Center for Fiduciary Studies (affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh).

He is active in industry leadership circles: he is a Forbes Business Council member, a member of Envestnet's RIA Client Advisory Board, and sits on the executive committee of the Net Positive Consortium in wealth management. Personally, he has been married to his wife Ruth for more than 30 years, is father to two children (Nico and Isabella), lives in Laguna Beach, and is a long-time ocean-conservation advocate known for cage-free diving with tiger sharks off Hawaii's North Shore.

• His professional focus is fiduciary wealth management and financial planning for individuals and families, not venture or angel investing. Halbert Hargrove positions itself around disciplined, evidence-based, long-horizon portfolio management under a fiduciary standard.
• Emphasis on operational excellence, firm growth, and succession strategy — Abusaid frequently speaks about scaling an independent RIA, talent development, and next-generation leadership.
• Interest in corporate innovation within the wealth-management industry (reflected in his Stanford LEAD and BlackRock Emerging Leader programs and his Net Positive Consortium involvement).
• No publicly stated startup/angel investment thesis, check size, sector focus, or target-company profile was found.