Santa Clara University

Financial Services Guru

William Dallas ’87 helps others “turn money into meaning and affluence into influence.”

William Dallas ’87 says he is living in heaven on earth. “I live my dreams every day,” he says. “With passion, dignity, hard work, focus and commitment. I believe that heaven is here on earth.”

Dallas grew up in southern Ohio, the son of two teachers. He was a well-rounded student who enjoyed football, baseball, and basketball as much as choir and theater.

He continued this eclectic education at Bowling Green State University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in liberal arts.

“I believe that a liberal arts degree best prepares passionate people for the future,” he says. “We are highly trainable yet masters of almost nothing.”

He is still involved with student life at Bowling Green in the form of the Dallas/Hamilton Center for Entrepreneurship, which he founded several years ago with ice skater Scott Hamilton. The center allows students to minor in entrepreneurship, and “become self-employed in their passion,” he says.

Dallas left Ohio in 1979 “as the rust belt was rusting,” and headed for San Jose where he became director of training at American Realty, which at the time was the largest residential realtor in Silicon Valley. He worked there for several years, eventually advancing to the position of Chief Operating Officer.

In 1981, he ventured into the mortgage business as a hard-money lender. He founded First Franklin Financial at 743 Franklin St., Santa Clara, in a restored Victorian next to the Sandwich King.

“I had always expected to go to law school,” he says, “and with Santa Clara right across the street I decided to enroll in 1982. I loved the law and loved real estate finance, so attending SCU seemed like a great way to hedge my bets.”

Although the success of First Franklin, which quickly grew into a national powerhouse lender, kept Dallas from using his law degree directly, he says it helped shape him into the chairman and CEO he is now.

“Without my degree, I wouldn’t have the confidence and skill necessary to perform the job of chief executive,” he says. “CEO’s are seven parts visionary leaders and three parts skilled operators and technicians. They must appreciate all facets of a business and understand very complicated deals and comply with complex legal requirements. My law training and experience uniquely helps me manage many difficult situations and, maybe more importantly, avoid some huge potholes.”

Dallas says he also remembers the passion and commitment of his fellow students. “They were and are exceptional people who accomplish very difficult tasks,” he says.

Dallas worked at First Franklin as chairman and CEO until September 2003. In 1999 he founded a private equity advisory firm called Dallas Capital Management to diversify his financial interests. Today, Dallas Capital owns, operates, and advises several different businesses, including Ownit Mortgage Solutions, Fox Sports Grill, MindBox, Diversified Capital, LoanCity, and Dualstar Entertainment (the holding company for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen). Dallas specializes in helping financial services companies and entrepreneurial businesses expand.

“I help businesses and their owners grow, personally and professionally,” he says. “I share with them how [my wife] Bev and I created our guiding principles of commitment to friends, family and faith, and how to turn money into meaning and affluence into influence.”

The most important meaning and influence in Dallas’s life are provided by his family. He has five children: Adam, 23, Billy, 12, Nick, 10, Jake, 8, and Bobbi Jo, 7.

“I am truly blessed,” he says.

His advice for achieving success?

“Life is so short and precious,” he says. “Take it all in, love everyone you can, leave it all on the field of play or battle. Don’t live with those cold and timid souls who never know the triumph of high achievement or the depths of true failure.”

KERI MODRALL is a freelance writer in the Bay Area.