Williams became widely known for his service as dean of UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the founding president of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

In 1970, Williams was appointed as dean of what was then the UCLA Graduate School of Business Administration, where he championed active learning through the management field studies program. One of his early initiatives was to replace “Business Administration” with “Management” in the school’s name. Under his leadership, UCLA was first recognized as a top business school and became the only public university business school to be ranked in the top ten in the US.

In 1977, Williams left UCLA to serve as chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the Carter administration. He played a key role in modernizing corporate governance and disclosure practices, emphasizing corporate accountability, transparency, and shareholder rights.

Williams returned to Los Angeles in 1981 and, when the J. Paul Getty Trust was established in 1983, he became its first president and CEO. For 17 years, Williams presided over the planning and construction of the Getty Center, and vastly expanded the Center resources and staffing devoted to scholarship, conservation, education, and presentation of the visual arts