Married with four children, Joseph Williams was born in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Following his undergraduate degree from Stanford University in Industrial Engineering, his MBA from Harvard Business School, and his experience as an engineer and business development liaison for a joint venture between Konica and HP, Joseph co-founded a private equity firm, Wakefield James Management Group, with a Harvard Business School classmate.

At the end of 2009, Joseph moved to São Paulo and became fascinated with the real estate development, asset management and hedge fund industries, thus forming InDev Capital. In 2020, Joseph pivoted his focus to sustainable agriculture, becoming an advocate for the restoration of degraded pasture in Brazil.