William “Bill” S. Wimberley – Sr. Managing Partner & Principal Visioneer
Bill currently provides primary advisory and consulting services on entrepreneurial vision and strategy, sales strategy and leadership, partnership and alliance development, new business formation and associated incubation and acceleration. Bill also provides expert advisory on operational efficiency, investment capital acquisition, and Initial Public Offerings (IPO) for startup and emerging growth companies.
Bill currently holds the title of Chief Operating Officer, Business Development lead and Board Member for Crudefunders, LLC, a pioneering new company in equity-crowdfunding for the Energy Industry. Crudefunders is the world's first equity-crowdfunding marketplace to operate under new (May 2016) SEC legislation in the globally exploding FINTECH industry. Bill is one of three early principles in the company.
Previously, Bill applied his entrepreneurial business experience to high impact economic development by designing and winning a 10-year, Federal Promise Zone business & economic development program for two different Native American Tribes in North Dakota where 80+ strategic implementation partners, including leading national and international, private and public entities, were assembled for this program worth well over $100mm for regional entrepreneurship and economic development.
Prior to this, as a management consultant to CNO Industries, and functioning as Chief Business and Economic Development Officer, Bill designed the winning entrepreneurial business and economic development strategy for the first ever Promise Zone awarded by the Obama Administration in early 2014. This 10-year program, worth well over $300m in private funding, grant and foundation monies, focuses on sustainable and perpetual job creation through the identifi cation, evaluation and implementation of strategies for new business creation in industries including, renewable “clean” energy, high-tech, Farm-2-Table agribusiness, hotel and resort, retail franchise, commercial real estate, travel plaza retail, light manufacturing, construction, tourism, and the incubation/acceleration of new businesses in each area. This includes the identi fication, training, mentoring and coaching of transformational leaders to implement a holistic strategy, designing the legal/ financial structure to support sustainability, securing funds for the implementation of the strategy, and guiding the tactics and execution of same. The Choctaw Promise Zone encompasses 10,000 sq. mi. of SE Oklahoma and includes all cities, towns and local communities in the zone.
Prior to this, Bill spent 15+ years as an international business strategist, entrepreneur and company builder in the USA, Western Europe, China, Morocco, Afghanistan and Libya. He functioned both as a founding executive in seed-stage, start-up and emerging growth companies, and as a senior executive in multi-tiered, global, publicly traded corporations. His success includes a high-tech start-up through full life-cycle NASDAQ IPO, multiple liquidity events and business turnarounds. Bill is particularly skilled at driving high-margin revenues through creative business development strategies, and instituting operational efficiency to insure strong bottom-line profits. In addition, as a certified leadership trainer, Bill is proficient at developing, leading & mentoring others to do the same.
In mid-2016, as a private citizen, Bill became one of the earliest commercial drone pilots in the USA, to be licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration under the new sUAS Part 107 rules. Previously, Bill held a Private Pilots License for single engine aircraft.
Professional references can be found HERE.
Speaking engagements can be found HERE