Bill is also a rising star on the professional speaking circuit.  As screenwriter-in-residence for SagePresence, a consortium of filmmakers who teach professional "stage presence" for make-or-break moments, Bill brought his groundbreaking strategies for developing and delivering compelling and inspiring messages to top companies, including Symantec, Prudential, Target, and Best Buy.  He also has been the top-rated speaker at conferences and events around the country, with recent appearances for the Minnesota Association of Volunteer Administrators, the Career Management Alliance, and the Midwest Energy Association.

 

Bill also teaches and speaks around the country about screenwriting and breaking into the movie business.  In addition to receiving rave notices for talks in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago, he has been a both a featured panelist and moderator, and favorite pitch competition jurist at the Austin Film Festival’s screenwriters conference four years running.  Further, as one of the Great American Pitchfest’s StoryLink AllStars, Bill has earned a reputation for being “the best in the business” when it comes to script pitch training and coaching.  He also recently concluded a stint as an artist-in-residence at IFP Minnesota, where he taught screenwriting and pitching.

 

In addition, Bill has nearly a decade of experience in Corporate America as a Project Manager, Business Director, and Director of Communications for Fortune 100 companies.  In 1996, Bill headed up the team of pioneers that facilitated the first "mega-migration" in the managed pharmacy industry, successfully consolidating data for nearly one-and-a-half million members from four different pharmacy benefit managers to a single system.  He was tapped by SmithKline Beecham in 1997 to spearhead an effort to help define the value equation and operations requirements to propagate managed pharmacy throughout Europe.  Later, Bill oversaw the division that managed pharmacy benefits for the largest segment of UnitedHealth Group's pharmacy business, managing implementation, operations, and benefits for nearly 4 million lives worldwide.

In 2000, Bill was recruited to as Director of Communications for Express Scripts, Inc.'s Site Operations Division.  In this capacity, Bill was responsible for the information flow for the company's eight call centers and six mail order pharmacies, representing 10,000 employees.  Bill was a bleeding-edge visionary with respect to integrating knowledge management principles into the corporate culture.  His work culminated in the design and implementation of proprietary web-based applications that improved information clarity, accessibility, and flow for customer service and mail order representatives, resulting in a 30% reduction in handling time for inbound customer service calls.