Author of Good Business: The Talk, Fight, Win Way to Change the World, Bill began his career in marketing at Unilever, was an account supervisor at a New York advertising agency, and later served as Director of Advertising and Creative Services at the Peace Corps.
Associated Expert on Social Impact Projects
Founder, Georgetown Business for Impact and Emeritus Distinguished Professor of the Practice, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
Biography
Bill left the faculty of the MBA program at McDonough/Georgetown in June, 2022. He taught Principled Leadership for Business and Society and Managing the Enterprise. He also developed and taught Corporate Social Responsibility and Leadership and Management of Nonprofit Organizations.
He founded the Business for Impact Center at McDonough and oversaw the program for a decade. The Center partners with companies, nonprofits, and government to create social, environmental and economic impact.
Bill is also co-founder and co-chair of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care, a national alliance focused on reforming advanced illness/end-of-life care in the U.S.
Previously, he was CEO of AARP, a membership organization of 40 million people 50 and older. Prior to AARP, he was founder and president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, EVP of CARE, the international relief and development organization, and co-founder and president of Porter Novelli, a global public relations firm and now part of Omnicom.
He began his career in marketing at Unilever, was an account supervisor at a New York advertising agency, and later served as Director of Advertising and Creative Services at the Peace Corps.
Bill is on the boards of: the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (chair); Capital Caring Health, Strategic Partnerships and Respecting Choices.
He earlier co-chaired the Culture & Inclusiveness Action Collaborative of the National Academy of Medicine and served on NAM committees on: The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health; and also Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life. He is co-chair of the advisory board of the Medical Consortium on Climate and Health and on the advisory committee of the Future of Nursing Campaign for Action. He also co-chairs the Science & Technology Action Committee.
Bill is the author of Good Business: The Talk, Fight, Win Way to Change the World (2021, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press). His previous books are: Fifty Plus: Give Meaning and Purpose to the Best Time of Your Life (with Boe Workman, St. Martin’s Press) and Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order (with Peter Cappelli, Harvard University Press).
Bill has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. from Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication. He pursued doctoral studies at New York University and taught marketing management for ten years in the University of Maryland MBA program; he also taught health communications there.
In late 2021 Bill was interviewed by Bruce Piasecki and noted podcaster Mia Funk on her One Planet Podcast (listen to the interview here).
William D. Novelli