William B. Hickman

Senior Advisor
o:  615.292.9495

A hands-on strategist, leader, change manager and problem solver, prior to joining Compass Executives, Bill served in the U.S. Army retiring as a Major General with over 36 years of leadership experience, including 15 years at the strategic level.  Bill’s diverse experiences and military and civilian education uniquely position him to partner with private, public, and non-profit business leaders through a critical period of economic history.  Considered a transformational leader, Bill is known for inspiring positive changes in organizations through focused, visionary approaches to mission accomplishment.  He is uniquely positioned to assist businesses in crisis management, strategic planning and decision-making, coaching and leader development, and supply chain management.

As a senior leader, Bill, working extensively with multi-national military and civilian components, led NATO’s Transformation Plans and Policy team that focused on strategic foresight, strategy, decision-making, partnerships, resilience, crisis management, and maximizing data use.  His hands-on leadership, problem solving and decision-making approaches greatly improved creative thinking, resource allocation, and value-added improvements to NATO processes and outputs.

While serving in the Middle East, Bill directed a combined operational and logistical support organization,that includedmulti-national personnel from military, civilian and governmental disciplines. Through his leadership,supply chain improvements included policy refinement,transportation assets utilization, resources allocation,and supporting the operator at the point of need.  Additionally, the storage of goods and equipment, services, and asset visibility improvements supporting the mission were accomplished while overseeing an effective and efficient financial management system which included oversight of logistic contracts that routinely exceeded $300 million a year.  Bill’s crisis management experienced included implementing proactive solutions to protect, supply, and reinforce our Soldiers in the Sinai Desert due to rapidly emerging changes to the security environment and investigating a crisis resulting from a tragic failure of operations and decision-making in Afghanistan.

As a senior installation leader, Bill had oversight of over 10,000 military and civilian personnel and their families that included operations similar to a city (water, sewage, roads, education, child care, health care, and other services) with an annual budget of over $400 million.  Under his leadership, effective team building, resource allocation, value chain management,a robust financial management system, maximizing outputs, and partnering with national, state and local government leadership to solve problems and resource requirements were achieved, with outstanding results.

Bill is a Senior Advisor at Compass Executives Group and a member of the Middle Tennessee Council Boy Scouts of America Executive Board.  He earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Vanderbilt University, a Master’s in Business Administration from the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, and a Master’s Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College.Bill is a decorated combat veteran.