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Bill grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, majoring in thermodynamics. After college, he served on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Navy as the Supply Officer on the USS Strong (DD-758), a destroyer in the Atlantic Fleet, and, later, as Assistant to the Director of Data Processing at the Navy's Aviation Supply Office, the Navy's largest data processing center. While at the ASO, he taught courses on Boolean algebra and programming in FORTRAN to ASO computer programmers and systems analysts. After the Navy, Bill was employed as an applications engineer in the marketing group at Reliance Electric Company in Cleveland, Ohio, where he assisted sales engineers in selling complex process control systems utilizing analog and digital computers. While with Reliance Electric, he entered the evening Master of Business Administration program at Case-Western Reserve University and completed his M.B.A. with concentrations in economics and marketing at the University of Florida. He then served as the chief financial officer of DataPoint Corporation, a publicly held company, which he joined in its start-up stage. Bill then became a Vice President of Corporate Finance for an investment banking firm where he managed numerous private placements and initial public offerings. To fulfill a long-time desire, Bill entered Stetson University College of Law, received his J.D. with honors, and became a member of The Florida Bar. While at Stetson, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Stetson Law Review and was named the most outstanding graduating senior in his class. Bill serves as Chair of the GrayRobinson Technology Team, a group of more than 20 lawyers who serve the special needs of technology companies. Bill's engineering background assisted him in becoming general counsel to many high technology companies in the Central Florida area, including several publicly held companies. He has handled many venture capital transactions for high technology and other companies and is a well-known speaker in Central Florida at seminars on venture capital financing and initial public offerings. Additionally, he has been instrumental in assisting companies in going public and has been a member of the boards of directors of several high technology companies. Bill was appointed by Governor Martinez to the Florida Seed Capital Board and served as Co-Chairman of its Enterprise Development Committee. He was a member of several task forces for the Florida Department of Commerce on venture capital and seed capital investing and worked extensively with the Department of Commerce to develop legislation to make seed capital more available in the State of Florida. Bill served as the Chairman of the Orange County Bar Association's Corporate and Business Law Committee and also served as a member and Chairman of a Grievance Committee of The Florida Bar. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and a member of the Law and Accounting Committee of the American Bar Association Business Law Section. Bill also serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business and is an adjunct professor for Entrepreneurial Finance and Negotiation at the Crummer School. He is the author of What Entrepreneurs Need to Know: Avoiding Big Mistakes That Can Prevent Success (Trafford Publishing, 2006); and writes a column titled "The Grimm Truth" for the Orlando Business Journal. EDUCATION: Pennsylvania State University, B.S. (Mechanical Engineering, major in Thermodynamics) University of Florida, M.B.A. (with concentrations in Economics and Marketing) Stetson University, College of Law, J.D. (with Honors) PUBLICATIONS: What Entrepreneurs Need to Know: Avoiding Big Mistakes That Can Prevent Success - 2006 PROFESSIONAL: GR Corporate Consulting The Florida Bar; Member, Former Chairman of Ninth Judicial Circuit Grievance Committee 9E Orange County Bar Association; Member and Former Chairman of the Corporate and Business Law Committee American Bar Association; Member, Business Law Section and Section on Science and Technology; Member of the Law and Accounting Committee of the Business Law Section National Association of Corporate Directors, Member CIVIC: Vice-Chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida Founding Member of the Orlando Area Committee on Foreign Relations Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance and Negotiation at the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business. | 