Bill Townsend has been involved in the launch and growth of some of the most successful startups of the past decade: Internet search pioneer Lycos • Biometric loyalty and transaction firm Pay By Touch • Social networking pioneer sixdegrees.com (now LinkedIn) • Sports sponsorship marketing agency Corvosi • The largest young adult media company YouthStream Media Networks • Networking firm Cyber Operations • USENET search engine Deja.com (now eBay and Google) • Homepage provider GeoCities (now Yahoo!) and • Artificial intelligence technology firm Ocean Technology. He has advised or served on the board of advertising delivery firm Futuristics.net • financial data provider News-Alert (now DowJones Marketwatch) • Voice over IP pioneer Really Easy Internet • Golf products company Flashpointe • Digital imaging companies ClearHeart and Sozotek
Bill’s recent leadership roles include: Executive Vice President, Office of the CEO at Pay By Touch, San Francisco, California The world’s leading biometric payment, loyalty, and rewards company. Executive leader for the launch and management of Internet, mobile, gaming and government divisions. Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer at Interminds, LLC, Austin, Texas Management consulting and incubation firm providing McKinsey & Company based solutions in product identification, strategy, marketing, and consumer and business to business adoption in startup, incubator and turnaround situations. Co-founder and Partner at Corvosi, LLC, Austin, TX and Los Angeles, CA Marketing sponsorship agency representing leading sports teams and celebrities in auto sports, motorcycle racing and other sports-oriented industries. Clients include: Michael Jordan Motorspots, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Rahal Letterman Racing, World Champion boxer Laila Ali, and DeBartolo Sports & Entertainment.
In 1995, Bill was the author of the Internet industry’s first Children’s Advertising Guidelines, establishing advertising standards for firms marketing to minors. He was active in early Internet privacy initiatives, served on the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and as Vice Chairman of Audit Bureau of Circulation’s Internet Standards and Measurement Committee.
In 2007, he co-authored, along with Dr. Gary Carini, an article in Harvard Business Review on employee entrepreneurship, that was the result of more than 10 years of study in entrepreneurship.
He is active in education, speaking at institutions such as The University of Texas, Harvard University, Loyola Marymount University, University of New Orleans, and holds the John F. Schoen Entrepreneur-in-Residence chair at Baylor University.
A chairman and founder of The Amati Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to the preservation and expansion of the stringed arts and classical music, Bill has spent the past 8 years drawing attention to the links between classical music training and higher order thinking skills such as mathematics. Related to this passion, Bill began making violins while working in China in 1998. He spent several years conducting advanced research in acoustics, chemical composition, varnish analysis, and golden ratio mathematics in an effort to uncover the secrets of Antonio Stradivari’s great instruments. He has applied this learning to his own violinmaking and has since handcrafted concert quality instruments for the likes of world-renowned violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, Martie Maguire (Dixie Chicks), and Edward Caner (violin clinician with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame).
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