William “Bill” Michael Windsor (born October 2, 1948) is an American business and publishing magnate and the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of The Windsor Companies. During his publishing career, beginning in 1977, Windsor has owned and/or operated over 100 magazines and trade shows. Other business interest include those in the travel businesses, retail stores, manufacturing companies, printing company, typesetting business, advertising agency, marketing companies, convention services businesses, souvenir and gift businesses, tourist attractions, resort businesses, music businesses, computer software company, a consulting company, a food franchise, internet businesses, and more. He has written hundreds of articles, books, training programs, and manuals.

As a start-up specialist, Windsor has written hundreds of business plans for small start-ups to multimillion dollar businesses.  And, he has built internet websites that generate over 1.6-million users per month.

Windsor has been a speaker at many conferences and trade shows and at universities across North America and in Europe, Australia, and China.

He is a pioneer of the Imprinted Sportswear industry, a term he coined in 1977 to describe the fledgling and unnamed industry. He is considered by many to be the father of the multibillion dollar Imprinted Sportswear Industry.

His extensive knowledge of business start-up has led Windsor to become an expert in SWOT Analysis, i.e. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

Early Life

William Michael Windsor was born on October 2, 1948. His father, Walter M. Windsor, was a pioneer in broadcasting who began his career as a joke writer for W.C. Fields and ended his career over 50 years later as President of the ABC television station, WFTV in Orlando, Florida. Windsor’s brother was a TV news anchorman and trainer of news, weather, and sportscasters.

In high school and college, Windsor worked as a radio disc jockey for KLBK Radio, KLVT Radio, WHIR Radio, WBKY Radio, KCAS Radio, and others and as a television announcer and talk show host at WFTV Channel 9 in Orlando. Windsor worked full-time as a student and was very active in student activities. He was a student senator for two years, an officer in various university organizations, and was named to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Windsor majored in marketing and received his BBA degree from Texas Tech University in 1971. He was accepted to law school but after considerable success with several businesses that he started as a student, he decided to pursue business instead.

Windsor began his business career as a junior at Texas Tech in 1969. He became involved in the T-shirt business. He opened a retail store and founded and operated a bail bond service for students. He was also responsible for tens of thousands of students in Texas obtaining their first credit card (Humble Oil) in the first-ever credit card program directed at college students. Windsor sold his business in Lubbock, Texas upon graduation, and he married his college sweetheart. He served in the United States Army Reserve from 1970 to 1976.

After eight years as a retailer, wholesaler, and manufacturer of imprinted T-shirts, he launched IMPRESSIONS, the trade magazine and trade show for the industry in 1977. He is considered by many to be the father of the multi-billion dollar “imprinted sportswear industry”. He started other magazines and shows and eventually sold the company in 1981 and “retired” at the age of 33.

He married his wife Barbara in 1971; they have two children, and two granddaughters.

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Career

Windsor started his career in the textile screenprinting industry while he was a junior at Texas Tech University in 1969. Windsor is a self-proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur.

1969 – 1977 – Founder and CEO of The Windsor Companies – While attending Texas Tech University in 1969, Windsor became involved in the T-shirt business as a retailer, wholesaler, and manufacturer.

1977 – 1981 – Founded and operated the Imprinted Sportswear Trade Show, Impressions Magazine. In the early days, Windsor believed that a trade show was needed to pull together the manufacturers, distributors, and screenprinters of the textile industry. In 1977, came up with the term Imprinted Sportswear to explain his concept. He rented the entire Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. He reserved 1500 hotel rooms at area hotels. All this was done with very money and a lot of spunk. To pull it off, Bill sat as his desk in the corner of his bedroom at his Atlanta duplex and started making sales calls. That first show pulled close to 5,000 attendees and the industry was born. These were eventually sold in 1981 and Windsor “retired” at the age of 33 for a few years.

1992 – 1996 – President of Advanstar Expositions, a company owned at the time by Goldman Sachs. Advanstar was one of the largest producers of trade shows and conferences in the world. The privately held company employed between 500 and 1,000 employees depending on need.

1996 – 2001 – CEO of Professional Trade Shows / 1st Communications, a company owned by Bain Capital, Triumph Capital Group, and Windsor.  1st Communications made a series of multimillion dollar acquisitions to build one of the largest trade show businesses — the largest in terms of the number of annual events.  1st Communications also developed one of the first online job and resume businesses using a network of over 1,000 web sites.  That business was sold to The Washington Post in 2001, and Windsor “retired” again to Atlanta, Georgia to be near grandchildren-to-be.

2001 – Present – CEO of The Windsor Companies

2001 – Present – Windsor had dedicated time to raising money for a project at Texas Tech University; founded a donut franchise; traveled to all 50 states by car (twice) writing a book and taking photographs; operated a music business; and started several travel businesses.

2005 – Present – Chief Activist for Lawless America in Marietta, Georgia. LawlessAmerica.com began as the story of Windsor’s personal experience with judicial corruption and government corruption. Due to publicity about his efforts with the United States Supreme Court, thousands of people began telling Windsor their stories, and the site morphed into a much larger goal of dedication to exposing dishonesty and corruption in government while presenting ways to battle the epidemic.

2008 – 2010 – Led a successful effort to clean up corruption in Ontario Canada.

2010 – Present – Discovered corruption in the federal courts in Atlanta, Georgia. Decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives to assist in exposing the corruption and creating a better climate for United States Citizens. A lofty goal, but workable for the tenacious Windsor.

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Education

1967 – University of Kentucky – Business – Windsor attended summer school at the University. Because of his family interest in broadcast media, Windsor had an interest and spent the summer, while not in class working at the campus radio station.

1966 – 1967 – The University of Texas at Austin – Radio-TV-Film – Windsor didn’t feel comfortable at the University of Texas, stating “I had a lot of bad dates, and I wasn’t comfortable with all the hippies. When my parents moved from Lubbock, I seized the opportunity to leave Austin and get back to Lubbock and Texas Tech.” Windsor pledged to the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, and was involved in student government activities.

1967 – 1971 – Texas Tech University, BBA, Marketing – Windsor worked full-time during college. Because of his family interest in broadcast media, Windsor had an interest and spent the first two years of college working as an announcer at radio and television stations.  While on summer break in 1970, Windsor had a television talk show on the ABC station in Orlando, Florida.  During his final two years of college, Windsor owned and operated a T-Shirt and gift business. However as a creative workaholic, he also owned a bail bond service for students, and a retail store selling a variety of student-oriented products. He was also the Texas representative for College Marketing Research – responsible for obtaining over 10,000 credit card applications for Humble Oil, conducting campus surveys for magazines, and more. Windsor was accepted to law school but decided he enjoyed making money too much to spend the additional two years, studying night and day, necessary to receive a law degree.

While at Texas Tech, Windsor was Student Senator (2 years), President at the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, Vice President at the Inter-fraternity Council, and was also involved with Alpha Epsilon Rho, Intramural Athletics, Speech and Debate Team, Faculty-Student Discipline Committee, Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, All-University Recognition for Leadership.

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External Links

Lawless America – Magazine, Radio, Television and Movies – http://lawlessamerica.com

Bill Windsor – Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Windsor

Bill Windsor – LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/williammichaelwindsor