Pat Williams Speaker Biography
Senior Vice President of NBA’s Orlando Magic
and Cancer Survivor
Pat Williams is a basketball Hall-of-Famer, currently serving as co-founder and senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. Since 1968, Pat has been in the NBA as general manager for teams in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia—including the 1983 World Champion 76ers—and now the Orlando Magic, which he co-founded in 1987 and helped lead to the NBA finals in 1995 and 2009. In 1996, Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history by Beckett’s, a national publication. In 2012, Pat received the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
NBA Career
Pat has been an integral part of NBA history, including bringing the NBA to Orlando. He has traded Pete Maravich as well as traded for Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Penny Hardaway. He has won four NBA draft lotteries, including back-to-back winners in 1992 and 1993. He also drafted Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney and Darryl Dawkins. He signed Billy Cunningham, Chuck Daly, and Matt Guokas to their first professional coaching contracts. Nineteen of his former players have become NBA head coaches, nine have become college head coaches while seven have become assistant NBA coaches.
Speaking
As one of America’s top motivational speakers, he has addressed thousands of executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies and national associations to universities and nonprofits. Clients include AllState, American Express, Citrix, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Disney, Honeywell, IBM, ING, Lockheed Martin, Nike, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Tyson Foods to name a few.
Books
Pat is also the author of over 80 books, including: How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life, Coach Wooden: The 7 Principles That Shaped His Life and Will Change Yours, Leadership Excellence, and The Mission is Remission: Hope For Battling Cancer.
Pat’s Family
Pat and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from four nations, ranging in age from 26 to 40. Pat and his family have been featured in Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Focus on the Family as well as all of the major network and cable television news channels.
Cancer Survivor
Pat was diagnosed in February of 2011 with Multiple Myeloma. After several rounds of chemo treatments, Pat received a bone marrow transplant. Pat’s recovery from the stem cell transplant has been remarkable and the doctors are extremely pleased. While Multiple Myeloma is incurable the goal is to get the cancer into remission (Pat’s personal slogan has been “The Mission is Remission”).
Philanthropy
Pat has accepted positions on several boards for different cancer groups, including an appointment on the Board of Directors for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. Pat spends many hours each week responding to emails and phone calls of others affected by cancer, offering hope and words of encouragement.
Education
Pat was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, earned his bachelor’s degree at Wake Forest University, and his master’s degree at Indiana University. He is a member of the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame after catching for the Deacon baseball team, including the 1962 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship team. He is also a member of six other hall of fames around the country.
Pat Williams Speaking Topics
LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE
Pat provides managers practical and proven techniques for immediately increasing your productivity in a leadership capacity. In this thought-provoking speech, Pat details the seven keys to leadership and teaches how you can be an impactful leader. Learn how to create a personal strategy and develop a vision, communicate effectively with your employees and make profitable decisions. Pat’s humorous anecdotes and unique leadership philosophy make this one of his most highly-regarded presentations.
THE MAGIC OF TEAMWORK
When you see his diamond-encrusted NBA Championship ring, you understand that Pat is a master at building successful teams. Based on what he has learned from his experience in building sports teams for over 45 years, Pat offers proven principles for building a winning team in your business or organization. After implementing the techniques presented in this speech, you can expect an organization that will produce better results while working more cohesively.
WALT DISNEY'S FIVE SECRETS TO SUCCESS
To sell more effectively than ever before, it helps to look at those who have had the most success. Through relevant and amusing anecdotes, Pat reviews the qualities that helped Walt Disney become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in American history. Taking cues from Walt Disney and some of America’s other great successes, this talk offers pragmatic principles for exceeding business goals. An inspiring talk, especially when visiting the Orlando area, Walt’s Five Secrets highlight a magical, miraculous way of life.
FINDING THE WILL TO WIN
How have “The Greats” achieved such extraordinary success? How can you achieve the same results? In this speech, Pat discusses the qualities that the winners in life possess. Based on over 45 years in professional sports studying successful athletes and coaches who have produced great triumphs, Pat will teach you the secrets to becoming a more focused person, finding passion in your work and succeeding in the face of defeat. After hearing this speech, you will feel like you can conquer the world!
THE TEN KEYS TO QUALITY ORGANIZATIONS
Successful people know how important it is to have excellence in the workplace. In a fascinating seminar based upon his personal principles, Pat provides the ingredients of his recipe for quality. This fast-moving series of ideas and techniques offers the practical steps that can transform any organization into a quality organization. As one of Pat’s most requested talks, these keys to quality can be used by anyone to enhance not only their work life, but their work environment as well.
CHAMPIONS UNDER CONSTRUCTION
In this perceptive and practical speech, Pat presents the key steps needed to go from dreaming to achieving. Whether it is being a fantastic father or the top sales associate for your entire region, this developmental speech provides the blueprint for working and living a life full of passion, energy, imagination and creativity. You will see big changes in the results you seek. From executives to entry-level employees, this speech will increase your success and happiness, both personally and professionally.
Pat Williams Books
The Mission Is Remission: Hope for Battling Cancer
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Leadership Excellence
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Coach Wooden: The 7 Principles That Shaped His Life and Will Change Yours
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How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life
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Pat Williams Speaker Testimonials
As the keynote speaker, you surpassed our expectations. You inspired, enlightened, and challenged the audience with your stories on your life experiences. Your wisdom in regards to the "Keys to Quality Success" was inspirational. You captured the minds and hearts of the audience with stories regarding your family. Please accept my personal thanks for helping the Coco-Cola Company bring added value to our customers.
- Fountain Development Manager | The Coca-Cola Company
I want to thank you for your gracious support and presence at our Food & Beverage Conference. Your remarks were an inspiration for all of us and will have a positive impact on making a difference in our lives. Many leaders have come up to me and said how much they have enjoyed your book and I want to thank you for staying to sign them.
- Director of Resorts Food & Beverage | Walt Disney World Resorts
I want to thank you for awaking the senses and the desire of the entire staff and management team of Crown Marketing Group through thought, experiences and laughter. The messages you delivered transcended every level, culture and creed, and made all of us completely enthralled throughout. Nobody wanted the presentation to end. As you are aware, your presentation inspired our company's president to purchase 320 copies of your book, The Magic of Teamwork, which we presented as a gift to each of our employees.
- Director of Travel Related Services | Crown Marketing Group
On behalf of the Greater Houston Restaurant Association I want to express my sincere gratitude to you for being our guest speaker at our general membership meeting held on at the King Fish Market. The evening is being talked about by many as one of the best meetings in recent memory. Your observations about quality were insightful. We all need to be reminded from time to time about why we do what we do and what it takes to do it well.
- President Elect | Greater Houston Restaurant Association
