Maj. Gen. James Williams (Ret.)
Major General Williams was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His formative years were spent in Reading and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received a B.S degree from Slippery Rock University, PA, in 1975. Following Officer Candidate School, he received his commission in March 1976. He received Master’s degrees from Georgetown University in Government and National Security Affairs in 1981, from Yale University in Hospital Management/Public Health in 1984, and from the U.S. Army War College in International Security Studies in 2000. He has completed advanced school and class work at the US Army War College in the Combined Joint Force Land Component Commander Course; and at George Washington University’s National Security Program in Defense Policy. Currently, he is in the process of working on his Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering and Computer Science.
Major General James Williams recently retired as the Commanding General of the 4th Marine Division, a position he was appointed to in April 2007. The 4th Marine Division is the largest infantry division in the US military and consists of nearly 22,000 Marines, Sailors, and civilians. The Division is spread over the entire US countryside, and extends from Hawaii to Maine, and from Alaska to South Florida. His previous position was as the Assistant Division Commander, 2nd Marine Division which began in November 2006. His previous assignment was as Deputy Commanding General (Mobilization), Marine Corps Combat Development Command. He also directed combat operations as the Assistant Division Commander, 2d Marine Division from 2005-2006, at Camp Blue Diamond, Ar-Ramadi, Iraq. During this time he was directly responsible for the sensitive negotiations with insurgents and terrorist groups to get them to stop fighting and cooperate with the building of Iraq.
In the civilian business and corporate world, Major General Williams has held a number of significant positions in different industries. He has built and run hospitals as the Chief Operating Officer in Kentucky and Texas with Humana, EPIC Healthcare, and HealthTrust; he assisted Ross Perot in starting operations in development of corporate information systems for healthcare organizations at Perot Systems as a Principle Associate; he was the Chief Information Officer for EmCare, the largest emergency physician management company in the US; he has been the Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer for software company Emergisoft; he was the President, Strategic Alliances for software security company bTrade, Inc.; he has been responsible for international engineering development for classified systems for various defense contractors; and he has worked in international global trade consulting roles for numerous multi-national corporations doing business with China, Vietnam, the Western Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa, and Central and South America. He is deeply involved in local, national, and global political issues as well. He is a member of a number of professional associations in academics, technology, military affairs, world trade, and global business forums.
