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Our Team

Bill Proudman Partner

Bill Proudman is a founding partner and COO of White Men as Full Diversity Partners®. He pioneered white male only learning labs in the mid 90s after noticing that white male leaders repeatedly disengaged from diversity efforts. This provocative work became the seed for his involvement in the creation of WMFDP.

Bill’s early career was in experiential education where, among other places, he worked for Outward Bound. For over thirty years, he has acted as a process consultant and facilitator to countless companies and organizations on issues of team effectiveness and leadership development.

He is the founder of the ETD Alliance, a small trade association for exemplary North American experiential training and development consulting firms.

Bill currently spends time working in small, direct ways to contribute to global solutions towards poverty, injustice, education and personal empowerment. He, his wife Pam, and brother Steve have been actively engaged in relief efforts to Burmese people from the 2008 Cyclone Nargis working directly with Burmese nationals to get relief supplies into the devastated areas bypassing the Myanmar military junta. They also have been supporting leaders of the Saffron Revolution in Burma as they seek asylum in the United States.

Bill and Pam have spent a number of trips in recent years in northern Laos assisting where they can with individual and family micro business enterprises.

Bill loves nothing more than spontaneous adventures down remote rivers and untraveled roads learning about indigenous cultures. It is here in the remote corners of the developing world where he has had his most humbling and gratifying cross-cultural learning experiences.

Bill splits time between homes in Portland, Oregon and the southern Cascades of Washington State. He can be reached at 503-702-9802 or proudman@wmfdp.com.

Personal/Professional Philosophy: “If I can dream it, I can do it.” Born into a working class white suburban family, I have come to recognize and more honorably use my white and male privilege to hopefully strengthen my partnerships and contribute in small but important ways to create social justice globally.

People working together and from their heart can do almost anything. The places in ourselves that we most fear are the places we need to travel to unlock the talent and drive to take steps towards new ground and shifting mindsets.

Change starts with a small but committed group of individuals. Waiting for everyone to come on board is an excuse to do nothing.

A Favorite Book: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, Tracy Kidder

A Favorite Quote: The difference between arrival and entrance:

Arrival is physical. You can arrive in a place and never really enter it; you get there, look around, take a few pictures, make a few notes, send postcards home.

Entering takes longer. You cross over slowly, in bits and pieces. You begin to despair; will you ever get over? It is like awakening slowly over a period of weeks. And then one morning you open your eyes and you are finally here, really and truly here. You are just beginning to know where you are.

  — Jamie Zeppa, from her book, Beyond the Sky and the Earth, A Journey into Bhutan

Our Team