WILLIAM F. THOMAS is an executive, consultant, writer, and leader in entertainment, communications, labor and victim advocacy. Based in Norfolk, CT, Bill has been an artist representative for 30 years, is past chair of film and television organization FilmLA, Director of Public Affairs & Chief of Staff for music licensing organization ASCAP in New York, and held senior executive roles for artist unions SAG-AFTRA, American Federation of Musicians and Art Directors Guild in Los Angeles. Bill is one the executives credited with adding 20 years to the U.S. copyright term, adding billions in income for songwriters, composers and music publishers, and spearheading merger of Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Radio and Television Artists to form union SAG-AFTRA. He is a nationally recognized advocate for victims of violent crime and leads a group seeking answers in the unsolved Colonial Parkway Murders in Virginia.IBill appears in numerous TV, radio and podcast interviews, been featured speaker at CrimeCon 2018, the CUE Center for Missing Persons, the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, South By South West (SXSW), College Media Journal (CMJ), Future of Music Coalition (FMC), Global Entertainment and Media Summit (GEMS), Music Educator’s National Conference (MENC), National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), California Copyright Conference, and Canadian Music Week and colleges and universities on advocacy, copyright, and technology issues. Bill was an Adjunct Professor at Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment and the Music Business, and is recipient of the “Educational Leadership Award” from the Music and Entertainment Industry Educator’s Association. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a B.A. in Communications, did additional work in the MBA program at the Babson FW Olin Graduate School of Business, and is a graduate of the IATSE Officer Institute.