Based in Charlotte, Bill Higgs serves as Senior Advisor to Allen Austin, and is a member of our culture shaping, CEO and board practices. Bill advises the firm on all matters relating to building peak performance cultures, board composition and performance as well as CEO and C-Suite level searches.
Bill and two partners took startup Mustang Engineering, in a very competitive Houston market from zero to $1 Billion in annual revenues in 20 years based on a market changing culture. 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation leadership, Bill’s “Young Guns” kept the culture strong and hit $2 Billion four years later in 2012. The core is now $4 Billion, with worldwide offices that have the same cultural principles translated into different languages.
Only 6 out of 1 million startups reach $1 Billion in annual revenues. Culture is his secret sauce. Bill and his partner were named the “Kings of Culture” worldwide in the leading industry magazine and received the Industry’s Lifetime Achievement Award for “Visionary Leadership in the Process Industry” when they were 50 years old… high praise.
Bill is a Stage IV cancer survivor from 1981. With an 11% survival rate he opted for experimental chemotherapy at M. D. Anderson and helped them make cancer history!
Bill was chosen by Forbes Books as a culture thought leader going into 2020. He wants to help you answer the question “What’s Your Current Culture Costing You?” in terms of your people’s productivity, retention, and the company bottom line. He wants you to be intentional and “Make Your Culture Count!” … to double that bottom line.
Bill shows how to build a team culture in any organization, based on his experience from West Point, as an Army trained Ranger (he was King of the Pits in hand-to-hand combat) and as an Airborne qualified, Combat Engineer Company Commander. The leadership and culture building lessons he learned in the military translated well into his company… Mustang Engineering.
Bill brings decades-long dedication and commitment to excellence in leadership as a distinguished 1974 Graduate (top 5% academically) of West Point and runner-up for a Rhodes scholarship.