William N. Plamondon III
is the Chief Executive Officer of Ecologic Transportation, Inc. Bill has served over 30 years in a variety of industries as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Restructuring Officer for both public and private companies. In his various roles as an executive, a board member, and an advisor, Bill realized that a critical success factor for any venture was the ability to get the right experience matched with the appropriate perspective.
Bill has experienced great achievement utilizing the right outside resources teamed up with the best inside resources moving organizations to success.
He is a visionary leader who makes fact-based decisions with a focus on execution. A proven mentor, and an expert public speaker, his open communication style has inspired employees at all levels within organizations. He expertly balances his organizational development experience with his financial expertise. Bill has purchased over $500 million in acquisition value businesses and sold companies with enterprise values of over $1 billion. Bill has secured financings in excess of $3 billion.
Bill has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Advantage Car Rental. An expert in distributed management, he was brought in to plan and execute a restructuring. Bill recently completed an assignment where he served as the interim CEO for Protein Polymer Technologies, Inc., a biomedical device company based in San Diego, CA. Prior to these assignments, he served as an Advisor to the CEO, CFO and the Board of Directors of Murray, Inc., a manufacturing company, pre and post filing for Chapter 11. Simultaneously, he served as the Chief Restructuring Officer for May Logistics Services where he restructured $100 million bank debt and sold a $20 million operating division of the company.
Prior to those assignments, Bill was as President and Chief Executive Officer of ANC Rental Corporation, the parent company of Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental, a 2.5 billion dollar global company with over 14,000 employees. Following a successful restructuring including the renegotiation of all franchising agreements, the company was sold in October, 2003. He was appointed by the Board with the consensus of secured and unsecured creditors after serving as Chief Restructuring Officer, where he was responsible for developing and implementing a strategic plan to return the company to profitable growth in the aftermath of the travel industry slowdown following September 11, 2001. His tenure with the business began in June of 2000 when he was named to serve on ANC's board of directors, where he chaired the audit committee.
In December 2000, Bill joined E&Y Capital Advisors, LLC, a subsidiary of Ernst & Young LLP, as a consultant in its Restructuring Advisory Services Group. In addition to participating in client engagements, he developed and managed a "crisis management" resource to provide clients with experienced candidates for the positions of CEO, CFO and COO.
Prior to forming R.I. Heller & Co., LLC, Bill served as CEO of the First Merchants Acceptance Corporation, a $750m publicly-held financial services company. There he managed the turnaround, financial restructuring and sale of the company.
For more than 19 years Bill was with Budget Rent a Car. He began his career at Budget in 1978 in Franchise Development. As Vice President, Franchised Operations, he built the company's functions in Field Operations, Training and Development, and Acquisition and Refranchising, managing more than 25 transactions and $350 million in assets.
As Budget transitioned from a franchising to an operating company, Bill successfully restructured the Florida operations, the company's largest acquisition a $100 million subsidiary. In 1989, he returned to Corporate Headquarters as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing and later EVP North America.
In 1992, at the direction of Ford Motor Company and Budget's Board of Directors, Bill was named President of Budget Rent a Car; the title of CEO was added the following year. In this capacity, Bill was responsible for acquisitions integration, organizational development, and cost restructuring at the $2.5 billion company, whose more than 3200 locations spanned 117 countries. Bill left Budget in 1997 with the successful sale of the company to Team Rental Group.
Bill has served on the boards of private and public companies, as well as non-profit organizations. He was a founding member of the National Tourism Organization and formerly served on the Board of American Car Rental Association and the International Franchise Association. Bill currently serves on the Board of Trustees for North Central College, the Board of Directors of Protein Polymer Technologies, Inc., and is a 7-year member of the Executive Advisory Committee for Give Kids the World. Bill is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Turnaround Management Association. He is an accomplished key-note speaker for organizations and conventions worldwide.
