Bill joined the Delta Capital Group in 2011 after selling his publishing company, Trudy Corporation, to a private equity entrepreneurial investment company, having been  its chairman for 32 years. Bill purchased Trudy in 1979 as a stuffed animal manufacturer and built it into the leading design, manufacturing and marketing firm to the nation’s Fortune 500 Corporations. Trudy was known in part as the designer and supplier of corporate stuffed toy mascots as Charlie the Tuna, the Nestle Quik Bunny, the Energizer Rabbit and the Burger King Whopper. Trudy was also the first soft toy licensee of sports memorabilia for the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NFL and NBA. The company’s revenue grew fourfold through the eighties and went public on NASDAQ in 1987.   In 1990, as soft toy manufacturing moved offshore, Trudy reengineered itself as a children’s publisher combining realistic soft toys with natural wildlife picture books and read-along audio under licenses with the Smithsonian Institution, The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, the African Wildlife Foundation. At the time of the Company’s sale, the publishing side of the business had grown considerably through novelty book and audio licenses with Disney Consumer Products and Sesame Workshop and sales penetration in 45 countries and four languages.

 

With a BS from Trinity College and an MBA from Columbia University, Bill began his career with marketing positions at General Foods, Vlasic Foods and finally as Group Director of Marketing of Pepsi Cola Brand at PepsiCo, Inc. where he managed the highly successful Pepsi Challenge advertising campaign for four years.

 

Bill is a member of the Board of Trustees for Elderhouse and served on the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk Board where he was Chairman of the Marketing Committee and on its Executive Board. He currently is on the Aquarium’s Advisory Board. He has written three case studies for Harvard Business school and has lectured at the Fletcher School of International Affairs. He owns and manages three investment properties including a 27,000 sq, ft. office and distribution facility. He has two grown daughters, five grandchildren and enthusiastically mountaineers, skis and sails worldwide.