William Vincent Campbell, Jr., was famously known as the coach of silicon valley. Nicknamed Bill Campbell, he was a business executive and businessman. He has been a part of many famous companies like Apple, Google and Intuit, and has helped these companies to create trillions of dollars in market value. The net worth of Bill Campbell in calculated to be around $2.50 million. He is the main focus of the book, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook Of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, written by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle. It is from this book that the nickname trillion dollar coach of silicon valley came forth.
Early Life and Personal Life
Campbell was born on August 31st, 1940 in Homestead, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh in the US. He was the son of a local school official and took a degree in Economics from Columbia University. He played football during his undergraduate years under the coach Buff Donelli. After he graduated from Columbia University in 1962, he joined for a master’s degree in Education from Teacher’s College, which is under Columbia University. As he had an immense love for the game he started a club named the Old Blue Rugby Football Club. Today this club reserves the title of being one of the leading amateur rugby clubs in America.
Campbell was first married to the late Roberta Spagnola, who was working as the assistant dean at Columbia University, at the same time as Campbell was the coach at Columbia. His second wife is Eileen Bocci Campbell. He has two children and three stepchildren. He died on April 18, 2016, due to cancer.
Career
One of his first jobs was to coach the football team at Boston College, which he did for almost six years. He was later appointed as the head coach at the famous Ivy League University, Columbia University. He coached the football team, Columbian Lions, from 1974-1979. He then moved on to a completely different field, that is the field of marketing.
He first worked at J. Walter Thompson, an advertising agency started in 1896 by the advertisement pioneer James Walter Thompson. He then moved on to Kodak, a photography company and later was promoted to a position which enabled him to run Kodak’s European Film Business. He was then hired by John Scully III, who was the Vice President, President of PepsiCo and later the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Apple, Inc., to work at the multi-dollar company, Apple. Campbell was appointed as the Vice President of Marketing. He later ran Apple’s Claris software division. Campbell then became the CEO of GO corporation, and later the CEO of Intuit, an American business software company that specialises in financial software, from 1994-1998. He retired as the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Inuit in 2016.
Apart from his career as a football coach and in corporate companies, he was also an advisor and a mentor to several companies and has coached and mentored famous corporate businessmen, CEOs and founders like Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, Steve Jobs, Co-founder, Chairman and former CEO of Apple, Jeff Bezos, Founder and former CEO of Amazon, Jack Dorsey, founder and former CEO of Twitter, Richard Costolo, CEO of Twitter, and Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta.
Awards and Legacies
The National Football Foundation of America has issued the award William V. Campbell trophy in honour of Bill Campbell since 1990. This award is given to a college football player who has excelled in the fields of academics, athletics and community service and has received various achievements for the same.
Bill Campbell Coach’s Award is an award given by the company Intuit, in honour of Bill Campbell to their employees. The employee who shows excellent skills in mentorship and growth while also promoting diversity and a sense of community within the company is named the winner of this award.
The book, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook Of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, written by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle, is a book that honours the great coach that Bill Campbell was. The three authors were employed at Google and had first-hand knowledge of how Bill Campbell mentored and coached the people at Google to reach the heights and success it currently possesses. And they outline how even though Campbell passed away in 2016, he left a legacy of successfully growing companies and people, and above all an immense amount of love, friendship and respect for himself. The book also outlines Campbell, that is, Coach’s principles and theories which are illustrated by stories from the companies and people he worked with. This is done based on interviews with more than eighty people, all of whom knew Bill Campbell. This book thus was written to honour the coach and mentor, bill Campbell and also as a guide containing the wisdom of Campbell for the future generation.
FAQs:
- What is the full name of Bill Campbell?
The full name of Bill Campbell is William Vincent Campbell, Jr.
- How did William Campbell die and when?
William Campbell died due to cancer on April 18, 2016.
William Campbell Jr. nicknamed the Coach was a business executive and mentor to almost all the giants in the business world. He lived a long life throughout which he had adorned several roles such as football coach, Vice President, Chief Executive officer and mentor/coach. He has excelled in almost all the fields in which he has worked. The companies that he was part of have been proud to have him on board and he in return has helped these companies reach the success they enjoy today.
- When was Bill Campbell the head coach at Columbia University?
From the years 1974-1979 he was the head coach at Columbia University and coached their football team, Columbian Lions.
- Did Bill Campbell mentor Steve Jobs?
Yes, Bill Campell had mentored Steve Jobs, Co-founder, Chairman and former CEO of Apple.
- What is the net worth of Bill Campbell?
The net worth of Bill Campbell is $2.50 million.
