William “Bill” Neukom is the founder and chief executive officer of the World Justice Project, an organization devoted to promoting the rule of law throughout the world. He is a retired partner in the Seattle office of the international law firm K&L Gates, and is a lecturer at Stanford Law School where he teaches a seminar on the rule of law.
Bill was the lead lawyer for Microsoft for nearly 25 years, managing its legal, government and industry affairs, and philanthropic activities. He retired from Microsoft as its executive vice president of law and corporate affairs in 2002, and returned to his law firm and served as its chair from 2003 to 2007. He was president of the American Bar Association from 2007 to 2008 and received the ABA Medal in 2020. He was the chief executive office of the San Francisco Giants baseball team from 2008 to 2011. He joined the board of directors of Fortinet, Inc. in 2013 and currently serves as its lead independent director.
He is a trustee emeritus of University of Puget Sound and Dartmouth College, where he served as chair of the board from 2004 to 2007. He is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at Stanford Law School and served as its chair from 2012 – 2015. He is chair of the External Advisory Board of the Population Health Initiative at the University of Washington.
He earned his A.B. from Dartmouth College and his LL.B. from Stanford University and has honorary degrees from Dartmouth College, Gonzaga University, the University of Puget Sound, and the University of South Carolina.
In 1995, Bill and his children founded the Neukom Family Foundation, which supports nonprofit organizations in the fields of education, the environment, health, human services, and justice.
He and his wife, Sally, live in Seattle and together have five children and sixteen grandchildren.
