William L. Owens | |
|---|---|
 Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2008 | |
| Born | December 19, 1957 |
| Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Occupation | Owner of Ace Hardware Franchise |
| Spouse | Terryn Owens (1982 - present) |
| Children | Paul Owens (1991) |
Personal Life edit
William (Bill) Lee Owens was born on December 19, 1957 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was one of seven children and attended Carver High School for 9th and 10th grade and attended East Forsyth Senior High School in Kernersville, North Carolina for 11th and 12th grade. After high school, Owens was awarded the Johnston Scholarship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Chapel Hill. From there he went to Wake Forest University and got his MBA from the Babcock Graduate School of Management. Owens lived in Raleigh, North Carolina for most of his adult life, only moving to Connecticut for a short period of time during his career at IBM. Since 1992, Bill and his wife Terryn have lived in Raleigh, North Carolina raising their son, Paul.
Business Career edit
Owens joined IBM in 1982 and dedicated 25 years to personal computing products. During his last 10 years, he held numerous worldwide executive assignments at IBM, spanning from manufacturing operations, sales operations, fulfillment, engineering and procurement to services. Owens assumed his last role as the head of Lenovo Service and Technical Support on May 1, 2005, when Lenovo acquired IBM’s Personal Computing Division. Owens also helped North Carolina by bring one of Lenovo's headquarters, research and sales centers into Morrisville, North Carolina.
As Vice President of Service and Support of Lenovo Group, his responsibilities included aftermarket services, warranty operations, technical support services and customer satisfaction for all Lenovo and legacy IBM PC products.[1]
After Lenovo took first place in technical support scores, Owens was quoted saying the following, "In the area of the fastest growth in mature markets, Lenovo's ThinkPad is the hands-down leader in notebook quality, technical support and repair."
In 2006, Owens was also involved in a contract between Lenovo and the University of North Carolina. Through his efforts, Lenovo funded 90 ThinkPad notebook computers given to Covenant Scholars as part of the Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI). [2] Carolina now has more than 25,000 Lenovo ThinkPads campuswide.
Additionally, he was the North Carolina Senior State Executive, responsible for government and community relations for Lenovo. Owens was also a part of the Blue Ribbon Committee on the Future of Wake County and put most of his focus on the school system.[3]
ACE Hardware edit
Owens always wanted to own a hardware store and found that ACE Hardware Corporation could provide him with his life long goal. After his retirement on October 16, 2007, Bill was at the site of the now Ace Hardware of Lake Gaston on the following day to begin the process to get the store open. After a month of hard work and long hours, the store officially opened for business on November 16, 2007. The Lake Gaston Community has been very supportive of the store and of Bill's efforts to better the area.