Chief, Northern Region
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

Bill started his career with CAL FIRE as a seasonal firefighter in 1969 while attending college. He worked his way up through the ranks to the Unit Chief for the Amador-El Dorado Unit (AEU). Bill is a certified chief officer in CAL FIRE and with the State Fire Marshal. He attended several classes in the Executive Fire Officer series at the National Fire Academy in Emmetsburg, Maryland.

Bill is a qualified national incident commander, operations section chief and agency administrator having served on major incidents throughout California, Wyoming, Montana and Oregon. Bill was an instructor for CAL FIRE’s Supervision 5 and Incident Management 3 classes as well as the statewide multi- agency cadre for Incident Commander (S-400) and Operations Section Chief (S-430). He also served on a national cadre that taught ICS and S-400 to government officials in India. Bill co-chaired the Branding Committee that developed and recommended the new CAL FIRE logo in 2007. He has received the Director’s Leadership Award, Director’s Commendation and the Director’s Superior Accomplishment Award twice.