Bill Petty is a seasoned political strategist with over two decades’ experience in environmental advocacy, the private financial sector, and Presidential electoral politics. During his career, Bill has directed successful outreach efforts in numerous states, where he has been responsible for developing comprehensive campaign strategies, recruiting, hiring and managing operatives to execute wide-ranging field campaigns that included grass tops cultivation, door to door canvassing, editorial board meetings, and strategic coalition building.
Immediately prior to launching his own political consulting firm, he held various advocacy leadership roles for over 10 years at Environmental Defense Fund. Initially, Bill served as the Field Director for the National Climate Campaign, directing political operatives across 20 states to organize various constituencies in support of the Waxman Markey climate bill. In this capacity, Bill developed and managed outreach to clean energy entrepreneurs, business trade associations, media outlets, as well as national security and environmental nonprofit organizations. In 2009, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman Markey bill, which remains the only climate legislation to pass either chamber of Congress.
From 2011 to 2016, Bill provided a broad range of political affairs support across the entire Ecosystems team at EDF, focusing on western water and wildlife policy. During that time, Bill was promoted to serve as Director of Political Affairs for the EDF Wildlife division. In this role, he was responsible for guiding all the political affairs activities of this team, whose goal was elevating a new conservation tool, Habitat Exchange, to a status equivalent to other compensatory mitigation tools under the Endangered Species Act. Bill again coordinated a team of consultants and staff seeking to influence decision making across the Department of Interior with a particular focus on the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management. This campaign ultimately proved successful, demonstrated through the 2016 release of the US Fish and Wildlife Service draft compensatory mitigation policy.
Bill channels this profound and varied experience towards helping organizations and advocacy movements formulate and achieve their long-term strategic goals. In particular, Bill can use his own professional background and deep-seated passion for advocacy to guide organizations as they develop and implement strategic plans to realize favorable policy outcomes. He holds an A.B. from Princeton University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.