Northwestern University released the second in a series of interviews I conducted for the podcast, Career Mastery: Insights from the Experts. This interview is with William J. "Bill" White, former CEO of a Bell and Howell and now a professor of management and engineering at Northwestern.  His career includes stints at Hartmarx, USG and Mead, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of The Reader’s Digest Association and six other publicly traded companies. Bill is the author of the book, From Day One: CEO Advice to Launch and Extraordinary Career.

When I met him in the fall of 2006, I took an immediate liking to him.  He’s got the vitality of a 20-year old, the intellect of a 40-year old, the wisdom of a 90-year old, and the curiosity of a toddler. A powerful package. Even more compelling is that the package is wrapped in an authentic humility. I had the pleasure of sitting in on one of Bill’s classes at Northwestern–on Engineering Entrepreneurship. The full package comes into play in the classroom as much as the boardroom.

I was curious as to how he made the transition from being a CEO of a company on the New York Stock exchange to a professor. His story is striking in that the transition was planned, many years in advance, while he was still in the corporate world. 

My experience is that careers are experienced, not planned, but Bill’s transition speaks to who he is, someone who lives intentionally. In his initial research, he found that he didn’t need to get the credential of a PhD to teach. But he did need to learn the discipline of classroom teaching, something very different from being a corporate executive (although the best executives have a bent towards being teachers as well.)

Bill found a mentor, a friend who was a professor at the University of Virginia. He and his friend came to an agreement where Bill would apprentice under this professor, flying to the university twice a year, a few days at a time, to co-teach a class. Part of the agreement was that Bill would be responsible for planning and deliverying the content, as well as managing the classroom. His friend would guide and give feedback. I asked Bill how long he apprenticed under his friend.  I was astonished when he said, "6 years."  This went on while running a major company. Bill supplemented his experiential learning with professional training. He took a workshop taught at the Harvard Business School for faculty using the case method of instruction.

By the time he retired as a CEO, Bill had the credentials to apply for a job at Northwestern, not in the management school but in the engineering school. He was willing to be low man on the totem pole, teaching a behavioral science class that no one else wanted to teach. He now teaches in both the McCormick School of Engineering and the Kellogg School of Management.

Enjoy the podcast program with Bill, "What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: Watercooler Talk from a CEO."  We actually had so much to talk about during the interview that Northwestern is releasing it in two parts.  Part 1 is being released now and part 2 will be released in about a month.

Bill also has a career column sponsored by Northwestern and a website for the book. Check it out. He’s worth getting to know.