Pat Williams is the senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. The author of over 40 books, Williams is also one of America's top motivational, inspirational, and humorous. He has addressed employees from many of the Fortune 500 companies, the Million Dollar Round Table, two Billy Graham Crusades and two Peter Lowe Success Seminars. Williams also speaks on many university campuses.

After serving for seven years in the United States Army, Pat spent seven years in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, two as a minor league catcher and five in the front office. He also spent three years in the Minnesota Twins organization. Since 1968, he has been affiliated with teams in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, including the 1983 World Champion 76ers, and now the Orlando Magic which he co-founded in 1987 and helped lead to the NBA finals in 1995. Twenty-three of his teams have gone to the NBA playoffs and five have made the NBA finals. In 1996, Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history by a national publication.

In his NBA career, he has traded Pete Maravich, traded for Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Penny Hardaway, and won four NBA draft lotteries, including back-to-back winners in 1992 and 1993 and most recently in 2004. He also drafted Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney and Darryl Dawkins and signed Billy Cunningham, Chuck Daly, and Matt Guokas to their first professional coaching contracts. Twelve of his former players have become NBA head coaches, while seventeen have become assistant coaches.

Pat and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from four nations, ranging in age from 22 to 36. For one year, 16 of his children were all teenagers at the same time. Pat and his family have been featured in Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, The Wall Street Journal, Focus on the Family, New Man Magazine. In addition, Williams and his family have been featured on all of the major television networks, The Maury Povich Show and Dr. Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power.

Pat helps teach an adult Sunday school class at First Baptist Church of Orlando and hosts a weekly radio show. In the last 11 years, he has completed 44 marathons, including the Boston Marathon 11 times, and also climbed Mt. Rainier.

Pat was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, earned his bachelors degree at Wake Forest University, and his master’s degree at Indiana University. He has a doctorate in Humane Letters from Flagler University. He is a member of the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame after catching for the Deacon baseball team, including the 1962 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship team. He is also a member of the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.

"As the keynote speaker, you surpassed our expectations. You inspired, enlightened, and challenged the audience with your stories on your life experiences. Your wisdom in regard to the "Keys to Quality Success" was inspirational. You captured the minds and hearts of the audience with stories regarding your family. Please accept my personal thanks for helping the Coca-Cola Company bring added value to our customers."

David A. Williams, Jr. Fountain Development Manager, The Coca-Cola Company

"I want to thank you for awaking the senses and the desire of the entire staff and management team of Crown Marketing Group through thought, experiences and laughter. The messages you delivered transcended every level, culture and creed, and made all of us completely enthralled throughout. Nobody wanted the presentation to end. As you are aware, your presentation inspired our company's president to purchase 320 copies of your book, The Magic of Teamwork, which we presented as a gift to each of our employees."

George H. Benford, CTC Director of Travel Related Services, Crown Marketing Group

"On behalf of the Greater Houston Restaurant Association I want to express my sincere gratitude to you for being our guest speaker at our general membership meeting held at the King Fish Market. The evening is being talked about by many as one of the best meetings in recent memory. Your observations about quality were insightful. We all need to be reminded from time to time about why we do what we do and what it takes to do it well."

Jesse Chaluh President Elect, Greater Houston Restaurant Association

"I want to thank you for your gracious support and presence at our Food & Beverage Conference. Your remarks were an inspiration for all of us and will have a positive impact on making a difference in our lives. Many leaders have come up to me and said how much they have enjoyed your book and I want to thank you for staying to sign them."

John T. Hallowell Director, Resorts Food & Beverage, Walt Disney World Resorts

"I want to express my sincerest gratitude for your presentation at the Orlando Science Center's Board of Trustees Retreat. Your ability to clearly focus our board and motivate them to commit to achieving out goals was evident in the many productive and inspiring ideas that surfaced later that day. Your comments on "thinking tomorrow" and "investing in tomorrow" have been echoed many times since your presentation."

Sondra Quinn President & CEO, Orlando Science Center