ABOUT BILL

Bill Carney was born in New York City and lived the earliest years of his life in Harlem.

At the age of eight, his new step-father became Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Sierra Leone when that country obtained its independence from Britain, and the family emigrated to Freetown.

A couple of years later, another family move sent Bill to Dakar, Senegal, where he learned to speak French and got his first job at the age of 15 as a tour guide, explaining Senegalese culture and history to tourists and doing side deals with local jewelers to supplement his income.

Several years later, he was in Nairobi, Kenya and then Arusha, Tanzania, where he divided his time between his tie-dye t-shirt company, playing percussion in a local band, teaching at the Arusha School and playing prop for the local, then national, rugby team.

His love for education prompted Bill to return to the U.S.A. to complete his studies at Wayne State University, and he found himself in Detroit, Michigan, where he worked first for The Gap as a management trainee, then on the assembly line for Chrysler, then General Motors Corporation as a student intern.

During this period he also worked part-time as a DJ on WJZZ, the local jazz radio station, and was a professional musician (drums) with several groups in Detroit i.e. the Spinners and others.