William Oncken III

William Oncken, III joined The William Oncken Corporation in 1978 as Manager of Product Development. In 1985 he was appointed President under William Oncken, Jr., Chairman, CEO and creator of the Oncken proprietary training programs including the famous Managing Management Time™ seminar with his legendary “monkey-on-the-back” analogy. Bill succeeded his father, the late William Oncken, Jr., in February 1988 as CEO of the corporation.

Bill received his MBA from Southern Methodist University in 1976, followed by several years in the insurance and estate planning industry. Prior to that he had been a Regular Army Officer where he served as a Ranger and Paratrooper. He spent his pre-college years as an enlisted man in the infantry (Airborne) with duty in Vietnam (1966), and upon his discharge attended Texas A&M University, graduating in 1971 as a Distinguished Military Student. His passions are studying history, reading biographies, playing chess and skydiving.

A gifted writer and articulator of issues of general management concern, Bill frequently appears as the keynote speaker for conferences, and conducts on-site training programs for organizations. His latest book Monkey Business: Are You Controlling Events Or Are Events Controlling You?, is a book-length treatment of the MMT material appearing in our 1974 Harvard article.