Background and Experience

William (Bill) M. Funk III has worked for the past 31 years in the Asia Pacific Region. During that course of time he has served as a Regional Vice President, Area Manager, General Manager and Sales & Marketing Manager for several Fortune 500 Companies. He first came to Asia in business in 1972 as Assistant General Manager for Brownell Lane Engineering Company, located in Saigon, Viet Nam.

Fluent in Vietnamese and French at the time, he oversaw nine divisions for the company, which included the Elevator, Electrical, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration, Chemical, Medical, Pharmaceutical, Film, Construction, Spare Parts & GM Assembly divisions. The company represented over forty U.S. multi national firms, as well as twelve European firms. In 1975, he accepted the position of Southeast Asia and Pacific Sales Manager for McCulloch Corporation in Singapore, where he successfully grew the chain saw and portable generator business for the company, taking it to number two in market share.

In 1978 he accepted the position of General Manager for Black & Decker Taiwan, which he opened and established as a leader in the power tool market in Taiwan. In 1982, Bill accepted the position of Area Manager - Far East and Australasia for Petersen Mfg. Inc., who manufactured only VISE-GRIPr locking pliers at the time. Later the company changed the name to American Tool Companies Inc (ATC) and Bill was promoted to Vice President Sales & Marketing Asia Pacific. ATC was purchased by Newell-Rubbermaidr in 2002.

During the course of 20 years, Bill managed 35 different brands in over 20 markets and increased sales to US$20,000,000 from an initial business of less than US$1 million. In addition, he developed outside brands through an arrangement with ATC, developed a significant private label business in Japan, and created two product lines which were successfully exported throughout the world. Bill was a pioneer in developing sales of U.S. and European hand tool and power tool accessories into China, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Burma.

Bill has an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) and has a BS in International Relations from the University of Maryland. He also attended the University of Madrid and the Centre Universitaire de la Mediterranee and the Defense Language Institute in Washington D.C. for Vietnamese. He served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps.