Professional background and experience:

William is accredited as a mediator with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) and Conflict Dynamics in 2007 and by the Independent Mediation Service of South Africa (IMSSA) in 1997. He is also accredited by the South African Dispute Settlement Accreditation Council (DiSAC). He is a current part-time Senior Commissioner with the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and a practicing attorney of the High Court. He teaches courses on negotiation, mediation and labour dispute resolution at a number of South African Universities and facilitates training and other processes for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Conflict Dynamics. He is a research associate at the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape in their Law Faculties and he is a qualified coach (UCT Graduate School of Business). William’s qualifications include B Soc Sc (UCT), B Proc (SA), LLB (SA), LLM in Commercial Law (UCT) and a DPLR (Unisa Graduate School of Business).  

Mediation experience and style:

William has extensive experience as a mediator. To begin with, his mediation practice was mostly labour/management and community conflicts and disputes. His practice has since expanded to civil and commercial disputes. His style is highly energetic and facilitative.

Facilitation experience and style:

William has facilitated processes of varying scales in both the public and private sectors. His facilitation style typically utilises strategic relationship-building and alignment interventions in order to enhance workplace performance, collaboration, and relationships. William has conducted relationship-building processes with parties in the mining, automotive, manufacturing, education, public and SOE sectors, with a particular focus on high performance individuals, teams, and organisations. One area that William has been particularly involved in over the past six years, has been the facilitation and coaching of collective bargaining processes with unions and employers in terms of the Labour Relations Act’s Code of Good Practice on Collective Bargaining. William has also been called in to facilitate complex conflict processes in the political, environmental and community arenas.

Chairing enquiries and investigations experience:

William is a practising attorney, arbitrator and part-time Senior Commissioner at the CCMA and public and private sector bargaining councils, as well as accredited private dispute resolution agencies. In these roles, he adjudicates matters and serves as a disciplinary enquiry chairperson and presiding officer. William has facilitated extensive training, of managers, supervisors, union officials and shop stewards, lending his experience on how to prepare for, chair and present at disciplinary hearings to those in the public, private and SOE sectors.

With over 20 years of experience as an arbitrator, disciplinary enquiries presiding officer, investigator and trainer of these processes, William has assumed a position on the Conflict Dynamics training panel. Here, his training is grounded in the Labour Relations Act (LRA), Schedule 8, the Code of Good Practice on Discipline and Dismissal, and the specific organisation’s disciplinary policies and procedures. While adjudicating these processes, William brings a capacity building and ‘coaching’ approach, especially where parties might have less experience in these processes.

Coaching experience and style:

William is an accredited coach who has worked with SOE’s and other large organisations in the public and private sectors coaching individuals and teams to achieve high performance and excellence. His coaching is sometimes ’stand-alone’ but it is also often complementary to other strategic alignment and relationship building interventions. William is a Conflict Dynamics trainer and facilitator of joint union and management training for parties entering into negotiation and mediation processes. 

Comments from clients:

“William is knowledgeable and experienced.”

“William has excellent problem solving and process facilitation skills.”