About
Practical counsel from someone who has actually run the organization.
Powell Management Group is a Kentucky-based consulting practice founded by Bill Powell, a 39-year executive who has led complex, multi-site organizations in six states and holds a national voice in the nonprofit sector.
A National Career, Not a Local One
Bill has built organizations in six states across the country: Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, and Ohio. He has run a Gulf Coast operation, a Sun Belt operation in Orlando, a Houston family center on twelve acres, a Nashville portfolio, and two major Midwest enterprises. Each market taught a different lesson about labor, demographics, competition, and capital, and none of them let him coast on how it worked at the last place.
That range is the reason his counsel travels. He has seen the same operational problem show up in six regulatory environments, six labor markets, and six donor cultures, which makes it easier to tell a client what is genuinely unique about their situation and what is simply a pattern he has already solved.
The current seat
Bill serves as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Operations for the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati, a $45M enterprise with 14 facilities, more than 100 program centers, a resident camp, and three early learning centers serving 130,000 members. From 2022 to 2024 he simultaneously held the COO role for a second association under a shared services structure, carrying a combined $90M in operations across 20 facilities and 1,400 employees in two states. He has also served as Interim Chief Human Resource Officer over that same workforce, as Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Innovation, and as an interim CEO earlier in his career.
Capital, facilities, and acquisitions
Bill has directed over $100 million in capital investment across renovations, expansions, acquisitions, and mergers. The anchor project was a $40M rebuild of a 140,000 square foot historic property, where he played a lead role in securing capital pledges, new market tax credits, historic tax credits, and bank financing, then carried the project through construction and reopening. Earlier he operated facilities ranging from 43,000 to 45,000 square feet with pools, athletic fields, and thirty-acre campuses, which is where he learned what a building actually costs to run once the ribbon is cut.
Turnaround and growth
He led his organization through the pandemic and back, restoring membership past pre-2020 levels through a 45% rebuild, while overseeing the distribution of $32M in federal relief funds and sustaining an average annual net surplus above $2M. He is currently leading a restructure that moves every business line onto a centralized operating model with one set of standards and performance metrics across all locations, replacing site-by-site variation.
National influence
Bill is highly active at the national level and is regarded as an influential voice across the nonprofit sector. He serves as a Senior Advisor to NAYDO, the field's principal fundraising and development network, and participates in YNAN, the peer network of the country's largest associations, where operating models and pricing strategy get stress-tested among executives running comparable enterprises. He is a frequent presence in national forums on operations, governance, and organizational innovation, and peer executives around the country call him when they are working through a problem they have not seen before.
Building the next bench
Bill designed and runs FLAME, Fostering Leaders as Model Executives, a development program that prepares middle managers for senior roles. He co-created a strategic planning process that put 150 staff and community members into structured dialogue, and he staffs the Operations, Human Resources, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committees of the board.
He holds a B.S. from the University of Louisville and lives in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.
Career at a Glance
- 39 years in executive leadership
- 28 years at executive director level or above
- 21 years of multi-location accountability
- 6 states across the South, Southwest, and Midwest
- $90M+ in operating budgets managed
- 1,400+ employees under leadership
- $100M+ in capital investment directed
- $40M historic renovation, 140,000 sq ft
- NAYDO Senior Advisor
- YNAN national peer network
- B.S., University of Louisville
We will tell you what we see, recommend what we believe, and stand behind the work.
Let's pressure-test your organization.
Describe the situation in a few sentences and we'll tell you honestly whether PMG is the right fit, and what an engagement would realistically look like. No prep needed.
Email Bill Powell