Bill is the ultimate underdog/survivor/achiever overcoming personal circumstances and tragedy to rise to the top of corporate America. Homeless at age 14, a member of a street gang and a high-school dropout – he took control of his life by taking the GED exam and putting himself through college and law school.

At the request of a bank, he took over a foreclosed oil-field pipe manufacturing plant and turned it into a million dollar a month business, until OPEC slashed the price of oil – leaving Bill out of business and a million dollars in debt.

Refusing to give up, Bill and his wife & business partner, Kathy, borrowed $13,000 and created a new industry – Debt Resolution. Three years later, they had repaid the entire million dollar debt. Over the next 13 years they grew the company to 3,900 employees with revenues in excess of $1 billion and earnings in excess of $182 million.

There they pioneered novel financial instruments still utilized today on Wall Street. They also implemented unheard of perks and benefits for their employees, such as salaries at 2 times the industry standard, free health care, free on-site daycare, 250% 401K match program and legendary company trips where they took ALL of the employees and their spouses on annual trips to the Bahamas, Las Vegas and Ocean Cruises. One year they leased 27 – 747's so they could fly 6,000 employees and spouses to Disney World.

Bill and Kathy have individually graced the covers of national business magazines, Kathy on the cover of Forbes, and Bill on the cover of Inc. They were listed individually in the Forbes 400 wealthiest people in America. One national magazine ranked them number 25.

Bill may be the only highschool drop-out who has:

• Created novel financial instruments that are still being used on Wall Street.

• Had Harvard Business School use him as a Case Study.

• Been granted a permanent place in the Smithsonian Institution Museum of American History.

• Been included in the Forbes Magazine list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.

• Named as "One of the Top 100 Entrepreneurs of the Last 100 Years" by the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Allbusiness.com and Apple Computer.

• Had his management techniques published in college textbooks and taught at universities across America.

• Been awarded the American Academy of Achievement's "Golden Plate Award for one of the 20th Century's Most Extraordinary Achievers" - an award previously bestowed upon five U.S. Presidents and three Nobel Prize winners.

• Accomplished the first "Investment Grade" Wall Street securitization of non-performing unsecured loans.

• Accomplished 15 separate "Investment Grade" securitizations and debt financings consisting of $2.3 billion.

• Established a $350 million Revolving Warehouse line of credit and a $430 million Commercial Paper Conduit.

• Acknowledged by the Nilson Report as having created the "Largest, Best Trained, and Most Efficient Debt Collection Staff in the World".

• Acknowledged by BusinessWeek Magazine as "One of the Top 30 Family Friendly Companies" in the United States.

• Acknowledged by BusinessWeek Magazine as "One of the Best Entrepreneurs".

• Lauded by Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas for his "Minority Enterprise Initiative".

• Acknowledged by BusinessWeek Magazine as "One of the Top Ten Family Oriented Businesses In America".

• Acknowledged by Working Woman Magazine as "One of the Top 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers".

• Named one of the "Phoenix 50" by Success Magazine

• Appointed by the Governor of Oklahoma to a four year term on the Board of "Oklahoma Futures"

In 1998, tragedy struck when Bill's former business partner committed fraud and sent the company into bankruptcy. Although Bill's former business partner told the prosecutors that he had acted without Bill's knowledge, admitted his guilt and was sent to prison – in the post Enron environment, U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft, indicted Bill on 57 felony counts relating to Bill's partner's activities. Five years later, after a 2 ½ month long trial where the Government called 53 witnesses and produced over 1,000 exhibits, Bill rested his case without calling a single witness or producing a single exhibit. The jury unanimously acquitted Bill on all counts.

Ironically, 17 months after his acquittal and six and a half years after his company was liquidated, the Federal Bankruptcy Trustee issued his report which publicly acknowledged for the first time, “CFS was not a fraud”.

This experience would have embittered most people, but not Bill and Kathy. They now travel the country, sharing their stories of how they created their successes and how they dealt with their challenges. It is their life's goal to do for “failure” what Betty Ford did for alcoholism and Susan Komen did for breast cancer.

For more information visit BillBartmann.com