William "Garn" Anderson III
Vice President for Business & Community Intelligence
Garn is an acclaimed expert in business/competitive intelligence with years of experience in conducting strategic analysis, forecasts, and building global social networks. He has cultivated industry expertise through progressively responsible military, government and corporate leadership roles, and has a proven record in conceptualizing, delivering and managing large-scale information and intelligence collection programs.
Garn brought his expertise to the Knight Center of Digital Excellence in September 2008. He and his Resource Center are responsible for supporting the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s mission to accelerate broadband strategies across 26 U.S. communities. He and his team assist communities, citizens and sectors across demographics in ways that are accessible, enriching and meaningful. The Resource Center serves as a central knowledge repository tasked with developing and distributing important tools, templates, processes, information, and plans leveraging best practices to accelerate economic development and transformation in the Knight Communities.
Prior to joining the Knight Center, Garn spent 10 years leading Energizer's world-class global Business Intelligence/Competitive Intelligence (BI/CI) to support new product development, strategic R&D and other key business decisions. He institutionalized a best-in-class BI/CI program and established an innovative process to codify tacit knowledge at Energizer. His multifaceted initiatives and strategic findings were instrumental in enabling multimillion-dollar business decisions. Garn has helped a number of businesses and companies develop and implement formal BI/CI processes, including several Fortune 500 companies, two major U.S. financial institutions, and two global consumer products corporations among many others. He also has more than 20 years of intelligence experience with the U.S. Government and was awarded the CIA's prestigious Intelligence Commendation Medal.
Garn is a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and the Intelligence Leadership Forum (ILF), a select group of global Fortune 1000 companies with best-in-class BI/CI programs. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from The American University and graduated summa cum laude with an M.B.A. from Myers University.