Bill Hunter is the Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association, a position he has held since 1996. Mr. Hunter served as chief negotiator during the high profile labor negotiations that culminated in the 1999 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the National Basketball Association and its players.

As a result of the agreement, NBA players are assured of maintaining their status as the best compensated athletes in team sports over the life of the six-year deal. Mr. Hunter has been widely credited for helping forge the solidarity that carried NBA players through the management-imposed lockout, which delayed the start of the 1998-1999 NBA season by more than two months.

The lockout was the most significant challenge that the union has confronted in Mr. Hunter's tenure. Other highly publicized matters include the Latrell Sprewell case, the closely watched arbitration over the rights of players to be paid under contracts during a management imposed work stoppage, and numerous other disputes involving players' rights both on and off the court.

Mr. Hunter arrived at the NBPA well prepared for the high visibility role as head of a major sports union. Mr. Hunter's diverse background includes a stint as a professional football player and as the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. Mr. Hunter has placed an emphasis on increasing player services delivered by the union to its membership.

In order to maintain the organization's status as the preeminent representative of professional basketball players, Mr. Hunter oversaw the union organizing drive which led to the formation of the Women's National Basketball Players Association, the first major sports union in this country to represent female athletes. In 1999, the WNBPA signed a collective bargaining agreement with the WNBA which doubled veteran salaries and provided WNBA players with year round medical and pension benefits for the first time.

Mr. Hunter graduated from Syracuse University, where he was captain of the football team. He received his law degree from Howard University in 1969 and a Master of Law from U. Cal Berkeley in 1970. Mr. Hunter served several years as a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney's office, and as First Assistant in the 90-attorney San Francisco District Attorney's office, where he supervised the prosecution of all felony and misdemeanor cases. He was appointed as United States Attorney by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, where he supervised the prosecution of members of Jim Jones' People's Temple, the Hell's Angels, and the Church of Hakeem, and advised the President on the pardon of Patricia Hearst. He has been active in local and national politics, serving as a member of the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners, and running for the U.S. Congress in 1990. From 1984 until his appointment with the Players Association, he managed his own law practice specializing in municipal finance, entertainment law, white-collar criminal defense, and other high-profile civil litigation.

Mr. Hunter maintains residences in both New York City and Oakland with his wife Janice. They have three children.