William Elias is the Executive Director of the Legal Division and Chief Legal Officer for Sandia National Laboratories. He also serves as Secretary of NTESS, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc. NTESS operates Sandia National Laboratories as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Will joined NTESS in May 2017 as part of the new leadership team at Sandia.
Prior to joining NTESS, Will was General Counsel at Argonne National Laboratory, the nation’s oldest and preeminent multi-purpose national science laboratory, based in Illinois. Before joining Argonne, Will was General Counsel and Secretary of the Corporation at The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., an independent, nonprofit research and development laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Draper is primarily a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, other national security agencies, and NASA. While at Draper, Will was also a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the Boston University School of Law, focusing on intellectual property and business strategy.
Will began his legal career as a judicial clerk for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and was an attorney in private practice with Ropes & Gray and Peabody & Brown. He received his Juris Doctorate magna cum laude at the Boston University School of Law and his Bachelor of Science degree from Tufts University.
I first met Will in 1986, when he became engaged in the spring semester of the EPIIC program on International Terrorism. He enrolled in the summer version of our colloquium program, and became a full-fledged member of EPIIC’s 1986 program on The Future of the West Bank and Gaza [1]. It was immediately clear that he was a brilliant, thoughtful student academically, but more so he made an impact on me with his non-ideological thinking and his articulate and deliberate mode of questioning. He never shied away from controversy and forcefully voiced his opinions, but never in an _ad hominem_ manner. He controlled this sensitive panel very capably.
We became close his senior year when he decided to shift his emphasis from his premed studies to the possibility of entering law school. It was late in the year, and despite the deadlines having passed for admission to law school, I encouraged him to apply to Boston University, and attempted to intervene on his behalf with several of my faculty friends, notably Pnina Lahav, with whom I had worked on Israeli politics and Israeli Supreme Court issues when I was a director of Hillel at Boston University, and Steve Trachtenberg, then Dean of Academic Affairs.
Will succeeded in his application and would continue his stellar studies there, entering the private practice of law at a prominent national firm. He eventually transitioned his career to focus on serving in national security, serving as the general counsel to several national defense, science, and security entities.
He has an extraordinary voice -- bass, I think -- and was a prominent member of the famed Tufts acapella group, the Beelzebubs. We maintained our friendship over the years; on occasion, he would visit the Outward Bound weekend of the EPIIC program, for he loves the outdoors and was the first person to introduce me to GPS in the woods. Will always had the most updated technological gizmos and the best wilderness outfits. My students loved him.
There was always a distinguished aura about him. I was honored to be called upon by him to advise and mentor his son Hunter, fulfilling one of my dreams to be of service to the university-age children of my alumni.
He has been a loyal friend, who could always be called upon, and I remember my visits to both Argonne and Sandia Labs in my pursuit of Pugwash activities. At Argonne, he importantly introduced me to Pete Heine, Director of the Center for Strategic Security, which develops and implements practical approaches and technical solutions to address severe threats to national and global security.
During a recent family dinner together, I was very surprised when Will told me that I, and EPIIC, featured prominently in his “leadership story” that he, as an executive mentor, tells to participants in the National Security Leadership Development Program. I am glad that I have had such a positive impact on his life.