Professional background and experience:

William Thomson’s qualifications include BSocSc (UCT), BProc (SA), LLB (SA) and a DPLR (Unisa Graduate School of Business). William is an Attorney and a CEDR (UK) and Conflict Dynamics accredited Commercial and Civil Mediator. A former Director of the Independent Mediation Service of South Africa (IMSSA). He is currently a Senior Commissioner with the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and a Panellist with Public and Private Sector Bargaining Councils and Accredited Private Dispute Resolution Agencies. William teaches courses on Negotiation, Mediation and Labour Dispute Resolution at a number of South African Universities and facilitates training and other processes for the International Labour Organisation (ILO). William is a UCT Graduate School of Business and an internationally accredited Coach. He is also a research associate in the Law Faculty at the University of Cape Town. 

Mediation experience and style:

William was initially trained by John Brand and Felicity Steadman as a labour and a community mediator in 1997 whilst he was a director of the Independent Mediation Service of South Africa (IMSSA). In 2007, he received further training by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) (UK) as a commercial and civil mediator. In 2006 William joined the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and 

Arbitration (CCMA) as a commissioner where he still practices as a part-time senior labour mediator. William is on the panels of various public and private sector bargaining councils and private dispute resolution agencies. He is a DiSAC accredited mediator with over twenty years mediation experience.

Facilitation experience and style:

William is an attorney, mediator, facilitator and coach as well as a part-time CCMA and Bargaining Council Senior Commissioner and he has facilitated processes with both small and large groups in the public and the private sectors. He has a passion for high performance in individuals, teams and organisations and facilitates strategic relationship building and alignment interventions to enhance workplace performance, collaboration and relations. William has conducted relationship building processes with parties in amongst others the; mining, automotive, manufacturing, education, public and SOE sectors. An area that he has been much involved in over the past three years has been the facilitation of collective bargaining processes with unions and employers in terms of the Labour Relations Act’s Code of Good Practice on Collective Bargaining. William has also been called in to facilitate complex conflict processes in the political, environmental and community arenas.

Chairing and investigations experience and style:

William is a practicing attorney, arbitrator and part-time senior commissioner at the CCMA and public and private sector bargaining councils as well as accredited private dispute resolution agencies where he adjudicates matters in this capacity and as a disciplinary enquiry chairperson and presiding officer. William has and also trains extensively; managers, supervisors, union officials and shop stewards in the public, private and SOE sectors on how to chair, prepare for and present at disciplinary enquiries. William has over 20 years experience as an arbitrator, disciplinary enquiries presiding officer, investigator and trainer of these processes. William is on the Conflict Dynamics training panel where this training is grounded in the Labour Relations Act (LRA), Schedule 8, the Code of Good Practice on Discipline and Dismissal and the specific organisations disciplinary policies and procedures. While adjudicating these processes, William also brings a capacity building and ‘coaching’ approach, especially where parties might have less experience in these processes.

Coaching experience and style:

William is an attorney, mediator, part-time CCMA and Bargaining Council Senior Commissioner and a UCT Graduate School of Business accredited Coach. He has worked with SOE’s and other large organisations in the public and private sectors where he has been requested to coach individuals and teams for high performance and excellence. His coaching is sometimes ’stand alone’ but it is also often complementary to other strategic alignment and relationship building interventions that he has been requested to facilitate for an organisation.  William is also a Conflict Dynamics trainer and facilitator of joint union and management training for parties entering into negotiation and mediation processes, where in addition to training and capacity building in these skills, he also coaches them in their preparation for these processes. Much of William’s work over the past three years has been in the area of the facilitation and coaching of parties in collective bargaining processes in terms of the LRA Code of Good Practice on Collective Bargaining.

Comments from clients:

“William is knowledgeable and experienced.”

“William has excellent problem solving and process facilitation skills.”