Author Interview: Bill Mann

Bill Mann is lucky to be alive. Just before 9am on July 7, 2005, he stepped on to the second carriage of a six-car Circle Line train at London’s Edgware Road. The train left platform four towards Paddington and seconds later a bomb, hidden inside a backpack, exploded, sending a fireball through the carriage. Bill was sent flying across the carriage, as soot, smoke and embers hit the back of his throat. There were bodies strewn across the carriage and rail tracks as the screaming began. Bill sat comforting a woman with a serious head injury as panic swept through the tunnel. In total, 52 people died that day in coordinated attacks across the London transport network, including six in carriage two at Edgware Road.
A few years later, still recovering from the aftermath of the bomb, his world was rocked again when he lost his wife to cancer, devastating both him and his young family.
These two body blows would have destroyed many people, not Bill. After a successful career in the Financial Services industry for organisations such as Visa, he successfully built a new life for himself and his family, starting not one but two businesses and building a significant property portfolio. He is a best-selling author and life mentor, helping others not just cope with change but to really embrace it.
In his first book How to Keep Calm and Carry On, Bill Mann took us on a revealing journey of self-discovery as he battled to recover from the horrors of 7/7 and the subsequent death of his wife through cancer a few years later. He revealed how he overcame these two monumental changes and explained the techniques, thought process, and methodology we can all use to deal with change in our lives. How to keep calm and carry on.
In his latest book, Change Leadership, Bill makes the connection between organisational change and the personal change journey. The missing link that causes so many change projects to fail. At a time when the world is changing drastically the need for change leadership, and this insight has never been greater. An established thought leader on personal and professional change, Bill now works with individuals and organisations helping them overcome challenges and adapt to change. His mentoring and support of professionals and teams is instrumental in their success.
He now lives in Essex, England, with his wife, five children, crazy dog, and various visiting friends and relatives. He is seriously considering getting a revolving door fitted to his house!