William H. Walton III is vice president of the Honda Power Equipment Division of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. In this role, Walton leads the overall strategic direction and vision for the division and oversees all operations which includes a complete range of outdoor power equipment products, marine outboard motors and general-purpose engines.
Walton joined Honda in 1997, as a national trainee, becoming an Acura client services specialist the following year. He became a Honda district parts manager in 1999, working to improve dealer operations and communications and develop promotional parts and account sales strategies.
In 2001, Walton moved to the Auto Operations Division, working primarily in the Product Planning group, which manages the vehicle development process. This included serving as a junior and senior Acura product planner, ultimately leading the Acura Product Planner Group. In 2006, he became the manager of Honda Product Planning for cars. In 2011, Walton became manager, Auto Market Research within Product Planning. In this role, and later as a senior manager for the group, he led operations planning for consumer research initiatives, market sensing activities, vehicle quality assurance tracking and trademark and licensing activities.
Walton moved to the Power Equipment Division in 2012 as senior manager, Power Equipment Market Research and Marketing, where he oversaw the strategic development of divisional market research support and marketing functions for Honda Power Equipment products. In 2016, he became assistant vice president of Honda Marine and, in 2018, assistant vice president of Honda Power Equipment.
Walton assumed his current position in 2018.
Walton holds a B.A. in Business Management at the Morehouse College in Atlanta and a M.B.A. at Pepperdine University.