Williams was a student at the Sierra Leone Grammar School, and the Lester B. Pearson United World College in British Columbia, Canada, from where he received his International Baccalaureate Diploma.

From 2001-2007, Williams served as Director of Strategic Planning for United Nations Secretaries-General Ban Ki-moon and Kofi Annan.

Since 2017, Dr. Williams has served at Tufts University, as Director of its Institute of Global Leadership (2017-2022) and Professor of the Practice of International Politics at The Fletcher School (2017-present) and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life (2022-present).

"[3] Former Chairman of the Supervisory Board Dick Benschop characterized the management situation as such: "It is rather an authoritarian man than a cooperative foreman…That was clear to me too.

[5] Anton Nijssen, Williams's close associate for a long time, has been appointed by the Supervisory Board as' liquidator 'who has to take care of' the (financial) handling of cases'.

There are numerous creditors, including the former landlord VNG and the Indisch Herinneringscentrum, which later moved into the spacious building of the former The Hague Institute for Global Justice.

Willem Moorlag from the Dutch socialist party PvdA asked the minister whether there is any judicial ground to recover the lost funds from Williams and/or the Supervisory Board.

[7] The right-wing Forum voor Democratie (FvD) asked the minister why no action was undertaken against Williams when it was already clear after several months that he didn't fulfill his role as fundraiser.

[8] Jan Paternotte from the social liberal D66 asked the minister how it was possible that the Institute still received subsidies after a critical report by Price Waterhouse Coopers exposed the financial mismanagement.