Athol Williams (born 20 June 1970) is a South African poet, applied philosopher and business lecturer[1] based at Oxford University.

[2] Williams was born in Lansdowne, Cape Town, South Africa, and grew up in Mitchells Plain, the coloured township established under apartheid.

[3] He is the co-founder of Read to Rise,[4] an NGO that promotes youth literacy by making appropriate books available to children in poor communities and founder of the Institute of Social and Corporate Ethics (ISCE).

In October 2019, Williams blew the whistle on Bain & Company stating that they had withheld relevant information from the Nugent Commission investigating irregularities at South African Revenue Service.

[24][25] While in exile, Williams collaborated with Lord Peter Hain to draw global attention to Bain's corrupt activities in South Africa.

One outcome of this campaign was the announcement by the UK government on 3 August 2022 that its investigation concluded Bain was 'guilty of grave professional misconduct' leading to a 3 year ban from state contracts.