As general manager Kenneth Royal Williams (born April 6, 1964) is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball and a former Executive Vice President of the Chicago White Sox.

Selected by the White Sox in the third round of the 1982 amateur draft, Williams made his debut in 1986 and spent three years in Chicago, primarily as a center fielder, before being traded to the Detroit Tigers in 1989.

This reputation was strengthened following the 2004 season, when Williams completely made over the White Sox team by switching its on-field focus from home runs to pitching, defense, and speed.

Accordingly, he acquired players which excelled in those areas, through free agent signings (Orlando Hernández, Dustin Hermanson, Jermaine Dye, A. J. Pierzynski, Tadahito Iguchi), trades (Scott Podsednik, José Contreras, Freddy García) and the farm system (Joe Crede, Aaron Rowand).

In the off-season prior to the 2006 season, Williams set out to improve his world championship team further by acquiring pitcher Javier Vázquez from the Arizona Diamondbacks and slugger Jim Thome from the Philadelphia Phillies.

The lead evaporated in the second half of the season and despite winning 90 games, they fell short and finished in third place in their Division behind the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins, thereby not making the playoffs.

With pitcher Jake Peavy being acquired at the trade deadline for the 2009 season, Williams was referred to by Gordon Edes of Yahoo Sports as a "stealth bomber" for his under the radar moves.

[10] On December 6, 2016, Williams oversaw the trade in which he sent Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox for Michael Kopech, Yoan Moncada and Luis Alexander Basabe.