William Conrad Bartholomay (August 11, 1928 – March 25, 2020) was an American business executive who made his living in the insurance industry in Chicago but became widely known as the owner who brought Major League Baseball (MLB) to the Southeastern United States with the Atlanta Braves in 1966.

Bartholomay first entered into baseball ownership at age 33 in when, in 1961, he assembled a group of investors into the Lasalle Corporation, which acquired the 46 percent minority share of the American League's Chicago White Sox owned by Chuck Comiskey, grandson of the team's legendary founder.

In November 1962, he and his LaSalle Corporation sold their stake in the White Sox to majority owners Arthur and John Allyn, and bought the Milwaukee Braves of the National League (NL) from Lou Perini of Boston.

[9] The Atlanta Braves' first ten seasons were marked by a National League West Division title in 1969 and Hank Aaron's historic pursuit of Babe Ruth's career home run record.

However, the Braves were swept by the New York Mets in the 1969 National League Championship Series, Aaron, 40, was traded after the 1974 campaign, and a succession of mostly mediocre teams drove down attendance after it reached its initial peak of 1.54 million fans in the club's debut season in Atlanta.

[11][12] On March 25, 2020, Bartholomay died in New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, of complications resulting from a respiratory illness, subsequent to a bout with pneumonia in December 2019.