William Edward Simon (November 27, 1927 – June 3, 2000) was an American businessman and philanthropist who served as the 63rd United States Secretary of the Treasury.

He later served as vice president of Weeden & Co. before being named senior partner in charge of the government and municipal bonds at Salomon Brothers, where he was a member of the firm's seven-man executive committee.

As Deputy Secretary, Simon supervised the Nixon administration's program to restructure and improve U.S. financial institutions.

In 1976, while serving as Secretary of the Treasury, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt presented Simon with the Collar of the Republic/Order of the Nile.

As Treasury Secretary, Simon claimed to support free markets and to spurn government policies that either subsidized or penalized businesses.

In Simon's own words: Throughout the last century the attachment of businessmen to free enterprise has weakened dramatically as they discovered they could demand – and receive – short-range advantages from the state ...

I watched with incredulity as businessmen ran to the government in every crisis, whining for handouts or protection from the very competition that has made this system so productive.

[7]Simon attempted to purchase controlling interest in the Baltimore Orioles from Jerold Hoffberger for $12 million, but it aroused fears that he was going to move the franchise to Washington, D.C.

"[8] The Orioles were acquired at the same price six months later on August 2 by Edward Bennett Williams who had represented Simon in those negotiations.

Following government service, Simon was a Vice Chairman at Blyth Eastman Dillon for three years, He and his partner, then co-founded with Ray Chambers, a tax accountant, Wesray Capital Corporation (Simon contributing the "Wes" and Chambers contributing the "ray" based on his initials), an LBO firm that bought and sold, among others, the Gibson Greeting Card Company, Anchor Glass, and the Simmons Mattress Company, typically investing tiny fractions of their own money and including significant debt to complete the purchase from prior shareholders, and then selling the companies whole or piecemeal after making changes that "often included job cutbacks and other short-term cost-reduction measures.".

In 1984, he launched WSGP International, which concentrated on investments in real estate and financial service organizations in the western United States and on the Pacific Rim.

Anchor Glass also bought casualty, liability, employee health and benefit insurance from a brokerage firm partially owned by Simon.

Anchor Glass later admitted in an SEC filing, that "these arrangements ... were not the result of arm's length bargaining ... [and] were not ... favorable to the company".

During his business career, Simon served on the boards of over thirty companies including Xerox, Citibank, Halliburton, Dart & Kraft, and United Technologies.

An additional athletics-related honor came on October 11, 1975, when Simon threw out the first pitch of the 1975 World Series at Boston's Fenway Park on behalf of President Ford.

It relates as an example of this aspect of his character that Simon Sr. "would awaken his children on weekend mornings by dousing their heads with buckets of cold water.

Each year since, the William E. Simon Fellowship for Noble Purpose has been awarded to a college senior desiring to live a life dedicated to serving humanity.

The William E. Simon Scholarship Fund provides financial assistance for academically highly qualified students of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum who live in Rome who would otherwise lack the resources to cover their educational expenses.