Col William Nortey joined the Ghana Armed Forces in 1993 and was commissioned into the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment in 1995.He has held all appointments commensurate to his rank and experience from Platoon Commander to Commanding Officer and a Joint Task Force Commander at the National level.  These appointments have been held in both home establishments and in UN Peacekeeping Missions. 

His career highlights include the following: Seven (7) years on the posted strength of the Ghana Military Academy as an Instructor. Deputy Commanding Officer in an armoured regiment and on UN Peacekeeping Operations in La Cote d’Ivoire. He served as a Commanding Officer (CO) at 3 different times; As CO of an armoured regiment, CO of the Army Headquarters, and CO of a Battalion in UNIFIL.  He also served as Director at the General Headquarters in charge of special projects and statistics and as an Instructor at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College. He was a Joint Task Force (JTF) Commander for the Inter-ministerial Committee’s Operation Vanguard on Illegal Mining in Ghana.

Col William Nortey has a vast experience in UN Peacekeeping having served in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL, 1999 &2003), MONUC in the DRC (2004-2005), UNOCI, Cote d’Ivoire, 2008-2009 and 2011-2012 and 6 tours in UNIFIL, Lebanon, spanning a period of 22 years (1996-2018) He has been a trainer at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Institute (KAIPTC) in Accra since 2012. He is a member of the Gender Task for the Ghana Armed Forces Elsie initiative implementation.

Until his appointment as Chief of Staff of UNDOF, he was the Director of Operations at the Army HQ. He holds a master’s degree in Security and Risk Management from the University of Leicester, UK.