Bill Purcell is the fifth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee, elected first in 1999 and reelected to a second term in 2003 with a record-setting 84.8 percent of the vote. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Prior to being elected mayor, Purcell served as director of the Child and Family Policy Center at the Vanderbilt Institute of Public Policy Studies, a nationally-recognized center building a bridge between academic research, politics and best practices to benefit children and their families.

Purcell served five terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives beginning in 1986. A former House Majority Leader and Chair of the Select Committee on Children and Youth, Purcell's work in the legislature positioned him in the forefront of education, health care, workers compensation and criminal sentencing reforms.

Purcell, his wife Debbie Miller and their daughter Jesse — a student at Hume Fogg High School — live in the historic Lockeland Springs neighborhood of East Nashville. An attorney by profession, Purcell received his law degree from Vanderbilt University and received the 2004 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Vanderbilt Law School.