As a highly accomplished leader in the public and private sectors, Thomas Stith, NACD.DC, has an extraordinary record of improving operations, increasing productivity, and scaling revenue. He is recognized as a thought leader on investment, development opportunities, and investor relations topics. To board service, he offers substantial experience and expertise in financial planning, budget oversight, environmental, social, and governance as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Stith’s career spans numerous industries, including state and local government, higher education, technology, nonprofits, and energy and utilities. His commitment to driving measurable organizational and community change is at the core of his work. Earlier in his career, Stith served as a special assistant to the governor of North Carolina. He also served three terms as a councilmember with the City of Durham, where he delivered $30 million in cost savings. Later, he returned to the governor’s office as Governor Pat McCrory’s chief of staff, where he established a $60 million Venture Capital Multiplier Fund to support entrepreneurship and innovation in the state.

Stith’s devotion to improving his community is evidenced through his work with organizations such as the US Small Business Administration (SBA), the Civitas Institute, and the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the SBA, he facilitated $16 billion in direct lending to multiple North Carolina small businesses, contributing to growth in the local community during the pandemic. As vice president of the Civitas Institute, a North Carolina-based think tank, Stith was a catalyst for emerging ideas, influencing public policy in the state and advocating for improvements to the local economy. Through his work with the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Stith bolstered the entrepreneurial and small-business ecosystem of North Carolina and promoted private enterprise as a critical component of capitalism.

With the understanding that attracting, recruiting, and developing talent from diverse backgrounds realize measurable results in innovation, productivity, and competitiveness, Stith advances DEI efforts. While at Progress Energy, he implemented a company-wide supplier diversity initiative for which he received the Pinnacle award. He also won the regional Carolinas-Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council’s and the Florida State Minority Supplier Development Council’s Corporation of the Year awards on behalf of Progress. He later served as president of the North Carolina Community College System, the nation’s third largest, comprised of 58 individual colleges. During his tenure, he secured a historic $1.4 billion legislative investment, turned around a declining enrollment, and redesigned recruiting efforts that resulted in an unprecedented number of diversity hires.

Stith’s current board engagement includes his work as a board director and member of the governance and nomination committee for the Old Dominion Freight Line. Earlier board work includes his contributions to the United Way of the Greater Triangle as well as serving as board secretary of the Golden LEAF Foundation, on the board of directors for the North Carolina Institute of Political Leadership, and on the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise’s Kenan Scholars board of mentors.

Stith is a member and directorship certified by the NACD and a member of the NCGrowth Strategic Council of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. Stith earned a master of business administration and a bachelor of business administration from North Carolina Central University. He is also certified in nonprofit management from Duke University. He and his family live in the Triangle area of North Carolina.