Thomas Nelson
International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Experience
Thomas C. Nelson currently serves as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of National Gypsum Company, a leading building products manufacturer. The company, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, operates over thirty manufacturing facilities and is a leading supplier of gypsum wallboard and related products for building and construction applications. Mr. Nelson was elected Vice Chairman of National Gypsum’s Board in 1996 and served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 1995 to 1999. He was appointed President and CEO in July of 1999 and Chairman in 2004. Nelson serves on the Board of The Business Roundtable, the G100, and is Chair of the Policy Advisory Board at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. He also serves as a director of Belk Inc., the nation’s largest privately-held department store company, A4 Health Systems and Yum! Brands, Inc. Based in Louisville, Ky., Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) is the world's largest restaurant company with nearly 34,000 restaurants in over 100 countries. In addition to his work with National Gypsum, Nelson has been an active private equity investor for almost twenty years. He is a General Partner and Co-Founder of Wakefield Group, a North Carolina-based venture capital firm. He has served as a director of many high growth, entrepreneurial companies and as president of The North Carolina Venture Capital Association (1992-1995). Prior to forming Wakefield, Nelson worked in the High Technology Group at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York and San Francisco. Selected as a White House Fellow, he served as Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Special Projects from 1992-93. At the conclusion of his service, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Active in the Charlotte community, Tom serves on the Boards of the Boy Scouts, the Charlotte Chamber, The Foundation for the Carolinas, the United Way, and Carolinas HealthCare System. He and his wife, Anna, have two daughters.
