"I am honored to be named to the North Carolina Chamber's Board of Directors. There is simply no stronger unified voice for the North Carolina business community than that of the North Carolina Chamber." Billie Redmond, Coldwell Banker Commercial TradeMark Properties

“I was a member of the North Carolina Chamber long before I became a legislator. The organization’s leadership is critical to the future economic health of our state. Every business should belong to the North Carolina Chamber.” NC Sen. David Hoyle, 25th District


  

 
 
Chair Robert Stolz serves as the chief executive officer of the Wurth Group, a division of Wurth International which is a holding company that distributes cabinetry supplies and assembly materials worldwide. Previously, he served as CEO of The Hardwood Group in Charlotte for 12 years before merging the company with the Wurth Group International. Before his career in the distribution industry, Stolz served as vice president of Southern Bank Group in Atlanta, Georgia, and as legislative affairs director for former Mayor Andrew Young. Stolz was a gubernatorial appointee of both Governor Jim Hunt and Governor Mike Easley to the North Carolina State Economic Development Board from 1999 to 2005, and served as chairman from 2002 to 2005. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in political science and lives in Charlotte with his wife, Anne and two children, Robert Jr., and Mary Gray.



First Vice Chair Cynthia Marshall  is President, AT&T North Carolina, and responsible for the company’s regulatory, legislative and community affairs activities in the state. Cynthia has 28 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, joining Pacific Bell in July 1981. Since then she has held a variety of management positions in operations, human resources, network engineering and planning, and regulatory/external affairs. Nationally, she serves on the Board of Governors of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and is a vice chair of the National Utilities Diversity Council.  She serves on the General Assembly’s Committee on Dropout Prevention, the Board of Trustees of UNC-Wilmington and on the Board of Directors for numerous organizations including the New Schools Project and the North Carolina Children’s Home Society. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where she attained degrees in business administration and human resources management. She is married to Kenneth Marshall. They have three children.


Second Vice Chair Stan Kelly is the executive vice president, and regional president of Carolina's Community Banking for Wachovia. He has over 29 years of experience in this field and has been with the company since 1980. He has held his current position since the beginning of 2009, and previous positions with Wachovia include: President of Wealth Management, Head of Regional Banking, Head of Consumer Financial Services, and Branch Manager. He earned his B.A. in Business Management degree at North Carolina State University. Currently he serves as a member of the Winston-Salem Alliance, Financial Services Roundtable, and the NC Bankers Association.
 
 
 
 

Treasurer Frank Holding, Jr. is president of First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and First Citizens Bank, which is a multi-billion-dollar statewide financial institution. Holding has held many roles in First Citizens Bank before becoming president, including area vice president for Mecklenburg and Gaston counties. Holding currently serves on the Board of Directors for numerous organizations, including: Triangle Fellowship of Christian Athletes; Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina; Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce; Baptist Retirement Homes of NC, Inc.; Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc.; Institute for Defense & Business; Mount Olive Pickle Company; and Research Triangle Regional Partnership. He graduated from the University of North Carolina with a bachelor's degree in business, and received a MBA from the University of Pennsylvania.
 
 
 
 
Immediate Past Chair Bill Johnson is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Progress Energy, Inc. In this role, Johnson oversees the generation and delivery of electricity by Progress Energy Carolinas and Progress Energy Florida. Johnson has been with Progress Energy (previously CP&L) in a number of roles since 1992, including group president for Energy Delivery, president and chief executive officer for Progress Energy Service Company, and general counsel and secretary for Progress Energy, Inc. Before joining Progress Energy, Johnson was a partner with the Raleigh office of Hunton & Williams, where he specialized in the representation of utilities. He previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable J. Dickson Phillips Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Johnson serves in a number of volunteer and leadership roles with local and professional agencies. He graduated from Duke University summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in history, and received a law degree with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982. 


President and CEO, Lew Ebert became President and CEO of the North Carolina Chamber in 2006.  The North Carolina Chamber is a non-partisan business advocacy organization that works in the legislative, regulatory and political arenas to proactively drive positive change to ensure that North Carolina is a leading place in the world to do business. The North Carolina Chamber has a long and rich history as the leading advocate for businesses of all sizes and sectors in North Carolina.  The state Chamber’s advocacy mission centers on three priority areas: 1) education and workforce development, 2) infrastructure, and 3) competitiveness, or the cost of doing business.   In addition to being the state affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce, the North Carolina Chamber is also North Carolina’s official manufacturers’ association. Before coming to North Carolina to head the North Carolina Chamber, Lew served as President and CEO of the Kansas Chamber.  Prior to that he worked his way up over two decades through a number of progressively responsible posts at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce – eventually heading one of the Chamber’s for-profit subsidiaries.