The Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga has announced that this year’s Distinguished Service Award for outstanding community leadership is Tom Edd Wilson.
The award is presented annually in recognition of an individual’s outstanding leadership and service to the community. The award will be presented to Mr. Wilson at a recognition luncheon to be held on Tuesday.
Mr. Wilson is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University. He began his professional career as an auditor with Arthur Young and spent 35 years in the banking industry, rising to become President of Bank of America’s East Tennessee Region. After his retirement from banking in 2001, he took over as president of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.
During his tenure with the chamber, he assembled a high-performing team that has run the Chamber with the professionalism and accountability expected of the community’s leading business organization. He focused the chamber’s efforts on job creation and has served as a driving force in dozens of strategic projects like the establishment of the Principal Leadership Academy and the current launch of the Regional Growth Planning Process.
One of the chamber’s notable achievements under Mr. Wilson’s leadership was its largest-ever capital fund drive for economic development, raising $9 million from the public and private sectors to sustain a comprehensive job creation strategy from 2003-2007. Since then, he has followed up that success with two additional campaigns raising more than $27 million for economic development from 2005-2015.
Under Mr. Wilson’s leadership, the chamber team worked with public and private entities to get the Enterprise South Industrial Park named as the first TVA-certified megasite in the state. His team has tirelessly met with numerous site-selection consultants and business decision makers around the world, helping to convince Volkswagen to locate here and Alstom to renovate and expand its operations here. This groundwork and continued efforts by the chamber have fueled additional economic opportunities for the entire Chattanooga area.
During Mr. Wilson’s tenure at the Chattanooga Chamber the organization has directly assisted more than 100 companies create more than 13,000 jobs.
In addition to his professional career as a banker and leader of the chamber, Mr. Wilson is devoted to his family, his church, and numerous civic and educational activities. He lives with his wife Barby on Signal Mountain and has three daughters and seven grandchildren. He has been a long-term, active member and elder at Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Wilson chaired the 1995 “Night to Remember” gala for the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, the 1999 “Star Night” gala for Siskin Foundation, and the 2000 United Way campaign. He was presented with the National Philanthropy Day Leadership Fundraiser of the Year Award in 1998, and then-Mayor Jon Kinsey proclaimed May 5, 2000 as “Tom Edd Wilson Day” to recognize his community leadership efforts.
From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Wilson served as chair of the Cherokee Area Council of Boy Scouts, and in 1997 was awarded the “Silver Beaver”, the highest leadership award in Boy Scouts.
As chairman of Allied Arts in 1996 and 1997, Mr. Wilson was instrumental in growing the organization’s endowment by $7.5 million and instituting a strategic plan that increased the number of funded organizations and focused the agency on arts in education.
While chairman of the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera Association from 1998–2000, Mr. Wilson led the organization back to financial health and served as de facto executive director during the search for a new administrative head.
In 2006, Mr. Wilson was named Chattanooga Area Manager of the Year in recognition of his tremendous local achievements and leadership.
In 2011, he became one of only two Chattanoogans who have ever received the Boy Scouts of America National Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. This prestigious national award recognized Mr. Wilson’s lifetime of achievement in business, community leadership, and philanthropy. Only one in a thousand Eagle Scouts achieves this rare designation.
His numerous other community service positions have included:
- President of the Downtown Rotary Club
- Director of Chattanooga Venture
- Director of Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprises, Inc.
- Director of Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Director of Chattanooga Theatre Center
- Director of Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy
- Director of East Tennessee State University Foundation
- Director of Invest In Children, Success by Six
- Trustee for HCA Park Ridge Medical Center
- Trustee for Tusculum College
- Member of UTK Chancellor’s Advisory Council for Enhancement
- Member of UTC Chancellor’s Roundtable
- Member of the Economic Development Council
- Member of the Mayor’s Task Force on Renewal Communities
- Member of the Local Workforce Investment Board