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Doug Rothwell
Doug Rothwell is an executive-in-residence for economic development with Innovate Carolina at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Serving as a senior advisor to the university for economic development, he also chairs the Chancellor’s Economic Development Council and co-chairs a task force with the Mayor of Chapel Hill that is developing a downtown innovation district.
Previously, he was President & CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan – a business roundtable of corporate CEO’s from the state’s largest companies working to grow the state’s economy. He’s worked for four Governors in two states, including as Delaware’s chief of staff and chief executive of Michigan’s Economic Development Corporation, in addition to chairing both incoming and outgoing gubernatorial transition teams. In the business world, he managed General Motors’ 400 million square foot global real estate portfolio and was the CAO at Bank of America’s credit card subsidiary and part of the IPO team.
Doug is also a director of ITC Holdings (America’s largest energy transmission company), chairs UNC’s Ackland Art Museum National Advisory Board, is vice chair of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and serves on the UNC Chancellor’s Philanthropic Council. He previously chaired the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michigan’s Life Sciences Corridor, the American Center for Mobility and UNC’s Board of Visitors.
Doug graduated from UNC with a Master of Public Administration degree, the University of Delaware with a bachelor’s degree and the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School’s Residential Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government. He’s a former Presidential Management Fellow and has received the most prestigious honors awarded by the National Governors Association, the Detroit News and the University of Delaware for his public service.
Doug and his wife Sharon live in Chapel Hill and Asheville, NC with shared passions for the arts, the outdoors, Phillies baseball and everything UNC.