Lee names Stuart McWhorter new deputy governor (on top of his current state job)
Nashville Business Journal
Stuart McWhorter will be doing double-duty in Gov. Bill Lee’s administration beginning next month.
McWhorter, the noted Nashville venture capitalist and entrepreneur, will become the state’s deputy governor effective Oct. 15.
Lee announced that McWhorter would succeed Butch Eley, who’s ending his time in state government after serving several roles in Lee’s two terms in office as one of his most trusted and closest advisers.
A similar descriptor applies to McWhorter, who like Eley has been with Lee throughout much of his two terms. McWhorter previously was commissioner of Finance & Administration, overseeing Lee’s first two state budgets while playing a central role in its Covid-19 pandemic response.
McWhorter left Lee’s cabinet in 2020 but returned two years later to succeed Bob Rolfe as commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development. McWhorter will retain that role, in addition to serving Lee as deputy governor.
Lee is term-limited and will leave office in early January 2027.
Prior to state government, McWhorter co-founded investment firm Clayton Associates alongside his father, legendary businessman and philanthropist Clayton McWhorter. Stuart McWhorter also is a past CEO of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center.