Faith Journey: Public Company and State Government

Greg earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree from Princeton University in 1976 and a master’s in science and management from M.I.T. in 1989. He joined IBM in 1976, and worked his way up to the company’s senior leadership team, most recently as a managing director in the financial services sector. Throughout his time at IBM, he held positions in sales, marketing, operations, reengineering & quality, and general management. Early in his career, he had assignments in Atlanta, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Boston, Nashville and New York. After that, he served as managing director of operations and board member for IBM Japan in Tokyo. After working for IBM for 37 year, in July of 2013 he joined Governor Haslam’s senior team, serving as the first Chief Operating Officer for the State of Tennessee until February 2019. In the governor’s effort to make Tennessee the best-managed state in the nation, Greg’s role was to work with state departments to ensure they were operating in the most efficient way possible. $575 million was cut in recurring spending, state government was shrunk, the budget balanced every year, the state’s savings account was tripled and Tennessee has been awarded a triple AAA bond rating the last two years. In addition, under Governor Haslam, Tennessee is recognized as a national leader in education and economic development. He has been married to his wife, Jeannine, for 44 years and has three married children and ten grandchildren.