Tom Gabbard has been CEO of Blumenthal Performing Arts since 2003. The Blumenthal’s 110 employees manage six theaters in Charlotte, hosting over 1,000 performances annually, as well as extensive education programs, immersive projects, and the Charlotte International Arts Festival. During his tenure, the Blumenthal became a Top 10 market for touring Broadway shows in North America. A member of the Board of Governors of the Broadway League, he serves on the Legislative Council and Finance and Intra-Industry Committees. He has been a voter for Broadway’s Tony Awards since 1997. In 2022, the League awarded Tom with Lifetime Tony Award Voter status. In 2012 the League awarded him the Samuel J. L'Hommedieu Award for Outstanding Achievement in Presenter Management. He serves as co-chair of The Jimmy Awards, the National High School Musical Theatre Awards held annually on Broadway. Tom is a Past President of the Independent Presenters Network (IPN), a consortium of 40 leading touring Broadway presenters in North America, Asia, and the UK. Tony Awards as a co-producer/investor include Monty Python’s Spamalot, Thoroughly Modern Millie, La Cage aux Folles, RED, Pippin, Kinky Boots, The Color Purple Revival, Hello Dolly, Dear Evan Hansen, The Band’s Visit, Oklahoma!, Hadestown, A Strange Loop, and Lehman Trilogy. Other Broadway, Off-Broadway, national tour and London West End credits include Moulin Rouge, Ain’t Too Proud, David Byrne’s American Utopia, Death of a Salesman, Tootsie, Legally Blonde, Frost/Nixon, Matilda, Cinderella, Jagged Little Pill, Something Rotten, An American in Paris, Waitress, The Broadway Museum, and Back to the Future. He produced the New York run and the national tour of TRACES, and the national tour of 9 to 5. Tom is a leader in developing partnerships between the UK and US, working on over 25 UK/US transfers and London productions. He was the Founding Managing Director of Pepperdine University’s Center for the Arts in Malibu, the Executive Director of the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities in Denver, and the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts in Green Bay. He holds an MBA in Arts Management from Golden Gate University and a BA in Music Performance from Pepperdine University where he also attended Law School.

David Fisk joined the Charlotte Symphony as its new President & CEO in August 2020. For the previous eighteen years, he was Executive Director of the Richmond Symphony, Virginia. Prior to that, David served as Chief Executive of the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast, the national symphony of Northern Ireland, and as General Manager of the Orchestra of St. John's, Smith Square in London, one of the United Kingdom's principal chamber orchestras. He has also held the position of Development Director for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park - the UK's leading open-air art gallery complex - and was creator and Executive Director of the award-winning Manchester International Festival of Expressionism 1992. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2001. Strong financial management and access to music for all were consistent theme of David's 18 years in Richmond. Under his leadership, the operating budget doubled; the Symphony's endowment grew from $8M to $18M; and a cash reserve was created. The Richmond Symphony expanded its youth orchestras program to five; created its annual 'Come & Play' event, that brings 700 community members together playing with the RSO musicians; launched its Lollipops family concerts, and Rush Hour at Hardywood Brewery concerts; and presented many popular new programs that have introduced tens of thousands of new audiences to the Symphony. David was the mastermind behind the Richmond Symphony's 'Big Tent', a $250,000 mobile stage that transformed the Symphony's relationship with the City of Richmond and the neighboring Counties. The Big Tent has become a cultural icon for the region, bringing families together for community festivals in public parks, including a record crowd of 22,000 for one 4th July celebration. Most noteworthy, though, has been the Big Tent's ability to generate proceeds from its events, of almost $500,000 to date, to buy musical instruments for all the City's elementary and middle schools, so that every public school student has access to learning an instrument. Born in Great Britain, David began his musical life aged 8 as a boy chorister for five years at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, where he also studied piano, cello and organ. He continued those studies through high school, before pursuing a bachelor's degree in music from Manchester University, specializing in piano. He holds a postgraduate performer's diploma in piano accompaniment from the Royal Northern College of Music, where he also studied harpsichord, composition and conducting. David worked for a number of years as a freelance composer/arranger, conductor, opera coach, and orchestral keyboard-player, before moving into arts management. Throughout his career, David has continued to give public concerts frequently as an instrumental and vocal accompanist, and in recent years as a substitute church organist. David Fisk is married to the Irish soprano Anne O'Byrne, with a new home in the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte. They have a daughter, Fionnuala or "Finn", (23), and son Oliver, (20). Other than music, David's hobbies include swimming, tennis and scuba diving - often off the coast of North Carolina - horse riding, and motorcycling. He is currently learning Spanish, slowly

Tim Miner is Co-Founder of Charlotte Is Creative. In his role as Creative Troublemaker, Tim organizes the local chapter of CreativeMornings and manages Queen City Quiz Show, the HUG (Helpful Unfettered Gift) Micro-Grant Program, and The Biscuit Daily Digest with his creative partner in crime, Matt Olin. Prior to Charlotte Is Creative, Tim was the “Marketing Dude” at Brixx Pizza, Over his 20-year marketing career, Tim helped to shape the modern-day Charlotte brand at Crescent Communities, Charlotte Center City Partners, and the Convention & Visitors Bureau. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tim serves on the Board of Directors for The Isabella Santos Foundations and the Nonprofit Advisory Committee at SHARE Charlotte. Tim is happily married to Kim Miner and has two daughters, Grace and Cate. They tell him daily he's an embarrassing nerd ... but they love him anyway.

Alex Smith, lead Placemaker at Camp North End, originally hails from the Appalachian foothills of rural Pennsylvania. He earned a BS in Studio Art from Skidmore College in 2006 before moving to San Francisco, where he spent seven years working at the “grandfather of hands-on art and science museums”, the Exploratorium. Later, he spent a stint as a Park Ranger in the Santa Cruz mountains before returning to Making: woodworking, fine furniture design, and building out spaces. Alex moved to Charlotte for the mold-breaking, adaptive reuse project, Camp North End. There, he puts to use a wide and diverse set of skills and experiences. Alex focuses on reimagining the historic industrial park and converting it for public use: outdoor spaces that bring communities together, illuminate local histories, salvage and repurpose objects from the site, and inspire tenants and visitor alike to pursue their own creative aspirations.