Thomas Craig Nelson (born 1961/1962) is an American businessman, and the chairman, CEO and president of

National Gypsum National Gypsum Company is a company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that produces drywall gypsum boards in the US. It has 17 gypsum board plants in the US and presents itself as a fully integrated building products manufacturer. It is a private ...

, a company wholly owned by the Spangler family, since 1999.

Early life

He is the son of Mr and Mrs Nels Richard Nelson of

Glenview, Illinois Glenview is an incorporated village located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, approximately 15 miles northwest of the Chicago Loop. Per the 2020 census, the population was 48,705. The current Village President is Michael Jenny. Geography ...

, an IBM marketing executive in Chicago. His parents are both immigrants from Sweden.

Education

Nelson earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1984, and an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in 1988.

Career

Nelson was vice chairman and chief financial officer of

from 1995 to 1999, and has been the chairman, CEO and president since 1999.

Personal life

In 1990, Nelson married Anna Wildy Spangler, a

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

graduate, a fellow 1988 Harvard Business School graduate, and a fellow partner in Wakefield Group, a Charlotte, N.C. venture capital firm. She is the daughter of

Clemmie Spangler Clemmie Dixon Spangler Jr. (April 5, 1932 – July 22, 2018) was an American billionaire businessman, and the owner of National Gypsum. On the ''Forbes'' 2016 list of the world's billionaires, he was ranked #722 with a net worth of US$2.4 billion ...

. They have two daughters, and live in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Thomas C Living people Stanford University alumni Harvard Business School alumni People from Glenview, Illinois 1960s births American chief executives American people of Swedish descent