Please join us for lunch!

For our meeting Monday, January 23rd 2023, we welcome
Harry M. Lightsey III
Secretary of Commerce

Thomas K. Stringfellow

Harry M. Lightsey III was appointed by Governor Henry McMaster to serve as Secretary of Commerce in June 2021. A fixture in South Carolina’s business community for decades, Lightsey served in top executive leadership roles for major corporations in South Carolina and across the nation. Notably, he served as the president of BellSouth Telecommunications for South Carolina prior to the company’s merger with AT&T, afterward becoming president for AT&T’s Southeast region.

Following his 26 years in the telecommunications industry, Lightsey joined the General Motors Corporation where he directed the legacy automaker’s federal government affairs operation, as well as the emerging technologies, OnStar and infotainment divisions. Lightsey most recently served as a principal with Hawksbill Advisors – a subsidiary of Hawksbill Group. He has also served as a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond, Virginia.

Mr. Lightsey is a 1978 graduate of Princeton University, and a 1981 graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Lightsey, a native of Columbia, S.C., is married with two adult children.