Stuart McWhorter — commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development — has been appointed deputy governor.

According to a release, McWhorter will also continue in his current role at TNECD. 

Stuart McWhorter

Stuart McWhorter

McWhorter will begin the role on Oct. 15.

The news follows a June announcement that current Deputy Gov. Butch Eley would step down after nearly seven years serving in the Gov. Bill Lee administration. 

McWhorter first joined the Lee administration in 2019 as commissioner of the Department of Finance and Administration. He co-chaired the governor's Healthcare Modernization Task Force and was later appointed director of the Unified Command Group, coordinating Tennessee's COVID-19 response.

McWhorter, who has served as TNECD commissioner since 2022, also previously held the role of CEO at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center and co-founded Nashville-based investment firm Clayton Associates. 

“During my first term, I called on [McWhorter] to leverage more than 25 years of entrepreneurial and investing experience to successfully steward our state’s finances as commissioner of finance and administration," Lee said in the release.

"In my second term, Stuart took on the significant responsibility of recruiting leading global companies to our state, creating greater opportunity for tens of thousands of Tennesseans. I’m deeply grateful for Stuart’s leadership and appreciate his willingness to take on an expanded role as deputy governor.”

This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.