Background and career
William Edward Haslam (; born August 23, 1958) is an American billionaire businessman and politician who served as the 49th governor of Tennessee from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Haslam previously served as the 67th mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee. He is also the majority owner of the Nashville Predators, having bought the team from Herb Fritch in July 2025, and co-owner of a minor league baseball team, the Knoxville Smokies. Haslam was born in Knoxville and attended Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating, he joined Pilot Corporation, founded by his father Jim. In the 1990s, he served as its president, with Jim being the chairman and his brother Jimmy being the CEO. From 1999 to 2001, he was CEO of the e-commerce and cataloging division at the department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue. He then became a consultant at Saks and later served on the board of directors at Harold's Stores, Inc. In 2003, Haslam was elected mayor of Knoxville, earning 52% of the vote. A total vote of 87% afforded him re-election in 2007. In 2009, he announced that he would be running to succeed Phil Bredesen as Governor of Tennessee; winning the Republican primary with 47% of the vote, he went on to handily defeat businessman Mike McWherter, the Democratic candidate, in the general election. His margin of victory increased in 2014. A 2015 Forbes article estimated Haslam's net worth at $2 billion, making him the nation's wealthiest elected official at that time. He was the wealthiest state governor in the United States until January 2019, when JB Pritzker, a member of the Pritzker family, became Governor of Illinois. In the fall of 2019, Haslam became a visiting professor of political science at Vanderbilt University.
Haslam was born in 1958 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the third child of Jim Haslam, the founder of Pilot Corporation, the parent company of the convenience store and travel center chain, Pilot Flying J, and his wife, Cynthia (Allen). Jim Haslam has been a Republican Party fundraiser and University of Tennessee donor and trustee for several decades. Haslam was educated at the Webb School of Knoxville, where he became active in the Christian group Young Life. He later attended Emory University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in history in 1980. He is a member of the Beta Chi chapter of the Sigma Chi International Fraternity. As a teenager, Haslam began working part-time in his father's corporation. He had made plans to teach history and eventually become a minister. Following his university graduation, he returned to Knoxville to work for Pilot in hopes of learning more about the business world before entering the seminary, and eventually decided to stay with the company. He was elevated to president of the company (with his brother, Jimmy, as CEO, and father as chairman) in 1995. In 1999, Haslam joined Saks Fifth Avenue as the chief executive officer of the e-commerce and catalog division. He left Saks in 2001, and joined the board of the Dallas-based clothing chain, Harold's Stores Inc., later that year. Haslam is one of the owners of the Tennessee Smokies, a minor league baseball team in East Tennessee. His brother, current Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam, became majority owner of the Cleveland Browns in 2012.
In 2002, Haslam announced he was running for Mayor of Knoxville, inspired in part by a conversation he had had with then-Chattanooga mayor (and later United States Senator) Bob Corker. Knoxville's mayoral elections are nominally non-partisan, but Haslam was known to be a member of the Republican Party when he ran for the office. His opponent in the race, Knox County commissioner Madeline Rogero, criticized Haslam as an oil company puppet, and blamed his father for the appointment of controversial University of Tennessee president John Shumaker, an attack Haslam dismissed as "petty, personal politics". On September 30, 2003, he defeated Rogero by a 52% to 46% margin. He was sworn in in December 2003. In 2006, Haslam appointed Rogero director of community development, later stating he had read Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, and was inspired by President Abraham Lincoln's decision to appoint former campaign rivals to his cabinet. He was reelected in 2007, winning 87% of the vote against challengers Isa Infante and Mark Saroff. Haslam identifies several successful historic preservation initiatives among his accomplishments as mayor, including saving the historic S&W Cafeteria in downtown Knoxville, building a new cinema (the Regal Riviera) in the city's downtown, and revitalizing the historic Bijou Theatre. In 2008, he was appointed to a four-year term on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation by U.S. President George W. Bush. Along with historical preservation efforts, Haslam helped spur residential and retail growth in the downtown area, mainly by offering developers tax subsidies. He helped implement a master plan for the development of the South Knoxville riverfront, which was given an Outstanding Planning Award by the Tennessee Chapter of the American Planning Association. The Haslam administration operated under a balanced budget policy, which helped to double the city's savings during his first term.
On January 6, 2009, Haslam declared his intention to run for Tennessee governor in 2010. His campaign received contributions of $3.9 million between January and July 1, 2009, substantially more than his Republican primary rivals. Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey received $1.3 million and U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp received $1.2 million, while Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons reported $416,000 at that time. Among Democratic candidates, businessman Mike McWherter raised $650,000 at the mid-year, followed by former State House Majority Leader Kim McMillan's $180,000.
Haslam received endorsements from former U.S. Senator Howard Baker and Congressman Jimmy Duncan. The Tennessean wrote, "Haslam appears most likely to be able to ride Gov. Phil Bredesen's pro-business coattails, despite the different party affiliation." On the Republican side from July 1, 2009, until January 15, 2010, Haslam collected $1.8 million, Ramsey raised $1,412,593 including a $200,000 loan, Wamp raised $1,373,078 including a $61,000 loan, and Gibbons raised $225,218. Among Democrats during the six months, State Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle collected $741,485 including a $300,000 personal loan, McWherter raised $402,868, and McMillan raised $159,981. Haslam campaigned on his executive experience as both Knoxville's mayor and the president of a major company. His opponents attacked him as an oil executive, especially in the wake of price-gouging allegations levied against Pilot in the wake of the post-Hurricane Katrina fuel shortages, and criticized his refusal to release information related to his income while at Pilot. On August 5, 2010, Haslam won in the Republican primary for governor with almost 48% of the vote, compared to 29% for Wamp and 22% for Ramsey. Mike McWherter, son of former Governor Ned McWherter, was nominated by the Democrats after several well-known elected officials declined the candidacy. On November 2, 2010, Haslam won the gubernatorial election over Democratic candidate Mike McWherter, taking 65% of the vote to McWherter's 35%. The Republicans also increased their majorities in both chambers of the state legislature, giving the GOP complete control of state government for the first time since 1869.
Haslam announced he would run for re-election in 2014. He defeated three other candidates in the Republican primary with 88% of the vote. In the general election on November 4, 2014, Haslam defeated Democratic nominee Charles Brown with over 70% of the vote and won every county.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
