Video: https://youtu.be/2ygtMDBBEV8 Tim Kelly is a Chattanooga entrepreneur with a passion for community. He grew up working in his family’s automobile business, and after attending university in New York, returned to Chattanooga to run the family dealerships. Tim went on to start several other dealerships, including Southern Honda Powersports, the world’s largest volume store of its kind, as several other businesses in the automotive and hospitality industries. He is also an investor in several other local businesses, and has also taught as an adjunct professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Tim also co-founded the Chattanooga Football Club in 2009, and currently serves as its Chairman. He has led the club through its recent transformation from amateur to professional, and its crowdfunded equity campaign that has garnered international attention for its disruptive and innovative approach in the United States. He is also heavily involved in the creation of NISA, a new, non-franchised soccer league in the US, in which Chattanooga Football Club now plays. Tim also serves on several civic and charitable boards including the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, River City Company, Benwood Foundation, Finley Stadium Corporation, and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. His past service includes acting as a Director or Trustee for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Chattanooga, Allied Arts (now Arts Build), as well as Bright School and Baylor School. Tim is also an active member of the Downtown Chattanooga Rotary Club. Tim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University where he was a John Jay Scholar. He graduated from NADA’s Dealer Candidate School in 1991, and holds a Master’s Degree from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School where he graduated with honors in 2012, and was awarded the Al Bows Executive MBA Achievement Award. Tim is also a graduate of Leadership Chattanooga (1991) and Leadership Tennessee (2018). Self-described as a “Chattanoogan, first and foremost,” Tim can generally be found brainstorming some new way to solve a problem, and workshopping ways to serve the community. In his spare time, he enjoys playing soccer, running with his wife, Ginny, and hunting and fishing with his two sons, Jack and Cannon.
