Industrial Engineering graduate Chad Holliday (1970) was named chairman and chief executive officer of E. I. DuPont De Nemours Inc. in 1998 and served until 2008. Upon graduation from UT, he began his career at DuPont as an engineer at the Old Hickory, Tennessee, facility. In 1990 he was named vice president and then president of DuPont’s Asia Pacific operations. In 1992 he was named senior vice president, and in 1998 he was named executive vice president and member of the Office of Chief Executive. Fortune named him one of Tomorrow’s CEO’s in 1996. In 1998 he was appointed DuPont’s CEO, and a year later he also became chairman of the board.
In September 2009 he joined the board of directors of Bank of America and was named board chairman in 2010. He was a founding member of the International Business Council. In 1999 he received the Nathan W. Dougherty Award from the College of Engineering. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2004 and has received a Captains of Industry Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers. He served on the UT Development Council and received the Volunteer of the Year-Distinguished Alumnus Award from the council. He and his wife, Ann (’70), endowed graduate industrial engineering fellowships with a $1 million gift.