Chuck Wolfe

Chuck Wolfe is the president and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute, a nonpartisan organization that helps outstanding LGBT leaders win elections and serve effectively. He served on the Victory Fund's Board of Directors for four years prior to joining the staff. During his tenure as CEO, hundreds of openly LGBT candidates have been elected to public office, and the list of states with no out elected officials has dropped from 13 to none.

Mr. Wolfe has an extensive background in politics, issue advocacy and organizational development. He previously served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the American Legacy Foundation, which was created as a result of the 46-state settlement with the tobacco industry. Mr. Wolfe was the Foundation's first employee and initiated national tobacco control programs such as the groundbreaking "truth" advertising campaign.

Mr. Wolfe entered the public sector as an appointee to the late Florida Governor Lawton Chiles. In addition to serving on the governor's 1994 reelection campaign as operations manager, he served the governor for seven years in such capacities as director of external affairs, director of tobacco control and executive director of the Miami Financial Oversight Board. During his tenure, among numerous other achievements, Mr. Wolfe developed and implemented programs that aided the relief efforts of Hurricane Andrew, the City of Miami's financial emergency and the Florida Tobacco Pilot Program.

Mr. Wolfe, an Eagle Scout, has a long history of leadership within the Boy Scouts of America, including a two-year term on the National Executive Board. For more than ten years he was active and outspoken in the effort to rid scouting of its discriminatory policies towards gays and lesbians. His efforts were profiled in a report on CBS News' 60 Minutes.

Mr. Wolfe is a 1985 graduate of Stetson University in Florida and completed the Negotiating Skills Seminar at the J.F.K. School of Government of Harvard University in 1997. A native of Florida, he has resided in Washington, D.C. since 1999.