Tom McMillen has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the LEAD1 Association, previously the Division 1A Athletic Directors' Association, since September 2015. The association, is a not-for-profit membership organization comprised of the directors of athletics at the 130 NCAA Division 1A institutions.
Previously, Mr. McMillen served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Timios National Corporation, a real estate services company. He also served on the advisory board of Clean Energy Systems, a clean coal technology firm.
Mr. McMillen has had a highly diversified and successful career in the fields of sports, business, and politics. He served three consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (4th District, MD). Mr. McMillen began his involvement with the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in 1970 as a high school senior when he was selected by President Nixon to become the youngest member of the Council. He was named by President Clinton to co-chair of the Council from 1993-97. He was the original architect of the legislation that enabled the National Foundation on Physical, Fitness, Sports and Nutrition to be created, and was the founding chairman.
Mr. McMillen was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the best high school player in America. He was a three-time All-American and academic All-American at the University of Maryland, holds the all time career scoring average, and was a member of the controversial 1972 Olympic Team. Mr. McMillen is the first University of Maryland student to be awarded a Rhodes scholarship. In the 1974 National Basketball Association draft, he was the first selection by the Buffalo Braves. He subsequently played for 11 years in the N.B.A., with the New York Knicks, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Washington Bullets.
In Congress, Mr. McMillen served on the Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee. He was unanimously elected as President of the Democratic freshman class of the 100th Congress. While in Congress, he held the Maryland record for consecutive House floor votes, casting 2,050 votes in a row during his first five years in office. He served as Chairman of the Congressional Chesapeake Bay Caucus, Co-Chairman of the Congressional Biotechnology Caucus, and Vice-Chairman of the Federal Government Task Force.
In 1988, he was inducted into the first Capitol One Academic All-American Hall of Fame as a charter member. From 1991-2003, he served on the Knight Foundation’s Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics investigating abuses within college sports. Also, Mr. McMillen is the co-author of Out of Bounds, a book on sports and ethics in America. In 2002, he was chosen as one of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Top 50 players of all time. In 2010, McMillen was inducted into the University of Maryland Alumni Hall of Fame and in 2013, he was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
Mr. McMillen serves as a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Maryland College Park’s School of Public Affairs and the University of Maryland College Park’s Center for American Politics and Citizenship. He is a member of The Economic Club of Washington, DC and serves on the board of Nexstar Media Group.