About Us
Tom Shaheen: Executive Director of the North Carolina Education Lottery (NCEL)
The North Carolina Education Lottery Commission named Thomas N. Shaheen the inaugural executive director on November 17, 2005. The Commission selected Shaheen from a candidate pool of hundreds. He arrived in Raleigh on December 5, 2005, and with the aid of four temporary employees began the lottery start up process.
Shaheen was previously the Chief Executive Officer for the New Mexico Lottery Authority for over five years, and prior to that he was the executive vice president of operations and administration for the Georgia Lottery Corporation. Before arriving in North Carolina, he spent 18 years with four highly successful lotteries: Florida, Texas, Georgia and New Mexico. He began his lottery career as a sales representative with the Florida Lottery, eventually becoming a district manager. From there he joined the Texas Lottery as field service supervisor and later became the marketing operations assistant manager. In 1993, the Georgia Lottery Corporation hired Shaheen as vice president of sales. During his tenure with the Georgia Lottery, he served as senior vice president of sales and marketing, then executive vice president. In 2000, the New Mexico Lottery Authority appointed Shaheen as CEO, where during his tenure both sales and the amount of funds returned to education increased by 60 percent.
Shaheen has more than 27 years of management experience, including management positions with Eastern Airlines and a family retail business.
He is a Michigan native and graduate of Wayne State University with a degree in business administration. He is married and has two adult children.