Clay leads the long-term, strategic vision for Grubb Properties and plays an active role in all investment decisions. Under his leadership, Grubb Properties successfully transformed from a family-owned business to an employee- and board-owned company. Since 2002, when Clay became the CEO of Grubb Properties, the company has grown significantly and been a top quartile producer of returns for its real estate investment funds. Clay and Grubb Properties have been profiled in several leading publications, including The Wall Street Journal’s Deal of the Week and the cover of Business North Carolina. Clay has been involved in a number of initiatives to enhance the communities and environments where Grubb Properties operates. He serves as chair of the Grubb Real Estate Preservation Foundation, which focuses on land preservation. Clay is on the board of directors for Aymira Technologies, a home healthcare company focused on serving those with developmental disabilities. He is a past member of the Board of Trustees for the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D.C., where he served as chair of the National Freedom School Advisory Committee for four years. Clay has served as past chairman of the board of directors of Freedom School Partners, which provides after-school and summer programs to at-risk children. He is also a past chair of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Childress Klein Center for Real Estate. He is a past president of the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association, past chairman of the board for the Mint Museum of Craft + Design. Clay is an active member of the Young President's Organization. Clay has served on the Kenan-Flagler School of Business’ Real Estate Advisory Board, Queens University’s Presidential Advisory Board, Queen’s University’s Learning Society Executive Committee, North Carolina’s Environmental Defense Fund Board, the Mint Museum Board of Trustees and the NC Dance Theatre Board of Trustees. Clay won the 2019 Impact Award from the Charlotte chapter of Vistage Worldwide and is a fellow in the 2018 Aspen Institute’s Finance Leaders Fellowship. He received the Charlotte Apartment Association’s most prestigious award, the Lex Marsh Award, and the Young Bishop Award from Virginia Episcopal School as recognition for his accomplishments. His book, “Creating the Urban Dream,” will be published in 2020 by Forbes Books. Clay received his law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and his Bachelor of Science in Management from the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, with a concentration in finance and a second major in economics.
