Nathan Buttrey was appointed senior advisor to Deputy Governor and Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Stuart McWhorter to lead the state’s newly formed Office of Innovation in 2025. Backed by Gov. Bill Lee’s historic $63 million investment in innovation, Buttrey will help position Tennessee as a place where companies research, test and build for the future, right here in their own backyard. The first initiative of the Office of Innovation is the IRIS Grant, designed to strengthen partnerships between industry and Tennessee’s top research institutes.
Prior to joining TNECD, Buttrey led Corporate Development at Altitude Ventures, a Nashville-based investment firm focused on real estate, health care venture capital and growth equity opportunities. He has additional leadership experience in logistics, health IT recruiting and project management, and workforce development and previously served on the staff of Gov. Bill Haslam. Buttrey has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Lipscomb University and a master’s degree in leadership and organizational performance from Vanderbilt University. He was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and currently lives in Brentwood, Tennessee, with his wife and four children.
Panelist for Featured Session III: Regional and National Priorities in QIS: from basic research to deployed technologies