J. Mac Holladay is the founder and CEO of Market Street.  Mr. Holladay has been in the community and economic development field since 1972.  He served three Chambers of Commerce over a 13 year period and is the only individual to head state level economic development organizations in three different states.

Mr. Holladay served as Chief Operating Officer for the Governor's Development Council of Georgia from June 1993 to July 1997.  Prior to 1993, Mr. Holladay served as the State Director for both the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development (1988-1992) and the South Carolina Development Board (1985-1988). 

His professional career began in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, following five years as a U.S. Naval Aviator, three of which were spent in the Far East including service in Vietnam.  During his four years at the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Holladay served as Director of Special Projects, Associate Vice President of the Convention Bureau, and Vice President of Member Relations.  He then served as President of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce in Indiana and from 1979 to 1985 he was the President of the Charleston Trident Chamber of Commerce in Charleston, South Carolina.

His professional honors include being named a Certified Chamber Executive (CCE) in 1982 and serving as president of both the Indiana and South Carolina Chamber of Commerce Executives.  Mr. Holladay was a member of the Commission of the Future of the South from 1986 to 1992 and was the Chairman of the Board of Regents of Leadership South Carolina from 1984 to 1988.  He was selected as a member of the 1986 class of the International Business Fellows and has served on the Board and Executive Committee of the Society of International Business Fellows.  He was Co-Chairman of the Southern Technology Council of the Southern Growth Policies Board in 1991.  He was named a Professional Community and Economic Developer (PCED) in 2006 and a Life Member of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives association in 2009.

Mr. Holladay now serves on the board of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship; Southern Growth Policies Board’s Council on the Southern Community; the Boards of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Atlanta Educational Telecommunications Collaborative (AETC), and the Atlanta Regional Civic League; the National Advisory Board for the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi; the Advisory Board of Washington and Lee Alumni College; and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Multi State Taxation and Incentives.  Mr. Holladay speaks across the country on the topics of community and economic development and has been quoted in a wide variety of publications including Business Week, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal Constitution and many other newspapers.

Mr. Holladay is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. He holds an honorary doctorate in Business Administration from Johnson & Wales University.  Mr. Holladay has been named the outstanding faculty presenter at the Basic Economic Development Courses at Georgia Institute of Technology, Auburn University, Louisiana State University, and the Universities of North Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas-Little Rock, Tennessee, and Southern Mississippi. 

Mr. Holladay is married to the former Carolyn Gordon Howe and has two daughters, Jennifer and Sarah; two step-children, Sarah and Alec; and three grandchildren.