JOEL A. GILLAND

Mr. Gilland joined Wesley as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning in 2014, after serving on its Board and Finance Committee for six years. In this role, Mr. Gilland led the expansion of the organization into church asset evaluation, consulting, and development. In June 2018, he became President, CEO of the organization. Since accepting the role of President, Mr. Gilland has repositioned Wesley into a fully licensed real estate firm now involved in brokerage, asset management and development/redevelopment of faith-based properties. Wesley continues to lead in the work of church asset evaluations and conversions as well as continuing work in the development of affordable housing.

Prior to joining Wesley Mr. Gilland owned and operated The Southern Projects Group, Inc. from 2003 to 2014 specializing in the development of medical office, office, and retail projects in the greater Charlotte market. Preceding the Southern Projects Group, Mr. Gilland was a member of Lincoln Harris (formerly The Harris Group) for twelve years. He joined the firm as Assistant Vice President of Property Management responsible for the Gateway Center, a 309,000 square foot office building in uptown Charlotte. Mr. Gilland led property management of the company’s center city portfolio of 1.7 million square feet of office, retail, and residential space, including the development of a 475,000 square foot office/residential project and an $8.5 million banking operations center conversion. Mr. Gilland left the uptown market to take over a core Lincoln Harris client and over the next two years developed eighteen telecommunications switch rooms and eighteen sales offices from New York to Miami. Mr. Gilland left Lincoln Harris in 2003 as Vice President of Corporate Services.

Mr. Gilland has deep roots in North Carolina and the United Methodist Church. The son of a retired United Methodist minister, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a BA in Political Science. Mr. Gilland has served as President of the UNC Charlotte Alumni Association and on the Executive Committee of the Past Presidents Council and is currently on the Advisory Council of the College of Arts and Sciences and the UNC Charlotte Legacy Committee. A member of Assurance United Methodist Church, Mr. Gilland served on the Church Council, Board of Trustees, Building Committee and chaired the Ministry Council for four years. Mr. Gilland serves on the Metro District Board of Church Location and Building for the Western North Carolina Conference. Mr. Gilland has chaired the School Leadership Teams for Mountain Island Lake Academy and Hopewell High School, Co-Chaired the Superintendent’s Task Force on Choice, led the introduction of the Cambridge International curriculum to Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools and currently serves as the District One Representative on the Bond Oversight Committee. Mr. Gilland also serves on the Truist Community Development Council.

Mr. Gilland and his wife Tina have two children. Caroline is a recent graduate of UNC Charlotte and Andrew is a twelfth grader at the UNC Charlotte Early Engineering College. The Gillands reside in the Mountain Island Lake area of Charlotte.