Charleston real estate developer Thomas Ravenel will become the newest member of the South Carolina Budget and Control Board when he is sworn in as State Treasurer January 10.
Ravenel, 44, was born in Charleston, the youngest of six children, and educated in Charleston public schools. His father is former U.S. Representative and State Senator Arthur Ravenel for whom the new Ravenel Bridge in Charleston is named.
Thomas Ravenel earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 1985 from The Citadel. After graduation, he sold real estate for four years. In 1991, he earned a Masters in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina, with an emphasis in Finance and Real Estate.
In 1992, he founded Ravenel Development Corporation, a commercial real estate development company, and moved it the next year to Atlanta where he began to concentrate on retail projects including freestanding, single-tenant stores and strip-mall developments. He returned to Charleston in 1995. As an owner/ developer, he has completed 65 successful retail projects in ten states. The company is currently developing a 408,000 square foot retail center anchored by the new Super Wal-Mart in Moncks Corner at the intersection of US Hwy 52 and US Hwy 52 Bypass in Berkeley County.
During the 2006 campaign, Ravenel said his priorities were increasing earnings on state deposits by liberalizing the state’s collaterization requirements, as well as investment options for the Treasurer’s Office, investing more of the state’s deposits in South Carolina banks, including the local government investment pool, as well as supporting the Governor’s efforts on restructuring.
Ravenel is active in national and state organizations that promote pro-growth economic policies such as The Club for Growth and the Free Enterprise Fund. He is a member of the French Huguenot Church of Charleston. In his free time he enjoys tennis, boating and traveling.
