Gaston County’s only four-year university, Belmont Abbey College, hired a highly decorated military veteran and former IBM executive as its new president.
Trustees appointed Jeffrey Talley as the college’s 21st president this year, which marked the school’s 150th anniversary. The retired, three-star U.S. Army lieutenant general will assume his new role on Jan. 2.
Talley joined the U.S. Army in 1981 after earning a bachelor’s degree at Louisiana State University, and transitioned after 10 years to the Army Reserves for another 24 years of service. He was the 32nd chief of Army Reserve and commanding general of the U.S. Army Reserve Command.
He has received three Bronze Stars, two Army Distinguished Medals, and the Gold de Fleury Medal, which is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ highest individual honor.
Since retiring from the military in 2016, Talley served as a vice president and global fellow at IBM. He then founded his own advisory firm focused on Public Private Partnerships (P3s), called The P3i Group, where he served most recently as managing partner and chairman. He has held academic appointments to the University of Notre Dame, Southern Methodist University, The Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and University of Southern California.
Talley’s academic credentials also include an MBA from the University of Oxford in England, a doctorate in philosophy from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, a master’s in engineering from John Hopkins, a master’s from Washington University in St. Louis, a master’s from Assumption College and a master’s in strategic studies and leadership from the U.S. Army War College.
Talley will succeed Bill Thierfelder, who has led Belmont Abbey for 20 years. Thierfelder announced in January his plans to retire in August. He plans to return to campus next fall to join the faculty.
Talley will arrive on campus as Belmont Abbey College concludes a $150 million fundraising campaign to coincide with its 150th year. The original campaign was to raise $100 million, but the state’s only private Roman Catholic college surpassed that goal in 2024.
“We have a unique opportunity to help young men and women get a rigorous academic experience in a faith-filled environment that’s strong in its Catholic identity, so they can go forth in a world that’s become so challenging, so complex, so difficult,” Talley said in a release. “Leaders who are balanced both morally and professionally are in greater need than ever before. For this purpose, Belmont Abbey College exists. I thank God for the opportunity to become part of the Belmont Abbey College family, where together, we can bear the light of Christ in the world today.”
Talley and his wife, Linda, recently moved to the Charlotte area from St. Louis.
Belmont Abbey College is about 10 miles west of Charlotte in the Gaston County town of Belmont. It has about 1,700 students. Tuition and expenses for on-campus students is about $37,000 a year, although almost all students receive some financial assistance, with the average amount nearly $14,000.