Deputy Secretary and COO Dale Carroll
When Dale Carroll was appointed by Governor Bev Perdue as the Deputy Secretary of Commerce for North Carolina and the Chief Operating Officer for the N.C. Department of Commerce in January 2009, he brought three decades of technology experience, business management and executive leadership to the position.
Prior to joining Commerce, Carroll served for 12 years as the chief executive officer of AdvantageWest, an economic development partnership that serves 23 counties in the western part of the state. Before that, he worked for 18 years with Carolina Power & Light (now Progress Energy) in roles that ranged from energy services engineer to manager of economic development.
During his tenure at AdvantageWest, Carroll testified twice before Congress, and his board and staff were recognized for excellence by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, Southeast Tourism Society, Entrepreneur Magazine and Southern Economic Development Council. While Carroll served as the Manager of Economic Development at CP&L, the company was recognized for best practices in economic development by the Edison Electric Institute, Utility Management Services and on the CNN “Science & Technology” Series.
He is a past president of the N.C. Economic Developers Association and has served on the state’s Economic Development Board and the N.C. Biotechnology Center’s Advisory Committee for Biotechnology in Western North Carolina. Carroll currently volunteers on the Kenan Fellows Advisory Board at the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology & Science at NC State University.
Carroll received a Bachelor of Science degree from N.C. State University and a Master of Arts degree in management and human relations from Webster University in St. Louis.
He and his wife, Cindy, live in Raleigh and Asheville. They have two sons and two granddaughters.