A recent article in the North Carolina State Bar Journal details the credentials of Jason Hensley '99 who will become executive director of the North Carolina Bar Association effective January 1.
Related: Walker College alumnus named executive director of the North Carolina Bar Association
Hensley succeeds Allan Head, who will retire after 43 years of service to the NCBA including the past 35 years as its executive director.
Changes in staff leadership have been rare within the NCBA. Established in 1899, only nine individuals have served as executive director or previous iterations of that title in the NCBA's 117-year history. Head's predecessor, William M. "Bill" Storey, led the NCBA from 1955 until 1981. Hensley, therefore, will be just the third person in 61 years to hold the reins of the state's oldest and largest voluntary bar organization.
Hensley is a 1999 graduate of Appalachian State University in production and operations management, where he was the top overall graduate from the Walker College of Business. He graduated in 2002 from the University of North Carolina School of Law, where he served as class president from 1999-2001 and as president of the Student Bar Association in 2001-02. He earned an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2014.
Hensley has served Bernhardt Furniture Company in Lenoir both before and throughout his legal career. He began his service with Bernhardt during his undergraduate studies at Appalachian and continued to work with the company during his time in law school. Hensley began his legal career as the company's first corporate counsel in 2002 and progressed to hold positions with increasing responsibility for both legal matters and functional areas of the company and its subsidiaries, advancing to the position of corporate secretary, senior counsel, and director of real estate.
Allan Head, right, congratulates his successor, Jason Hensley.
