In a board meeting of the W.C. Bradley Co. has named a new chairman of the board. 

John Thompson Turner, Great-Grandson of company founder W.C. Bradley, was elected Chairman of the Board replacing outgoing Chairman Stephen Turner Butler who served as Chairman for the past 30 years.

After graduating from Vanderbilt University, John Turner spent 20 years with the W.C. Bradley Co. Originally hired as an Auditor in 1979, Turner initiated the company’s mail order business which operated until 2007, mailing millions of Grill Lover’s catalogs.  He also started Char-Broil’s Parts and Accessories business.  

Turner served as General Manager of Certified Grill Parts and Mail Order; Vice President, Specialized Marketing, Char-Broil; Vice President, Sales and Marketing, The Game; and Senior Vice President, President and COO of Bradley Specialty Retailing.  

Turner left the company in 1999 to pursue full-time entrepreneurial interests and community activism and philanthropy.  He spent years leading the efforts to restore the Chattahoochee River to its natural pre-dam state in Columbus, Georgia, which created the longest urban whitewater course in the world. Turner is a Director of TSYS and of Synovus Bank.