Bill Thomason
President and Chief Executive Officer
Bill Thomason became the seventh President and Chief Executive Officer of Keeneland on September 1, 2012. He was previously the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, having joined Keeneland in June 2010.
Thomason graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.S. in Accounting in 1977 and a Masters in Business Administration in 1978. He worked for two years at the accounting firm of Alexander Grant & Co. before joining Mill Ridge Farm, where he worked for 28 years as Financial and Administrative Manager.
He is a board member of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Thoroughbred Racing Associations (TRA), Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau (TRPB), Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA), Kentucky Chamber and Central Kentucky Chapter of the American Heart Association. He formerly served as the assistant treasurer for the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association/Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders and was a member of the audit committee of Breeders’ Cup Limited. Thomason also previously served as treasurer of the Thoroughbred Club of America.
An active community leader, Thomason was chairman of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce (now Commerce Lexington), chairman of the Lexington Arts and Cultural Council, chairman of the Board of First United Methodist Church and a member of the executive committee of Bluegrass Tomorrow. He also served on the boards of the Greenspace Commission and the Lexington Philharmonic.
Bill and his wife, Barbara, have three daughters, Marcie (1980-2006), who was a graduate of the University of Virginia and was a CPA in Washington D.C.; Melissa (Chambless), who is a graduate of the University of Virginia in Systems Engineering working at The Home Depot Headquarters in Atlanta, GA; and Laura, who is a graduate of the University of Virginia in Neuroscience now at the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta.