Charles Gilliam is retired and lives in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. His last position was Register of Deeds of Wake County (through 2020) and formerly a District Court Judge in Wake County.
He graduated from law school summa cum laude, and before law school attained a master of business administration (MBA) and BS degree from the University of North Carolina.
His first regular position was as a bank branch manager in North Carolina. During that time he attended MBA school at night. After attaining the MBA degree he was employed as a cost accountant and financial analyst for Ford Motor Company in Michigan. He attended law school while working for Ford and graduated from law school, at age 31, summa cum laude. By taking the route of working his way through both MBA school and law school he had a first career in finance and entered the attorney-at-law arena as an experienced person.
As an attorney he practiced primarily in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, international trade and intellectual property.
He lived in Europe and was practicing law in Eastern Europe at the time the Berlin Wall fell. He counts as his most interesting time in his work career working in Eastern Europe on both sides of the fall of the Wall. There were many rapid changes during this time.
In 2007 he moved to Wake County for the second time. He became an adjunct professor in the N.C. State University business school and taught there for several years. He was appointed a District Court Judge by Governor McCrory in 2014.
His last position in government was as Wake County Register of Deeds. This was service he undertook due to an unexpected emergency, He finished that job “mission accomplished”.
He has visited 81 countries and holds approximately 30 patents in the computer field.
