Chris E. Wallace

President/CEO North Texas Commission, Dallas/Fort Worth, TX

Chris Wallace is President/CEO of the North Texas Commission, a public-private partnership that works with the region’s most prominent leaders to tackle the greatest challenges for the 13-county area. The NTC manages the region’s unified legislative advocacy voice at the state and federal levels. In addition to his advocacy and education-focused vision, under Wallace’s leadership, the Commission has also placed a greater emphasis on the importance of public schools, local control, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion with the establishment the region’s first DE&I Summit and comprehensive resources.

Prior to joining the NTC, Wallace was President/COO of the Texas Association of Business, the state chamber of commerce based in Austin where he helped lead advocacy initiatives in the areas of economic development and trade having founded the highly recognized and successful Keep Texas Open for Business Coalition, defeating discriminatory and unnecessary legislation in the 86th Texas Legislative Session. Wallace also managed statewide campaigns reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, the Texas-Mexico Trade Coalition (advocating for the passage of the USMCA), as well as the need for telemedicine in Texas.

Wallace is a current member of the faculty and past chairman of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Organization Management as well as a former Regent of Northeast Institute at Villanova University. He is among a group of less than 700 executives in the nation who have earned their CCE (Certified Chamber Executive) designation. He also serves on the national board of the Business & Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC), the Texas Advisory Board of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, CHILDREN AT RISK Board of Directors as well as the co-chair of the Texas Business Immigration Coalition.

He is a 1992 graduate of Texas Tech University and serves on the Texas Tech Chancellor’s Council and previously on the Professional Advisory Board of the College of Media and Communication where he was named an outstanding alumnus in 2008.

Wallace is a frequent presenter and media resource on trade, the business case for diversity as well as immigration reform. He was a finalist for a 2010 White House Fellowship and is featured among the Dallas 500 most powerful business leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth by D CEO Magazine. He and his team at the NTC were most recently awarded the 2021 Friend of the Year by Friends of Texas Public Schools.