John Hoey

John Hoey

CEO
The YMCA in Central Maryland

Since taking over as CEO of the Y in Central Maryland in 2006, John Hoey has led a complete transformation of the organization, overseeing a tripling of the organization’s revenues.

Before joining the Y, Hoey worked in the private sector across four different industries.

He worked for 11 years in the for-profit education industry, playing key roles in the building of several successful global and domestic higher education and K-12 businesses, including Sylvan Learning, Educate Inc. and Laureate Education.

Hoey has been recognized for his leadership on many occasions, including as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year, by the Daily Record as one of the region’s Most Admired CEOs and as one of Maryland’s Innovators of the Year.

Hoey earned his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of South Carolina and, in 1983, his MBA from the University at Albany, SUNY.

He has been an active civic and corporate leader over the years, serving on a number of nonprofit and private sector boards. He currently chairs two boards, including the Board of Visitors of the University of South Carolina’s College of Arts & Sciences and the Board of Directors of the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences.

A native New Yorker, Hoey has lived in the Baltimore area since 1989. He received an undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of South Carolina’s Honors College and earned his MBA at the State University of New York.

“I thought I’d do this for three to five years … help them get turned around,” Hoey said about his current job in an article in Baltimore Style magazine earlier this year. “But I found I really love it.”